Special Edition 2025-2026 Annual Reports Highlights
Building a community that enjoys a rich quality of life for all ages, brings a more equitable society, and a harmonious and responsible relationship with the natural world.
ANNUAL REPORT HIGHLIGHTS
(2025-2026)
Twin Cities Family Cooperative had our first annual meeting over the weekend April 11-12, meeting throughout the days for discussion of reports, where we have been this past year, and how we are planning for the year ahead. We want to share some of the highlights with you. We opened with Steve Libbey leading us in qigong exercises to ground us and prepare us to focus for the day. We each shared an object for the table that symbolizes community for us. (The children were especially interested in choosing objects). Then various ones of us presented the working group/area reports and led the group in discussions and dreaming. This was interspersed with singing, good food, and a hike!
Vision and Mission
This past year we have made important progress on our vision - purchasing property after 3.5 years of looking, moving in, downsizing and having a free-sale, and welcoming three Explorers and one child. We have an intergenerational community ages 5 – 74 and we relate across ages. We seek to build diversity in gender, race, age, income, etc. It is important for us to be intentional about these aspects of our membership.
We have begun to talk about what it means to live from a place of abundance rather than scarcity or “not having enough.” This stretches us to trust the community to collectively meet our basic needs.
Our efforts on environmental sustainability have focused on preserving and improving our building through imminent repairs. We have begun discussing what environmental sustainability might look like as applied to our landscape, perhaps sowing clover and creeping thyme where grass now lives.
We purchase organic food, with a focus on locally grown produce. This enables us to support small farmers and cooperatives that use planting/growing methods that do not pollute the soil and waterways. We are using Ridwell recycling to increase the amount of things that can be recycled in responsible ways. We compost regularly. It is helpful for us to have intentional conversations about environmental sustainability in almost all aspects of our community life.
We are in the midst of fleshing out our mission, how we are integrating our vision into daily life. By next year’s annual meeting we should be able to present our mission (and hopefully sooner!).
As we think about our future growth and “Phase 2” we have interviewed several architects and builders, and selected the ones that best meet our needs: Adam Bradley Jonas of Awaken Architecture, and A Squared Builders. Both of these individuals were able to connect with our vision. We are at the stage of exploring options and seeking additional capital in order to get a loan.
Community Life Report Summary
Meals: Each day those of us who are home share the evening meal together. Our daily interactions through sharing meals and social time is an essential way for us to connect with each other and build close relationships, and is an opportunity to share culture and traditions. We’ve settled into a routine of who cooks on which days. Friday dinners are a time to invite other people over for dinner to socialize and build connections.
Social Opportunities: We have found formal and informal opportunities to interact socially. Last winter some of us went on outings to the train depot to play games, the Christmas Market, and ice skating. We invited some prospective members over to decorate cookies, and the kids decorated gingerbread houses and went sledding. Playing games and doing puzzles is a favorite social activity for some. There have also been impromptu walks around the neighborhood and lots of informal conversations around the community.
Labor: Everyone in the community contributes time and energy to the work of sustaining the community, including the children. There are many ways to contribute from cooking, cleaning, yard work, and house repairs to planning events, maintaining the website, and writing our monthly newsletter. Working together is also a good chance for children to interact and learn from different adults. Specific chores are chosen by individuals according to their needs and preferences. This has seemed to work well. When there is something that isn’t already being done, we talk about it and find a way to get it done. We schedule occasional work days either for ourselves or to which we invite interested folks to participate in.
Educational Opportunities: Participating in educational opportunities has been instrumental in starting our community. Because of this we decided to encourage Explorers to take courses or participate in other learning opportunities by allocating $200 of the Explorers fee for them to do that. This past year individuals have taken/attended 4 courses; attended 3 workshops; participated in a 26-week book study; and attended a 2-day conference.
Conflict Resolution: Most conflict resolution has happened by bringing things up in Community Meetings and talking about them. One of our Explorers brought us the practice of raising “toothpaste cap” issues - minor issues but ongoing irritants. We raise issues prior to them being a full-blown conflict and discuss and seek solutions without blame or judgement.
Membership and Marketing Report Summary
Our primary goals have been to recruit new Explorers, network, and spread knowledge of intentional communities and TCFC in our neighborhood and in intentional community circles. We do this through our website, Facebook, listings in online directories, monthly newsletters, and having regular virtual and in-person events (e.g., open house, potluck, info sessions, special events, etc.).
We have enjoyed connecting with around 200 people/households since March 2024. In the last year, 3 households have become Explorers. We would like to reach more families with children, people who are aligned with moving away from capitalist ways of relating to people and money, and households with finances to commit toward Phase 2 of community growth.
Property Report Summary
In May 2025 we purchased and moved into a 7-unit building that was built as a duplex in 1900 and has undergone many changes over the years. However, maintenance and repairs have been seriously neglected for 10+ years. This resulted in a pre-purchase inspection report with many needed repairs and issues to address related to electric, plumbing, structure, appliances, heating & cooling, and grounds. We have spent our first year addressing the most urgent issues and recently passed inspections by the City of Minneapolis and the Fire Department. So we are well on our way!
