Local Motion: Change, Not Charity

Alternative Community Funding Gets Rolling

Everybody will be doing the Local Motion.

That can be as involved as working on the Board of Directors of the new organization, or simply contributing through the 2 percent voluntary sales tax which will be collected by local businesses.

Set up in response to Republican-controlled fund cutoffs to social services, Local Motion is an attempt to build a strong and independent financial base through use of a voluntary tax to fund such services as child care, health and mental health care, legal aid, food, housing and transportation. Already, it is the largest coalition of alternative organizations in the history of Ann Arbor.

ALTERNATIVE FUNDING

The idea for Local Motion began last spring, when the city eliminated funding to human service groups. HRP Council member Kathy Kozachenko called a meeting of these local organizations to suggest the possibility of seeking alternative sources of funding.

Over the summer, a group of ten people began looking into sustaining funds, a cooperative organizations which raise money through a voluntary tax. Investigation revealed that as many as twenty of these funds exist in the U.S., all modeled after the original set up in Madison, Wisconsin about 1970.

The now defunct Madison Sustaining Fund had successfully brought in $1,000 a month from a voluntary tax, and a salary checkoff plan. A group now operating in Philadelphia, using only a voluntary sales tax raises $25,000 yearly from twenty-six local businesses. A third group, in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, raises $30,000 through the voluntary tax, a walk-a-thon and various benefits during the year.

SUSTAINING THE A2 COMMUNITY The Champaign County Sustaining Fund operates in a smaller community than Ann Arbor, and its success became a model for local organizers. The A2 summer meetings developed into a solid organization by fall, with a proposed Constitution defining the structure of Local Motion.

There are already eleven organizations and four businesses officially involved in Local Motion. These are: Free People's Clinic, People's Food Coop, Community Center Project, Ozone House, Student Legal Aid, Ann Arbor SUN, Corntree Child Care Cooperative, Feminist Legal Services, Women's Community Center, New World Film Coop, and the Itemized Fruit and Vegetable Coop. Businesses are Indian Summer, Applerose, Rainbow Productions and the Feminist Federal Credit Union.

Three kinds of membership are available in Local Motion. Individual members from the community can join by donating $1 annually. Organizations which are non-profit, cooperative and provide service to the community make up the second class of membership, local businesses which collect the tax are the third.

These groups make up the Board of Directors. Each organization has one representative, while individual and business members elect up to 25 percent of the Board each. The Board of Directors is responsible for making all policy decisions, including how funds are disbursed.

WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM

As in all groups where people are turning over money, the big question is where it all goes. Unlike the typical charity organizations such as the United Fund, Local Motion is a self-help project. To receive money, groups are required to help raise it. This includes having a representative on the Board of Directors, and a willingness to give up labor to the "Staff Collective," which does the day-to-day work of book keeping, collections, disbursements, and publicity.

One of the most important concepts of Local Motion is that all decisions are made publicly, and all records are available for inspection by any member of the community. Decisions on spending are made at open Board meetings, and minutes are published after each meeting in local papers.

The openness extends to the individual members. As a means of avoiding the kind of infighting which ended the Madison fund, all organizational members are required to have an open book policy. Each organization must submit a financial statement to join, and is subject to a yearly LM audit. This insures money going out from Local Motion is given to those with the greatest need. It also shows the community how their money was spent.

Decisions on spending are made twice each year by the Board of Directors. All policy decisions require a 60 percent majority vote. The Constitution also establishes a priority system for fund disbursement. First priority is given to services aimed at basic survival needs, such as housing, food, health and mental health care, legal services and child care. Education, information, propaganda and advocacy fall in the second category. This includes newspapers, media collectives, and minority rights. The third grouping is culture, entertainment, and transportation. In addition, groups which are in need of a small boost to become self-sustaining can gain increased priority.

CHANGE, NOT CHARITY

The most important concept of Local Motion is that it provides a means for alternative organizations to help themselves get on their own feet. LM is not meant to be a perpetual giving machine to individual groups.

The self-help concept extends beyond funding. Local Motion provides a major educational and political tool for member organizations. Information can be exchanged which benefits all the groups, as well as increasing information to the community at large about what is happening in Ann Arbor.

Through the sustaining fund, Ann Arbor can move away from crisis response to individual organizations, and towards a firmly based, united, stable alternative community.

Local Motion is still in a formative stage. The tax will probably not begin to be collected for at least another six to eight weeks. During that time, LM must continue to grow in membership, and become a familiar concept to the community which supports it.

The organization is currently seeking office space, and two community people to make up a full-time, paid staff. The paid staff is required to make sure Local Motion work is done on a continuous basis. Needed are individuals familiar with A2 and experienced at community organizing.

Board meetings are being held every Sunday at the Community Center, 621 E. William at 7:30 p.m. New organizations and interested individuals are invited to attend.

People wanting more information on Local Motion can call Michael McCormick at 663-6746.