Student Co-Op Agreement Form: Fill & Download for Free

EDIT: See Brian Davis answer for more information and insight:Brian Davis's answer to Are cooperatives innovative/competitive? Are they just niche orgs or can they displace current corporations?While various forms of cooperation are increasing around the world, the specific co-op enterprise - usually meaning a workers or consumer's co-op, with some "democratic" input on business decisions, but acting as a regular business - is fading in developed countries.History of the cooperative movementMost cooperative organizations that try to fulfill the roles of corporations are going to be evolutionary dead ends, because they cannot adapt to the specialization of work, and because the decision process is a large time sink for their members.One benefit that some co-ops are able to deliver is a wider education for the members, or at least some members, in the particular business and wider organizational and economic issues. Some co-op have their financial information and books open to all members. This can be valuable for the overall society, and may help the later careers of some members. However, that learning comes at a price in terms of time needed. So being in a co-op might be like being on a student project that never ends....One reason that the traditional worker/ consumer / "democratic" coop are fading is that they based on some bad ideas, like the "labor theory of value". *Being based on that, often all members will be requires to contribute X hours per year in labor.Here is a grocery store co-op that used to be in Berkeley -Consumers' Cooperative of BerkeleyOne can imagine a car ownership coop, where 50 people agree to buy 10 cars and share them. Lots of effort will go into vehicle choice, scheduling, buying maintainence, etc. Many people will want to voice their opinion - and someone is going to be stuck listening to that opinion.Traditional co-op structures often have co-op members donating their time as part of their member ships in the co-op. This might be okay if the majority of the work was moving groceries around. If a key part of the work is negotiating insurance and lease agreements for cars, a legal expert in those fields will be needed. Even if the co-op has a dozen lawyers, a bunch of personal injury attorneys and patent lawyers still don't equal a lawyer with specific experience in negotiating auto fleet buys.Note that this is where the labor theory of value falls apartMany co-op structures tend to empower people. That empowers a lot of people who want to talk. It also empowers a lot of people who have opinions, in the range from un-informed to beyond stupid.Now consider ZipCar, which effectively does the same thing with a few differences.1. All the "Co-operation" overhead is hidden from the user - it is intermediated by ZipCar management.2. Zip Car management gets experienced professionals to make all the decisions.3. The user has to pay somewhat more so that ZipCar can make a profit.Thus, Zip Car is going to win out easily - it is like professionals versus amateurs.****> Collective intelligence is supported by a culture that has a relatively free flow of information among the key players in the organization - that doesn't mean any type of "worker democracy". <The number of "key players" can be as low as a few percent (for example, senior managers and technologists). Large numbers of non-senior people can be left in the dark, and the organization can still be effective.All of the next examples are of co-operation between corporations, government agencies, or other institutions.>>So co-ops are only going to be a near ideal structure when all the players have similar information, knowledge, and economic power. Otherwise, they are a sub-optimal structure.<<" current corporations seem to be stuck exploiting the collective intelligence of their customers for the sake of shareholder profit. "As a sometimes shareholder, this sounds good to me. You Tube looks like a great model...Bank Americard, now Visa, was at one time a co-operative among banks, and was very successful.That was a very large scale startup in the finance area.Both Mutual Life Insurance and Mutual Savings Banks (AKA Building Societies) have been successful over periods of 50 to 100 + years.The well known Lloyd's of London was a sort of co-operative framework for writing insurance, but is far to complex to discuss.There are a number of successful research consortiums, which are coopertives.Sematech for Semiconductor TechnologySEMATECHEPRI for electric power utilitiesElectric Power Research InstituteThe International Monetary Fund IMF and the World Bank are cooperative organizations designed to increase world trade, economic recovery, and development.