Call for Internship Hosts
NASCO's Cooperative Internship Network is officially accepting host applications for summer 2017 internship positions, due by Sunday, February 26th! Whatever the size or type of your organization, we encourage you to take part in this opportunity to expand your support team. |
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| Tomorrow, February 17th at 4pm CST, we will be having an Informational Call for prospective internship hosts, so dial in to have your hosting questions answered! |
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Fundraising Update
To our members, alumni, board members, friends, family and co-op community, thank you. We are overwhelmed by your generosity as you supported our End-of-Year Fundraising campaign. We are happy to report that this year, 55 individual donors helped us raise $5,950.57 of our $10,000 goal. The Fund for Democratic Communities matched donations of up to $100 for the full grant match of $3,000, bringing our grand total to $8,950.57 raised in this campaign! |
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Thank you for sending us your likes, your love, your dollars and sharing your stories. We know that there are many phenomenal organizations asking for your support around this time of year and we are deeply appreciative and humbled to be included among them. It is because of you and your energy that we will work together to build resilience.
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We are excited to announce our newly elected directors to the NASCO Board!
Alex Green
Former member of Inter Cooperative Council, Ann Arbor, MI
New York, New York
Topaz Hooper
Current member of St. Peace House and former member of the Boulder Housing Coalition
St. Petersburg, FL
Tristan Laing
Member of Campus Co-operative Residences and Ontario Student Co-op Association
Toronto, ON
Lana Wong
Former member of Waterloo Cooperative Residence Inc
Toronto, ON
This year, all four of the seats are for three-year terms and will serve until Spring 2020. There were five highly qualified candidates for four seats. We look forward to continuing our work with each of these dedicated cooperative individuals! |
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Did you FINALLY get a group picture of everyone in your co-op? Do you have a stunning mural in your house you’d like to share? Have you recently cooked an insta-worthy house meal? We want to share your cooperative shots!
We will be posting our favorite photos and videos from you on our social media feeds. Email content to ratih@nasco.coop or tag @nasco_coop in your post. |
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Intern Spotlights
In 2016, NASCO's Cooperative Internship Network connected 12 talented cooperative individuals with 11 cooperative organizations across the nation. Here is a peek at what some of our awesome interns have to say about their experiences! |
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"As a NASCO co-op Intern turned employee of A Yard & A Half Landscaping Cooperative, I highly recommend this opportunity to gain professional experience in cooperative development- a critical component of building a fairer economy. As an intern I developed and facilitated several educational workshops for Spanish-speaking employees including new member orientations, a financial literacy training and even a yoga class! I also began coordinating our outreach to clients and potential member-candidates, creating marketing materials and writing for our newsletter and social media. Now as the Membership Engagement and Marketing Coordinator I help workers access professional growth opportunities, support the development of our governance structure and connect our coop to local cooperative advocacy efforts. For me, it’s inspiring to empower our immigrant members to get engaged in the coop’s democratic decision-making and help our coop live out the Cooperative Principles."
Samantha Wolfe, A Yard & A Half Landscaping Cooperative
"I'm so glad I decided to work at the MSU Student Housing Cooperative this summer! I really enjoyed participating in membership meetings and providing input on the SHC's fellowship program. I always felt like the staff and members I was working with respected my opinion and genuinely wanted to hear what I had to say. I think my biggest accomplishments were teaching myself indesign, creating their interim process from scratch, and writing/publishing The SHC Membership handbook from start to finish."
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Zoning Law Successes
For years, co-opers have been organizing and fighting hard to change laws that are restricting how they can live. This means many heated discussions with resistant city councils, but here are some recent victories! None of this would have been possible without the dedication of NASCO members. |
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Minneapolis, MN
Just two months ago, the Minneapolis City Council passed the Intentional Community Ordinance! Minneapolis zoning code previously limited the number of unrelated people who could live together to three in some part of the city and five in others.
Read More
Boulder, CO
2017– a year for more co-ops? In Boulder, yes! After nearly three years of work from local co-op members and advocates and a year of deliberation, the city finalized and approved a co-operative housing ordinance on January 4th, 2017. The newly-passed policy allows for the licensing of 10 new co-ops every year, and perhaps more.
Read More |
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Co-op Educational Resources
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This activity book is a resource for co-ops to grab activities to be used to build relationships, healthy communication, better self-care and other positive vibes for their co-ops. The book is intended as a facilitator's guide of sorts that allows the meeting chairperson to select activities to use either at regular meetings or for special activities. |
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This workshop is intended for co-op members to: 1) Understand the history of the coop movement; 2) Learn ways to engage currently in/with coops outside of their housing coop involvement; 3) See a future for themselves that involves coops and 4) Be exposed to a plethora of ways to live cooperatively in different realms of their lives moving forward. |
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This workshop is intended for co-op members for the purposes of educating participants so they have language and tools to be empowered to make safe spaces for all people and challenge ourselves and each other to create inclusive spaces and detach from biases. |
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Cooperative Management Education at Saint Mary's University
Did you know that you can study about co-ops at the graduate level? Saint Mary’s University Sobey School of Business offers a graduate level degree in cooperative management. They will be hosting an informational webinar on the program on March 8th. Register here. |
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