Handbook about non profits in washington state

This is such a valuable thing to look through. Not only for those interested in starting a non-profit, but for those interested in navigating in the non-profit world. This handbook gives you the 101 of how to start one with all of the classifications and related law in one very digestible format.

files.me.com/matsteele/6cde9f

Mushrooms: edible, trippy, poisonous, and building material??

Philip Ross works with a mushroom farm called Far West Fungi. And on it they’re growing your future house. Or at least the nontoxic, fireproof, mold- and water-resistant building blocks for it.

Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF)

Sign the Campus Sustainability Fund petition!

A few weeks ago, the CSF group was gracious enough to come to a CEP governance session to tell us about an incredible campus sustainability program. Their proposal is for a campus-wide ‘green fee’ to help fund student-led environmental projects.

The key points?

• A review panel will hear proposals from faculty-, staff-, and student-led campus sustainability projects and allot $685,000 in the 2010-2011 school year to various projects of merit, generating active student involvement, leadership, and sustainability.
• The funding will come from the Student Activities Fee (SAF) which already exists and is currently a $113 fee per quarter that everyone has to pay. Either the SAF can allocate some of these existing funds to the Campus Sustainability Fund or the SAF can increase the fee by $5 per student per quarter.
• That’s right! For just $5 dollars a quarter from every student, our campus could have the means and funding for leading-edge sustainability projects that we all have the chance to apply for and bring our ‘green ideas’ to fruition.
• And why not? 66 other campuses around the nation already have similar programs funded with an even higher per student premium – the University of Washington would have the largest green fund in the country with one of the lowest per student costs.

Check out the official CSF website and do not forget to sign their petition! For a CEP 302 research project this quarter, a fellow CEP junior and I are attempting to build a green modification on Gould Hall, and believe you me it is really hard to get any sustainability project going on campus without having to worry about funding – the University of Washington needs this. Sign the Campus Sustainability Fund petition!

Edible Schoolyard Set to Spring to Life in Brooklyn

by Sarah Parsons, 02/01/10

Teaching city kids about sustainable farming can be tricky. After all, in a bustling metropolis like New York, it’s easy to see why some youngsters think apples originate in bins at their local bodega. Famed foodie Alice Waters and her Chez Panisse Foundation aim to remedy that lack of knowledge with the Edible Schoolyard initiative, a program that builds gardens right on school properties. The latest Edible Schoolyard will be built at PS. 216, an elementary school located in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/02/01/brooklyn-edible-schoolyard/#more-82570

Creative Communities: 10 Masterpieces of Urban Housing

The phrase “urban housing” can mean many different things.  It can represent a small, multi-family structure, a large scale housing project or a high rise building that scrapes the sky.  While most leave plenty to be desired in terms of aesthetic beauty, there are some that go far beyond the pale with amazing design and self-sustainable amenities.  From the “cities within cities” of the past and present to the climate-ready buildings of the future, these 10 urban habitats are amongst the absolute best in modern architectural achievement.

Via: The Coolist

Click HERE to see all 10…

Spotlight of the Week: Vasilies Beseau

1.  What’s your name?

Vasilies Beseau

2.  What does your name mean?  Is there a story behind it?

Vasilies is from St. Basil, or Santa Clause.  But the literal trans is “King” and the English the trans would be Bill.  So you can all call me william, willy, bill, billy, billiam

3. Where are you from?

hometown- Athens

4.  Do you speak any language other than English?

2nd lang – Greek

5. What is a random fact about you?

I am only 99.9% the Vasilies Beseau that my family all knew and loved, as I have the body part from some dead stranger in my knee (ACL re-construction).  The effects of having someone else in me have been dormant

6. What are all your majors and minors?

For right now, I’m just a true CEPster, no other minors or majors… i’m an original

7. What is your favorite thing about CEP?

fav thing about CEP is def. the blog. hands down

8. What are your hobbies?

Hobbies – they were skateboarding/snowboarding/bball, but with back to back ACL reconstructions, i ride my bicycles and rehab/workout

