For everyone interested in how we got started, here is the text of the Power Point presentation given by the Coop Founders at our very first public pot luck, before we got the "Perry" building, on February 8, 2004. This is based on the presentation given to Deans McLeod and Carroll at a pot luck late in 2003. They were skeptical but we impressed them! For more Coop history, please see http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8064513623
If you scroll down to the end, you will see our Coop Constitution, from Autumn 2003, modified and posted June 2, 2004.
Presentation
Introductions
Mission Statement
The Washington University Cooperative, run by students, faculty and staff, seeks to foster community, environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and healthy living.
Community
• Connection to Wash U and greater St. Louis community
• Egalitarian democratic procedures
• Sharing responsibilities, tasks, experiences.
Environmental sustainability
• Recycle goods in and out of house
• Obtain foodstuffs from environmentally sound local providers
• Produce a portion of what we consume
• Purchase and use energy efficient appliances and environmentally friendly household goods
• Consume less energy
• Stay aware of the ecological consequences of our actions
Social Responsibility
• Educate each other about current events
• Exclusively support socially responsible companies
• Take an active role in community building and community service
Healthy living
“Through the Cooperative we will foster the realization of our ideas, ultimately bequeathing both the structure and the spirit to future generations of students and faculty, who in turn may actualize their own principles.” --The Constitution
• An understanding and nurturing environment
• Spiritual, mental, and physical health
• Recognition of individuality within a community
• An example for the Wash. U. Community
Network—a resource
All these ideas—not new. But we’re re-packaging them cooperatively.
Connections
Network organization:
Consisting of:
Garden
Potluck Dinners
Food Buying
Housing
Wash U Community
St. Louis Community
Webmasters (for recently gained webpage)
General Organizers
All these jobs: require ingenuity, creativity, and dedication. We are all learning. We are all leaders.
How it works:
• Each unit has a group of people dedicated to getting the job done
• All units will work together, coordinated by a group of coordinators
• Egalitarian, decisions are unanimous. There are no positions of power, only responsibility.
• Meetings: Weekly. All groups meet separately, but at same time (big room)
• Webpage—recently acquired. Will be a link between all groups
Garden:
Will become a source of some of our food
Will manifest our ideals concerning the environment: (will be organic)
What we have accomplished:
Contacted Green Givens (stud group dedicated to sustainability)—we have a plot of land that we can use near Givens
Plot of land near the Alumni house—going through the red tape to have it be a garden
Gateway Greening-St. Louis organization: turns empty plots into gardens. We have to have people around all year—put on hold for now.
Dr. Bauer—year-round care-taker
Positions/What needs to be accomplished
Finalize sites—Gateway Greening and/or Wash. U area
Workers—planting, watering, maintenance, harvest
Planner/researcher (what to grow, how to care for it)
Year-round care-taker
Coordinator/informant
Public representative
Potluck Dinners
Will be open to all Washington University members in order to foster informal communication and community within a diverse group.
The dinners will foster a sense of home.
Positions/What needs to be accomplished
Phone Tree/coordinator
Menu planner
Webmaster for potluck-related webpage
Coordinator/informant
Public representative
Explanation of System:
Depends on how many people want to be involved…but we imagine high numbers…
On website—calendar, with hosts, specifying how many people can come. Sign up for certain day, and part of menu. Example menus. Recipe exchange. Various levels of flexibility (some potlucks would be Italian food nights, others an array of different kinds of foods)
Food Buying
Will support local farmers and support organic farming.
Explanation
Order food in bulk, and pick it up weekly. Requires a certain number of work hours a week/household.
Positions/What needs to be accomplished
In touch with organization
Webmaster for food-buying related page
Drivers
Packagers
Secretary
Treasurer
Coordinator/informant
Public representative
Housing
• Through the University—so as to keep the housing option open for generations of Wash U students. Parkview apts? (We are in close contact with Chancellor Carroll and Dean McLeod)
• Apt. Style housing: combination of publicity and privacy. Work to be shared in housing “units”
• The cooperative living situation will provide a place for history and personality in the built environment (eco-friendly structure like Earthway’s home)
• More effective to work on ideals together
• A strong community built through sharing responsibilities.
