Borderlands Newsletter October 2024

Dear members, shareholders and friends of Borderlands Cooperative…

And yet another newsletter from Borderlands… just a few weeks after the ‘real’ September newsletter… A few bits of news and events we would like you to know about, some sad ones and some to look forward to…

First the sad news; a few weeks after having to let you all know about our friend Rob Nabben’s death, we lost another of our founding shareholding members and dear friends…. On Thursday 12 September, Linette Hawkins suffered a stroke whilst driving, her brain further injured in the ensuing collision. Put on life support at the Alfred Hospital, doctors, family and next of kin decided after a few hours that the damage to her brain was too large and Linette died on the Friday morning … Her body will be cremated after the coroner’s examination and Linette has always insisted not to want a funeral or any large celebration of her life… she never really wanted to be at the

centre of attention … but she was present anywhere she could support, participate, celebrate and bring people together….

Linette is certainly known to many of our members and participants in the events Borderlands organised, our workshops, presentations and celebrations, our AGMs and especially also our OASES Master’s course breakfasts and graduations. She was an enthusiastic participant and supporter, a connector… She was always linking us up with people, organisations, events, possibilities and in turn, connected them with us … She has been a member of the New Community management group for over 20 years, urging many people and groups to subscribe… and we together published a book on Social Work… Linette will be so missed but remembered as a lovely, generous and loyal friend, a committed and active participant and organiser in many groups, networks and initiatives… The many gifts she has left us with will continue to reverberate in our joint commitment: the development of community.

We will hold a ‘quiet’ conversation amongst Borderlands members and New Community contributors about all the good things we remember and grateful to Linette for before and after the Borderlands AGM on Thursday the 14th of November at Borderlands… So please come—even if you are not a member or shareholder… and share in our sorrow and memories…

More news about events and happenings at Borderlands…

We REALLY would love to see as many Borderlands shareholders and members—and of course all friends— attending our AGM on the 14th of November… we would like to repeat our call to all of you, dear readers, members, shareholders and friends to get involved also beyond your taking part in our AGM; as a cooperative we require membership involvement… and there’s a lot we all could do to get us going again after our move from the East of Melbourne to Footscray five years ago and after COVID stopping us in our tracks five months later for well over two years… And the fact that many of our friends and members from the very early years have now moved or have stayed in the other or Southern parts of Melbourne or indeed and sadly, have departed this world for good… Whilst a trip out to Footscray may seem too for many, it would still be nice to see you and—who knows—help you reconsider whether to get involved in any of the many possibilities our new place and region offers… Our networks in the West have meanwhile started to ‘thicken’ especially after having received our first grant to start a Community Garden and Learning Place which is now taking shape very rapidly…

We would love to see people get involved in a variety of things which keep Borderlands and its various planned and hoped-for activities going… as we have in the course of our almost 27 years of existence… Twenty-seven years since that hot-humid afternoon in Camberwell, last shopping Sunday before Christmas… more than hundred excited people… and we’re still going… In the last newsletter we already made a call for help in our library; especially people who already have some experience in library cataloguing and such. Please join Martha, our faithful librarian for about 25 years who would REALLY love to pass on her knowledge and skill; anyone interested in helping us run our library, from cataloguing to shelving to borrowing, etc… – please let us know and come to the AGM! And there are so many possibilities to organise workshops, programs, events, groups, story-telling meetings that all could align with the presence of a library and all the resources and the great place we now inhabit…

We do plan to restart our post-graduate conversations for and with people involved in MA or PhD research… and we also want to restart a reading-discussion group… and there’s a great opportunity to share your skills with some of those in our local and wider area needing some assistance in learning, writing, reading, conversation etc. Or we can gather around learning from one-another’s culture(s)…

Then there’s our Think Again radio program at 3CR, the community radio station where we have been broadcasting our weekly program since mid-2019… and neither Jennifer or I EVER thought that we could ‘do’ radio… and we’re now at it for more than 5 years… And we’re planning a Victorian Community Development conference in October 2025, trying to regenerate interest in ‘CD’ and match what the Queensland Community Development network has been able to organise every two years since the mid-1970s… I attach a nomination document for any of you who would like to get involved on our Board… we also there need new folk to get involved… we do need younger generations to step up and continue our work of a quarter century….

All the best and please think about joining us at the AGM and in our ongoing and possible future work!

Jacques Boulet for the Borderlands Board

New Community

CALL FOR ARTICLES

Community Development in Rural, regional and remote areas.

