Archive for the ‘Communications’ Category
Membership Survey Still Open!
Friday, April 7th, 2023Please complete our biannual member survey!
The information we gather on this survey is vital for the ICC: it gives us a picture of who our membership is and what they value, it provides a health check on our operations for us to reflect on, and it helps inform policy decision making on how we can improve.
Fill out the survey here to have your voice as an ICC member heard: https://umich.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a2XIx5c0EOpRd1s
Graduation Cords
Friday, April 7th, 2023Congrats ICC Grads! We are so excited be able to offer ICC grad cords once again this year. We currently have some cords left from the last year and would appreciate if you can fill out this form ASAP so we know how many to order. Cords are single with green and gold braided strands. Orders will be dispersed by Ruthy/MarCo. They will be dropped off at once with a list of names of who ordered. Thank y’all for being so cooperative over the time you’ve spent here, and once again, congratulations!
WAM Year in Review
Friday, April 7th, 2023not perfectly chronological & not comprehensive
Summer
- We started off the year with a new general manager, Brian Donovan
- Property tax return!!!! over $350,000 we got back from last year and exemption for all future years.
- Hired maggie as Fundraising outreach coordinator, and alumni team has raised a lot of money throughout the whole year
- Separated Div and ed, new vp ed sophia
- Decided to undertake full review of standing rules
- Luther house city inspection – lots of hard work from maintenance
- New member debt proceedings, which has led to us collecting a lot of our bad debt over the whole fiscal year going way back, this will save us 10s of thousands of dollars in the future
Fall
- Hired pink
- Opened ed center
- Returned to in person board training and meetings
- New eviction proceedings
- Co-op month event
- New vp finance duy-anh
- Hired kyle as accounts payables coordinator to assist finance
- EV charging stations at truth and king house, grant from DTE and hard work from John simpkins, also a lot of much needed parking lot repair at truth, hard work from maintenance
Winter
- Approved money for minneapolis co-op
- Conifer chronicle
- Increased MLK scholarships to expand to pell grant recipients
- Updated our payment plan policies
- Member survey
- Ch 16 updates
- Red wings alumni fundraiser
- Lenny promoted to DMR
- Share returns up to date from last spring summer
- New president!
- Budget almost done
Moving forward
- Need to finish the budget
- Lots of planning work, reflection on all the progress we’ve made and how much more we have to go
- Strategic planning, multi-year budget planning, new ideas for education and training
WAM Review & Awards
Friday, April 7th, 2023Review
TL:DR WAM keeps our non-profit status alive, allows us to celebrate each year, is representative of our community, and meant to be chill not formal.
I’ve had the privilege of attending nine Winter Annual Meetings(WAM). Not only have I attended, I was the primary staff member responsible for ensuring the event occurred. I must confess that providing support and attending is far more chill than organizing! They’ve all been unique (WAMMYs, Space WAM, Wild Wild WAM) and lately. . . digital (thanks covid.) Not only did we crawl out from behind our screens this year to be in person, we also changed venues. Historically we’ve always used the church located near Linder, King, Ruths’ and MichMinnies. While it was cost effective it wasn’t the greatest fit for our membership.
This year we rented out the Anderson Room at the Michigan Union which is centrally located and included a buffet. This year, our new Director of Education & Training (Pink) and their central leaders utilized an interfaith lens of reflection as our theme. We postponed our dinner to ensure we could support our members fasting and we broke the fast with dates and uplifting words from our VP for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Alhan. We welcomed our alumni and heard from co-op legend Jim Jones who inspired us to “Make no small plans, for they do not have the power to stir the soul.” VP for Marketing & Recruitment Ruthy gave an overview of our accomplishments throughout the year (worth checking out) and we installed our new President Keara Broome. We had enough members show up and vote to pass our referendum to support our property tax exemption.
The really really really new addition this year, was the forum play. The play process is based off the Theater of the Oppressed methodology brought to us by Pink and casted by your very own housemates. The actors created a 2-3 minute scene revolving around a housemate not washing their dish and getting called out aggressively. Guest Joker Jasmin Cardenas guided the audience through participatory actions and outcomes that really broke down the scene and gave the attendees a glance into how oppression shows up in our houses. Members were able to engage with the scene, discuss various issues, provide some context, and try out solutions that really encourage our cooperative spirits.
