What is a co op?

First of all, am I supposed to hyphenate it? Probably or people will think I'm talking about coops, and by people I mean you, Jen.

At Sudbury Valley they are called corporations. Basically they are organizations of staff and students based on a similar interest or goal. They make the rules and certification procedures for areas under their purview, they maintain and purchase supplies/areas and they fundraise to buy stuff that they want or need.

Here are the co ops that I know of at HVSS:
Computer
Library
Playroom
Playground
Sports
Art
Kitchen
Photography/Multi Media

There may be others. Co ops arise when there is a need or desire and disband when either the need is met and doesn't need to be maintained or the interest has waned. I'll give you the story of two as an example.

The Playroom co op was formed last year because the playroom was constantly being trashed and sometimes it would be closed for days because nobody would clean up their mess or help with anyone else's. It was also getting junked up with all the generous but perhaps superfluous donations of toys from families. So the co op was formed, officers were elected, certification procedures were put in place as well as a mechanism for periodically weeding through the stuff. Now the playroom is much neater and I think it is because there is that next level of accountability, beyond "put it away when you're done with it". Writing about this has just given me the idea to do a post on the merits of certification. Yeh!

The Playground co op(I think its a co op, it may be a committee formed within the playroom co op-you can go crazy trying to keep up with this stuff) was formed because some of the younger kids wanted a sandbox and a playground. They began to fundraise and a sandbox was actually built this past weekend. I'm not sure if the co op will stay in existence after the playground is built because I think its maintenance would fall under the auspice of the physical plant clerk.
The clerkships are a whole other story too. I guess I'll be busy this week.