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Community land trusts and housing co-ops are alternative forms of homeownership that often serve those shut out by traditional markets.
It's time again for CityLab University, a resource for understanding some of the most important concepts related to cities and urban policy. If you have constructive feedback or would like to see a similar explainer on other topics, drop us a line at firstname.lastname@example.com.
To own or to rent: that is the question most Americans weigh when entering the housing market. But there is a third way. The shared-equity model includes community land trusts and co-ops, as well as below-market-rate programs tied to inclusionary zoning and resident-owned communities of manufactured homes. It's an alternative form of ownership that provides benefits traditional markets cannot, such as long-term housing affordability and the ability for low and moderate-income families to build equity. In practice, however, co-ops and community land trusts face numerous organizational and financial challenges.
In this edition of CityLab University, we discuss the history of shared-equity housing in America, describe how it works, and imagine how it could become a bigger part of the housing ecosystem.
- Community land trusts and co-ops are alternative land- and home-ownership structures that provide benefits traditional markets cannot.
- Community land trusts are community-run, nonprofit landholding organizations that sell or rent the units atop the land they own, usually with the intent of keeping that housing affordable in perpetuity.
- Housing co-ops are organizations of residents in multi-family buildings in which each household owns a share of the building. Shares can be sold at market rates, or below market rates in limited-equity co-ops, where the co-op recoups a percentage of equity earned on every transaction in order to subsidize the next shareholder.
- Despite its growing popularity, shared-equity housing faces financial and logistical challenges that could prevent significant scale-up.
The community land trust (CLT) is an American invention, pioneered by civil-rights activist Robert Swann, who borrowed ideas from the Gramdan movement in India and Moshavim in Israel. Swann founded the first community land trust in rural Georgia in 1970, providing African-American sharecroppers an opportunity to collectively own the land they worked. The trust, New Communities Inc., was beset by financial difficulties from the start and was forced to close by the late 1980s. But it helped inspire numerous other CLTs across the country, including Washington, D.C.'s Columbia Heights Ownership Project, the first urban CLT, founded in 1976.
The Community Land Trust movement continued to grow in subsequent years. There are currently between 225 and 280 CLTs in the U.S., which together own around 15,000 home ownership units and 20,000 rental units. As housing affordability worsens, public support for CLTs appears to be rising: New York City passed a bill in 2017 enabling CLTs to access tax credits, and Houston recently announced a CLT that aims to develop 1,000 affordable units.
Each year across the U.S., government agencies and nonprofits spend large sums on rental subsidies, down-payment assistance, and other programs that help low-income people afford a place to live. This help is a godsend for those who receive it. But once a household is no longer eligible to receive rental subsidies, or a family sells the home it purchased with down-payment assistance, the housing unit they formerly occupied goes right back to being market-rate—in other words, unaffordable. So although these subsidies help people afford their housing, they don't make the housing itself affordable long-term.
This is where CLTs come in. By taking land off the real-estate market, they make the housing units they control permanently affordable. Community land trusts own the land upon which housing units are built, and sell or rent the units on top of it. In addition to providing an affordable housing option, CLTs can help low-income families build wealth through homeownership.
Buying into a CLT is different from traditional homeownership in a number of ways. Households don't technically buy homes—they lease them, usually for 99 years. Often, members can get down-payment assistance and low-interest mortgages from the trust. Trust members elect board members who democratically determine which community needs are priorities.
Even in rapidly gentrifying areas, for-sale homes are kept relatively affordable through agreements signed by CLT members that limit the amount of appreciation that can go to the homeowner. In some cases, the trust collects a percentage of the appreciation when an owner sells, providing the funds to subsidize the next buyer. Buying into a CLT can also be a much less risky proposition than buying in the traditional housing market: One study found that homeowners in CLTs were 10 times less likely to default on their mortgages than homeowners in the private market during the Great Recession. According to the study, 82 percent of CLT homeowners who were seriously delinquent in 2010 were able to either sell or remain in their home with financial assistance from the trust, avoiding foreclosure.
Case study: Champlain Housing Trust in Burlington, Vermont
Mediha Goretic, a Bosnian immigrant and a single mom to two daughters, went from living in Section 8 housing to becoming a homeowner with the help of the Champlain Housing Trust in Burlington, Vermont, and its environs. In addition to financial support for her down payment and closing costs, she also took homeownership classes through the trust. "What I got from those classes was confidence," she said. "I never felt, after all these years, 'I'm helpless, I don't know what to do now.'"
The Champlain Housing Trust is the largest CLT in the nation. It was formed by the merger of the Burlington Community Land Trust and Lake Champlain Housing Development Corporation (an affordable-housing developer), both founded in 1984 during the mayoralty of Bernie Sanders. The city government provided $200,000 in seed funding for the Burlington trust, and then in 1988 added a small property-tax increase to provide a sustainable source of funds.
The trust has grown to encompass a significant portion of the city's housing stock, including 615 for-sale homes and about 2,300 apartments, of which 120 are in co-ops, according to Chris Donnelly, the trust's director of community relations. As the largest CLT in America, it's become something of a thought leader in the field: Donnelly said they get calls from out of state at least once a week, and the leaders of the trust recently consulted on new CLTs in East London and Brussels.
In addition to taxpayer funds, the trust supports itself by collecting 75 percent of the increased equity in for-sale properties, which helps keep units affordable. The size of the Champlain Housing Trust—its 2018 assets were valued at $144 million—gives the organization leverage to develop new housing on its own, using the same tax credits and funding streams as other affordable-housing developers. And despite the fact that trust members (i.e. residents) vote to elect their board members, NIMBYism doesn't seem to be a problem: All of the projects under way in 2018 were multifamily. Renters and owners are both members of the trust, whose bylaws mandate that at least one of each be represented on the organization's 15-member board.
By Vermont standards, the Champlain Housing Trust is a fairly large and powerful organization. The more than 6,000 people who sleep in its properties each night would make it about the 20th-largest city in the state. The trust's renters are 75 percent white, compared to about 95 percent in the state of Vermont overall. And many of its new residents are refugees or recently arrived immigrants placed there through the State Department's resettlement program.
