Laurel House Web Page Template Alumni Newsletter (Fall 1995)

LAUREL HOUSE ALUMNI/AE NEWSLETTER (FALL 1995)
Vol. 1, No. 1 (10 Dec 1995)

INTRODUCTION

Greetings from Laurel House! This newsletter is our first attempt at informing alumni/ae about the happenings at the house and news about past and current members. Since this newsletter is for you, please let us know if there is anything that is not included that you would like to find out about. Currently, distribution is only via email since that is the only medium that fits our budget (budget? what budget?) but we hope to have a hypertext version available in the near future. Also note that this edition will probably be longer than most since we're going to be catching up on the news.

LAUREL HOUSE ON THE WEB
by Ron Kumon

If you have a chance, check out the Laurel House Co-op and Laurel Net Cooperative home page at
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~laurel/ Webmaster Ron Kumon began put together the page during the summer and put the finishing touches on the basic page during the fall semester. "I hope to use the page as a marketing tool in the electronic environment," says Ron, "especially since most students are now connected to the Internet one way or another. In fact, I can envision that one day the application process may be entirely paperless which would be something as membership coordinator would be most welcome!" At this point, however, only College Houses and 21st St. Co-op have web pages. Ron also has plans to put together a "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)" page about the house as well as an online multimedia "virtual tour." Cybergeeks, stay tuned!

MURAL IN COMMONS REMOVED
by Ron Kumon

December 9, 1995, is "a day that will live in infamy" in the Laurel House annals as the day that the notorious mural in the commons was removed. While opinions varied from "very cool" to "aesthetically horrific," it was always a topic of conversation and a focal point for the commons. Originally suggested as way to bring members together during a labor holiday, its popularity slowly waned as the members who first created it moved out. Never fear though, an image of the mural has been captured on film and there are plans to make it available (you guessed it) on the Internet via the LH Web site. The mural will be replaced by a series of pictures describing the development of the Rochdale Cooperatives at Toad Lane.

MEMBERSHIP MEETING BRIEFS
by Ron Kumon

Amazingly enough, no major controversies erupted this past semester (at least none on the order of the kitchen tile color selection of last year!), but nevertheless it was still a relatively active semester. The following is a summary of the more interesting and/or significant motions:

Approval of purchase of a new Macintosh Performa 6214 CD.
Adjustment of interim house manager compensation to $100 for fall, $150 for spring, and $200 for winter.
Requiring the food buyer to buy at least two gallons of skim milk each week.
New no-show policy for people who don't sign up their guest meals.
Beginning the process of creating a five-year plan for LH.
Development of a "sick cook" policy.
Approval of funds for a Christmas tree for the commons and holiday party.

The eternal problem of members taking cups, plates, bowls, etc., to their rooms was also discussed once again but no action was taken. Some things just never change!

NEWS FROM THE LABOR CZARINA
by Sandra Fuentes

As Labor Czarina, Beatrice Lurquin started off our year of labor with a great job of scheduling during a hectic Summer 1995 session. Laurel House was near capacity much of the time, even with typical summer turnover. She also supervised our summer Labor Holiday hours-- the majority of which were donated to Pearl Street's cleaning and renovation.

Members were saddened to lose both a fine House officer and a good friend when she announced that she had decided to return to Belgium. Laurel House held elections and Sandra Fuentes was elected to the position.

Sandra immediately planned a rather ambitious Labor Holiday. Laurelians pulled together and completed one of the busiest Labor Holidays that any "old member" could recall. The result was:

the rotting front fence was removed and a new one installed,
all the pantry shelves were removed, finished to meet health codes, and replaced,
a new shelving unit was placed in the dish washing area,
rotting and warped boards were removed in the 1907 deck and replaced,
five bookshelf units were built and stained.

This Labor Holiday even had extra parties! In addition to the traditional End-of-Labor-Holiday Pizza Party, Laurelians enjoyed a Saturday night ice cream party.

While everyone did a great job, special thanks go to architecture student, Billy Reue, for designing, planning and supervising the fence project.

Sandra estimates that the next Labor Holiday "will not be quite so ambitious." Spring Labor Holiday is likely to have a greater number of small projects.

