SFC Co-Manager

Wow woah cool welcome to co-managerdom!! Being a co-manager for the co-op is awesome and really rewarding so get ready to co-manage! Some times this job be can pile up and be stressful but for the most part it is very nice and good and fun. You have tons of freedom so take my advice and make things weird – in this doc is a bunch of stuff to help you to stumble from day to day pretending you know what you’re doing. Co-managerdom is weird and complicated so if you ever got questions ask Aisling or Jemiris!

TBH being a co-manager for the co-op can be hecking confusing and you are pretty much going to have to figure out a lot along with the co-op. Take a look at this google doc we wrote and based off the document we read when we started!

For the asuwsfc netID (for your emails and stuffs)
There are two accounts, pick one and stick to it! asuwsfc tends to be the external manager’s email/account. asuwsfcp is there internal manager’s.

1. user: asuwsfc
   pass:CooperativeCorgi
2. user: asuwsfcp
   pass: coop131j

See this snazzy google doc for more info. Log into it with your new snazzy account!!!

One of the most important to-dos of a manager is to writing e-mails. Try to keep them to a minimum (2 a week) one that goes out before the weekly meeting and one that goes out after the meeting with a re-cap and any related links. These e-mails get sent to the “core” e-mail list which is: asuw_sfc_core@u.washington.edu

It is also important to stay on-top of all those sweet emails you will be receiving from other people (trust us there will be a lot) and keep the social media updated and poppin! Tell the people what is going on and why they should join the co-op.

You will also run weekly meetings, take notes and have fun! Most of the other things a manager does change weekly depending on what’s going on in the club <3

Your quarterly goals should be both large and small – you’ll want to have big projects you’re working on all quarter (such as a cookbook, humble feast, or other big events) as well as smaller goals (increasing engagement at weekly meetings, recipe test 1 recipe a week, etc.).

Develop your goals in partnership with the cooperative! Everything you do as co-op managers should begin and end with co-op consensus, including your goals for each quarter. At your first co-op meeting of each quarter, have a brainstorming session about goals!

Lots more about goals in the transition google doc!

There are three meetings that you should have every week:

1. Co-mangers check-in: a time for you two as co-mangers to make goals for the week, check in with each other about how things are going and generally scheme.
2. Cooperative meeting: the bread and butter of this position, where the cooperative comes together to brainstorm, plan and… come to CONSENSUS decisions!
3. RSO advisor meeting: this is a weekly check-in with Patrick, your SAO advisor. Patrick will help you a lot. He can answer all kinds of questions about the bureaucracy of ASUW, what you can do with your budget and more. Additionally he will help you make decisions and strategize. Patrick is there to support you, use these meetings wisely!

There are several projects that Jem & Aisling would love for our future co-mangers to keep running, namely:

1. Making the “Fill the Pumpkin Student Food Drive” an annual event
2. The community fridge project

… lots more about both of these projects in the google drive. Basically we can’t force you to continue with any projects, but we think these two are really worth your time and have the potential to create profound positive impact on the community!

This is going to be an adventure! With a full year under us, there have been so many ups and downs. This things is really becoming something on campus! It’s exciting!!! Marketing will be KEY next year. Start EARLY (we’re talking Dawg Daze). There is a store guide and many resources in the transition google doc.

Cookbooks are an SFC tradition… but its not something that the co-op does every year. Making a cookbook can be a wonderful collaborative project for the group to work on and the finished product can be a wonderful resource for students. If its something that co-op members are interested in working on, present it to the group as a long-term project – perhaps a quarterly goal or even a multi-quarter goal.

Publishing a cookbook is a lot of work… It requires coordinating among all recipe developers, writing, editing and testing recipes and then formatting and putting together the whole thing. Plan for a cookbook to take at least a quarter to put together, if not more, and made a time-line first thing to keep everyone on track.

Some tips:

• Choose a theme! What is the theme of your cookbook? Why are you making it? What new lens/resource will it bring to the community. Start by asking these questions and then choose a theme from there.
• Source recipes from the co-op community! Particularly, recipes you already created throughout the year.
• Delegate… again cookbooks are a big project – get a team together and delegate tasks.

