Kanjini Co-Op Newsletter - Volume 1, Issue 1 - November 2009

Editorial

Welcome to Kanjini Co-Op's much awaited First Newsletter, which is going out to over 100 subscribers. Thank you all for your continued interest and support!
Together we can turn this timely vision into a reality :-)

Our Biggest News is that we are now officially registered as a Trading Cooperative in the State of Queensland. In the photo below are all six founding members with the nearly one hundred pages of approved documents (yes we were elated after over three years of working towards this moment!).
This is a huge milestone for us! Gaining registration enables us to accept membership applications and thus further expand the Vision. Now that we are 'official' we have opened Kanjini Co-Op bank accounts and are excited about purchasing land! The most frequent questions has been about the land, "Where is the land?" and  "When will the land be purchased?".
While we agree that time is of the essence in the light of growing global problems, we do not wish to purchase a small and cheap property, so we will need more members to put their money in the kitty before we can buy the land. The more members we get, the nicer the land we can buy.
So please come along, join Kanjini Co-Op and help to make it happen sooner.

We were very pleased and excited to have met those potential members (thanks for coming along) who attended our first 'Hearts and Minds Meeting', which are now held once a month. As you are probably aware we have enjoyed a few years of developing the Kanjini Co-Op Vision and writing the required Co-Op documents. Now that our registration is completed its time for expanding and developing our Vision further which is what we will do at those meetings, so please come along and become part of this process.
We cordially invite you, ~~Name~~, to share an afternoon of laughter and inspirations, conversation and lively debate, planning and Q&A's at our next Hearts and Minds Meeting from 11am to 5pm on 28th November in Kuranda (please RSVP to 07-40937755 or 0417193898).

Now that Shiralee has landed in her new house (she has been in transit for over a month) and has her fast internet on, the website is being updated. Our approved rules, disclosure statement and associated documents are now all online. We also will have our Newsletter on-line and hope to upload Foundation Share Members profiles soon!
Please keep checking our website and email www.kanjini.org to your friends.

Please spread the Kanjini Co-Op Vision and do tell your friends and neighbours, the green grocer and the cello player.....
On our homepage are links to our hand-out and notice board flyers, please feel free to print them and hand them out or put them on your local notice board, thanks.

In the meantime, if you have not done so already, please tell us a bit more about you by filling in this short questionnaire. Thank you

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope someday you will join us, and the world will live as one." (John Lennon)

We are Registered!

We are proud to have achieved a huge milestone - our official incorporation.

Formation Meeting
The Kanjini Co-Op Formation Meeting held on 20-09-2009 was well attended. Six applications for Full Shares were received and accepted.
After over 3 years of paper shuffling, amendments and much discussion Kanjini Co-Op finalised its Rules and Disclosure Statement in cooperation with the Office of Fair Trading which approved the final versions just before our formation meeting.
The Rules and Disclosure Statement were presented to the formation meeting and approved unanimously.
You can now view these documents on-line.

Election of Office Bearers
At the formation meeting we also elected the following officers:
Chairperson ~ Bob Goodsell
Secretary ~ Shiralee Betuel
Treasurer ~ Svargo Freitag

Bank Account
We now have bank accounts with the Cairns Penny Bank. We choose them because they are a local bank which is operating since 110 years and also because they are a Cooperative themselves since 1950, but they also have really low fees and very good interest rates and a very friendly customer service!
If you are not happy with your present bank, we highly recommend the Cairns Penny Bank for your personal banking needs!

All interest earned on share capital until settlement day for a property will be returned to early shareholders as dividends at the time when we buy a property. This is so that people committing early will not be penalised for that, but will hopefully earn a higher interest then they can earn by themselves because together we can invest much more and thus attract a better interest rate.

Membership and Land Acquisition

~ First the Chicken or the Egg ~
While this riddle is still not solved in our case it is clear that we need more members before we can buy land.

Membership
Kanjini Co-Op has been graced with surprisingly many people interested as Potential Members mostly from Australia, but also from all over the globe, however it seems most people want to sit on the fence and wait until we got the land or even until we are an established and successful community.
Well we sort of saw this coming so we have created some big incentives for people to become members before we get the land. Kanjini Co-Op has a finite number of foundation shares (eleven) which have two advantages over normal full shares. We have created these to honour and reward those people who made the whole project possible by contributing the bulk of the money needed to buy the land.
Foundation share holders will each receive bonus investment shares (to the value of 15% of their paid up share capital) once the Co-Op is in a position to issue them out of surplus.
72% of all foundation members also need to sign off on any document pertaining to changes to the rules, winding up, takeover or merger.

The total number of foundation shares is eleven. Six of those have been issued so there is only five left.
For more information on shares CLICK HERE.
To fill out your membership application, please CLICK HERE.

Land Acquisition
Kanjini Co-Op is currently investigating several blocks of land and seeking realistic valuations. One of these fulfils all of our criteria and much more. It is our dream land and we would love to have enough people so we can make an offer on it. So please do let us know if you might be able to get on board soon.

We encourage people to become members early as this will allow us to consider slightly more expensive, but much better properties. Please check out the advantages of becoming a formation member (only five left).

Meetings

Directors Meetings
All interested persons are invited to attend our regular directors meetings (all members are currently directors).
These are held every 2nd Wednesday of the month at 303 Koah Road, Koah. 6pm for 6.30 dinner, meeting starts at 7pm. Please bring a plate to share.
Please RSVP to 07-40937755 or 0417193898 or by replying to this email.
These are our formal Co-Op meetings.

Hearts & Minds Meetings
An informal gathering held on the last Saturday of each month, designed to get to know each other better, introduce new interested people and advance the vision. These meetings alternate between Cairns and Koah.
Meet and greet / introductions/ Q & A discussion, planning and lots of laughter and whatever else we decide to do together.

The next Hearts & Minds Meetings will be at 303 Koah Rd, Kuranda on Saturday 28th November 11am-5pm. Please bring a plate to share for lunch.
RSVP to 07-40937755 or 0417193898 or by replying to this email.

Last not least, a friendly reminder to please tell us a bit more about you by filling in this short questionnaire. Thank you
Knowing your level of interest and possible involvement will help us a lot in the next few weeks.

This is it from us until the next newsletter comes out one day...

We wish you Love and Light
from the Kanjini Co-Op team