The Members of Sunrise Villa Cooperative in Cannon Falls, Minn., recently replaced the sign at the entrance of their ROC.
It looks great! You can see the old sign leaning up against the wall of the kids’ bus shelter.
Sunrise Villa works with Northcountry Cooperative Foundation in Minneapolis. NCF is a ROC USA-Certified Technical Assistance Provider in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas.
Here’s a little more info about Sunrise Villa courtesy of NCF:
Minnesota’s first resident-owned community, is comprised of 47 homeowners. In spring of 2004, NCF mailed information about our cooperative conversion program to a group of community owners. The community owner gave this information to one of the residents. Later, that homeowner contacted NCF to get more information. NCF provided training, technical assistance and ultimately assisted the homeowners to purchase their community in September. Since that time homeowners have fully enjoyed the benefits of resident ownership. They have made major improvements to their playground, resurfaced their communities’ streets, replaced their old mailboxes with a secured mail delivery system and have provided their membership a patronage dividend seven times. In co-ops, excess revenue over expenses can be returned to the members. In 2008, they secured long-term, fixed rate, low-interest financing for their community through Minnesota Housing (MHFA.)