Goretic, the Bosnian immigrant and mom, pays $900 a month on her mortgage for a three-bedroom condo that's within walking distance of downtown Burlington. Rent on the open market for a similar place would be somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000, she said. Recently, she and her daughter, a college student, attended the trust's legislative day and met with local politicians to lobby on behalf of the trust. "My life would be totally different if it wasn't for the trust's help," she said. "I try to give back as much as I can."
Like a bottle of California merlot, a co-op can be very cheap or very expensive. In New York City, home to half of the nation's approximately 1 million co-op units, shareholders range from some of the world's richest people, in buildings like the Dakota next to Central Park, to the lower-middle-class residents of Co-op City in the Bronx. Since co-op tenants own the building, they can create rules that fit their needs, whether those are limited-equity agreements to keep units affordable, or arcane membership requirements that weed out the hoi polloi.
It works like this: Instead of purchasing a unit in a multifamily building or complex, co-op members purchase shares in the co-op, which grants them the right to occupy a designated unit in perpetuity. Members must pay monthly dues to the co-op for maintenance, insurance, and everything else landlords usually pay for. An elected board makes decisions about how the co-op should be run, and who can buy in. (Like all housing providers, housing co-ops are required to follow anti-discrimination laws.)
Because co-op boards usually require members to live in their unit, co-ops are not commonly purchased as investments. This makes them more affordable than condos by an average of about 10 percent, and less vulnerable to economic downturns. Condo buyers, however, typically have an easier time getting financing, due to lenders' greater familiarity with the concept and the FHA's condo-financing program.
Housing cooperatives began popping up around the turn of the 20th century in New York City. Many of these early purpose-built co-ops were constructed by unions or ethnic or religious groups; others were built by developers to house wealthier families. The advent of rent stabilization after World War II accelerated the trend of co-op conversions. Landlords, frustrated with low profits, and tenants, frustrated with a lack of maintenance, would come to an ownership transfer agreement, usually over the course of years.
Other co-op conversions are initiated by outside investors who buy buildings and sell shares back to tenants. Under New York City law, 15 percent of the units must have buy-in commitments, either from tenants or from outsiders who intend to live in the building. Tenant buy-in prices are usually about half of the market-rate price, making them a steal for those who can afford them. (There is, however, no law stipulating that the tenant buy-in price must be below market rate; it is usually done as a means of building goodwill during the co-op formation process.)
Initially, co-op conversions resulted in the displacement of tenants who couldn't afford to buy in. New York and other rent-control cities eventually adopted provisions for these tenants to remain as renters, but inevitably, these kinds of co-op conversions ensure that future tenants are wealthy enough to buy in at market rates. Co-op conversions have resulted in a loss of rent-control housing and have been described as a source of gentrification. Between 1978 and 1988, 242,000 housing units were converted to co-ops in New York City.
But co-op conversions have also been an antidote to gentrification, and a key ingredient for neighborhood revitalization. Starting in the 1970s, New York City and Washington, D.C., initiated programs for tenants of tax-delinquent or vacant properties, usually in economically depressed areas, to form co-ops. Residents were able to purchase shares in these co-ops for as little as $250 in some cases, providing a powerful wealth-building tool.
Many of these co-ops formed limited-equity covenants that kept units affordable for future shareholders and renters. In 1978 alone, 11,000 buildings in New York City were converted to limited equity co-ops through these programs, according to Andy Reicher, executive director of the Urban Homesteading Alliance Board (UHAB), which supports limited-equity co-ops.
Preserving affordability and keeping up with taxes and maintenance can be a challenge for these co-ops. Since 1997, New York City has foreclosed on 74 co-ops that were behind on payments, and many others remain at risk of foreclosure. Reicher estimates that about a quarter of limited-equity co-ops in New York have some financial problems. Many were established with huge maintenance backlogs from the previous owners, which, along with inadequate guidance from the city, are at the root of the problem. With the right support, the results can be very different: The approximately 200 limited-equity co-ops that are part of UHAB's stewardship program have a 99-percent financial success rate, Reicher said.
While market-rate co-ops have been declining in popularity in recent years (due in part to the regulatory and financial advantages of condominiums), and federal funds for limited equity co-ops were cut in the 1980s, co-ops appear to be growing in popularity among nonprofit affordable housing developers. UHAB has built or created 74 limited-equity co-ops consisting of 1,425 units since 2005. A number of community land trusts in California are planning to construct new cooperative buildings.
Case study: Limited-equity co-op in New York City
Samantha Stephens is the treasurer of a 16-unit, limited-equity co-op in Crown Heights in Brooklyn. The building, which is on a historic block that has been shot in numerous movies and TV shows, has had its own share of drama since becoming a co-op in 1984.
After paying $250 per unit to become shareholders, the initial co-op members soon fell behind on maintenance, taxes, and administrative duties. In the early days, new shareholders would buy in without providing key information, like their Social Security numbers, and then skip out without paying their fees, Stephens said. Serial vacancies compounded the building's financial problems. When times were really tough, the co-op board would shut off the heaters during the day to save money.
Over the years, the fortunes of the co-op rose and fell based on the leadership abilities of the people who lived there. "There were points when it was mismanaged, and points when it was managed properly. I understand there was a woman … who led with an iron fist. She used to knock on people's doors and say, 'Excuse me, it's April 1st.'"
When Stephens became a shareholder in 2003, the co-op was only half-occupied and owed a quarter-million dollars in real-estate taxes. Today, its financials are "200 percent better," she said. Using resources from UHAB, Stephens helped create a more formal application process, and presented arrears agreements for shareholders and tenants with late payments. A loan from the city allowed the building to renovate its bathrooms. Now all but one of the building's units are occupied.
Only nine are occupied by shareholders; the rest are rented out by the co-op. Everyone who buys shares in or rents from the co-op must have a household income below 120 percent of the area median income, or below $125,000 for a family of four, although most residents are far below that threshold.
The co-op's limited-equity agreement ensures that share prices can only go up 3 percent per year. When shares are sold, 70 percent of the profit goes to the seller and 30 percent goes back to the co-op, which subsidizes the next buyer. In 2015, a one-bedroom apartment sold for $135,000. Monthly maintenance costs are $560 for one bedrooms and $610 for two bedrooms.
As one of the people listed as a building manager on city records, Stephens regularly receives mail from speculators interested in buying the building. But she and her fellow board members aren't interested, she said. They know how fortunate they are to have affordable housing in their gentrifying neighborhood.
