Providing affordable student housing since 1932

Board of Directors (BoD)

Legal Responsibilities 

  1. Act in the best interest of the co-op and its members.
  2. Cannot abdicate the responsibility to direct.
  3. Must manage co-op according to Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws.
  4. Must choose officers.
  5. Must be knowledgeable about co-op affairs.
  6. Must act in good faith and with reasonable care.
  7. Must uphold the trusteeship role vis-à-vis members.
  8. Must regularly attend board meetings.
  9. Are financially responsible for losses (negligence).

Legal Foundation

  • Articles of Incorporation
  • Bylaws
  • Standing Rules
  • Policies
  • Federal & State Laws
  • County ordinances and codes
  • City ordinances and codes
  • Other: contracts, environmental standards, etc.

How to Stay Legal & Reduce Liability

  1. Honor all legal documents, agreements, etc.
  2. Know the co-op bylaws, etc. thoroughly
  3. Get the facts
  4. Devote the time needed to prepare for board meetings
  5. Attend those meetings!
  6. Insist on complete and timely information
  7. Allow adequate time on your board agenda for deliberations
  8. Maintain good records
  9. Retain counsel and indemnify
  10. Maintain an open mind- approach job with complete integrity

Duty of Attention: actively participate, know what the business is doing and what it should not be doing.

Duty of Care: be a prudent person and have a good faith standard

Duty of Loyalty and Obedience: allegiance to the co-op over personal or individual interests. Balance house opinion, uphold decisions.

Structure Overview: how the Board is structured, how elections are held, document hierarchy (needs an update)

Coordinating Committee

President Keara Broome CoCo, BoD, CRC, EHOT, SMART Debs
VP Operations Seth Flynn OpsCom, CRC, IAC Owen
VP Finance Elliot Baker FinCom, TR, CRC Luther
VP Education Joseph Fisher DiVed, SCT, CHR Luther
VP Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Cody Quiroz Linder
VP Facilities Alex Zittleman FamCom, MM, IAC, SMART Truth
VP Marketing & Recruitment Sophia Penney MRC, ICC-T King
General Manager Brian Donovan Staff, BoD, EHOT, SMART Rochdale

Board of Directors

House Rep Pronouns Committee
Baker Kyle Anderson FAM
Black Elk Orpheus Bartleson DIV
Debs Grace Sielinski FIN
Escher Josh Jonathan?
Escher Maya Fraser FAM
Escher Abiola Oladipo MRC
Gregory Azure Maxwell ED
Johnson-Rivera Madelyn Chau ED
King Miles Indeya?
Linder Alex Newman OPS
Luther Josh Sheats FIN
MichMinnies Annie Rollins FIN
MichMinnies Aniket Dixit FAM
Nakamura Jorja Wegryn-Jones DIV
Osterweil Aarti Sridhar DIV
Owen Chloe Markle MRC
Ruths’ Ruthy Lynch ED
Truth Bryan Pagan OPS
Vail George Krippner MRC

DoC Intro

One major lesson I’ve learned is that every year 550 members form a deep connection to their specific co-op house. I absolutely love the strength, support, and passion that exudes from our 16 unique co-ops. There has been a lot of discussion on how to create that same level of support for the entirety of “the ICC.” So I’m hoping to use this platform to shift this narrative of “the ICC” as an ambiguous administrative entity to the foundation that allows for the connection to specific co-op homes. What happens to one of us, impacts us all.

Therefore, welcome to my house, Rochdale. We’re located at 337 E. William and offer four floors of chaotic cooperation in service of our community. Our amenities include a convenient downtown location, multiple open office spaces, cable/internet, multiple computers, printing and duplication, delicious candy, crafts and HeRSTORY (archives, organizational data, etc.) We’re proud to introduce the newly renovated basement that includes a shower! Now folks can bike and/or exercise to the House without smelling up the joint. Our leadership team consists of:

  • Our President (GM Brian)
  • Our Board Rep (Vacant)
  • Our Work Manager (DMR Lenny)
  • Our Treasurer (Mary & Kyle)
  • Our Maintenance Manager (MD Geoff)
  • Outside Maintenance Managers (Danny, Andrew, Deric)
  • Our Education and Food Steward (DET Pink)
  • Our Social Chair (AOC Susan)
  • Our Tech Steward (DoC, John, Geoff, Audrey)

Our 47 housemates turnover every year

Veterans: CoCo
First-Second year housemates: BoD & HP’s

As one could imagine, we face similar strength, support, passion and challenges as most houses. We have to do dish raids after committee and team meetings, we hold meetings that last for hours on end, we struggle with folks doing their work chores (Member Assistance Program), we never have enough parking, we laugh, cry, and discuss cooperation for far too many hours than humanly possible. We learn from the various backgrounds, degrees and experiences that walk through our doors yearly. We try our best and yet we can always do better-be better-as a community.