EXCERPTS FROM "THE LAURELIAN LATEST"
by Matt Corey

"Welcome Laurel Neophytes" (20 October 1995)
Everybody needs to give a warm welcome if you haven't already to the folks that make me (at a month-and-a-half) feel like a Laurel veteran: SUNIL TANKHA and a returning Laurelian, the divine SHARON GAMBLE. On a similar note, we acknowledge two special residents who will only be in Austin for one memorable, Laurel-immersed year: BARBARA LVOVNA BUROVA of Moscow, Russia, and MIRKA KOMERSOVA of Prague, Czech Republic. Final special mentions to our frosh contingent, the wet-behind-the-ears pair of first-year undergrads ANGIE TELLO and MONICA VALLIN.

"Conventioneering" (10 November 1995)
Director WARREN FINCHER and resident MICHELLE BOTELLO travelled buswise through the mighty breadbasket of America to attend NASCO in Minnesota. Still to come, their report on what the heck you talk about with hundreds of co-op residents from around the country. "Giving Pettys 101"? "Clean-up Labor: Do it and Like it!"? "Advanced Gossip--or, Those Squeakin' Springs Mean Just One Thing"???

"A Little Bit O' Bangkok" (9 December 1995)
For some strange reason, I neglected to mention last issue that on Oct. 22, we headed to Bangkok Cuisine for a delicious Thai feast. A belated thanks to social poo-bah TONY STANCO for organizing this birthday outing.

"Tom Turkey, R.I.P." (9 December 1995)
He may have been one of God's creatures, but to a hungry crew of Laurelians, his name was Dinner. For the Thanksgiving meal, held Nov. 23, we meta-thank the following: Dan, Ron, Laura, Anukal, Caroline, Monica, Heidi, Stephanie, and D.J.

FROM THE DIRECTOR'S DESK
by Warren Fincher

The current year for College Houses is proving to be trying. Pearl Street was shut down for the summer after an emergency meeting of the CH board in May decided that years of neglect and an entrenched culture that was not willing to perform labor of respect the rights of the members almost had the county health inspector close down the kitchen and the pool. Over the summer, a lot of money was put into fixing the building up.

Many Laurelians were central figures in this task. Erin Rafferty headed up a paid summer work crew, which included Ricardo Guerrero, Chris Konig, Beatrice Lurquin, and Stephanie Black. Laurel House also donated most of their labor holiday hours to a weekend of clean-up, the worst of which was cleaning the kitchen that had been dormant for two months. The College Houses Board decided to select new officers for Pearl, and again many Laurelians participated. Ricardo Guerrero became the director. John Roberts is their maintenance coordinator, and Sharon Gamble served as their kitchen manager. All have contributed immensely to Pearl Street and to College Houses. At the first Board meeting held at Pearl, we were all amazed to see the house clean (which it continues to be) and that people were quietly studying throughout the house. Hopefully, this will continue.

Twenty-First Street has also had its share of problems. After have a single case of Hepatitis B and a lot of hysteria, the house was troubled again when a fire began in the top floor of Building 3 and led to the complete shut down of that building. No one was hurt, even the cat that had taken up residence there. College Houses insurance has proved helpful, and work is being done now to have it open for the Spring semester.

There has been much good news also. The trouble with the building inspector that has lasted over a year seems to be calming down. All of the houses are coming close to making the necessary changes to comply with the housing codes. And all of the houses have passed their health inspections, a miracle achievement for Pearl Street and a welcomed event for 21st Street.

Laurel House has had a pretty run-of-the-mill year. We are housing a Russian advisor and a Czech adviser this year. The front fence has been replaced, thanks to Billy Reue, an architecture student, and the retaining wall between Laurel House and Helios that had menacingly leaned toward the house, has been completely torn down and replaced in mad one-day brick-laying marathon by Dave Jardini and the current maintenance coordinator, Dan Schnieder.

And one last note: Johnny Duchamp, long-time director of Laurel House, continues to serve as a Community Board Rep. for the College Houses board.

So, as I hope I have conveyed, College Houses is facing a year with some unique problems, and many Laurelians continue to join in for the betterment of the corporation.

WE HEAR THAT...

