The Sherwood Co-op is the last organizational remnant of the Students Cooperative Association started in the 1930s by University of Washington students, which at its high point was on a level with the Ann Arbor and Berkeley campus co-op systems. The SCA sold off all of its holdings in the late 1950s. Sherwood rented our current house from the late 1970s until 2001, when we bought it. We take great pride in the accomplishment of a few students to finance and see through the legal work of purchasing our property. We received help from the North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) in this endeavor and are still a member of this organization.

Since the purchase of our house, we have joined the Evergreen Land Trust (ELT) to ensure that our property remains a cooperative. Our long-term goal is for Sherwood to act as an economic and organizational engine for the development of other co-ops. Our short-term goals are to steward our house, to support and learn from each other, and to have fun while we do it.

Though Sherwood was historically a student house, we are now a mix of students, both undergraduate and graduate, community members, and activists. We are 13 active and creative people with a colorful variety of interests and fields. We share vegan meals every night and each of us is responsible for cooking dinner twice a month. We each have a cleaning chore and are part of a work team—food, finance, maintenance, or membership. We have quarterly work parties where we do maintenance projects around the house. We do various do-it-yourself projects together, including tending to our garden, raising three lovely chickens, homebrewing beer, fixing up bikes, etc.

We run our biweekly meetings by consensus and use rotating facilitation in an effort to create a nonhierarchical system of governance. We are members of the Collective of Collectives, which is "a group formed for the purpose of strengthening our member collectives and the community at large through sharing resources, skills, and knowledge, and to promote cooperation, democracy, and social justice."

There is so much more to say about our house and ourselves. If you would like more information about Sherwood, or if you are interested in membership or subletting, email us.