MCIC Monthly Update for August 2025
Thank you for pledging to become an Owner of the Moscow Community Investment Cooperative!
In our most recent newsletter, we introduced MCIC’s first Board of Directors – we’ve been busy in the weeks since, mapping out our startup plan and building core capacities to successfully launch our capital campaign. We will continue to send a monthly email newsletter to keep you up to date on our progress. You’re welcome to share this and future newsletters with your family, friends, and neighbors and please encourage them to pledge if they haven’t already.
Where We Are Now
The Board of Directors has chosen the first slate of officers for MCIC. They are:
- President- Ben Calabretta
- Vice President- JT Manning
- Secretary- Phil Shinn
- Treasurer- Bev Rhoades
- Communications/Outreach Director- Aly Bean
And we’re ready to file our articles of incorporation! The Board is meeting this week with our legal advisors to finalize organizational documents and to prepare to adopt bylaws that will provide the basis for our democratic governance model. As soon as we’re incorporated, we’ll open an account with Latah Federal Credit Union in Moscow – this will allow us to start depositing donations and grant funds to cover essential costs like insurance, bookkeeping software, website hosting, and legal fees.
What’s Coming Next
With these primary pieces in place, we can develop a stock offering and begin selling shares. Since we first introduced MCIC in March, over 300 local residents have pledged to invest more than $480,000 to support our first property purchase, proving that our vision for community ownership has broad buy-in. The Board will continue to be frugal during our startup stages so that we can maximize the impact of every dollar invested in our co-op.
How You Can Help
Last month, the Board established standing committees – each is co-chaired by two Directors who bring relevant knowledge and experience to tackle foundational objectives in their areas of focus:
- Finance Committee – Bev Rhoades and Phil Shinn
- Business Development Committee – JT Manning and Patrick Vaughan
- Outreach & Engagement Committee – Aly Bean and Ben Calabretta
Our chairs will soon start recruiting for their committees by reaching out to those who have expressed interest in getting involved and we’ll be working together to develop a launch-phase budget to guide our capital campaign. If you’re in a position to contribute your time, talent, or resources to advance the initial steps of structuring, financing, and growing our co-op, send an email to let us know!
With gratitude,
The MCIC Board moscowcommunityinvestment@gmail.com