• Combination of the best of all the other housing options:
Kitchen (Millbrook)
Common space (South 40 Suites)
Traditions and culture (Fraternities)
Promotion of interests (Special interests groups in small group housing)
Self management (off-campus)
• Possibly lower priced because of self-sufficiency within the home (depends on deal with Wash. U)
Past Experience
• We have contacted other cooperatives of St. Louis. We had dinner and attended a business meeting of CoLibri, a 10-person housing cooperative in South City.
• We are in phone contact with North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO). They are an organization devoted to the creation of campus cooperatives across the continent.
• Spring Break trip planned to visit school Co-ops
• Close Contact with NASCO (Duncan)
• Other Universities as loose models.
Positions/What needs to be accomplished
• Researchers
• Coordinator/informant
• Public representative
• Webpage contributor
Wash U Community
• The Cooperative Network aims to be an integral part of Wash U culture, open to all.
Positions/What needs to be accomplished
• Student activities representative—We are an official student group
• Campus publicity/coordination—open up the network to the community—turn “jobs” into events”
• Event planner—fund raisers, yard sales
• Coordinator/informant
• Public representative—to get people involved.
• Logo Designers/flag makers
St. Louis Community
Positions/What needs to be accomplished
• In touch with U city (attends town meetings)
• In touch with Wash U build/other St. Louis focused groups
• Up-to-date on news/contributes to website
• Event planner
• Coordinator/informant
• Public representative
Web Gurus (for recently gained webpage)
• Resource for people currently involved, and people who want to be involved.
• Means of communication
o Newsletter and updates
o Pictures, movies, art
o Calendar
Positions/What needs to be accomplished
• Designer
• Webmaster
• Coordinator/informant
• Public representative
General Organizers
• To coordinate the group effort
At first will consist of the existing core group—with the most familiarity with the group. Will extend when people know more about the Co-op Network.
Positions/What needs to be accomplished
• Representative from each section of the network
• General Schedule keeper
• General Secretary—webpage contributor
• Email respondent
Vision
• Personality and tradition for Wash U
• All-inclusive (people may participate in one related event during their whole stay here, or may do something every day)
• Will tie all factions of the school together—undergraduates, graduates, professors, and staff.
• Will provide an avenue to increase our connection to St. Louis.
Examples:
Orientation for Housing: Building house furniture, getting started on kitchen, personalizing system of self-governing to fit the particular people, particular time.
Spring picnic in the parc—potluck held in public space.
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Constitution
The Washington University Housing Cooperative is a student-run, not-for-profit organization that seeks to foster community, healthy living, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility. Governed by egalitarian democratic procedures, the cooperative is run autonomously in accord with its social contract i.e. the upholding of aforementioned ideals, as further explained in the Cooperative Handbook. All laws are voted on by Cooperative members, whose votes count equally. These laws remain amenable to change by revote, in keeping with the will of members.
We are particularly concerned with the philosophies and praxis of social responsibility, as individuals and as part of larger communities.
Cooperative members value the opportunity to live in accord with their values, e.g. recycling goods in and out of house, obtaining foodstuffs from environmentally sound local providers, and producing a portion of what we consume. Similarly, we are dedicated to social change, through mutual education, an awareness of current events, buying goods exclusively from socially responsible producers, and taking an active role in the community and community service. Community is an essential aspect of the Cooperative’s vision—without it, our organization could not function. In addition to being its own community, the Cooperative values its role within the Washington University and larger St. Louis community.
College students perennially complain that they are rife with ideals and beliefs that they are unable to actualize due to their surroundings, obligations, and situations. They bemoan the fact that they must wait until after graduation, or after graduate school, or after they get a job in order to implement their learnings. We believe that the best time to do this is now, and that there is nothing more appropriate or valuable to our education than extending it into our home life. Through the Cooperative we will foster the realization of our ideas, ultimately bequeathing both the structure and the spirit to future generations of students, who in turn may actualize their own principles.