A Broader Vocabulary Cooperative

“We need to diversify,” said Patty Donndelinger, one of five temporary board members of a cooperative started last November to resurrect Broad Vocabulary, the Bay View feminist bookstore that closed its doors late last year.

Named A Broader Vocabulary, the cooperative currently has about 50 members who pay an annual $25 membership fee. The group has a $10,000 fundraising goal and hopes to raise enough to cover at least three months’ worth of operating costs before reopening a brick-and-mortar bookstore in a new Milwaukee storefront. Donndelinger said they are considering sites in Bay View, on KK in particular, but have made no decisions. 

She said Broad Vocabulary had been covering its expenses but that was not enough-sales nose-dived over the last few months of 2008.

“The fact that we’re making it a cooperative I think is going to be the key to making it economically viable,” Donndelinger said, acknowledging that the co-op does not expect to make much money but that its members should remain invested in its success. “A co-op by its very nature is going to bring in more people who have an ownership in the store.”

She added that the co-op will not have a loan, which the previous owners did. “We’re not going to be in debt,” Donndelinger said.

Legacy Bank recently accepted the co-op’s “lowball” offer for the old bookstore’s inventory, which Donndelinger said was estimated at being worth between $50,000 and $60,000.

The next step is to get seller’s permits so the co-op can begin selling books online, something the former bookstore owners had planned to do but never achieved. “This [selling online] is something that’s very important for us to do,” Donndelinger said.

Prior to selling books, the co-op is collecting used books and holding used book swaps.

Local support for the co-op was demonstrated at a Nov. 30, 2008 Phoenix Rising event, which raised $3,000, with average donations of $100, Donndelinger said. A benefit concert is planned for Feb. 28 at Frank’s Power Plant, 2800 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.

Members of People’s Books Cooperative, another independent Milwaukee bookstore that converted to a cooperative structure, have advised A Broader Vocabulary and helped them organize.

Donndelinger said she loved the feel of the old location, but wants to make the new bookstore more of a community gathering place. She envisions the new store “as the old bookstore but with a bigger meeting space, and groups coming and going every day, not just once a week or twice a week.”

She also wants to “expand beyond just a bookstore,” selling feminist bumper stickers, posters, T-shirts, reusable menstrual products, and perhaps partnering with coffee shops.

The cooperative will elect a new board prior to the store reopening.

“The goal is to open before the summer,” Donndelinger said. “It’s ambitious but I know we can do it.”

A Broader Vocabulary Cooperative: P.O. Box 070612, Milwaukee, WI 53207; abroadervocabulary@gmail.com; abroadervocabulary.blogspot.com. The group has a PayPal set up at its website. In addition to donations, they are seeking people with business, finance, website, and book buying experience. Temporary board members: Barbara Chudnow, Patty Donndelinger, Stephanie Schneider, Hannah Wallisch, and Annie Weidert.

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