We have developed a priority order for the things that still need to be addressed and will begin to work through those remaining issues as time and money allow.
Financial Report Summary
We have worked to develop our financial structure over the whole of this past year to get to where we are today. While not outlining here the detailed “dollars and cents” of our financial report, we note here how we have come to the philosophy and methods we use around finances.
We have taken from a variety of sources to inform our movement. Les Pas-Sages is an organization in France with a specific financial model that pushes back against capitalism and embraces cooperation. From it we have incorporated “shareholders accounts” wherein someone can deposit their buy-in and any monthly contributions beyond the monthly operating dues, and upon their departure, have that money returned with a modest amount of equity. From Sky Blue, a former Executive Director of the Foundation for Intentional Community with a series of articles about finances, we have adopted much of our philosophy, because the values they express challenge mainstream capitalism and provide alternative ways of being in relationship with each other and with money.
We live in a capitalist economy where commodification and transactional characteristics are impressed upon all of our relationships. Mainstream culture encourages us to perceive everything in our social and economic environment in terms of its market value which habitually assigns social status and power to people in our everyday lives based on their wealth, income, or the perceived earning potential of their background and education. This affects power distribution within relationships and promotes a sense of entitlement in people who are assigned higher value.
Community living offers us an opportunity to step away from mainstream economics and imagine new ways to value each other. If the core of individualist capitalist economics is “how can I maximize my personal gains and minimize my personal costs,” we imagine a way of living that begins with “how do we meet all of our basic needs and value people and relationships above commodities?”
At Twin Cities Family Cooperative, we work to find a balance between the financial independence of individual households and our principles of equity, the value of each individual’s abilities and contributions, commitment to social justice, and the belief that diversity contributes to a thriving community. We welcome and uplift community members with a range of income levels, enabling a comfortable standard of living for all members regardless of income, but without placing demands on members’ personal finances that we are not prepared to live with at this time.
Our community has external financial obligations such as debt repayment, utilities, taxes, as well as shared internal costs such as internet, consumables, and communal meals. Collectively, everyone contributes a portion of the household income to cover the sustaining costs to meet our basic needs and accumulate funds for future growth. Beyond that, finances come down to our collective imagination.
Governance Report
The governance infrastructure at TCFC is designed in a way that values each individual and encourages each person to contribute from their diverse abilities. Dismantling oppression and enhancing societal transformation is also built into our infrastructure.
Board of Directors: The Members of TCFC comprise the Board of Directors. This past year the Board of Directors has primarily worked in concert with the Explorers in making most decisions about TCFC. Issues are discussed and decided on in Community Meetings either by consent or using the consensus process.
Officers: To be in compliance with MN Statute 308c, the officers are as follows: Co-chair: Nancie Hamlett; Vice Co-chair: Beka Herzog; Finance Officer and Secretary: Steve Herzog. Explorers participate in carrying out the work.
Decision-Making: By using consensus, decision making is conducted in a way that shares the power and creates a culture of cooperation. Input is received from each individual and a decision is agreed upon that all can live with.
Working Groups: The Community Agreements call for several work groups: membership and marketing, finance, governance, property: building, property: outdoors, community life, and legal. While we are yet too small to have fully functioning working groups, the functions have been carried by both Members and Explorers who self-select the areas to be involved in based on their diverse abilities and interests.
Legal Matters and Community Agreements: Legal matters and community agreements are tended to by all Members with input from Explorers. We incorporated with the State of MN as “Twin Cities Family Cooperative.” It is our goal this year to submit bylaws to the State of MN and have ownership of the property transferred from Beka, Steve, and Nancie to Twin Cities Family Cooperative.
Looking Ahead
Throughout our annual meeting, we identified opportunities of growth for the coming year. Now that we have a year of experience living together, we will continue developing and updating our policies, procedures, and agreements. We will continue learning to live together harmoniously and to enjoy each other. Continuing to improve our building to be more sustainable and more enjoyable to live in is also a priority. We look forward to expanding our capacity for new members by building on our property or purchasing a nearby property. We are excited to continue to grow our community, onboard more members, and build and deepen relationships with those within our community as well as others beyond our walls.
Our Vision
We are an intergenerational community of individuals, couples, and families. We are queer-affirming, gender-inclusive, and multicultural. We value the spectrums of the human experience and each individual’s diverse abilities. We support each other in raising children and throughout all stages of life.
We strive to live out of a place of abundance. We develop internal economic policies that actively push back against capitalist expectations.
We are committed to nonviolence and environmental sustainability. We believe in the potential for radical transformation of society and see communal living as an element of that change. We strive to make meaningful contributions to society, engaged in dismantling the systems of racism and oppression in our society.
If you would like to learn more about Twin Cities Family Cooperative, please watch a virtual tour of our community, visit our website and facebook page, attend our events (online and in-person), or fill out our Interest Form to connect. All past newsletters can be found here. If you would like to be removed from our email list, please email us and let us know.