Our usual final issue of the year is on community development in rural, regional and remote areas… given the fact that many areas in Australia are still recovering – or should that be ‘again’ recovering – from any of the disasters which we have had in the last few years, that may be an additional focus… or how are these areas dealing

with mental and physical health issue, with disability, with all other manner of social and personal issues usually summarised as ‘welfare’ issues…? And how are ecological aspects of the great transitions we are experiencing now – and are required to engage with! – dealt with and happening? Over to you!

Volume 23 #1 (Issue 89)

Socio-Ecological Justice… can CD make it less of a pipedream? 2030 and needing to reduce our emissions by 45% is getting closer and as all the relevant figures on both ends of the ‘socio-ecological’ equation are NOT getting better FAST enough (just read Highway to Hell: climate change and Australia’s future—Joelle Gergis’ Quarterly Essay #94 and listen to Peter Dutton and his merry band of climate change deniers and try to stay calm and collected…!)… We really do need all hands on deck… Our window of opportunity to improve on both the ecological and the social sides as suggested in Kate Raworth’s ’Doughnut Economics’ seem to be rapidly closing…

So we need a bit of Tim Hollo’s faith and hope as he details and illustrates them in his ‘Living Democracy’ book (2022), how we should/could revitalise our ‘bottom-up and ‘horizontalist’ credentials of Community Development and Community Organising…

Let’s fill this coming issue with our living examples!

Being a member of Borderlands is great.

Not only do you get to support one of the most down-to-earth, ecologically healthy, sustainably conscious, social theory drenched, community focused, participatory / democratically in-tune and generally wonderful place, you also get membership goodies.

Membership goodies include:

• • Reduced subscription rates to New Community Quarterly (the only Community Development Journal in Australia)
• • Variable discounts on lectures and workshops
• • Use of Borderlands Spaces for your events, meetings, chats*
• • Broadened borrowing opportunities at the 14,000 volumes (and counting) Borderlands Library.

Now is the time to renew your membership – or become a brand-shiny-new member (or shareholder) of this wonderful independent network for holistic community activism, sustainability and action research.

We’d particularly love your membership if you have been receiving newsletters and correspondence from Borderlands for a while and haven’t yet renewed your membership.

Please help keep Borderlands vibrant and active!

Use the contact form on our website to apply for membership.

Borderlands Cooperative: Independent network for holistic community activism, sustainability and action research

Be a part of a sustainable future!

By making a gift in your will to Borderlands Cooperative you are sustaining your values and ideals into the future.

Planned financial amounts can be donated for charitable purposes tax-free. And you do not need a great deal of wealth to make a difference. Every dollar helps to keep this non-profit organization alive and vibrant.

Your will is a very important document – it may be difficult to think of preparing it now – however, it protects your family and your assets for the future. A will gives you the opportunity to decide where your assets and possessions will go and how they are to be used. Preparing a legal will can potentially remove unnecessary stress, expense, and legal problems in future times.

However, we believe your will can do even more – it can also be your legacy, passing on not only physical assets, but also your values and ideals. A bequest is as simple as it is powerful; with a few words in your will, you can continue to be an advocate for community activism, healthy ecologically, sustainability and participatory democracy.

A bequest is a gift nominated in your will to one or more nonprofit organizations. Your bequest can take any (or a combination) of the following forms:

• • Cash
• • A percentage of the overall value of your estate
• • Retirement plan or life insurance beneficiary designation
• • Securities
• • Personal property (artwork, jewelry, etc.)

Due to the complexity of planned giving, we strongly suggest that you contact your tax advisor and/or legal advisor to begin the process. We encourage you to provide us with a copy of the relevant pages of your will, trust, or beneficiary designation form. All information will be kept in our secure files.

Think Again

https://www.3cr.org.au/thinkagain

Friday 10:00am to 10:30am. (repeated: Monday 6:30—7:00 am).

Think Again (presented by the Borderlands Cooperative) offers weekly conversations and reflections about current events, trends and public pronouncements on contemporary and emerging issues.

The show moves beyond what we read and hear via the public and ‘social’ media, to invite alternative possibilities to guide our thinking, living and organising.

Go to 3CR 855 am on your dial, 3CR Digital or streaming live on 3CR.org.au.  All our past programs are accessible via your favourite podcast app. or via the 3CR website.

Independent, community-owned media is unique, precious and a necessary element of a functioning community. Become a 3CR Subscriber. Where else can you hear Palestinian viewpoints, anti-nuclear issues, union-run radio shows, anti-fascist analysis and the amazing raft of music and voices present on 3CR? https://www.3cr.org.au/subscribe. June is Radiothon at 3CR…. Please support Think Again and 3CR