9. What is your favorite movie of all time and why?

fav movies – Back to the Future Trill or The Bourne Trill… i like action/spy movies and I love Huey Lewis, MJFox, and DeLoreans

10.  If you were an animal what would you be?  And why?

I would come back to life as my dogg/friend Jefferey, the Golden Retriever. just for a day, so that I could see and love him again

11. What jobs/internships do you have? Tell us about them/why you like them.

I’ve job shadowed DOWA in Portland.  Arch firm. LEED projects like schools, pretty rad.  I met the VP of Puget Sound Energy volunteering for MT. to Sound Greenway, so I’m gonna prob look into that or someone who is utilizing “green” practices and such in fields of arch/urban design

12. What are your plans for next year?  Any goals, resolutions, or bucket-list items you plan on doing?

Adventures: study abroad in Greece or Amsterdam. Joining the Army Reserve after graduation. grad school. then packing up and going home, to Athens

PEACE

Army’s Environmental Efforts Overseas

PANZER HOTEL

It is designed to meet anti-terrorism/force protection standards, as well as the highest project standard, the LEED Sustainable Project Gold Standard Rating, according to Norm Seare, DPW project manager and general engineer.

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq – Iraqi and U.S. officials cut the ribbon on new solar panels at Abu Ghraib Courthouse Jan. 18, which will provide clean, efficient energy and extend operating hours. (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Kevin James, 4th SBCT, 2nd Inf. Div., USD-C)

WWW.ARMY.MIL

TALK TO A RECRUITER TODAY

Helen Bennett is Building a Community of Communities

As a long term member of the Sherwood Cooperative Helen Bennett knows plenty about community, and collective housing projects.

The Sherwood Coöp is the last organizational remnant of the Students Coöperative Association started in the ’30s by University of Washington students, which at its high point, had as many members as the Ann Arbor and Berkeley campus coöp systems. The SCA sold off all of its holdings in the late ’50s.

Sherwood rented our current house from the late 70’s until we were able to buy it in 2001. We are proud to own our house and appreciative all of the hard work of former members and community support that made the purchase possible.

Through her experience with cooperative housing, Bennett has been doing outreach to local collectives such as the Emma Goldman Finishing School and the Lakeside Collective – facilitating a new and larger cooperative community in the Seattle area. Through outreach, facilitation, networking, and good planning, Bennett is revisiting the model found in the Collective of Collectives. By creating community amongst collective housing projects, Bennett hopes to create a space for co-operative communities to share skills, resources, and experience, and provide a network for the existing co-operative communities to build greater community.

On a larger scale, Bennett has been researching collectives of collectives that exist on international, national, and reigonal scales – such as NASCO – which the Sherwood Collective is a member of.

Bennett is a senior in CEP with additional majors in Jewish Studies and Comparative Religion.

For more on cooperation, check out the Rochdale Principles of Co-Operation

Open membership.

Democratic control (one person, one vote).

Distribution of surplus in proportion to trade.

Payment of limited interest on capital.

Political and religious neutrality.

Cash trading (no credit extended).

Promotion of education.

SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK: Sorayya!!!

1.  What’s your name? 

Sorayya Setareh Aminian
 
2.  What does your name mean?  Is there a story behind it?

Sorayya is the constellation Pleiades (just like the car Subaru).  My middle name means star in Persian.  My parents must have had some fascination with the cosmos.  My last name means honest.   Essentially, I am an honest cluster of stars…
 
3. Where are you from?

Planet earth. and Kirkland, Wa…right across the lake!
 
4.  Do you speak any language other than English?

Persian and Spanish (although my many years of Spanish classes and visits to Spanish-speaking countries don’t necessarily show…)
 
4. What is a random fact about you?

I become really weird before an earthquake…kind of like an indoor cat or dog.
 