Arun Bokde accepted a one year post-doctoral position at Northwestern University beginning this fall.
Dustin Wright and Becky Cullinan were married this past Halloween.
Diana Ballard is working as a statistician for National Semiconductor near Dallas.
Jorge Herrera accepted a position as a math teacher at a high school near Dallas.
Kirsten Bohl is in her second year as liaison between the co-ops and university at Oberlin College.
John Richardson is currently free-lancing as programmer around Austin. He's thinking about studying ecology and mathematical modelling in the future.
Candy Jaquez is working on her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of Michigan but returned to UT to study for the spring semester. She also since been married.
Lucy Thomason is currently working at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. She was awarded a predoctoral fellowship this past spring after she entered candidacy.
Bronwyn Booker is working as a children's librarian at a library near Boston.
Alex Schnell accepted a position at a law firm in Austin this past spring.
Stasha DeMent accepted a position at Hitachi near Dallas. She expects to be teaching Japanese there in the near future.
Ken Farrall accepted a position as a "Web Expert" for a company developing the first major commercial Web venture in China.

We apologize in advance if we left out any important announcements about anyone-- these are just items we've heard in random, roundabout ways (more reliable than gossip but less fact-checking than the NY Times is the standard here). If you have an announcement about yourself or others, please contact the editors at the addresses below.

GRADUATIONS AND/OR DEPARTURES

DJ Holder will be graduating at the end of the fall 1995 semester with her Master's degree in library science. She will be staying at Laurel House, of course, commencing her ninth year of continuous residency this January.
Danny Smith will be going to Guatemala for spring semester to do research for his dissertation.
Caroline Knight will be receiving her master's degree in Middle Eastern studies this fall. She's currently job hunting and applying to doctoral programs and will probably stay at LH through the spring.
Michelle Botello will graduate with a degree in communications this fall and will also be job-hunting while at LH during the spring.
Lucrecia Litherland finished her Ph.D. in linguistics this past spring.
Ben Chesluk graduated with a Master's degree in anthropology this past spring. He transferred to the University of California at Santa Cruz moving with his advisor, Steven Feld (of Freeport McMoRan fame) who recently accepted a position there.
Leanne Beaver graduated with a Master's degree in Architecture this past summer.
Suzanne Gerson graduated with a Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering last spring and moved to Pennsylvania where her fiance is living.
Rob Borja graduated with a Master's degree from the LBJ school last spring.

CONCLUSION

We hope this newsletter was useful and/or interesting to you. If you would like to make contributions, please send a message using the contact information below. We hope that you have happy, healthy, safe, and cooperative holiday season.

LAUREL HOUSE OFFICERS FOR 1995-96

Director                   Warren Fincher 
Food Buyer                 Chris Konig 
Treasurer                  Suzanne Marrs 
Maintenance Coordinator    Dan Schneider 
Labor Czarina              Beatrice Lurquin (Summer 95) 
                           Sandra Fuentes   (currently) 
Membership Coordinator     Ron Kumon 
Kitchen Manager            Rachel Pooley (June 95) 
                           Courtney Ward (currently) 
CH Board Rep               Neshtikin Byram 
CH Subcommitee Rep         Ricardo Guerrero (Summer 95) 
                           Michelle Botello (currently) 
Menu Planner               Pete Haney   (Summer 95) 
                           Heidi Cooper (Sep-Oct 95) 
                           Jennifer Rod (currently) 
Newsletter Rep             Matt Corey 
Education Comm. Rep        Holly Moore 
Social Events Coordinator  Tony Stanco

CREDITS

Editor: Ronald Kumon
Contributors: Sandra Fuentes, Warren Fincher, Matt Corey

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have any contributions or comments, please email them to laurel@uts.cc.utexas.edu. You may also send comments via the LH Web site at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~laurel/. Of course, "snail" mail contributions in the form of letters and postcards are always welcome too at 1905 Nueces, Austin, TX, 78705 or calls at (512)480-0605.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does. --Margaret Meade

Laurel House Co-op & Laurel Net Cooperative / Austin, Texas, USA / Updated 20 Feb 1996

This page is published by Laurel Net Cooperative, a registered student organization. This page is not an official publication of The University of Texas at Austin and does not represent the views of The University or its officers.

LAUREL HOUSE ALUMNI/AE NEWSLETTER (FALL 1995) Vol. 1, No. 1 (10 Dec 1995)