Being a shareholder in a limited-equity co-op has had a major impact on Stephens's life: "It afforded me a certain lifestyle," she said. "I was able to travel more, I was able to enjoy life. I was able to start my new career, take some time off, and look at what I want to do."
Future prospects
While they can be a great help to those who are a part of them, shared-equity homeownership programs still represent a tiny slice of America's housing stock. But certain trends in the housing sector could make shared equity a more viable option. The growing popularity of inclusionary zoning (IZ) could unlock new opportunities for affordable shared-equity housing. Two of UHAB's most recent projects were made possible by New York City's IZ requirements, and close to 90 percent of IZ programs produce affordable shared-equity units, according to a recent study by the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy.
There are, of course, disadvantages to shared-equity housing. Limited-equity arrangements prevent households who enter them from earning as much equity as their peers in the private market, leaving them with a smaller nest egg and making it harder to compete in the private market in the future. And while the sense of community that shared-equity housing instills can be invaluable, self-management can be a headache. It also requires a high degree of competence from non-professionals. People without strong volunteerist sensibilities might want to steer clear.
But the shared-equity model is appealing to cities because it can preserve affordability indefinitely, while other affordable housing models are time-limited. "They're increasingly turning out to be a really effective model for preserving neighborhoods and communities, and ensuring affordability with less subsidy, particularly in rising markets," said Carolina Reid, faculty research advisor for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.
Following the Great Recession, Reid observed growing interest in shared-equity housing as communities sought ways to take land off of the speculative market. In the years since, the rising price of urban land has largely driven increases in home values—meaning that if land were taken out of the equation, home values would remain more stable.
For shared-equity housing to become a bigger part of America's housing picture, new funding mechanisms would be necessary. Community land trusts and limited-equity co-ops tend to require significant initial investments to procure land and buildings, but can lower costs in the long run by preserving a city's affordable housing stock in perpetuity. "They have a lot of potential in lots of markets," said Reid, "but it's going to take some public subsidy, and more capacity-building, to bring it to scale."
Further reading
Community Land Trusts (Grounded Solutions Network)
How Bernie Sanders Made Burlington Affordable (Slate)
New Program Aims to Help Community Land Trusts Get to Scale (Shelterforce)
Stable Home Ownership in a Turbulent Economy: Delinquencies and Foreclosures Remain Low in Community Land Trusts (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy)
Cooperatives (Community-Wealth.org)
Condo vs. co-op: Know the differences before buying one (The Washington Post)
The Anatomy of a Co-op Conversion (The New York Times)
The State of Shared-Equity Homeownership (Shelterforce)


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subset: commoncrawl


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What do you do when you have a problem? How do you respond to unexpected outcomes?
When faced with complex challenges or uncertain outcomes, many leaders believe that if they are smart enough, work hard enough, or turn to the best management tools, they will be able to find the right answer, predict and plan for the future, and break down tasks to produce controllable results.
But, the truth is no matter how good we are, we find ourselves having to deal with problems and situations that we've never faced before. To effectively solve these issues, we have to think differently - the way we think needs to change.
3 Powerful Habits to Change the Way We Think
In the book Simple Habits for Complex Times: Powerful Practices for Leaders, authors Jennifer Garvey Berger and Keith Johnston explore three powerful habits of the mind - that we all have - which will help us see the world differently:
- Asking different questions,
- Taking multiple perspectives, and
- Seeing systems
Improving our ability in one, or all, of these areas offers a world of insight and promises the avoidance of problems. A powerful read.
The book reminds me of another one by Elie Ayache, The Blank Swan: The End of Probability. In our complex world, there are new habits to be learned.
One of those habits or skills is how we think things through. John Hagel speaks of this as the need to have advance cognitive skills.
3 Steps to Developing These Powerful Habits
The three habits discussed in the book Simple Habits for Complex Times is at the heart of the new software which I just launched called Situation Expert. Its key design supports what Daniel Kahneman calls as "slow and fast thinking": People tend to be biased in most of our quick decisions and actions, so it's best we think them through.
Here's how it works:
- It asks workers and learners to share a situation, a problem, or an issue they want fixed and solved.
- Then they ask others to think this through with them.
- They go through the three steps of
- analyzing the problem,
- finding solutions, and
- discovering patterns.
To implement these three steps, workers use tools such as Fishbone analysis, What if situations, Pareto laws and Workarounds. They offer solutions via a checklist or a reference video or link. The final step is to make sense of everything by identifying key patterns. The net effect of going through the process is better thinking for reliable results and learning from others.
These habits based on Berger and Johnston's book Simple Habits for Complex Times is timely as we continue to explore how we can reliably depend on our workers to learn by training themselves.
Jennifer Garvey Berger and Keith Johnston. Simple Habits for Complex Times: Powerful Practices for Leaders 1st Edition. Stanford Business Books, March 1, 2016
Elie Ayache. The Blank Swan: The End of Probability.Wiley, May 17, 2010
John Hagel. Mastering the Learning Pyramid. Edge Perspectives with John Hagel, November 28, 2017
Tip #50 - Have You Worn the Learners' Glasses?
Tip #51 - How to Mold Smarter Learners by Using Patterns
Tip #100 - Spur Learning Through 'Curiosity Conversations'
Tip #150 - Using Intuitive and Deliberate Learning in Story Lessons
Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"


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The furor over CloudScaling's acting CEO Randy Bias's call for OpenStack to do an about-face and support Amazon's APIs has only intensified since I called for a hypermedia-based Cloud meta-API. Now uberpundit Robert Scoble with OpenStack-driver Rackspace has weighed in.
Scoble positions this battle as being over innovation. OpenStack has limited resources, he argues, so either it focuses on AWS API compatibility or on innovation, but its unable to do both at once. And in spite of the vast hordes of developers and buckets of money vendors are pouring into OpenStack, he may be right.
But if Scoble is right, if OpenStack is at a crossroads, having to choose between API compatibility and innovation, then the writing is on the wall.
OpenStack's days are numbered.
The reason for this gloomy prognostication: not only does OpenStack have insufficient resources to innovate and work on API compatibility at the same time, but they are frittering away too many of those resources arguing over whether to innovate or not. Such arguments are a sign that OpenStack is run by committee, a too-many-chefs predicament showing the community has no clear direction.
