Organisation
The residents of the independent units and living groups form one large community. We also aim to include as many people from outside the building as possible. Monthly meetings will be open to all who participate in activities for the cooperative.
dNM is organised through four essential parts:
Meentvergadering
The Meentvergadering is most important organ of the association. It brings together tenants, users, enthusiasts, and neighbours who can participate in work groups and take decisions by consensus.
Meentraad
This is the official meeting place of tenants and legal members of the association. The Meentraad will approve and carry out decisions based on the outcome of the Meentvergadering.
Meentbestuur
The Meentbestuur consists of a board of directors appointed by the Meentraad. Most powers are delegated as much as possible to self-organised committees of members.
Comité voor de meent
External advisors appointed by the Meentvergadering participate in the Comité voor de Meent, such as the original designers of the building, affiliated housing organisations, public officials or former residents.
de Nieuwe Meent and Diversity
Diversity for DNM means working towards creating a community that includes a wide spectrum of ethnicity, class, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, differently abled bodies and more, while working actively on creating a safe space for people coming from structurally marginalized groups.
Workgroups
We have created five different workgroups that each take on the different tasks and responsibilities necessary for the project’s success. When you become a member of the community you are required to join one or several workgroups and take part in decisions and tasks relevant for the project.
There is no need to be an expert on any specific work group subject! You do not need to be a lawyer to join the #legal workgroup, or have impeccable Excel skills to be of help to #finance. We already have professional advisors for areas where they are needed, but a big part of the thinking and decision-making can (and should) be done by the community members themselves. In short, workgroups are a great opportunity to learn and understand the foundations of de Nieuwe Meent!
The Workgroups:
#community
Responsibilities: roadmap for new members, community building campaigns, diversifying dNM, organizing public events, onboarding new people, networking with coops and partners, relations with neighborhood, Nieuwland & municipality and more.
#design
Responsibilities: relay with architects and sustainability advisors, research on architecture and sustainability, co-design process, synthesizing design decisions, pulling the design team and building team and more.
#legal
Responsibilities: developing admission policy, drafting contracts, contact with municipality, developing statutes, bylaws & house rules and more.
#finance
Responsibilities: bookkeeping, subsidies & funds applications, contact investors, coordinate crowdfunding campaign, setting up loans, liquidity plan and more.
#media
Responsibilities: documentation, supporting #finance with crowdfunding campaign, newsletter and social media, maintain website, developing tools for dNM management and more.
Join the community
When we say community, we mean it in a broad sense. dNM is not only about the people who will actually live in the building, but also for everybody who feels connected to and supports the vision of the project.
- Sign up to our newsletter. We use the newsletter as our main channel of communication. All activities, meetings and updates are announced here. If you want to stay up to date, this is the way to go.
- Join a workgroup. As mentioned above, we have different workgroups that are busy with different aspects of the project. As said, you don’t need to be an expert on the subject to contribute. Taking part in the meetings and sharing your ideas and feedback is already invaluable.
- Join a meeting. Come to one of our online/live meetings to meet other community members, to get informed and engage in discussion and/or activities.
- Other ideas? Contact us if you have any other ideas that can help, contribute to or elevate the project: community@nieuwemeent.com
Members
Initiators
The group of dNM founding members consists of people who originally met each other through the extended network of Soweto’s NieuwLand project. While we build on that knowledge and experience, we also want to go further and grow a much larger cooperative housing community in Amsterdam and beyond.
Among us are craftspeople, journalists, social workers, artists, designers, and academics. Some of us have lots of experience in sustainability, community-building and urban policy, others none at all. That is in fact one of our strengths: through mutual support and trust, we learn and become capable of much more than we had once thought we were.
Since the very beginning, we have been accompanied by a strong design team led by Andrea Verdecchia and Mira Nekova from Time to Access, in collaboration with Roel van der Zeeuw Architecten. The external consultants involved in the project also have lots of invaluable knowledge and experience, including our project manager Maarten Leschot.
Members
