Washington University Cooperative

Secret Santana happiness!

Yesterday the coop had our wonderful holiday party and Secret Santana reveal! We’d spent the last several days giving gifts secretly to our secret santanas and it was so fun to find out who had been giving us gifts. People had done some amazing and creative artsy gifts and baked goods. We went around the table telling what we’d gotten and guessing who had given it (and trying to keep our poker faces) and then revealed who we’d given to. Then there was crazy dancing and hanging out and eating good dessert. Definitely a wonderful night.

An update from Celina, Lisa, and Jerome

A bit of a delayed update, but Jerome, Lisa and I (Celina) took a road trip to Ann Arbor, MI last month to go hang out with other co-opers and learn what they’re up to! (Check out more about the North American Students of Cooperatives (NASCO) Institute here: www.nasco.coop/). You know.. how to facilitate meetings, mediate conflict, make sure work is being shared fairly and work is getting done. There were also workshops about cooperative living as an alternative to capitalism, about food sovereignty, and, well, about a whole lot of things! It was fantastic. We partied it up at the Black Elk co-op, whose tool closet is labeled “tools for the revolution” (see picture below.) I wonder of Marx was hidden back there amongst wrenches and hoes and whatever else one might use for a revolution… We met co-opers from Oberlin, UT Austin, U of Michigan, UPenn, Ohio State, UC Santa Cruz, and all over the place! Oh and did I mention the conference was free??? Thanks NASCO for the scholarships!! I hope people go again next year!! :) :)

New Applicants!

The coop is excited to be opening up applications for next year! We spent almost a full meeting going over the questions, which was a surprisingly fun and silly process (consensus sentence writing is underrated). We’ve already had some really awesome applicants coming to help cook and to potlucks. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone and reading the application answers!

You can find the application here! And invite your friends on facebook!

Sparkling Clean Coop

Yesterday the Co-operators got together to give the unfinished half of the basement (which has couches and is where we hold many coop events) a much needed face lift. Everyone chipped in time and the basement is now looks fantastic and is going to be an even better place to hold our weekly coop cafes (which start tomorrow) and have our parties. Maybe we’ll even start having our weekly meetings in there, it looks so comfortable!

Social Consciousness Events Calendar, 9/12/12

*Guest Speaker Jackson Katz: this Thursday (tomorrow!) at 8pm in Graham
Chapel
Jackson Katz is a world renown anti-sexist male activist. He works
tirelessly to help men overcome gender stereotypes. Dr. Katz is the creator
of the MVP model for preventing violence, including sexual and domestic
violence. http://www.facebook.com/events/351998338216425/

*Open SARAH Safe: Wednesday September 16th, 6pm in DUC 272
Learn about resources for sexual violence in our community and how YOU can
best support a survivor of sexual violence.
http://www.facebook.com/events/345333952227158/

*Community Organized for Rape Education (CORE) Recruitment Meeting: Thurs.
9/20 at 8pm in DUC 276
Come learn how to get involved with CORE! We do activism and peer education
on issues of sexual violence and intimate partner violence. Some of our
events/activities include: The Date, Take Back the Night, Sexual Assault
Awareness Month (in April), and Domestic Violence Awareness Month (in
October). Like our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/WashUCORE

*Next Wednesday at 1pm, and most Wednesdays, at the World Community Center,
438 N. Skinker, Skinker and Kingsbury just north of Kingsbury Animal
Hospital: “Green Worker Action” or “Green Economy Project” (two proposed
names from a list of about ten), to demand that the Regional Commerce and
Growth Administration, our local Chamber of Commerce, create the green jobs
our workers are being trained to do.

*Next Tuesday, September 18, 10:00 A.M. at 815 Olive Street, meeting at the
WCC at 9:30 AM: foreclosure and home defense action, first a visit to
Attorney General Koster’s local office to demand release of Federal funds
allocated to Missouri to reduce the principal on underwater mortgages, then
a visit to the Bank of America to demand fair and equitable and coherent
loan modification procedures instead of fraud. Here is the Facebook event,
“Homeowners Need Relief Now”:
http://www.facebook.com/events/443450355705503/

Please see also: “Occupy the Auctions / Evictions
Stop predatory and for-profit evictions, foreclosures, and auctions in San
Francisco and beyond”; “ALERT: Stop Eviction of St. Louis Family – Preserve
Home for Disabled Elderly Neighbors”
http://occupytheauctions.org/wordpress/?p=3983

*Every Wednesday at the WCC: Occupy St Louis pot luck (in place of General
Assembly), 6pm. (It should be possible to attend both this pot luck and
Cicero’s Beer School, because the latter has two classes, 5:30-6:30 and
7:00-8:00 PM)

*This Saturday, September 15, at 1pm at Formerly Occupied Kiener Plaza
(renamed “Freedom Square” at the suggestion of our city government) there
will be a celebration of the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street.
Here is the Facebook event:
http://www.facebook.com/events/525547794139145/Just before this event,
at noon, also in Kiener Plaza, is a rally for
Reggie Clemens: http://www.facebook.com/events/398685750188778/ On the very
same morning Washington University will dedicate McLeod’s Way, a memorial
to the late great Dean Jim McLeod, without whose patronage the Wash U CoOp
would not exist: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/24114.aspx What a day!
Why not go to all these events?

Here is the Facebook page of Y-STL, Young Activists of St Louis (for the
young and young at heart):
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Young-Activists-United-St-Louis/1371687963…

Here is the Facebook page of MORE, Missourians Organizing for Reform and
Empowerment: http://www.facebook.com/organizemo

Here is the website of the Peace Economy Project, HQed in the WCC. They are
seeking a new intern. www.peaceeconomyproject.org

Anonymous asked: sugar sugar how you get so fly?

Meow.

Anonymous asked: do any freshmen live at the co-op?

Washu has some funky live-on-campus-freshman-year requirements, so usually we don’t get folks till their sophomore year. Though if someone weaseled zer way out of it second semester, we’d be happy to consider an application.

Easter

On Sunday afternoon, some CoOp members gathered in the bottom floor of the Perry to dye easter eggs (and fingers, and a bit of one CoOper’s hair…) in celebration of springtime. Here are some photos that were taken of the festivities and some other ones from around the CoOp. Although the CoOp is not religiously affiliated and our members come from diverse backgrounds, we enjoy celebrating our fair share of holidays (and just celebrating life in general).