The irony with this lack of direction is that such ambiguity is actually indicative of a culture of innovation. When you get a large group of people together with the common goal of exploring brand new territory, you'll end up with arguments, wrong turns, experiments, and fail-early, fail-often situations.
Fair enough. Such innovation will be good for all of us in the end. But in the meantime, Amazon maintains its laser focus on the market and on its internal innovation strategy. No lack of direction here. Amazon is ahead of the OpenStack pack and pulling away.
We're bound to see some wonderful innovations out of OpenStack in the months to come. And perhaps such improvements will be good enough for Amazon to emulate. But while Amazon is sewing up the market, OpenStack will eventually fragment and collapse under its own weight.
Yes, OpenStack is well on its way to innovating itself to death.
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Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which QuinStreet receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. QuinStreet does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.


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Purchase this article with an account.
Alain Bron, Anna Francoz, Caroline Fiet, Christine Binquet, Claire Bonython-Kopp, Christophe Tzourio, Niyazi Acar, Lionel Bretillon, Catherine Creuzot-Garcher; Intraocular pressure and central corneal thickness in an old French population: The MONRACHET study. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2013;54(15):3505. doi: https://doi.org/.
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To describe the distribution of intraocular pressure (IOP) and central corneal thickness (CCT) in an old French population.
About 9000 individuals 65 years and older were included in the 3C cohort study since 1999 in 3 French cities (Bordeaux, Dijon and Montpellier). In Dijon, an additional ophthalmic examination was performed 10 years after the initial inclusions to assess the relation between systemic age-related diseases and eye diseases in the MONTRACHET Study (Maculopathy Optic Nerve nuTRition neurovAsCular and HEarT diseases). In this population-based study a thorough eye examination and a questionnaire were undertaken in each participant. Intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured with a noncontact pneumotonometer and central corneal thickness (CCT) was measured with an ultrasound pachymeter.
Among the 1035 participants of the MONTRACHET study only those without an ocular hypotensive treatment and those without evidence of glaucoma based on optic disc photographs were considered. Among these 911 individuals, 579 (64%) were female, 478 where phakic and the age was 82.2 ± 3.8 years. IOP in the right eye and the left eye was 14.6 ± 3.2 and 14.8 ± 3.2 mmHg, respectively, p = 0. 06. IOP decreased with age, (p < 0.01) and was similar in males and females (p = 0.07). IOP was lower in pseudophakic than in phakic participants 15.2 ± 3.2 and 15.4 ± 3.1 mmHg vs 13.9 ± 3.0 and 14.1 ± 3.1 mmHg for the right and the left eye, respectively, p < 0.01.CCT in the right eye and the left eye was 553.4 ± 34.4 μm and 555.7 ± 34.7 μm, respectively, p < 0.01. CCT was not influenced by the lens status and the refraction error. CCT was correlated to the age and the IOP, p < 0.01.
Few population-based studies focused on very old Caucasian subjects are available. These preliminary results of the MONTRACHET study give some specific aspects of IOP and CCT in elderly.
This PDF is available to Subscribers Only


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Science Writing Mentorship Program
Network for Evaluation of One Health (NEOH)
African Swine Fever (ASF) ecology and epidemiology in Eastern Europe (Kazakhstan)
Risk-based border inspection in Kosovo and Albania
Incentive systems for veterinarians to promote a reduction of the prescription of antibiotics in veal calves.
Establishment of a risk assessment unit at the Moldovan food safety agency
Freedom from Disease - Evaluation of the sampling program for IBR and EBL in Switzerland
Action plan for the Moldovan dairy sector
Market Research on Point-of-Care Testing
Reducing the risk of exposure to antimicrobial resistance for consumers
Review of the BSE risk status of the States of Jersey
Analysis and advice on poultry sampling for Salmonella spp in low throughout slaughterhouses in the UK
Evaluation of the Global Framework for the Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases (GF-TADs)
One Health for brucellosis in Armenia
Science Writing Mentorship Program
Continuous education of veterinary and food safety officers
Review of existing One Health Epidemiology training materials for South African professionals
SANTERO: Risk based surveillance for animal health in Europe
Biosecurity and traceability in the poultry sector in Moldova
Establishment of a risk-based food safety control system in the dairy value chain in Ukraine
Understanding and combating African Swine Fever in Europe (ASF-STOP)
Systematic review of the significance of the food chain in the context of AMR
Network for Evaluation of One Health (NEOH)
FMD capacity building in Mauritania (2015 - 2017)
Risk analysis of potential Trichinella exposure for pigs with outdoor access (2015 - 2016)
Development of a spatial risk assessment framework for assessing exotic disease incursion and spread through Europe (SPARE project)
Evaluation of the Swiss early detection system for (re-)emerging diseases
African Swine Fever (ASF) ecology and epidemiology in Eastern Europe
African Swine Fever (ASF) ecology and epidemiology in Eastern Europe (Armenia)
African Swine Fever (ASF) ecology and epidemiology in Eastern Europe (Georgia)
African Swine Fever (ASF) ecology and epidemiology in Eastern Europe (Kazakhstan)
Assessment of the Animal Health and Laboratory Information Systems in Vietnam
Potential use of farm of origin information for more targeted inspection of Cysticercus bovis
Equinella - interactive data visualization
Evaluation of animal health reports (2013)
Linkage between antimicrobial usage and development of resistance (2014-ongoing)
Implementation of risk-based SPS inspections in the Western Balkan region (2014)
A tool to assess the capacity of food control systems
Workshops on the principles of risk-based SPS inspections
Facilitating trade of beef to the EU (2013)
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Boehringer Ingelheim: antimicrobials in food animals
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Establishing risk analysis capacities in Viet Nam II (2011)
Meat inspection as a contribution to animal health surveillance (2011 - 2012)
Contribution to the development of a MSc course on One Health for Massey University (2010 - 2011)
Standards and Trade Development Facility STDF (2010 – ongoing)
World Bank reports "People, Pathogens and Our Planet" (2010 - 2012)
International Training Project with Hokkaido University, University of Bern and the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office (2009 - 2012)
FMD control in Turkey (2009-2010)
BSE Risk Assessment Panama (2009 - 2010)
Obtaining an EU approval for importation of beef by a Latin American country
Control and eradication of scrapie and echinococcosis in the Northern part of Cyprus
Zoonotic and animal diseases affecting trade in Viet Nam – national capacity building and SPS obligations in Viet Nam (2007 – 2008)
Development of guidelines for risk management in cattle diseases with Nestlé
Risk-based surveillance for Avian Influenza (2007)
Working Group Zoonotic Diseases (2007-2012)