5. What are all your majors and minors?

CEP and Environmental Studies majors, Architecture minor, possible Urban Planning minor.
 
6. What is your favorite thing about CEP?

Awesome students, awesome professors!
 
7. What are your hobbies?

I enjoy getting candid shots of people living everyday life with my trusty side-kick (my camera).  I guess that makes people-watching a hobby of mine too.  I enjoy perusing bookstores for hours like Elliot Bay books, although I am sad not enough people shopped there so they had to move. I also enjoy frequenting countless cafes on rainy Seattle days in search of the perfect cup of coffee.
 
8. What is your favorite movie of all time and why?

My goal recently has been to watch more cinema.  I always have trouble with “favorite” questions though, because I can never pick just one of anything.  I think Amelie is great in its own right…a very unique style and you can’t quite understand what genre it fits under–I like that about it.  Up made me cry and laugh.  This Iranian film Children of Heaven is a beautiful slice of life.  Maybe one day when I’m finished watching movies I’ll be able to choose a favorite.
 
9.  If you were an animal what would you be?  And why?

I would have to choose a duck.  They get to lazy around all day quacking and floating on ponds and getting fed by the world.  So much love around them! 
 
10. What jobs/internships do you have? Tell us about them/why you like them.

I currently am focusing on school.  Last quarter I interned at City of Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development–I met so many great people and got to work on a project documenting and advocating public access around Seattle shorelines.  For the summer, I’m looking into internships in New York, with an environmental sector of the UN or another org. that sparks my interest. 
 
11. What are your plans for next year?  Any goals, resolutions, or bucket-list items you plan on doing?

I’m currently training for a half marathon in Vancouver, BC in the Spring.  If I make it out alive, I’m signing up to run a marathon at the end of summer!  I think it’s a good excuse to visit other cities, and a neat way to see them.

SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK: Andreas!!!

1.  What’s your name? 

Andreas Baatz
 
2.  What does your name mean?  Is there a story behind it?

My brother (Stefan) and I were given German names, as our dad must have liked it that way. I believe it means ‘bravery’, which i don’t normally identify with.
 
3. Where are you from?

Native Seattlite! 
4.  Do you speak any language other than English?

I understand some Japanese, German, and Mandarin.
 
4. What is a random fact about you?

I’ve got a pair of scars on my lower back that i try to convince people i got wrestling a crocodile.
 
5. What are all your majors and minors?

Majoring in Anthropology and CEP, and minoring in Human Rights and Music.
 
6. What is your favorite thing about CEP?

My favorite part of CEP is being in a class where you know everyone, and everyone has a voice in the classroom. Its refreshing to get to hear every side of an issue.
 
7. What are your hobbies?

Informal music making. I play guitar, bass, piano, ukulele, some drums, and like to try almost everything. 
8. What is your favorite movie of all time and why?

I’ve lost count of how many times i’ve watched the shawshank redemption. its a classic story of countless years of struggle rewarded with genuine freedom. also Mulan, which i memorized without realizing it.
 
9.  If you were an animal what would you be?  And why?

If i could choose, i’d be a dog, either a welsh corgi or a German Shepard. Dogs tend to have all the qualities i’m hoping to round up in my lifetime. But if i couldn’t choose i’d probably be a lion. They seem fierce and admirable most of the time but they’re actually kind of lazy and primal, but in a good way hopefully.
 
10. What jobs/internships do you have? Tell us about them/why you like them.

Unemployed at the moment, but just got out of a sixth month children’s gardening internship with Seattle Tilth that involved lots of getting 1-10 year old kids excited about digging in the dirt and eating random plants. Nerve racking sometimes, but fantastic for the rest.
 
11. What are your plans for next year?  Any goals, resolutions, or bucket-list items you plan on doing?

My plans are to go to Rome with my mother the summer after graduation. Then i plan on having a beer with my dad and brother when i turn 21 in august. Then i plan on figuring out the rest of my life of course.