COOPERATIVE HOUSING BULLETIN A member service of the National Association of Housing Cooperatives August/September 2008 National Affordable Housing Initiative Launched ROC USA Rolls Out Resident Ownership in owned communities. Join Us for Manufactured-Home Communities in 29 States In New NAHC’s Annual CFED, Fannie Mae, Ford Foundation, NCB Capital Hampshire, the Loan Fund has helped Conference > Impact, New Hampshire Community Loan Fund Invest $7 Million in new organization homeowners in Houston, TX 84 communities Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Community Sept. 17–20, 2008 Loan Fund (the Loan Fund), the Corporation for establish their own Enterprise Development (CFED) corporations to inside and NCB Capital Impact launched purchase and manage a new organization, ROC USA in the community. May of 2008. Beyond New Hampshire, Jerry Voorhis hundreds of cooperatives made Legacy ROC USA aims to help the 3.5 million American families living in up of owners of mobile and 3 manufactured-home communities manufactured homes have bought acquire the communities in which communities — in California, they live. ROC USA’s mission is to Florida and states in between. Members News make resident ownership a viable However, there has never been a 5 choice for homeowners in the U.S. standardized model or a coordinated strategy, so Those are the headlines. Now, how is ROC USA successes have been localized and dispersed. ROC USA aims to move resident ownership to scale. “We FCH-Assisted Co-ops LLC planning to fulfill its mission? By following achieve scale when every homeowner in every U.S. in Puerto Rico what the Loan Fund has been doing since 1984 in New Hampshire — help “homeowners” in “parks” community is presented with a viable choice as to 7 buy their communities, when they become available. whether to buy their community or not,” notes Paul This is done (in most cases) by establishing Bradley, ROC USA president. ROC USA is organized with two page 15 > Twin River Cooperative’s cooperatives to buy, own and operate resident- Governance and the Future 9 Houston Conference Promises Extraordinary Programs AHC’s 48th annual conference, Sept. 17- The Registered Cooperative Manager (RCM) A Workforce Housing 20 in Houston, promises extraordinary Training takes place Monday through Wednesday, Shortage Nprogramming and opportunities Sept. 15-17 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. This course gives for education and networking with housing you a competitive edge and the RCM credential to 11 cooperators and professionals nationwide. further your co-op manager career. Four new educational tracks include: NAHC Bylaw Education • Creating a Foundation for Your Co-op Amendment Notice We streamlined the educational workshops, cut • Board Building Blocks down the number of tracks and concentrated • Advanced Thinking for Co-op Members 14 programs so that you get the most out of the • From the Outside Looking In conference. You’ll see many new sessions and some And a full track on Mortgage Payoffs will be very exciting new trainers. If you’ve been attending back by popular demand! the NAHC Conference for many years, please come again. We’ve got new programming for the longer- Social Events NAHC termers as well as the first-timers! Outstanding social events are planned page 16 > COOPERATIVE HOUSING BULLETIN NAHC Board of Directors 2007-2008 President Mark Shernicoff, NY* Elected 2006 Executive VP Vernon Oakes, DC* Elected 2007 PUBLISHER Dee Ann Walker, CAE Secretary Jackie Brown, MD* Elected 2005 EDITOR Roger Willcox Treasurer Linda Brockway, MI* Elected 2006 Pamela Bradley, PA Elected 2005 ASSISTANT EDITOR Terry Edlin Gregory Carlson, NY Appointed by FNYHC Letters to the Editor are welcome! Edward Collazo, IL Appointed by HACHA Send to [email protected]. Marlene Dau, MI Appointed by MAHC Please note our new address: William Eaton, NJ Appointed by NJFHC 1444 Eye Street, NW, Suite 700 Herbert Fisher, IL Elected 2007 Washington, DC 20005-6542 Christine Gross, MD Appointed by CSI The Cooperative Housing Bulletin (ISSN 0097-9759) is Charline Harrison-Rainey, MO Elected 2006 published four times a year by the National Association Warren Jones, MD Appointed by CSI of Housing Cooperatives. James Knight, IN Appointed by MAHC The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the Barbara Loatman, MA Elected 2005 authors and not necessarily those of the Association. This publication is distributed with the understanding that the Bill Magee, IL Elected 2005 publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or Ralph Marcus, MI Elected 2007 other professional services. If legal advice or other expert William McKoy, MD Appointed by PAHC assistance is required, the services of a competent Barbara Meskunas, CA* Elected 2007 professional should be sought. Randall Pentiuk, MI Appointed by MAHC Acceptance of advertising by the Cooperative Housing Bulletin Alfred Reynolds, CA Elected 2005 does not imply endorsement of the product or services advertised. Norma Robinson, CA Appointed by CAHC Mary Ann. Rothman, NY Appointed by CNYC Address inquiries, manuscripts, news items, reprint permission, and responses to: Editor, NAHC, 