Presentation given by Don Fitz on 7/23 about his & Barb's visit to Rhizome Collective, located in Austin, TX

More on Rhizome:
http://rhizomecollective.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizome_Collective
http://www.residentadvisor.net/photo-gallery.aspx?set=1840

Wikipedia calls it a "consensus-run democracy."

Other scattershot notes:
- collective located 2-3miles from downtown, close to region being quickly gentrified. property prices rising rapidly.
- city has 99-98% occupancy
- had to abandon adjacent vacant lot, move chicken coops

- **residential space was explicitly marked "private" **
- very large residents' kitchen, indoor worm compost bin
- 4-5 residents rotating
- no A/C

- very large bikeshop, locked off with robust gate

- Rhizome Collective has its own office, in addition to space used by participating groups
- LARGE dry-erase calendar (Don suggests using 2 calendars at CAMP)
- straw bale wall to partition off area used for children's space
- lots of shelving, every art object had a space
- local Austin IMC (housed in Rhizome) was struggling, very similar to STLIMC

- ** very strong Books For Prisoners program, solicits book requests from inmates

- public bike art

- nice, tidy-looking backyard
- homemade rainwater catchment using plastic barrels

- an aquaculture project had turned into mosquito farm:
-> key person left it behind
-> could be considered health hazard
-> demonstrates importance of making projects sustainable
-> Adam: common for folks to flow into town, start new projects w/o plugging into existing endeavors

Overall:
- ** many similar programs as CAMP's
- they don't quite have as well-developed of public bike shop as SWEAT
- demonstrated obvious advantage of having folks live on-site
- CAMP has perhaps spent more effort making its public space prettier, but we could still use plenty of work