Become a Community Member-Owner
Be a part in creating transformative education & economy for the Earth!
How does a cooperative school work?
Our co-op is owned and operated by our stewards, facilitators, and community. Much like a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, our member-owners' monthly or annual support allows us to offer classes, gatherings, and publications in alignment with our vision and values at a sliding scale rate.
In exchange, member-owners participate in the school's decision-making and receive benefits in ecooperative community. See member-owner perks, our income-based mycelia plans, and FAQs below.
Member-Owners Benefits:
✨33% discount
Receive a third off of tuition for all School for the Ecocene Cooperative programs, classes, publications, and trainings.
🌿 Networking & Visibility
Members are invited to feature their work and offerings in our Earthworker Directory, IG @ecocene.school, and Seasonal Loveletter emails.
🌊 Spring Confluence
Co-op Members are invited to attend and propose a presentation, workshop, or Mycelia Market offering during our Annual Ecocene Confluence.
🍂 Fall Council
Join our Annual Fall Council in Southern California to retreat off-grid, connect with community, and share in collective visioning for our school.
🌀 Dissertation Integration
All co-op members are invited to enroll for free in our Fall and Spring Semester sessions to grow their DIY PhD curricula and projects
👛 Collective abundance
After investing in an annual membership (paid at once or in 12 monthly payments), any surplus co-op income is paid out as dividends in proportion to patronage during the fiscal year.
Which Fungi Are You?
We couldn’t exist without the support of our community members. Your participation nurtures the substrate for our collaborative school. Purchase membership annually for all benefits, or monthly to receive full benefits after 12 months.
You regulate us! You populate and build density for ecommunity.
You sustain our systems, boost our resilience, and nurture deep joy.
You protect our hearts, overflow our cups, and gift us energy for sustained liberation.
Are you interested in bartering service hours in exchange for a membership? We would love to talk more. Reach out to hello@ecocene.school with “membership barter” in subject line, and we will follow up to talk possibilities.
FAQs
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Our emergent cooperative school has two types of owners: worker and community. The workers are paid administrators, facilitators, and guides for our school; while the community includes anyone committed to, inspired by, and invested in growing cooperative schools for the Earth!
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A community member can become an owner by “buying-in” to our school by purchasing a sliding scale annual membership in exchange for community benefits shared below. When paying for a membership monthly, certain perks such as a share in future profits of the School would only be available once they have paid 12 months of their memberhsip.
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A community member can become a worker-owner after having participated in our school’s programs for at least 8 months and applying to an open position, or by being invited to facilitate a class or workshop in our school.
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Our community network on hylo is free for anyone to join. We also share through our seasonal mailing list, the loveletter.
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Yes! You can join our Ecocene Portal in Hylo, attend our events, and participate in our classes any time. You can also try out a community membership at the monthly rate, and would become eligible for community ownership after the full buy-in has been paid, at 12 months. You would have access to all membership benefits, but only become eligible for dividends and attendance at our community council meeting after the full membership tier has been paid.
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You can cancel your membership at any time in your memer portal, and would forego any member perks you had earned at that time. Due to the nature of us being a start-up cooperative school in our pilot years of membership, unfortunately we cannot offer refunds to community memberships.
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We reserve the right to revoke membership without refund of anyone who violates our community guidelines and demonstrates discriminatory language, threats, violence, or hate to any part of our community.