Development of action plan to strengthen veterinary services in Georgia (2007)
Training for Avian Influenza epidemiology in Indonesia (2007)
Validation of a new serological test for Trichinella spp. (2006-2007)
Risk-based surveillance for Trichinella spp. in Switzerland (2006-2009)
Development of guidelines and measures towards the prevention of AI with Nestlé
Raw material TSE risk assessment
Market assessment for animal health diagnostics
BSE testing recommendations (2005 - 2008)
Freedom of FMD with vaccination in Oruro, Bolivia (2005-2006)
Brucellosis is widespread in both animals and humans in Armenia. Improved collaboration between the human and animal health sectors and improved surveillance efforts are among the challenges that must be accomplished to arrive at an effective and efficient brucellosis control strategy. SAFOSO is a collaborator in a project aiming to strengthen coordination and communication between the human and animal health sectors and to increase understanding and capacity of national stakeholders to implement cost-effective surveillance and epidemiological investigations as part of a brucellosis control program. SAFOSO will support the implementation of a knowledge, attitude, practice (KAP) survey among field staff responsible for surveillance and epidemiological investigations on brucellosis in humans and animals. Afterwards, based on the findings of this KAP survey, SAFOSO will support the development of a training plan for field staff. With the aim to design a OH surveillance model for Armenia, SAFOSO will conduct an assessment of the current surveillance system, including an epidemiological analysis of the occurrence and spatial distribution of human and animal cases of brucellosis in Armenia. The project is coordinated by CH2M and funded by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency.


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Wild Girls slot game
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Frances Maclean
Counselling in the Cotswolds
Developing Insight and Understanding to Achieve Life-Changing Results
Frances Maclean
Counselling in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, only a few miles from Oxfordshire, Worcestershire & Warwickshire
I am an experienced and qualified psychodynamic counsellor working with all ages of adults on a one-to-one basis. I currently work from my consulting room in Moreton-in-Marsh which is easily accessible from Blockley, Burford, Bourton on the Water, Bourton on the Hill, Chipping Campden, Chipping Norton, Evesham & Stow on the Wold.
I have experience of working with a wide range of issues including but not limited to: anxiety, depression, panic attacks, relationships, bereavement & loss, fertility issues, redundancy, anger, self-worth and suicidal thoughts. Counselling can also be of help to those who have experienced loss of meaning in their lives or for those seeking a deeper understanding of themselves and their relationships.
I have a number of years experience working in counselling agencies including The Gloucestershire Counselling Service and Cotswold Counselling, I hold a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychodynamic Counselling (The Gloucestershire Counselling Service) and I am a registered member of both the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and the BPC (British Psychoanalytic Council). I am currently undertaking further professional training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Society of Analytical Psychology in London.
About Counselling
My Approach
There are all sorts of different counselling styles. I offer a type of therapy called "psychodynamic counselling" which is founded on the belief that our past experiences, some of which may well have been forgotten or unresolved have a powerful influence on the way we think and feel now.
We can explore together how underlying emotional issues may be impacting on you and your relationships. As this understanding is gained, it can be very rewarding and potentially life changing.
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How Long
Every client is different and I will work with you to decide what feels appropriate.
I usually work in an open-ended way which means that we will not fix the number of sessions at the beginning because it is not always possible to know at this point how long will be right for you. We can continue until you feel ready to end. I can also work in a time-limited way, usually 6 to 12 sessions where we agree the number of sessions at the start. Some people find this helpful if this is their first experience of counselling or in dealing with recent onset difficulties such as bereavement, relationship breakdown or redundancy.
We meet on a weekly basis at the same time and on the same day and sessions last for 50 minutes.
Arranging Counselling
Please e-mail me, phone me or use the enquiry form below so that we can arrange an initial consultation.
I use this first session as an assessment – an exploration of why you are coming now, what you are hoping for from counselling, your present situation and your past history. It is also an opportunity for us both to decide whether we can work together and for you to ask any questions about counselling that you may have.
Fees are usually £50 per 50 minute session unless there are very specific circumstances which make this difficult in which case this should be discussed at the initial consultation. The fee for the initial consultation is also £50.


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Four-year-old McKenna loves to sing Martina McBride's cancer support anthem "I'm Gonna Love You Through It" to her mom, but neither the girl nor her mom thought the country singer herself would ever join in.
McKenna's heartwarming performance for mom Dianna Stanchak, who has stage IV Hodgkin's lymphoma, at a cancer support party went viral last week thanks to Ellen DeGeneres, who shared it on her Facebook and Twitter accounts.
The posts were flooded with sweet comments, and even prompted a response from Martina McBride herself.
The singer was clearly touched by the performance, so much so that during an appearance on "Ellen", McBride joined McKenna for a special serenade to her mom.
In the video posted Tuesday, Stanchak wipes away tears as her daughter belts out the ballad with some help from the superstar.
Stanchak's mother Dee Silvernail told Inside Edition that McKenna sings the tune to her mom every day.
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Silvernail has started a GoFundMe page to help with her daughter's medical costs, but DeGeneres also announced during the family's appearance on her show that they would be receiving a US$20,000 donation from Shutterfly, an online image publishing company that has partnered with the show in the past to provide gifts.
So while Stanchak and her family's support network has grown recently, she already has a pretty powerful one in her small daughter.
Also on HuffPost


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How to sell items quickly on Poshmark
How to Sell Quickly on Poshmark
When I started selling on Poshmark several years ago, I was lucky in that I made several sales shortly after starting my closet. My things sold quickly, so I didn't experience the struggle of trying to make sales. I think part of the reason was that there were fewer sellers at the time, so my items didn't have as much competition.
Cue to the present and things are different. Poshmark has grown and it's much more competitive to make sales. I get emails and see postings from people every day asking how to sell quickly on Poshmark.