The 7 principles of a cooperative:

1. Voluntary open ownership: people can join and leave to coop anytime, anyone and everyone is completely welcome.
2. Democratic Owner control: everyone’s voices will be heard, we are a collective. You as co-managers are just there to guide, lead, and help with the dirty work (and its ASUW, and there has to be a “director” or manager position(s)). 
3. Owner Economic Participation: we all contribute equitably and democratically control the co-op (yes, that means everyone helps make decisions and plan events etc), and all of the benefits are reinvested in the co-op.
4. Autonomy and Independence: we are autonomous and controlled by everyone involved – again, ASUW puts some limitations on this one, but do your best 🙂
5. Education, Training, and information: you will provide all of the co-op with information and things they need to contribute to the development of the co-op! You will also inform the general public about the nature and benefits of the food co-op.
6. Cooperation among Cooperatives: we work together. We are more successful when we cooperate with others who also know how to cooperate.
7. Concern for the community: we work for the sustainable development of our communities through policies and actions.

… and much more in the transition google doc!

Dawg Daze events are crucial for gaining members and recruiting because lots of freshman and new students attend these events to find communities to get involved in on campus. Make sure to table for all of the days possible at RSO fairs to get people signed up for the newsletters and excited about the co-op!

Try to plan this out a bit, because it can get complicated with having enough space and making our table eye-catching to those passing by

Since the co-op differs from a lot of ASUW entities, it is important to try to stand out at the fair so that people can see the diversity within ASUW.

Try to be a separate table from ASUW or try to be a RSO table sine the cooperative is technically an RSO *and* an ASUW entity. We will always be a RSO before an entity. In 2010 is when ASUW absorbed the cooperative into its organization.

Humble feast is a big ole event we host twice a year. Once in fall and again in spring, use the resources on the doc to contact farmers about donations and use the ASUW budget to buy any other ingredients (we like to go to central co-op in capital hill) Then coopers get to cook a seasonal and delicious meal in the HUB for over 200 people! Use the kitchen Manager in the HUB Larry as a resource! He is super helpful and knowledgable and as long as you respect his time and kitchen will be happy to help. Always thank Larry and anyone else who helps you make Humble Feast happen!

These do not have to be elaborate. Just little events when coop members can hang out outside of school and eat good food. Recipe-test/hang out.

Plan these as much as you can! They are so fun and a huge part of the co-op community. Anyone who wants to host can! (try to be good about giving everyone a chance to host if they express interest) Just pick a time and date and let them make a google doc with a recipe, everyone can sign up for ingredients and come together to cook something yummy!

Potlucks or just getting together to cook for kicks are great ways to get everyone to come together and bond as friends/family. Also, potlucks can be a great venue for trying out the recipes you’re testing! These can be informal gatherings that serve as “internal” programing. 

We are a paying member of CoFED (a cooperative of cooperatives sorta) – Our contact is Anna who is amazing and loving and gives us nice tips on how to succeed in our biz – we call her sometimes. Cofed has a website that we have access to that gives us all sorts of material on how to succeed and what todo

We are in a coalition with the other food groups! Work with them for support!!!

We have an existing relationship w other organizations like UW Mindfulness, UW Sustainability, the UW Food Pantry, Huskies for Food Justice, UW CARE, and SHC – email them lol

We also have the co-op crumble weekly newsletter! Access info is on google drive – we write about what the co-op is doing, what’s going on in the community, and dog pics!

Instagram has been our most active platform for 2020-21 – its where we’ve gotten the most engagement and posted the most information… so keep that going!

However in the past, Facebook (and particularly Facebook messenger) was where it was at  for the co-op.

Start by posting everywhere and then figuring out where the most engagement is gonna be and what the best platform for communicating with co-op members will be… then go from there!

Post food related things (sustainability, intersectionality, recipes, u no!!) and of course, POST ABOUT EVENTS AND GET PEOPLE TO RSVP WOHOOO!