Staff Team Intro

The purpose of Strategic Planning is to set overall goals for the ICC and to develop a simple, easy to articulare, and shareable plan to achieve them. We developed and approved a five-year plan during the Summer of  2018 through member brainstorming sessions, staff meetings, and BoD workshops. The Strategic Plan consists of:

  • ICC Vision: The “dream” of the ICC; what we wish/hope/want to be
  • ICC Mission: A clear, succinct statement of who we are and what we do
  • Co-operative Principles: Statements that define the underlying structure of our community
  • Member Wishlist (MWL): This is a positive restatement of the problem being addressed that begins to point toward the desired outcome. Members unearthed and defined these issues through three sessions open to all members. These describe what is important to members.
  • Long Term Objectives (LTO): Helps us achieve broad, long-term outcomes by providing a structure, focus, and consistency over the five years of the plan. These describe what we want to accomplish in the long term.
  • Annual Objectives (AO): The AO specifically describes what must be done to achieve our long-term strategic objectives. These describe what we can reasonably accomplish in a year.

Long Term Planning Steps

The last year of the 2018-2023 Strategic Plan will be spent reflecting on accomplishments and beginning to consider our wishes and goals for the next three  to five years CoCo, BoD, Staff March – August of final year of current strategic plan
Update Annual Objectives if needed CoCo Interims Between Years

Short – Term Planning Steps – 1 Year

Review Annual Objectives of the previous and current year CoCo & Staff April
Add unaccomplished Annual Objectives to the next fiscal year CoCo and the Board April
Present the Annual Objectives for the next fiscal year to the board CoCo July
Approve any changes to the next fiscal year objectives (85% majority) Board July
Present new Strategic Plan to the Board CoCo July
Approve Strategic Plan Board Deadline August 31
Report to the board the progress on the Annual Objectives ICC President and GM Once  in the Fall, Winter and Spring terms

Some other planning thoughts:

  • Planning works best if done on a regular basis
  • The most important thing about planning, besides doing it, is remembering that you can’t possibly do all the things that you’d like to do. Our fertile brains will always have MANY more ideas than we can accomplish.
  • Appreciate what does get done! Give yourself and others lots of praise and positive feedback.
  • Understand & accept that we won’t all agree 100% on 100% of topics.

This is a new process. . . it’s going to take some time to review and finalize next steps.

1-5th: Members pay charges

6th: Members who haven’t paid will be fined $15

Treasurers will be given a report of housemates charged with late fines (starting in October)

16th: Members who owe over $500 will be sent a Tier Status Notice

Next Month we begin again, in addition to activating Tier 2 Notice to Quit + File

The chart below shows the number of members at each house that has a balance of over $500. Futuristically we’ll include the number of members who have received late fines (they were suspended during the Sp/Su and not processed in Sept. given houses still setting their budgets so charge posting gets delayed.) Trends we’ve seen thus far are that several members carry a months balance, meaning they pay Sept in Oct and Oct in Nov and mostly are caught up by the end of the term. Additionally, we have several folks who over $1,000 and have not taken any action to address the debt. We will need to make some decisions soon about our thresholds and when we are going to pursue eviction and the house role in accountability for the floating folks.

October Update: We processed late fees for the first time. We had 65 folks charged on the 6th and as of the 10th we’ve had almost half pay their balance. That means the $72,000 debt reduced to $26,000.

Click to zoom

The Finance Committee

The VP for Finance is responsible for chairing the Finance Committee. The Finance Committee convened 9 times for 1.5 hours each between June and August. The Finance Committee discussed topics such as new house policies for credit cards, changes to the ICC investment policy, and new post-SBA processes on the house and Finance Department levels. The Finance Committee also developed inclusive and equitable ways to evaluate international student scholarship applicants. 

During these meetings the committee evaluated: 28 Fall/Winter MLK Scholarships, 3 Spring/Summer MLK Scholarships, 2 payment plans, 1 ICC Spring/Summer Affordability Scholarship, and 1 Fall/Winter MLK Scholarship Appeal. 

 

Scholarship Type  Number of Applicants  Total Awarded (So far)  Total Award Amount Average Award Amount 
MLK S/S  34 22 $9,750.00 $111/month
MLK F/W 28 13 $25,200.00 $256/month
Bridge  4 4 $3,566.26 $891.57/person
ICC S/S Affordability 1 1 $1702.57 N/A

2023-24 BoD Meetings

House Reports: do these still occur?

Staff, Committee, and Team Reports: these are now CoCo reports?

Managerial Reports

Do these still occur?

Do these still occur?

