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Letters from the Presidents
Contents:
Letters from the Presidents ...........2 Merger of SHC and Rivendell ..........4 SHC Flier from 1973! ....................7 80 Years: Hedrick House ..............8 80 Years: Elsworth/Bowie ............12 Parties and Dinner at Apollo ........18 Genesee Gardens Co-Housing.......20 SHC helps Grand Rapids co-op......23 Save the date! ...........................24
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- Winston Churchill
- Holly Jo Sparks,Exec. Director, MSU-SHC
The Wind Through the Pines is an
annual publication of the MSU Student Housing Cooperative primarily for former members and friends. The name is taken from an alumni publication produced by Hedrick House from 1943 to 1971. Creation and coordination: Emily Tay-
ler (Vice-President for Education, Vesta)
Production/editing: Jim Jones (Hedrick ‘71, Elsworth ‘71-72, Rivendell ‘72-74)
Production Assistant: William Taiw
Chen (Apollo)
Photographer: Riley James (Bowie)
2 Letter from Nikki Phan, President 2019-20
Dear alumni, cooperators and friends,
In my role as both CEO and chair of the board in 2019-20, I had the responsibilities of organizing and facilitating bi-monthly board meetings, as well as providing oversight to our operational executive committee. My year-long term as president began in May, and I spent the summer familiarizing myself with my job, planning our event calendar for the coming year, and helping to prepare educational programs for the new members of our board. It was a productive summer and I’m very excited to share with you a little bit about what our cooperative has been up to recently, as well as our plans for the future!
In 2005, the SHC purchased a property in downtown Lansing and turned it into a co-op. Up until that point, we had been a collection of only student co-ops. Harambee house, as it was named, was our first venture into community cooperatives. Three years ago, we acquired two more community co-ops: Rivendell and The Shire, and we intend to continue our expansion into the greater Lansing Area in the next several years.
While we’ve been expanding outward, we have also been raising the quality standards of all of our houses. “A screen on every window and every basement dry” has been the motto of our maintenance coordinator, but in the last decade we’ve also completely rewired and remodeled several entire houses, installed dry-in systems in every one of our basements, keyed all of our houses to a master key system, and done extensive work to make many of our kitchens state-of-the-art.
Our co-op houses aren’t the only things we’ve remodeled. In 2015, we overhauled our governance structure. Our board began using Policy Governance, and we established an executive committee to oversee operations. The board has made steady progress in the years since to refine our policies and make our governance as democratic as possible. Last year, they focused on long-term planning and working with the executive committee to prepare for our 50th Anniversary coming up in 2022.
The executive committee spent their summer in 2019 working on a number of projects, including advertisements in city and state papers, managed info tables at both student events at MSU and local events such as Pride. Our VP’s of membership and education worked together to plan consent trainings at our houses and released a sexual assault survivors’ guide for our members. We revived a bi-monthly member zine called the “Pine Press,” and a New Member Orientation is in the works, as well as a con-
Letter from Erik Berg, President 2020-21
“Where do we go from
here?” This is the question that opened the first-ever Wind Through the Pines in 1943, and it’s the question once again at the forefront of our collective consciousness.
By any measure, the past year has been a tumultuous one for the SHC. The world condition in 2020 has unsurprisingly dealt a blow to cooperative living. Looking back, the number of traumas experienced, mistakes made, and crises averted boggle the mind. To us individuals, most of these situations were unique and appalling; but to the co-ops, these recent problems were nothing new.
As the saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” This couldn’t be truer in our co-ops, even in novel times like this. Regardless of the changing world situation, one constant throughout our history has been our perseverance. Whether it be a depression, World War, or pandemic, co-ops have shown time and time again that they’re capable of not only surviving, but growing, in times of hardship.
Hard times make strong people — and strong co-ops. The period of time during and immediately following WWII was also a tumultuous one for the co-ops. Regardless, the members not only weathered the uncertainty, but continued to improve and expand their houses, their membership, and their movement. This legacy of perseverance would be continued by generations of co-opers to come, and it’s a legacy we continue even now.
This summer, we helped make history by loaning GRACC (Grand Rapids Alliance of Cooperative Communities) the funds necessary to purchase one of their four buildings — the first cooperatively-owned house in Grand Rapids. Just as Elsworth loaned Hedrick $300 to restart after the war, this same type of cooperation among cooperatives is practiced in current times.
Expansion is on the horizon for our own houses as well. After nearly 50 years of interest, the SHC finally has the opportunity to purchase 131 Whitehills, the building next to Bower. In a world of soaring housing costs and declining homeownership, the cooperative model can still grow and benefit an increasing part of our community.
Many of the SHC’s operations have also changed recently, in line with the changing world and the changing needs of our members. A COVID-19 Response Team has been formed to help our houses navigate the pandemic, and a Financial Relief Committee has been working to help our members overburdened with economic hardship. With the new year comes a new website for the SHC, enabling more opportunities for education, information, and communication to our prospective, current, and alumni members.
Some things do stay the same, though. Yes, we’re actively working on applying for 501(c)(3) status. Yes, we were doing that when you were here too. The dirty dishes are still piling up, and your house is still talking about buying a hot tub. 50 years after forming, the SHC is still here — and continuing to grow from its roots.
All of this speaks to the past and present SHC, but makes no mention of its long term future. The SHC began in 1969, but wasn’t able to take off until 1971. Our strategic planning process began in 2019, but won’t take off until 2021. High turnover delayed the SHC’s formation, and this obstacle persists in everything we do. It’s for this reason that committing to a strategic plan for the future is all the more important to our co-op. Although 2020 “delayed” this process, the hard times seem to have strengthened the co-op, and further emphasized the need to make plans for the unpredictable future.
I can’t say exactly where we’ll go from here, but I can say this: we’ve only been able to get here by building upon the work of past members. So, on behalf of the current and future members of the SHC, I want to say “thank you” for what you’ve built. While our membership may constantly change, the immense appreciation we owe to you, our alumni, will always stay the same.
In cooperation,
Nikki Phan, continued from previous page
flict resolution seminar for our houses.
It was a busy year, and we had high expectations for what we wanted to accomplish. Everyone did their own part, and we hope that our work will set the organization up to continue growing and serving our community.
I would like to thank you all for your continued interest, and your help in spreading cooperative values and principles around the nation and the world.
In cooperation,
Nikki Phan, President 2019-20 Erik Berg, President 2020-21