Nine WAM’s later. . . . that was the coolest thing I’ve experienced and the most engaged I’ve seen the entire crowd.
Did you attend WAM?
Did any of your housemates?
Has anyone shared the achievements, awards, and awesomeness of the event? I hope so.
I hope that we can continue to highlight our community and utilize WAM as a way to come together as we are not how we’re expected.
Stop by next year. . . doesn’t matter if you live with us still or have moved on. . . we’re all a part of this vast community and welcome everyone as alumni upon departure. Just make sure you fill out your share return lolz.
Cooperatively,
McKinney V Parrish
Director of Communications
Award Winners
Cooperator of the Year: Seth Flynn
Golden Hammer: Brooke Hudson & Marius Vava
Lifetime Achievement in Maintenance: Archie Mangus
Golden Wallet: Tony DiMeglio & Tess Eschebach
David L Smith Scholarship: Kim Swineheart & Audrey Elberger
Seth
- Seth has gone above and beyond in serving the ICC community this year as the board representative for Owen House and Member Assistance Coordinator! As a member of OpsCom, Seth has taken impressive initiative on several projects and consistently shows up to meetings ready to engage. Seth is a vocal board representative and engages with the board process in a way that is admirable and shows great commitment to the health and longevity of the ICC. As the MAC, Seth has helped the member assistance program run smoothly and efficiently, and has done great work building up the program for future years!
- Seth has previously served as president of Owen, and currently serves as our Board Rep and is the MAC . He puts a tremendous amount of effort into making new and current housemates feel welcomed and included as a part of Owen’s culture. Additionally, he is one of the most compassionate and and committed co-opers I have met in the ICC. He truly cares about Owen house, and the broader ICC community and goes out of his way daily to serve and uplift our coops!
Brooke & Marius
- The Golden Hammer award this year is going to Brooke Hudson and Marius Vava of Truth house. Though Truth is one of our younger properties, they certainly have had a tall task responding to maintenance requests from their 53 housemates in a building that despite its comparative youth in this organization, is certainly aging. They have both been diligent communicators, relaying information in RFAs and back to the house, in addition to their housemates reporting that “These two always seem to drop whatever they are occupied with to help support the house with any maintenance issues” and that they are “consistently motivated to serve Truth House”
- Brooke has helped maintenance staff tremendously in troubleshooting issues around the house, from figuring out issues with drains, washing machines, the dish sanitizer, and countless other issues requiring sleuthing and on-site observation. Her diligence in reporting, following up, and responding promptly with additional information has been amazing in supporting our work and in supporting Truth House through multiple large scale projects over the past year, including some with serious logistical headaches requiring prompt communication of shifting needs. Her housemates have noticed this as well, with one reporting in their nomination that “Over the course of this year, she has successfully advocated for house needs, including helping our house repair its dishwashing sprayer, bathroom drains, and kitchen sinks” Brooke’s communication abilities and advocacy for the house are indeed par excellence.
- According to housemates, Marius has “promptly responded to nearly every internal maintenance request, including repeated repairs to our vacuums, sprayers, and toilets” and this is certainly reflected in the RFAs we received from him, as we have brought repair parts for these items on multiple occasions to support his work. He has always been willing to troubleshoot, learn, and make repairs independently to make sure Truth’s building systems are functioning at their highest level.
- Both of them have been instrumental in helping us troubleshoot and adjust in response to long standing issues with the heat system at Truth, as I’m sure their housemates are well aware. Once we replaced the boiler over the past summer, they took time to learn the new system with Drew, and understand how to make adjustments to the system, radiators and windows to help make their house more comfortable. We know that we can count on them to be effective communicators and leaders in the house, and so do their housemates. As reported in one of their nomination emails, as house leadership has morphed at Truth in the past year, “Brooke and Marius assumed leadership roles, communicated effectively with all housemates, and went out of their way to be as transparent as possible” Which does not come as a surprise at all to us on staff, and is why we are awarding them both with the Golden Hammer this year.
