Co-op / Organization:
Student Cooperative Organization (SCO)
Location:
Athens, OH
Type of Organization:
Housing
Brief Description of Organization:
The Student Cooperative Organization was established 27 years ago to serve students at Ohio University. It is made up of two housing cooperatives; The Vine Co-op (8 bedroom) and Firehouse (8 bedroom). We aim to provide affordable housing, community involvement, experience in democratic decision making processes through job execution and voting, developing relationships with open-minded residents, as well as gaining resume building experience through house responsibilities and cooperative living.
Number of Members:
16
Dress Code:
Casual
Internship Position Title:
Accounting Coordinator
Internship Position Duties:
- Set up an area in both SCO houses specifically for finical processes. In our eyes, at this time, we want these areas to contain a filing cabinet, printer (ideally a printer that can print from any device in the house, wirelessly). We want them to come up with a filing method that is straight forward. So files for memberships, maintenance records, shopping receipts, lease agreements (present and past), bank statements, deposit slips and anything else we can come with in the future.
- Hand in hand with the filing cabinet/ printer, SCO needs to start using the software QuickBooks to keep accurate finical records. We want the intern to learn QuickBooks and create a how to guide to be kept in the filing cabinet, in addition to setting up a QuickBooks account for SCO that is easy use and maintain. This account would include statements of rent, and cash flow charts. Basically, we want to be able to track how we are doing on debt.
- Additionally, there are various projects that SCO wants to undertake. For each house it would be different so the intern would have to meet with each house separately to find out what it is that the house wants to accomplish. These projects could range from important maintenance issues to fun house projects. For example, the houses need to have electrical work done so the intern could help set up a time based plan to get these things done or help contact a contractor; just whatever the members decide is the best plan of action, the intern would help carry it out.
- We also would like the intern to help solve some imbalances in labor within the houses. This would depend on the situation, but most likely it would result in some sort of house wide agreement to get things done a certain way, by certain people by a certain time. This should come with the evolution of a new lease agreement, in which people understand that they will be held accountable for not doing their part to maintain the house. We were thinking setting chores that EVERYONE in the house knows about and will hold each other accountable for. Example: Anna did not unload and reload the dishwasher on Wednesday and Jessica (just like everyone in the houses) knows its her job to that so a text to the group chat reminding Anna of her job. The penalty will most likely to be fines, tagged on to offending members rent and that additional money will go toward house funds. The biggest challenge of this system would be making sure everyone knows what their job is and calling people out. Perhaps the intern can come with an ingenious solution!
Position Training:
We can all work together with the intern to figure out how to make the money dealings with the two co-ops easier to manage.
Skills Development & Learning:
- Interpersonal skills.
- Healthy appreciation for hard work.
- Understanding how co-ops functions.
- Healthy appreciation for the Athens lifestyle.
- How to make new friends!
Compensation ($):
$800, paid monthly
Is Room Included?:
Yes
Working Hours:
Flexible
Total Hours of Work Per Week:
15