Communities Directory: Synergy House Cooperative

Formed: 1891 Established: 1972

Synergy House Cooperative

Stanford, California,

United States

(Stanford University campus)

Synergy House is one of seven student-run cooperative communities on the campus of Stanford University. The house is university-owned and part of the standard on-campus student housing system.

Members of the cooperative include undergraduate and graduate students who live in the house as well as students, researchers, staff, faculty and other campus community members who don't live in the house but participate as Eating Associates (eating some or all of their meals at the house).

Because it is part of the student housing system, there is roughly 85% turnover in Synergy House's residents each academic year. (The house closes down during Winter and Summer breaks.) With this high turnover rate, there is a high degree of organizational memory loss each year, meaning that a great deal of time is spent, every year, learning what it means to live in community and how to accomplish that in a mutually agreeable way. Synergy and its fellow co-ops are therefore sites of intensive community-based learning which make them ideal for newcomers to intentional community, but also potentially difficult for those with more experience.

The Synergy Cooperative was founded in 1972 and has had a exclusively vegetarian kitchen for almost that entire span. Not all members are vegetarian but all communal meals are vegetarian and always include vegan options.

Major house decisions and all policy decisions are made by consensus process open to all cooperative members.

The house has a staff of student leaders who manage various aspects of the house's physical and organizations infrastructure, including food ordering, technology maintenance, the organic garden, meeting facilitation, accounting, etc. This staff is institutionally-mandated and serves as the intermediary between the community and the university administration.

The Synergy website includes our Synpaedia, a wiki-based community-generated encyclopedia of Synergy knowledge, policies, history and lore.

Cooperative organizations were central to the founders' vision for Stanford University, and have existed on the campus since it opened its doors in 1891. Leland Stanford mandated that the rights and advantages of cooperation and co-ops be taught in the university.

Today, Synergy House and its fellow campus cooperatives continue to uphold Stanford's founding vision.

Website: http://synergy.stanford.edu

Contact:

Synergy House Managers
550 San Juan St.
Stanford, California 94305 United States

Links:

Synergy Co-op Website

Synergy House 1972-1991: Archival information on Synergy Co-op history

Former/Other Names: Beta Chi

Last Updated:9/30/2008

Visitors Accepted

Visitor Process: Contact the student management staff at synergy-owner@lists.stanford.edu to request a visit. Typically you would be invited to dinner.

Affiliations: North American Students of Cooperation

:: Magic

:: Lothlórien Cooperative House

:: Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage

:: Green Valley Village

Network Affiliations:

Fellowship for Intentional Community

:: University Students' Cooperative Association (UC Berkeley)

Population Adult Members: 70 (48 residents + approx. 20 eating associates) Child Members: 0 Non-member Residents: 0 Open to new adults: Yes (Only registered students may live here as residents, but Stanford community members may join as eating associates.) Open to new children: No Gender Balance: 50% M 50% F Open to which gender(s): All genders welcome Ethnic Diversity: 20% identify as 'people of color' Age Focus: Young Adults (Residents are active students. Eating associates are any age.) Age Restrictions: No	Government Decision Making: By consensus Identified Leader: No Leadership Core Group: Yes (Student management staff is instituted by the university.)	Labor and Money Financial Style: Members have independent finances Labor Contribution: Expected (Weekly 3 hour job. Four quarterly 3 hour jobs. = avg. 16 hours / month) Regular Fees: Yes (In addition to rent charged by the university, Synergy chargest quarterly dues for board, social budget, philanthropy, etc.)
Land and Buildings Suburban (University campus) Area: 1 acres (0.4 hectares) Land Owned By: Independent land trust (not controlled by the community) (Stanford University) Number of Residences: 1 (Historic 1900 home. http://histsoc.stanford.edu/hh1/550SanJuan.pdf)	Food, etc. Percentage of Food Grown: 1-5% (Organic garden on-site.) Share Community Meals: Nearly all dinners (Dinners served Sunday - Thursday.) Dietary Choice or Restrictions: Diet is up to each individual Dietary Practice: Vegetarian only Alcohol Use: Used Often (University students are frequent social drinkers.) Tobacco Use: Used Often (In designated outdoor areas.)	Social Factors Open to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and/or Transgender members: Yes Restrictions on Romantic Relationships (between consenting adults): No Shared Spiritual Path: No Educational Style(s): Private school off the property

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Become an Editor Current editor(s): dsteinbock

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Comment from Daniel Steinbock on 12/24/2007 (Reader Rating: 8)

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In the city that brought us the Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Dead, Synergy House is one of the last hold-outs of the counterculture at Stanford University. Tucked away on top of a forested hill, this tight-knit community continues to thrive as the flagship of the campus cooperatives.

However, it has its own peculiar difficulties. These are largely because the house -- an historic 1900 home -- is owned by the university and thus embedded in a highly institutionalized student housing system. Each year, the house residents are turned-over by roughly 85%. And each year, the community battles organizational memory-loss, stricter housing policies and misunderstandings by the administration.

Nevertheless, Synergy House continually re-invents itself under the stewardship of its student staff and the continuity of non-resident community members, adapting the countercultural ideals that gave it life in 1972 to the changing cultural and institutional realities of the present times.

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