New Member Info

The ICC has no designated “move-in date,” but you are officially allowed to move in on the first day of your contract. If you want to move in earlier than that, you must make arrangements with your House President or Interim Manager beforehand to make sure someone will be there to let you in. You might be able to stay in the house but not in your room. If you move in early you forfeit your right to have the room inspected by the ICC’s Interim Assistance Committee (IAC).

The House Interim Manager is responsible for the condition of your room. When you arrive, be sure to have a copy of your contract as proof of your membership and receipt of your payment. The House President, Interim Manager, or key holder (North Campus only) should be there with your keys. If for some reason your room has not been vacated, you’ll be given a room in which to temporarily stay and store your belongings.

Contact your House President if you plan to ship some of your belongings to the house prior to your move-in, and they will make sure they’re stored securely until your arrival.

If you plan to arrive on the fifth day of your contract period or later, you must notify the House President or keyholders that you will be arriving late, and when to expect you.

The first month’s charges are due online before move in and are due on the first of every following month.

House charges

Members decide what the House charges will be. These charges form the basis of the house’s budget and pay for the house’s food and some amenities. add link to sample house budgets?

ICC charges

ICC members, through their representatives at the Board of Directors, decide what each member will be charged per month. These charges cover a variety of costs including property taxes, mortgages, staff salaries, maintenance, committee spending, and various supplies. The ICC is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, which means that the budget should break even every year. If we’re under budget, any profits are reinvested into the organization.

Utilities

Utilities include internet, electricity, water, gas, phone, sewer, and trash. The costs and the savings are shared equally among all the members of the ICC. By centralizing all of our bills, we can save money. Meanwhile, any improvements to one of the houses that cuts down on utilities costs – lower-watt bulbs, new windows, etc – saves all ICC members money.

Furniture

All rooms are furnished with

• a bed
• dresser
• desk and chair

You should plan on bringing your own:

• linens
• pillows
• towels
• desk lamp

If your room lacks any of the above when you move in, your House President or Interim Manager will help you locate what you need. Please direct any further questions about rooms or keys to your house. The ICC office cannot field these requests/questions for you.

Condition

• The room should be swept and/or vacuumed
• Any carpet stains which can be removed should be
• The room should be free of trash and personal belongings
• The desk and dresser should be clean, empty, and have all of their drawers
• The walls should be clean and mostly clear
• If your room is not in this condition, contact the Interim Manager or House President

Most of our co-ops have exterior keypad locks while individual rooms have keys. The House President or Interim Manager will have a door code and key ready for your arrival. They will confirm you’ve contributed shares and charges prior to move-in.

Food

Usually, it takes a week or so to establish cooking schedules, group meals, and a good supply of guff food (that is, free-for-all food). Staples like flour, sugar, rice, etc., should be available, but be prepared to spend a few bucks the first week on vegetables, ramen, pizza, etc.

Meals

You can expect group meals to start within the first week of the term, or sooner if everybody pitches in to get things going! Until then, you can use the house kitchen and ingredients if you want to fix a meal.

The first house meeting usually takes place within a week or two of move-in. At this meeting, you’ll meet everyone you haven’t run into yet, learn how the house works, and participate in the first decision-making process of the contract period.

The first meeting may be long – you’ll hold officer elections, review the house budget, and decide on house rules for the year. You can expect them to be shorter in the future.

Interim Work

Before the work schedule is officially established (see below), one of the house officers will post an Interim Work Schedule. This list will contain all the fun and exciting chores that need to be done, with space to sign up. We encourage members to sign up for the most necessary jobs first. It’ll earn you brownie points with your housemates.

Work Schedule

Your Work Manager (WM) will survey the house so folks can provide their availability, preferences, and as-needed accommodations. The positions vary by house and cover seasonal and organizational tasks.

Every co-op is responsible for contributing a certain amount of organizational assistance based on the size of the house membership. These “Member Assistants” are one of the many ways the ICC maintains our mission of equity and affordability. These folks provide Committee and Team support as well as working within several ICC Departments. Member Assistants receive on-the-ground job training for administrative tasks. When we’re low on labor, we’re unable to meet the demands of our caring community, so we encourage you to sign up.

Work Holiday

A couple weeks after the contract period starts, each house will spend at least one day cleaning and organizing the house. This is called a “work holiday.” Expect a party or big dinner afterwards to bond with your new friends who helped you steam-clean the couches, empty the grease trap, and turn the compost pile!

House Wi-Fi

All of our co-ops provide high speed internet and Wi-Fi with no data caps to members. Escher House offers a dedicated, redundant, gigabit symmetric fiber connection to Merit Network that provides low latency, direct access to global research and education network backbones and cloud resources. The Education Center and ICC Office provide access to eduroam as well.

Wi-Fi networks at each house follow the convention [house name].icc.coop and are shared among members – ask a housemate for the login info at your house. Your device must support WPA2-AES or WPA3 encryption to connect to Wi-Fi, and a device that supports 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) or 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) is recommended.

If you’re interested in working on our house networks and have prior experience in network technology, reach out to John Simpkins at telecom@icc.coop, or join our Slack Team (#networks-wifi) and introduce yourself!

House Listserv & Communication Groups

Once you’ve moved in, your House President or Secretary should add you to the house’s email listserv. Every house maintains their own accounts and may change over the years. Most houses use Facebook, GroupMe, or Slack messaging apps to keep connected on-the-go.

ICC Central Communication

We’re in the middle of a communication reboot so please check-in with your House President or Board Representative for ongoing updates. We utilize Google Non-Profit products for conducting organizational business. The Board, Coordinating Committee, Staff and House Officers all utilize google domain (@icc.coop) accounts as well as listservs. You can find contact information for the staff, the board, and the committees here.

New members are required to attend an orientation session. Food, prizes, and community can be found at all of these events.

Fall Annual Meeting (FAM)

September brings us our largest pool of new members, so we hold a fair style event called FAM. Here, over 175 members gather outside at the Education Center to learn about how the ICC operates from our dynamic member leaders.

New Member Orientation (NMO)

In January and May members gather upstairs at the Education Center for NMO. Here, we learn from our member leaders and watch a history video together.

House Officer Training

Our members have the right to trained and competent House Officers – therefore we provide training for all centralized positions. Take a look at our House Officer Information section to learn more!

Feel free to ask! Everyone knows what it’s like to be in a new situation, and if you don’t know how to run the dish sanitizer or where to lock up your bike, someone else will! Friendliness is a co-op tradition, and people will be more than willing to help you figure out what’s going on.