>> There are serious co-ops that make serious money, especially farm co-ops, and some credit unions.Farm co-ops often process a low value agricultural product (like bushels of raw corn) into something that can be sold to a retailer at much higher prices, like corn in a can, frozen corn, etc.Large scale farmers are real interested in making money and not talking. They are already business people. Since many of these co-ops are local, and the farmers have been around for a long time, they will tend to select effective people to run the co-op. They seem to tend to run the co-op in a hierarchical manner, with conventional management structures, and the co-op members electing or acting as a board of directors. Also note that the members are not workers or consumers, but farmers and corporate farms.Look at the list of agricultural cooperatives in the United States -Blue Diamond Almonds, Sun Maid (raisins), Sunkist (citrus). Land O Lakes (butter), Ocean Spray (cranberries), etc. These are serious corporations with name brands, marketing plans, national advertising, and hierarchical management.Agricultural cooperativeOkay, which other cooperative ideas are working ?Open source software is working great, creating huge value. Note that Open Source emphasizes specialization and expertise, and critique and evolution, NOT "all labor is equivalent" or "all labor is sacred". If labor was sacred, open source people would not be replacing Joe's slow floating point routine with Mary's faster and more accurate code, now would they ?Co-working spaces - are environments designed to encourage interaction and people helping each other, with code, UI, hardware, funding contacts, customer referrals, etc. These are working very well for many people and start ups.***** "Labor theory of value" is an idea that is so bad it is beyond wrong, being the economic equivalent of leeches and bleeding to cure disease.Most modern Marxists have tacitly abandoned or heavily modified the idea. Currently the only groups who actively push the "labor theory of value" are the "Christian Left" (AKA Liberation Theology), who obviously did not get the memo. (Christian Left does not mean the various Christian Democratic parties we see in Europe, who usually have sound economics)

That question is asked many times in many different subtle forms.If you are a high school student visiting a college, either with a prearranged agreement or going up to the professor before the class, you will be allowed to sit Quietly and listen. Both my sons did that when exploring colleges back in 2008 -2009 and I know that I did that in the Fall of 1968 when I visited MIT on my own for three days and two nights.But to actually attend most if not all of the class sessions???????????First as others have indicated, you would Pay to audit the class. The cost may be Zero, but you would be officially on the list (e.g. Wellesley College and other similar small colleges will allow a limited number of Adult residents of the neighboring town to audit some courses for free).Second: You might get away, at MIT, of sitting in the back of one of the several large lecture halls and listening to the class. That would be freshman physics, calculus, chemistry and biology. Maybe a couple of sophomore classes like Differential Equations or Advanced Calculus. But the freshmen physics and calculus classes meet Five times per week. Three large lectures and two very small recitations. Obviously, you couldn’t just sit-in the recitations. And what would you gain from the large lectures?At MIT, you can go over to the MIT-Harvard Co-Op store and buy the text book, and then go online and watch videos of many of the freshman lectures. In the comfort of your own home/office.Five days Per week, is a lot.And for the bulk of the sophomore through graduate student classes, most of those are 24 students or Less. Anyone not on the registered list would stand out like a sore-thumb. Class discussions and Q&As are part of those classroom experiences.Once again:Audit officially (at some cost)Ask the professor to sit in on one class/lectureBuy the book and watch the online videoAll the best.