When you're struggling to get sales, you might get the impression that Poshmark doesn't work. I recently received an email from a frustrated seller. She said that it seemed like there were lots of sellers on the app but that no one was buying anything. It may seem that way as a frustrated seller, but believe me, Poshmark works and people are buying goods on there.
PM has 4 million users and is growing. There are PM users out there absolutely rocking sales and making a killing off it. Some even make full-time incomes if you can believe it. No doubt, they work very hard at it, as much as anyone would work at a regular full-time job. So how to do they sell well on PM? What's the secret?
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This means that I may receive compensation when you click on a product link or purchase an item linked on this site. Click here for details.
*** If you don't have a Poshmark account, you can receive a free $5 bonus when you sign up with my code SFGIRL2015. On Mercari, you can get $10 when you sign up with the code JENMHM. The amount may vary by promotion.
1 | Sell what people want
Poshmark isn't much different from a brick-and-mortar store in this respect. If you walked into a department store selling unpopular brands and clothes that are out of style, you'd walk out of there without purchasing anything. The same is true when people view a closet on PM. It's hard to sell things that people don't want.
What sells quickly on Poshmark are things that are in demand. These items are on trend right now. When cold-shoulder tops were popular, top sellers stocked them because they knew those tops would move fast. Other recent trends this past summer included fruit print clothing and cheeky swimsuits. I saw those items all over retail shops and online.
Not only are sellers offering popular items, but the items cost a lot at retail. A new pair of Lululemon leggings can easily cost $98 or more. That's pricey for someone on a budget, so that person comes to Poshmark to find it for less.
Poshmark is increasingly targeting male buyers and sellers. More and more men are using the app to both buy and sell. In fact, men's sales are growing faster than women's sales. They want clothes too! If you're able to find in-demand men's clothes that they want to buy, you've opened yourself up to a whole new audience.
As a side note, I know there are people out there who like out-of-style and odd-ball clothing. You might find a buyer for your item, but it will likely sit for a while waiting for that buyer to come along.
How Do You Find Out What People Want?
One easy way to find out what to sell is to read the Poshmark Blog. PM does trend reports (sometimes live) and regular posts on what's trending.
This summer, Poshmark shared some of the most in-demand men's items. These were t-shirts, swim trunks, sunglasses, and loafers. Brands included Supreme, RVCA, Chubbies, Ray-Ban, Persol, Cole Haan, and Sperry.
PM wants you to be a successful seller. That's more money in your pocket and their pocket. You'll continue selling on Poshmark and have good vibes about the company while the company keeps running.
There are several other ways to find out what people want.
Identify top selling brands (e.g., Kate Spade and Free People). I look at what's selling at popular stores and online shops.
Look at what celebrities are wearing.
Look at what trends and styles are popular.
Sell for the current season and upcoming season (e.g., holiday dresses).
2 | Use keywords in listings
This sounds easy enough but not everyone does it. I love using Google when I search for information online. Google uses its algorithm to find me the best results. But the writers of the resulting articles have also done a good job in using keywords so that their posts will show up in Google searches, also known as search engine optimization (SEO).
The same is true for Poshmark listings. The best listings have the brand name and style name in their titles. It pays to list the style name if you can find it, even if it takes a few more minutes of your time to search for it.
Potential buyers who know they want "Lululemon Run Inspire crops" will search for that term. They may get deterred searching using the term "Lululemon pants" because they know there will be hundreds or thousands of results, many of them not what they want to buy.
Using keywords in listings will help your listings come up in Google searches too. Have you ever searched for clothing online and a Poshmark listing comes up? That seller did a good job of using keywords in their listing so that Google was able to find it.
I've sold a few things to people by using the right keywords in my listing titles and descriptions. These people weren't even Poshmark users, but Google showed them my listing and they made a temporary account in order to buy the item.
I like to put keywords and describe items in the description boxes too. Give the viewer what you can to make them more confident buying from you.
By the way, I created this handout on 200+ top-selling brands to know to help you make more sales. Click on the button below to grab your copy!
3 | Increase your number of listings for sale
Poshmark is all about numbers: shares, profit, dropping prices, shipping costs, followers, and more. In buying and selling, there's no getting around dealing with numbers.
When it comes to closet size, more listings is better for sales. Poshmark recommends having at least 10 available listings in your closet. I think 10 is far too few. If you walk into a random store with 10 clothing items, how likely are you to buy one of them? If you walk into a store with 100 or more items that are trendy and in-demand, you're more likely to find something you want to buy.
That's why it's worth it to spend time growing your closet. Top sellers have hundreds and even thousands of listings available for sale. They may sell men's clothes too to tap into a growing market on Poshmark.
4 | Price items smartly
Pricing isn't a one-and-done deal. I wish it were as easy as listing all shirts for $10 and all pants for $20, but it's not. You can sell quickly on Poshmark by underpricing everything. I've seen closets completely sold out because items were priced low.
Your items will sell, but you're leaving money on the table. Most sellers don't want to underprice their items, particularly if they're selling as a full-time business or side hustle.
You can price your items smartly by looking at how much that item has sold for in past sales. What's the market price? Then offer your item at that price plus extra to provide wiggle room for negotiation. I like to price things 20-30% higher. You might see that a sweater you're looking to sell previously sold for roughly $50. I would list the item for $60-$65.
If you're looking for an even quicker sale, you might want to list your item below the market price. Say you find everyone else selling a Kate Spade purse for $100. You might list yours at $90.
If you have potential buyers negotiating with you, that's a good thing. That means they want what you have and hopefully are willing to pay within the ballpark of your initial price. You're not leaving money on the table. You're not pricing so high that people are ignoring your listing. You're getting people to bite at your listing.
You'll get lowball offers on PM too. That's the nature of a second-hand marketplace where people want incredible deals. I continue to negotiate with potential buyers to see if I can bring their initial offer up to an amount I'm happy about.
5 | Professional looking listings
I don't want to scare anyone off by saying that you have to be a professional photographer with a fancy camera and all the fixings of a photo studio. You can take great pictures at home with good lighting and your cell phone.
Some people do beautiful flatlays where the item is folded and styled nicely. A blouse that's for sale might be shown with some pants and boots or jewelry to give the viewer an idea of how to wear it. If that's too much, you can show just the one item that's for sale either in a flatlay, hanging it, or putting it on a body form.
