We are tired of living in a society governed by exploitation culture. Replace the flags with the colonial era with corporate logos and that’s been our world for the last millennia. While the world wars to hoard resources, the people and the planet slowly die. It’s time to evolve beyond a parasitic species, join us and together we will turn humanity into symbiotes.
There are many individuals and individual companies working toward collective change. What a sustainable future needs is a way to work and operate collaboratively instead of exploiting competitively.
Phase 1 of The Aquifer project is building local sustainability hubs. These hubs do 3 things for the public, organizations and businesses.
Phase 2 will be identifying the areas of opportunity for sustainability and building the businesses or services needed for positive change.
Phase 3 will be establishing an academy of sustainability that can research and train best practices that are tailored to local needs. The academy will collect data from both the hubs and the businesses to create unparalleled data sets that will create a future that has more tomorrow than it has today.
Our communities, our businesses and the way we live will show the world that living sustainably is living better. We are a non-profit, that doesn’t mean we don’t make a profit, it simply means all profit benefits employees, communities and sustainability.
What does this all mean for you?
We offer the following.
What you are giving up
We will start buying housing when possible, or taking donations, then refurbishing them with sustainable solutions. We will require citizens to open their housing to annual scheduled inspections and give feedback so we can test the practicality, comfort and sustainability of solutions, to make improvements and do other general maintenance. As the organization grows we will build more purpose driven housing to build more purpose driven communities in different climates and social dynamics.
We may also include shared housing options for those who wish a more social lifestyle or to act as transition housing and temporary housing for visitors. The rules and structure of shared housing will vary by need, availability and by design of related citizens as long as it stays true to our mission.
Connecting tools, solutions and communities, to bring Accessibility to Sustainability; environmentally, socially and economically.
Currently we are meeting in Santa Clara on Meetup https://www.meetup.com/aquiferproject/ , we will be adding virtual meetings so join to stay in touch. You can contact us through email TheTeam@AquiferProject and while we can’t start offering citizenship now, your citizenship can start now. Any benefits from seniority or from duration as a citizen will start from when you started actively working with us and not when you sign the papers.
We need help with finding and applying for grants. Help with social media and outreach. People with management or non-profit backgrounds to become board members of the Non-Profit and review the bylaws. People to review the business plan for the community store, give input and raise community support/involvement. We need programmers to start building assets. We need to start compiling a list of sustainable companies.
We will be hiring out these services as we grow, but we would much rather have collaborators helping us build our community and better world.
We will have community stores that will act as hubs for sustainability, some of these may have attached housing that is not accessible to the public without invitation by the current occupant. We will be establishing housing and communities that is either hospitality focused or research focused, the terms of those locations will be arranged with the occupants knowledge. The Foundation for Sustainability will be open to the public. See website for details.
A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.
A single person, couple, or small group makes most major decisions.
Primary authority rests with the community’s founder(s) or designated leader(s).
The Non-Profit will be led by a board of members that will create and delegate subcommittees, it will manage all social assets. The board will be voted in by every citizen and member of the Non-Profit chain of command. The board has oversight powers of the Business. The Businesses will be member driven, with every employee being a member, it will manage all physical assets. The Business will have oversight powers of the Foundation. The Foundation will be board driven, the board will be voted in by donors and board members, it will manage all intellectual assets. The foundation will have oversight powers of the Non-Profit. These terms are currently subject to change with Michael Chock and Alexandria Chock retaining sole executive powers over the organization to keep the Aquifer Project accountable to it’s mission, it’s members and it’s donors.
Members contribute a percentage of income to community funds.
Labor: Yes
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
Citizens will be given housing in trade for their contributions. All funding generated by the project will be split to pay for expenses, improve businesses, grow businesses and fund the foundation. The exact percentages of these will be determined by the board but will fall into reasonable business expenses. While the allocation is set, the use is determined by the people who work at the business or project. A set amount of profits will be set aside for discretionary funding, each citizen will get a percentage weighted by their time spent working for the Project. Discretionary funding may be spent outside of the project but will have more value if spent within it. Discretionary funding should meet or exceed average wages (after housing, utilities, ect…). We will also establish an investment account, a citizen will be able to withdraw a percentage from that account based on time spent as a citizen, to use as they see fit (travel, retirement, severance, ect..). A citizen may choose to leave for any period of time and then return, but any time over set non-working allocated days will not add to their time as a citizen. This also means people can be part time citizens, with rent weighted against time spent working for the project.
Non citizens may rent housing when they are employed by the project or when working towards our mission.
Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace
A residential project: people live here as their primary home.
An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).
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