Well, there are a few for sure.Cost (and it’s implications). Northeastern is very expensive. Unless you have stupidly crazy money, it’s going to be a burden. That said, it also attracts a certain kind of student-most students range from moderately wealthy (at least in the low millions) to downright ridiculous (7 or 8 homes in as many countries, private jets, Porsches as 18th birthday gifts). Students who spend $1,000 a week in nightclubs are not rare. I knew of a girl who didn’t want to live in a dorm even though it’s a requirement freshman year. So she paid for her dorm (roughly $1,500 a month) but left it empty and instead moved into the Mandarin Oriental hotel (easily $5 grand a month).Coming from a lower income household than most students can be a little difficult. I managed to get a need-based scholarship to Northeastern that covered everything except housing and food. Nearly all my friends are significantly wealthier than me, and while they tend to be more down to earth than the average student, there’s a very noticeable difference between them and me. You can tell when we trade stories about our childhood.Maintaining friendships. This is the downside of co-op. The first year and a half is totally normal, you make your friend groups and your acquaintances. Then, spring semester of your sophomore year, half your friends aren’t in school anymore, they’re working. Then the following fall, the other half is working while the first half comes back to school. A year later the process repeats, only now some of your friends aren’t even in Boston anymore, they’re in New York or LA or Dallas or Philadelphia. And most of your international friends have to leave the country for a semester, because of immigration laws.It’s sort of like “the snappening” every semester. It’s good in a way, because not only does it force you to create a big network, it also shows you who your real friends are. A real friendship or relationship can last 6 or 8 months apart. But when your girlfriend is on another continent and you won’t see her till next year, it’s not fun at all.Amenities-This is a total hit or miss. If you’re a fitness freak, you’re in luck. There’s 4 gyms on campus, with every single piece of exercise equipment and sport imaginable (except American Football). On the other hand if you’re a book lover your SOL. The library is really a 4 floor study lounge. Only one floor has books, and my grandpa has a larger and more updated library from going to garage sales on Saturday mornings. Seriously, if I ever make it rich I’m buying that library some freakin books. The bookstore isn’t much better, it’s got about 4 sections (business, history, religion, and fiction). Everything else is textbooks and clothing.Dorms range from coffin sized rooms where you can feel your roommates breath while they sleep to suites reminiscent of a moderate hotel. Apartments see a similar range.If you’re in business or engineering, you’re in good shape. The business school has it’s own venture accelerator with top line mentors and coaches. The engineering school has a similar program, along with several labs. At the graduate level, the law school has similar programs and amenities. Everyone else is just kind of there.Major disparity- I touched on this already. At the undergrad level, the school dedicates resources in three groups based on major-business, engineering, and other. Humanities students are basically second class citizens to the administration. Science students (especially life sciences) are only slightly better off. Computer science is slowly becoming a major player, but the program is still working out the kinks. While engineering at NEU is no MIT, nor is business Harvard Business School, they are both extremely respectable and have ample funding. Everyone else is just kind of there to the university.At the graduate level, business engineering and law are held to be roughly equal.Hardcore activists-Some of the students are so far to the left they’d be rejected by Europe, let alone the US. I had a class where one girl seriously advocated for the genocide of white men. Another was a self appointed general in the communist revolution. As in he literally drew up battle plans of targets to attack to overthrow the Government.On the other side, some people would put Richard Spencer in the Oval Office immediately, with Alex Jones as the VP. You generally don’t see this as much, but they’re there.Bureaucracy-HOLY. FREAKIN. HELL. Take your worst experience at the DMV. Now double it. Now imagine that DMV was run by a baked potato. That is the financial aid office in the nutshell. If I had a dollar for every time they misplaced a form I sent, missed a deadline, shuffled me to another person in the office, kept me waiting in the office, or outright ignored my emails, I wouldn’t need their financial aid. The housing office is not much better, and I’m told the student discipline office is equally bad. The only people that seem to be on their game is Northeastern Police, and I’ve been told by two different cops that behind the scenes the bureaucracy is just as bad as the rest. Luckily that doesn’t translate to them keeping us safe. If NUPD were run by the financial aid office, the entire campus would fall to a medieval siege while the cops were arguing over who’s turn it was to deal with it.All of this said, I don’t regret attending Northeastern for a second. In terms of work experience, Northeastern students graduate ahead of just about every other graduate. They’re network is insane, much better than I expected. As a business major, I have dozens of high level Boston players in my network. The total net worth of every contact I have in my phone as a result of NEU is at least half a billion dollars, and in my Linkedin network it’s several billion. And I’m 21.I know a business major who’s going to graduate with a full time job at Bain Capital, which is the dream of most Harvard Business School grads. I also know a mechanical engineering major who’s graduating with a full time job at Dell, with the agreement that in 3 years time Dell will pay for his MBA and move him to management. They’ll both be executives in their early 40’s, if not sooner.You can certainly make it in other majors as well. A good friends roommate majored in Biology at NEU and will be attending Harvard Medical School in the fall.There have been times when Northeastern has made me want to pull my hair out. But at the end of the day, I wouldn’t have wanted anywhere else. My single regret is I’m so far from my family. But they wanted me to have the best life I could, and that was at NEU.