Archie
- It isn’t often that we give this award out. In fact, we have only ever given it to one other Maintenance Manager, who coincidentally was also from Owen house, for their long standing excellent service to the house and the organization over multiple years. There must be some kind of co-operative spirit in the water over there consistently turning out excellent maintenance managers.
- Archie Magnus has been Maintenance manager at Owen house since 2020, and in their time as Maintenance Manager, they’ve come to be known to maintenance staff as a dependable co-oper to reach out to for counsel when planning work that requires intimate, lived knowledge of the house. Their RFAs always give plenty of information to provide a solid starting point for troubleshooting issues, and they’re always responsive with follow-up information and for alerting housemates to work being done. They’re always willing to do recon and troubleshoot remotely when we aren’t immediately available in after hours situations, and seeing them progress in their skills and confidence over the years has been nothing short of amazing.
- Their housemates say that they have “consistently gone above and beyond for maintenance projects around the house,” and that “Owen house would honestly be in shambles without Archie.” In addition to projects for the house, another housemate says “Archie is always enthusiastic to help people with their personal maintenance projects” – a hallmark of a great maintenance manager and co-oper.
- Most recently, they have stepped up to take on some large scale projects in the kitchen that will surely serve the house well for years, leaving a legacy that will be enjoyed by many future generations of Owen House. Owen Board Rep Seth Flynn reports that this work has been “far beyond the two-hour labor credit they receive with the position,” and it has not gone unnoticed by us. This has been par for the course for Archie over multiple years, and is the reason we are bestowing the Lifetime Achievement in Maintenance award to them.
- Kept in constant stream of communication, dug into their roles despite the hecticness of the year, and kept asking questions on their positions and what they can do to be great for their houses.
Kim & Audrey
- In 2012, David L Smith, Owen House member from 1947-51 and ICC President in 1951, donated $75,000 to create a scholarship specifically for the house that he lived in and cared about during his time in the ICC. He wished to continue to support the environment of learning and cooperation that he experienced, and wanted for the money to help members that would be continuing to stay and give back to the community at Owen. We would like to inform you that applications for the David L. Smith Scholarship, which is offered only to eligible Owen House members, are now available. The Scholarship will be awarded based on an essay contest, with two recipients receiving $1,000 credited to their ICC accounts. The essay should reflect on
their times spent in the ICC, especially at Owen House, and should be around 500 words. Eligible applicants may choose from 2 topics:- How did your time at Owen House and your involvement in the cooperative movement have
influenced your life? - How you have contributed to Owen House or the ICC?
- How did your time at Owen House and your involvement in the cooperative movement have
Referendum Passed!
Friday, April 7th, 2023Authors: Julian Tabron and Brian Donovan
Section 1
Background: In the Winter 2022 term, the ICC was granted property tax exemption status from the City of Ann Arbor Tax assessor. The tax assessor for the City expressed concern with shares of the ICC conveying ownership of houses and other assets. The tax assessor stated that we need to remove language in our Articles and Incorporation & Bylaws that refers to members as “owners”. The word “own” must ensure it refers to the ICC as the owner and that benefits are not distributed among members. Distribution of assets or net earnings is in direct violation of non-profit status. Brian Dahlk, a CPA at Wegner CPAs, revues our bylaws and recommends a couple of changes to remove any ambiguity that could be read into the language as currently written. These changes are necessary to ensure we continue to receive property tax exemption for the future. The following changes must be voted on at the Winter Annual Meeting to be enacted.
Section II
Background: ICC GM Brian Donovan presented a review of the ICC Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation to the Board of Directors meeting on 09/23/2022. He recommended the following changes below, because the organizations mentioned in the Articles of Incorporation no longer exist. Therefore, if the ICC were to dissolve and sell its assets, we could not fulfill this requirement in the Articles of Incorporation. The ICC should redetermine which non-profit organizations that we could donate the proceeds to in the near future.
Election Results
Friday, April 7th, 2023President: Keara Brooome
VP Operations: Seth Flynn
VP Finance: Eliot Baker
VP Education: Cody Quiroz
VP Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Joseph Fisher
VP Facilities: Alex Zittleman
VP Marketing and Recruitment: Genevieve Rivet