Take your pictures where there is enough natural light to accurately show your item. If you don't have that option, editing your photos is another good option. Great lighting and clear pictures showing each aspect of an item will get you far.
This is something I'm working to improve myself. I have a place with suboptimal space and lighting that makes it hard to take pictures. I will run pictures through a photo editing app like SnapSeed to brighten them.
From time to time, I retake pictures of items that aren't selling well. This gives them a new look and gets new people to look at them. I've had several items sell better once relisted with better pictures.
Here's one item I relisted with a better background and heels as props.
Another aspect of professional looking listings is to give enough detail for a potential buyer to be confident about the item to purchase it (or at least negotiate the price) on the spot. If they have to ask questions about the item, they may shy away from the sale after some time has passed or decide not to ask you at all.
Those professional listings describe the condition of an item, which is so important when you're selling something used. They list flaws if there are any, sizing, and special details. What would you want to know about this item to convince you to buy it? Even better, what you would be upset that the seller didn't disclose about this item before selling it to you?
If you are looking for some items to make business life easier, these are 24 must-haves for the online reseller. I use several of these to help me list, store, and ship items as professionally as I can.
6 | Be an active member of the PM community
Sorry if you thought selling was passive. It is if you want it to be, but you're not likely to make lots of sales or quick sales. If you want to maximize your potential for sales, you have to be active on Poshmark. What does that involve? At least a few things:
Sharing your own items. You can share your items to your followers, to individual people, and to online parties. Top sellers will tell you that they share their own items thousands of times a month.
Sharing other users' items. You don't have to share other people's items, but it's a key part of being a good Posher.
Respond to questions ASAP. This lets potential buyers know you're active on the app and serious about selling.
There are other ways to be active on Poshmark. These include welcoming new users, hosting Poshmark parties, and commenting on other people's listings. In my opinion, none of these are as important as the three things above.
If you're already on Poshmark, you probably know that sharing listings can be time-consuming. I don't advocate working on Poshmark so much that your quality of life suffers for it. Hours upon hours of time on Poshmark (or any side hustle) can cause you undue stress, loss of sleep, and unhappiness. But sharing items is a key way to promote your items, thereby giving them a better chance of being seen and sold.
Full-time resellers will tell you that they spend lots of time on their business. They may spend 60-80 hours a week on the Poshmark app as well as other aspects of selling online such as sourcing items, cleaning items, photographing and listing items, packaging sales, and shipping sales. While you don't have to pull 60- to 80-hour weeks, know that being an active part of the Poshmark community will help you make faster sales than if you're not.
7 | Use promotional features
Selling on Poshmark is rarely a list-it-and-leave-it deal. Top sellers make more and faster sales by taking advantage of promotional features provided through Poshmark or on their own.
Poshmark offers several promotional features to help you make sales.
Bundling is when a potential buyer puts together items from your closet into a virtual bundle. The benefit of this is that you can negotiate the total price of the bundle instead of each item individually. The buyer also saves on shipping costs by having items packaged together in one box for mailing.
Offer to likers is when you offer people who have "liked" your item a special discounted price. Instead of waiting for potential buyers to come to you with their offers, you can offer them an item at a discounted price and cover part of their shipping cost.
Closet Clear Out is a promotion in which you lower the price of an item by at least 10% off the historic lowest price given that the item is $10 or above and the item will automatically receive discounted shipping. The cost of shipping varies by is frequently $4.99 versus $6.79. While $1.50 isn't much, it feels like a deal. The discount is only good for a limited time, which gives a sense of urgency to the sale.
Once in a while I come across a surprise – a great closet with lots of in-demand items at reasonable prices but few sales. I remember one woman's closet with lots of Lilly Pulitzer and Vineyard Vines clothing. I was surprised that some of her listings were still available for sale given how popular those brands are and her relatively low prices.
I wasn't surprised anymore after I scrolled to the top of her profile and saw a low number of shares. She wasn't very active on PM so her listings got lost in the sea of all the other listings out there.
I hear and see people asking all the time how to make sales on Poshmark. Some people are trying to get their first sale. Others are trying to get on a roll. Still, others are asking how to just sell quickly. No one wants to wait around to make a sale. I don't either.
Despite talk of secrets tricks and tactics, I think selling on Poshmark isn't a matter of secrets but a matter of smart hustling. Selling on Poshmark is rarely a case of set it and forget it. It's a combination of all of the above factors to help you make the sales you want.
What has sold quickly for you on Poshmark? What do you think are key factors in selling quickly?


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Making Tax Digital for VAT (MTDfV) fundamentally changes the way in which businesses keep VAT records and submit VAT returns. At Lawrence Grant, we can provide guidance on the key aspects of MTDfV and the implications for your business in the Harrow area.
Over the coming years, the government will phase in its landmark Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative, which will see taxpayers move to a fully digital tax system.
This factsheet outlines some of the key issues for businesses.
Making Tax Digital for Business (MTDfB) was introduced in the 2015 Spring Budget. The government's 'Making Tax Easier' document was published shortly after, and outlined plans for the 'end of the tax return'. It also set out the government's vision to modernise the UK's tax system, with digital tax accounts set to replace tax returns for ten million individuals and five million small businesses.
However, industry experts and those within the accountancy sector expressed concerns over the proposed pace and the scale of the introduction of MTDfB, and, as a result, the government amended the timetable for the initiative's implementation, to allow businesses and individuals 'plenty of time to adapt to the changes'.
MTDfB, starting with VAT, took effect from 1 April 2019, as summarised below.
From 1 April 2019, businesses are mandated to use the MTDfB system to meet their VAT obligations. Under the rules, businesses with a turnover above the VAT threshold (currently £85,000) must keep digital records for VAT purposes and provide their VAT return information to HMRC using MTD functional compatible software.
The rules took effect from 1 April 2019, where a taxpayer has a 'prescribed accounting period' which begins on that date, and otherwise from the first day of a taxpayer's first prescribed accounting period beginning after 1 April 2019. The exception to this is a small minority of VAT-registered businesses with more complex requirements who were mandated to comply with MTD for VAT (MTDfV) for their first return period starting on or after 1 October 2019.
