News

Dear friends,

The holiday season is a reminder to cherish the communities and values we hold dear. As we close another eventful year, we invite you to join us in building the Madison MAN Cooperative, an organization fueling economic and community resilience through mutual aid and cooperative development.

This year, Madison MAN has been a home for resource sharing that embraces meaningful connections. Our reach extends far beyond Dane County, while our home base in Madison serves as an anchor for local action. Through events like our Mutual Aid Supper Club, we’ve built opportunities for community members to collaborate, share resources, and grow together.

Growing our initiatives requires the collective efforts of our members and supporters. This is where you come in.

We invite you to contribute to Madison MAN in any way that aligns with your capacity. Here’s how you can make a difference.

Pay or Renew Your Membership Dues: Membership dues are the backbone of our cooperative. If you’re already a member, we encourage you to renew your contribution—whether in dollars, time, or other forms of credit. If you’re new to Madison MAN, now is the best time to join this community network.

Donate: Your financial support helps grow and keep our programs steady. Contributions can be made easily online via paypal.

Share Your efforts and Time: From helping at events and attending sessions, your time and experience are important to our cooperative’s success, and you can earn timebank (MAN) hours for your time!

Every contribution, large or small, strengthens our shared vision of a shared, sustainable economy. Together, we can continue to build communities where everyone thrives and makes a difference.  

To renew your membership or make a donation, please visit [insert relevant website link here]. If you have questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to contact us at [contact information].

Thank you for your continued support and for being a vital part of the Madison MAN community. Let’s move into the new year by committing to the success and strength of mutual aid.

In solidarity,

Stephanie Rearick
President, Madison MAN Cooperative

 

 

madisonman.coop  * (608) 443-8229

Hello friends,

 

Thanks to those of you who were able to attend our HUMANs Solidarity Summit last weekend! 

I'm sending out the raw materials from the summit, in order to get them out the door for you and also to invite some of you to help refine them, if you'd like. Over time we'll separate the session videos where they're connected and share them on peertube but for now feel free to check them out and let us know if you want to help with editing for the future.

 

Video recordings of the entire summit:
 

raw recordings from Saturday 12.14

raw recordings from Sunday 12.15

 

And you are invited to contribute to and organize notes here:
 

raw notes in shared notes doc 

 

Here are the summit slides which include all the related links.

 

And here are a few of the links to make it easy for you to check them out right away:
 

• This is a padlet map representing the Human Family, people who have come to Solidarity Summits. Some are members of the HUMANs cooperative, some not yet, and all are sharing their info so you can connect with each other.
• This is our live marketplace where you are invited to add and reply to offers and wants, after joining the HUMANs coop.
• This is the brief survey for your feedback on the summit
   

We had some cool geographic clusters represented, and a few more who weren't able to make it during the weekend. We'll follow up with organizing some regional online gatherings.

We also heard interest in in-person visits and will aim to revive our practice of Solidarity Sprints, where we visit, learn from, and work with each other. 

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Now it's time for a little break over winter holidays, and we'll be back in action early January. Our first gathering is, appropriately, Dream Time on January 7, 12noon CST. Join us to share our dreams for the coming year, and see how we can support each other to make them reality. That's on our regular zoom channel, and you can find that and other sessions on our calendar here.

 

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Last but not least - help shape our March summit --
 

Here's a link to our next summit March 15 and 16, 2025. Feel free to propose talks! 

 

We hope to see you more in 2025 and make our individual and collective mutual aid dreams come true.

 

Take care,

Stephanie

President, HUMANs and Madison MAN Cooperative
 

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Hello friends!

 

Our HUMANs December Solidarity Summit is coming right up - this Saturday and Sunday Dec. 14-15. In case you don't already know, the HUMANs are the global cooperative network that we helped to instigate, and are still HQ for.
 

 

We'll be hosting from our home base at the Social Justice Center conference room! Join us in person if you like, beginning 1/2 hour before the summit starts each day.

 

Bring a snack or drink to share if you like, or just come and enjoy. More summit details below, but first -

 

Mutual Aid Supper Club #3 is Monday December 16, 3:30-6:30pm at the WilMar Center 953 Jenifer.

Come for part or all of it! You don't have to cook to eat, you're more than welcome to just drop in for food.

3:30-4: Bring ingredients if you have some. We'll make a Stone Soup-style menu
4-5: Some of us will cook, others are welcome to just chat or to participate in a Peace Practice demo, where we show how we do our group learning journey toward making peaceful communities

5-6: Eat together, chat

6-6:30: Clean up, pack up leftover food
 

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And now, onto the HUMANs summit details and links: 
 

 

The agenda is available (click 'agenda' at the event page) and I'll also paste the current schedule in this email. Be sure to look at the event page too, in case any last-minute changes happen, which we'll do our best to keep at a minimum.

Important summit links:

Summit Registration link (agenda and other links can be found there)
 

• Zoom link for the summit

 

• Slides for the summit
   

Here are the events on social media, to make it easy for you to invite your friends and networks:

• LinkedIn
   

• Facebook

 

 

Links to take action during and after the summit:

 

• Join the HUMANs if you're ready and haven't yet - A HUMANs membership is included with your Madison MAN membership.
   

• Check out future HUMANs sessions you might like to join

   

• Add yourself or your project to the Human Family padlet to show who and where you are, to a general audience

  
   

 

Schedule at a glance (check time zone converter!) 
 