Community Norms

Operational Items

  • Board Retreat/Training takes place
  • New Member Orientation & New House Officer Training are offered
  • New House Operations (work schedules, food ordering, etc) are set
  • Financial Orientation for Board
  • Coordinate Board visits from Ann Arbor Police Department, Fire Department,(& maybe others)
  • Begin planning for NASCO Institute – communicate with NASCO Staff about house cultures and provide any help they need with University communications

BoD Agenda 9/11

BoD Minutes 9/11

Members & Guests Present

  • Staff: Mary, Lenny, Pink

Proposal Action Items

  •  not applicable: first meeting of the Fall/Winter term

BoD ToDos

BoD Agenda 9/18

BoD Minutes 9/18

Members & Guests Present

  • Lawyer: Jim Fink
  • Bryant, Tristan
  • Staff: Kyle

Proposal Action Items

BoD ToDos

  • Abiola: work on an amendment for the income qualifying proposal and review with people
  • Everyone
    • Fill out the Board Retreat Planning form
    • Share solidarity fund link with your housemates

Operational Items

  • Celebrate Co-op Month!!!!!
  • Cooperative Leadership Training (CLT) is offered
  • Budget process starts
  • Maintenance Presentation to BoD in first half of the month
  • ICC Audit must be completed by Oct. 31
  • Prior year Fall/Winter rebates and assessments must formally conclude
  • Committee budgeting begins
  • Ideally, Spring/Summer Rebates & Assessments and Share Returns should be concluded

Agenda 10/2

BoD Minutes 10/2

Members & Guests Present

Proposal Action Items

ToDos

Agenda 10/23

BoD Minutes 10/23

Members and Guests Present

Proposal Action Items

ToDos

Agenda 10/30

BoD Minutes 10/30

Members and Guests Present

Proposal Action Items

ToDos

Operational Items

  • NASCO Institute first weekend of November
  • GM Progress Report presentation at first Board Meeting of the month
  • CoCo drafts proposal to accept/decline GM progress Report and brings it to second Board Meeting of Nov.
  • Evaluations are presented and proposals to either continue or withhold CoCo Scholarships are brought to the Board. Board Reps vote on proposals to either continue or withhold scholarships.
  • Committee budgets are due to FinCom – preferably within first week of November
  • Form election committee by the last Board Meeting of Nov.

Agenda 11/13

BoD Minutes 11/13

Members & Guests Present

Proposal Action Items

Todos

Agenda 11/20

BoD Minutes 11/20

Members & Guests Present

Proposal Action Items

Todos

Operational Items

  • CoCo writes Managerial Reports that are distributed to membership via Board Packs
  • Board Audit survey is completed by all members of the Board during the December Meeting
  • First draft of budget must be presented to Board no later than last Dec. meeting
  • Election committee announces timeline for ICC President nominations

Agenda 12/04

BoD Minutes 12/04

Members & Guests Present

Proposal Action Items

Todos

Agenda 12/11

BoD Minutes 12/11

Members & Guests Present

Proposal Action Items

Todos

Operational Items

  • New Member Orientation & New House Officer Training are offered; BoD training offered if needed
  • Progress on Annual Plans presented to Board
  • Nominations for ICC President close & campaigning begins
  • Board Audit presented by EdCom at first Board meeting of January. Short discussion follows
  • CoCo (Prez & VPs) give presentation to Board & Staff on giving effective feedback for GM Eval
  • 2nd draft of budget must be presented – adjustments made by BoD
  • Encourage members to run for VP Elections

January 22nd Meeting

Agenda

BoD Minutes 01/22

Members & Guests Present

  • Carmen, Jon, Porter
  • Staff: Pink
  • Guest: Wholehearted Bookkeeping Coop

Proposal Action Items

  • Suspend SR for VP Election timeline (passed-no document available)

Todos

  • Referenda committees bring drafts of referenda to next meeting
  • Everyone: Offer commentary and edits on strategic plan by next Sunday
  • Keara – Make example SMART goal for strategic plan
  • Fill out Ann Arbor Housing Survey

January 29th Meeting

Agenda

BoD Minutes 01/29

Members & Guests Present

Proposal Action Items

Todos

Operational Items

  • Open GM Evaluation Survey within first half of February
  • Cooperative Leadership Training (CLT) is offered
  • Budget must be passed by last Board Meeting of February
  • Presidential election held. New President should start attending CoCo and Board Meetings

Agenda

BoD Minutes 02/12

February 19th Meeting

BoD Minutes 02/19

Operational Items

  • CoCo brings the GM Eval Report (including GM response) to Board for approval. Board vote to approve GM Eval requires 85% majority to pass
  • Results of ICC President must be approved by 85% of Board before WAM
  • President and VPs attend WAM and give year-end presentations to membership
  • CoCo writes Managerial Reports that are distributed to membership via the Annual Report
  • VP elections at last Board Meeting of March
  • Form Spring Turnover COM at least 3 Board Meetings before the end of term

March 4th Meeting

Minutes

March 11th Meeting

Minutes

March 25th Meeting

Operational Items

  • Wrap up outstanding proposals
  • Review Annual Objectives – flag anything that is unfinished
  • Ensure that all Committee meeting minutes, agendas, and other resources uploaded to g.drive
  • CoCo approve BoD Meeting Schedule for the year