The six-month deferral period applied to businesses who fall into one of the following categories: trusts, 'not for profit' organisations that are not set up as a company, VAT divisions, VAT groups, those public sector entities required to provide additional information on their VAT return (government departments, NHS Trusts), local authorities, public corporations, traders based overseas, those required to make payments on account and annual accounting scheme users. HMRC estimates the deferral will apply to around 3.5% of mandated businesses.
Those businesses that fall within the scope of MTDfV are required to submit their VAT returns using software compatible with the MTDfV regulations. Information will be extracted from the digital records in order to populate the VAT return.
There are no changes to the statutory VAT return or payment dates. In addition, businesses who choose to submit VAT returns monthly or in a non-standard fashion are able to continue to do so.
Under MTDfV, businesses must make use of functional compatible software to meet the requirements. VAT returns will be calculated and submitted to HMRC via an Application Programme Interface (API). Submission can be from software, bridging software or API enabled spreadsheets.
HMRC acknowledges there are different ways to do this. However, the transfer of data to HMRC, from the mandatory digital records to the filing of the return, must be entirely digital. HMRC has published VAT Notice 700/22: Making Tax Digital for VAT setting out requirements in more detail.
Under MTD, manual record keeping is not acceptable. Specified records have to be kept digitally, using 'functional compatible software.' This means a 'software programme or set of compatible software programmes which can connect to HMRC systems via an API' which must be capable of:
Records to be kept digitally are specified in the VAT Notice. They include 'designatory data'; the VAT account linking primary records and VAT return; and information about supplies made and received. Requirements are more extensive under MTD for VAT, for example in relation to supplies made, where it is necessary to record the different rates of VAT applicable. For supplies received, the amount of input tax to be claimed is also needed.
MTD is not completely paper-free, and it does not mean businesses are mandated to use digital invoices and receipts. Some records will still be kept in hard copy, such as the C79 import VAT certificate. However the actual recording of supplies made and received must be digital. Where invoices and receipts aren't held digitally, they should be kept in hard copy as usual for VAT purposes.
The digital records required for MTD don't have to be held in one place or one programme. Businesses can keep digital records in a range of different compatible digital formats. The use of spreadsheets is allowed, in combination with add-on MTD software.
If the information is prescribed as part of the 'digital journey', the mandatory submission process, it must transferred via 'digital link.' The VAT Notice defines these.
A digital link is a transfer or exchange of digital data between software programmes, products or applications. Where a set of software products is used, there must be digital links between them, and once data is entered into software, any further transfer or modification must be via digital link.
Manual data transfer is not allowed under MTD. An example would be noting details from invoices in one ledger, then using that handwritten information to update manually another part of the functional compatible software. Copying by hand or manual transposition of data between two or more pieces of software and 'cut and paste', or 'copy and paste' will not be acceptable in the long term. There are however some transitional arrangements (see below).
The VAT Notice outlines acceptable digital links, including:
For VAT return periods beginning between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, penalties will not be charged if businesses don't have digital links between software programmes. This means 'cut and paste' will be acceptable while businesses update their systems. However, from 2020, HMRC will penalise non-compliance.
The transfer of VAT return data to bridging software to make submission to HMRC must always be digital, and is excluded from the soft landing provisions.
Under MTDfV, only a small handful of businesses are exempt. Please contact us if you believe your business may be exempt. Businesses will be able to make a right of appeal against a HMRC refusal of exemption.
If you are in the Harrow area, please do contact us for information on MTDfV.
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What is investing? Investing is all about putting your money to work for you — and you want your money doing as much of the heavy lifting as possible. Well it's not hard as you think. Even if you think you are broke with nothing to put toward investing, the truth is that you probably have something you can start with. Here are the steps given by Free Financial and Investment Assistance Portal, MoneyMindz.com to take if you want to find the money to start investing:
Start with Your Priorities
Everything starts with priorities. What do you want your money to accomplish for you? What matters to you. Clarifying what really matters to you and what you are serious about can help you make better financial decisions moving forward.
Make More Money
Making more money is easier said than done. However, once you've looked at your finances and you've eliminated expenses that aren't true priorities and diverted that money to investing, it's time to start looking for ways to take your contributions up a notch.
One of the best ways to find money to start investing more is to create that cash flow. Some of the ways you can create more income include:
Start a side gig: I freelance for a full-time income, but I know a number of people who do it as a side gig. There are plenty of other easy-to-start side gigs that you can use to boost your ability to invest and even reach financial independence.
Work for a raise: How long have you been at your job? Is it time to ask for a raise? Work toward getting a raise, and you can put some — or even all — of the increase toward investing.
Look for a new job: You can also job hunt for a better-paying job, or get a part-time second job to raise more funds for investing. I'm not a fan of working more than one job, but if you are struggling with other methods of making more money, it can be one of the simpler solutions.
Use income investing to your advantage: Income investing strategies can help you boost your portfolio a little bit at a time. I invest in index funds that pay dividends. The result is that I invest a little more money each month as my automatic reinvestment kicks in. The amount is small at first, but it snowballs over time.
Think about your lifestyle and your priorities, and determine whether or not you can tweak different aspects so that you are better able to find money to start investing — or boost the amount you have been investing.
For more information visit: www.moneymindz.com or give a missed call to 022-62116588 and download our FinFree app.


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Bloom Time: Early-Midseason
Size: 32 inches tall
Reasons To Love It: The "Joker" peony is aptly named – opening a bright pink, and maturing to beautiful white organza centers with a pink picotee on its tips. Joker also enjoys and enormous number of blossoms. This "chameleon" is a favorite at Pure Peonies! This is a joy to work with and bouquets are lovely, it goes with any other peony in the field and is great in a mixed bouquets.
Hybridizer: Landis/Rogers, 2004
WARM CORAL-PINK SEMI-DOUBLE; Has delicate but fleshy coral petals surrounding an equally bright yellow center. Abalone Pearl enjoys a light, sweet fragrance. Fragrance: Mildly Fragrant Bloom Time: Early-Midseason Size: 32...
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BLUSH TO WHITE DOUBLE; Addie Tischler enjoys very large blooms, has good, strong, straight & thick stems. Its flower texture is dense & heavy. Bloom Time: Midseason-Late Size: 30 inches...