1444 I Street, NW, Suite 700, Paul Solomon, GA* Elected 2007 Washington, DC 20005-6542, phone 202/737-0797, Hope Turner, MI Elected 2007 fax 202/216-9646, website: www.coophousing.org, Ruthie Wilder, MD* Appointed by PAHC email: [email protected]. Roger Willcox, CT Elected 2006 © 2008 by the National Association of Housing Cooperatives Kimalee Williams, CT Appointed by CVCHA All elected board directors serve three-year terms. * Members of the Executive Committee Member Association Abbreviations: CAHC California Association of Housing Cooperatives THE NATIONAL ANAHCSSOCIATION OF HOUSING COOPERATIVES CNYC Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums About NAHC CSI CSI Support & Development Services The National Association of Housing Cooperatives in a CVCHA Connecticut Valley Cooperative Housing Association, Inc. nonprofit national federation of housing co-ops, other FNYHC Federation of New York Housing Cooperatives & Condominiums resident-owned or -controlled housing, professionals, organizations, and individuals interested in promoting HACHA Heart of America Cooperative Housing Association cooperative housing communities. Incorporated in MAHC Midwest Association of Housing Cooperatives 1960, NAHC supports the nation’s more than a million NJFHC New Jersey Federation of Housing Cooperatives families living in cooperative housing by representing PAHC Potomac Association of Housing Cooperatives co-ops in Washington, DC, and providing education and information to co-ops. A representative of the Southeast Association of Housing Cooperatives will be announced at a later date. Mission Statement A directory of NAHC board members may be accessed at To represent, inform, perpetuate, serve, and inspire the www.coophousing.org/nahc_board.shtml. nation’s housing co-ops. 2 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOUSING COOPERATIVES COOPERATIVE HOUSING BULLETIN | AUG/SEP 2008 ( Jerry Voorhis and His Legacy ) What a difference a personal philosophy can make. Service to others, not personal profit is the worthiest and highest principle of living; labor, however lowly, has dignity and value; and teamwork is superior to rugged individualism is the philosophy by which Jerry Voorhis lived and worked. This philosophy and his deeply rooted religious faith framed the vision and gave him the ability to get people and organizations working together for the common good. He has left an enduring impact. He began his long career as a laborer, then a teacher, a congressman and finally a cooperative leader. Jerry was born in 1901 in Ottawa, Kan., Jerry completed his master’s degree in education at where his father, Charles, played semi-pro Claremont College while the school was being built. baseball before joining General Motors and The Voorhis School for Boys was completed in moving to Pontiac, Mich., to become vice 1928 with two cottages, each housing 12 boys and president of the Pontiac division. Charles a “cottage mother.” When construction was fully Voorhis retired in 1925 as vice president of Nash completed and with a long waiting list, 65 students Motor Co. in Kenosha, Wis. Jerry’s conservative, were lucky enough to move in. Paul Bullock, a social religious parents lived by traditional values and scientist and writer, described the school as “an personal integrity. Jerry lived these values as oasis of cooperation and unselfishness in a society well, to the benefit of millions. gone mad with greed. On a hilltop surrounded by Jerry went to Hotchkiss School, a boarding woods and ravines and a canyon, it was like a utopian academy in Connecticut, from which he community: there were groves of trees bearing fruits went “automatically” to Yale, graduating with of every variety, workshops in which the young men Jerry Voorhis honors in 1923. While at Yale, he was introduced learned useful vocational skills, simple and attractive to the Social Gospel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Spanish-style cottages in which students and staff Social_Gospel) and took seriously the broad social lived together, playing fields for sports in which responsibilities of a true Christian. As president everyone participated and, above all, a chapel, with of the Christian Association, he worked with its cross silhouetted against towering, snow-capped underprivileged boys, Polish immigrants and the Yale Mount Baldy in the background.” Hope Mission. After graduating, he joined the Hod Living by the Golden Rule, exemplified by the Carriers Union as a blue-collar laborer. simplicity of the chapel that permeated every aspect of While recuperating from pneumonia in life at the school, life was lived in sharp contrast to the 1924 at his parents’ home in Kenosha, Jerry met frenetic capitalism of the 1920s. The fields and orchards Louise Livingston. They married at her home in of the school provided a measure of self-sufficiency and, Washington, Iowa, shortly thereafter and moved to with drastic budget and salary cuts, the school survived North Carolina, where he worked again as a laborer. the Great Depression. Although Charles Voorhis’ wealth Jerry was offered a job in Lake Villa, Ill., working diminished, it was not wiped out.