“I think…if somebody heard about Yellow Bike 15 years ago it’s really hard for me imagine them thinking, “Oh yeah, I bet 15 years from now they’re going to have spatial security for the next 50 years, and be serving like 150 people a week,” and all these amazing things. I feel like at Wheatsville, I don’ t think anybody was like, “Oh this little place where you can pick up all these sacks of flour from someone’s garage is going to be a really successful, fairly, relatively large grocery store years from now.” So, yeah, you know, [collective and cooperative organizing] really does work, and it’s just going to keep pushing farther. And I think for people who are involved in cooperatives and collectives right now, I think it’s kind of a great time to be involved with them. And it’s a really good time to try to keep pushing them, and try to make sure that the original reasons for their existence keep being the reasons they’re around and creating positive change with them.”–Mike Conti
Originally from Watertown, NY, Michael Conti moved to Austin in 2006. He first became acquainted with consensus decision-making as a resident of Avalon Cooperative, a student housing co-op. Soon after, Conti joined a credit union, became an employee at Wheatsville Food Co-op, and trained as a coordinator for the Yellow Bike Project. In this audio clip, Conti discusses the differences between collectives and cooperatives, formal cooperative structures versus cooperative lifestyles, and both the challenges that cooperatives face as well as possibilities for the future. He also recalls his first experiences living at Avalon, working at Wheatsville, and volunteering at Yellow Bike.
You can read the full interview with Mike Conti here.
Anne Gessler 