• Saturday 12/14

  • 10am CST Getting to Know Each Other: HUMANs and summit overview, brief intros (1/2-2 minutes) of projects present, brief conversation on offers/needs/synergies
     

  • 11:30am CST Go Deeper: Deeper conversations about projects and synergies, with possible breakout rooms. 
     

  • 1pm CST Econet Action Plan: Call for Action! Learn more about Econet and how you can take action. www.e-c-o.net is an online community of citizen scientists who work together as both ecological thinkers and ecological practitioners

• Sunday 12/15

  • 11am CST The Art of Onboarding a Coherent Whole with Tony Budak explores how to foster group commitment
     

  • 12:30-1pm BREAK or open conversation on Zoom
     

  • 1pm CST Technicollab Dreams: Software developers and mutual aid geeks come together to see how we can collaborate to create a tech ecosystem that works to realize our dreams. Beginners may feel overwhelmed but are welcome - the conversation is geared toward practitioners moving forward.
     

  • 2:30pm CST Highlights and Action Steps: We'll see how we can take action to move our individual and collective work forward via mutual aid. Those who want to check out timebanks.org's Chat on the Bench will be invited to do so.
     

We hope to see you! Please share the invitation with your friends.

 

We have an exciting few days of mutual aid celebrations coming up. 

 

The weekend of December 14-15 we'll host the HUMANs global Solidarity Summit from right here in Madison, at the Social Justice Center conference room 1202 Williamson. We'll bring a few treats, feel free to bring some to share or just come enjoy.

Saturday 9:30am-2:30pm and Sunday 10:30am-4pm. 

Details and registration here.

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Mutual Aid Supper Club Monday December 16, 3:30-6:30pm at the WilMar Neighborhood Center 953 Jenifer St. 

Bring a friend! 

Pop in anytime - you're welcome to drop in for a quick bite or to stay and visit the whole time. 
 

We make menus based on what's available, cook together, share a meal from 5-6, then package some food to go and clean up.

 

On Dec. 16 from 4-5 we'll offer a Peace Practice demo for those who want to do that while others do the cooking (not everyone needs to cook!). Join in as we show how our regular Peace Practice sessions work, a simple learning circle devoted to creating peace. 

 

You don't have to help out to eat, but you're welcome to! And you'll earn MAN hours for your time.
 

How would you like to help? 

•Plan menus •Cook •Set up •Clean up •Provide ingredients •Give money 

•Teach- Food safety, Cooking, Nutrition, Other
 

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And don't forget to add and reply to offers and wants at our website!

Monday December 16, 3:30-6:30pm at the WilMar Neighborhood Center 953 Jenifer St. Bring a friend! Pop in anytime - you're welcome to drop in for a quick bite or to stay and visit the whole time. We make menus based on what's available, cook together, share a meal from 5-6, then package some food to go and clean up. How would you like to help? On Dec. 16 from 4-5 we'll offer a Peace Practice demo for those who want to do that while others do the cooking (not everyone needs to cook!). Join in as we show how our regular Peace Practice sessions work, a simple learning circle devoted to creating peace. How would you like to help? •Plan menus •Cook •Set up •Clean up •Provide ingredients •Give money •Teach- Food safety, Cooking, Nutrition, Other The Madison MAN (Mutual Aid Network) Cooperative is the new home of timebanking in Madison. Earn MAN hours for your time, share and exchange with your neighbors, and help (re)build our local solidarity economy! We'll host Supper Club the 3rd Monday each month through 2024, and aim to increase to weekly in 2025.

We're excited to host our first Mutual Aid Supper Club on Monday, October 21st. 

This is the old Dane County TimeBank's birthday so we'll just continue the tradition of birthing stuff around that time. 

Mutual Aid Supper Club on Monday, October 21st, 3:30-6:30pm at the WilMar Neighborhood Center, 953 Jenifer St. 

We'll have a brief general membership meeting during the event, and elect our Board and give you all a brief update on what's up and how you can be involved. 

But mainly, we'll plan a menu based on the ingredients we have, we'll cook together, share a meal, then pack any leftovers to-go and make them available to our members for their MAN hours or other credits. Fun! 

We'll also make plans for other activities we want to do during our time together. 

We'll start with monthly Supper Clubs through the rest of 2024, then hopefully build the capacity we need to go weekly. You can help!!

Saturday October 5 is the SJC Jubilee, a yearly party and fundraiser for our home base The Social Justice Center. 

With food, drinks, raffle, games, art, music, and activism the whole time. 

The first hour or so will be an open mic - feel free to play some music, do some poetry or comedy, whatever you like to do. 

Then the Flower Buds, Ladyscissors, and Def Sonic play between 5 and 9. There are lots of fun volunteer slots available, and you can earn MAN hours for your time!

How You Can Help:
We’re looking for volunteers to assist with various tasks throughout the event. Whether it’s setting up, greeting guests, or helping with activities, there’s something for everyone!

Please take a moment to fill out our Volunteer Availability Page here. Feel free to share with your friends and community as well. I will confirm volunteer slots a few days before the event.

Remember, it's a fundraiser! Please give generously to help keep the SJC affordable and accessible, and share the info with your friends to encourage them to give, too. Abundance through cooperation!

Hope to see you soon
 

We're working on improving all of our web functions and appearance. Meanwhile, it's like construction or deep cleaning, where you have to make a bit of a mess before you put it back together better. This is the mess time. We'll get it cleaned up and improved as quickly as possible. You can help! If you have design or writing skills, or constructive suggestions about how to improve your own experience, we'll offer you MAN hours for your time helping. Reply to our wants or just get in touch at info@madisonman.coop. Thanks!