September Monthly Update:

Our board of directors has been established, and Articles of Incorporation have been filed. We are pleased to announce we have a bank account with Latah Credit Union! We are grateful for your participation in our Moscow Community Investment Cooperative (MCIC). We hope you will share our good work with your family and friends if you haven’t already – they may pledge here.

Building the framework: We recently completed workshops on our Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws, which establish MCIC’s classes of stock and set the rules for purchase, transfer, and redemption. This framework is what makes a cooperative like ours possible.

Growing our financial literacy: This month, we’re turning our attention to financial literacy—terms like common stock, preferred stock, credit allocations, and patronage dividends. We are participating in a Finance Workshop hosted by MCIC supporter Mission West to ensure our board members have a strong understanding of how MCIC will be capitalized.

Next step: Legal Partnership: We are preparing to engage a legal firm to draft the complete offering and member application paperwork. This interactive process will help us weigh options, advantages, and risks as we determine how many shares to issue, dividend limits, and more.
 
Our Goal: We are aiming to have our stock offering ready by the end of the year. If adjustments are needed, we will make them carefully to ensure MCIC remains financially strong and well prepared.
 
How You Can Help
MCIC is officially incorporated, and we have opened a bank account! There are essential financial and legal capacities to put in place leading up to a stock offering. Please consider making a modest donation to MCIC to help with this effort. This will also help us save our future owner and investor capital for the purchase of real estate. A donation now is not part of your pledged amount for the purchase of common stock or investor shares. It is an additional contribution that will be used for startup expenses.
You can make a check out now to MCIC and send it to PO Box 8596, Moscow. ID 83843

Together, we are building something transformative for Moscow: local capital, local ownership, and local impact. Thank you for being part of this journey.  Again, please share this with your family, friends, and neighbors, and encourage them to pledge if they haven’t already.

— The MCIC Board of Directors

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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