Application Procedure
Before one can lease a room here, one must submit an online application for membership to MSC. It is received when one hits submit and Google displays your answers in sequence with other applicants for all House Coordinators to review in preparation to show you around if possible, and interview you to establish a constructive understanding of expectations and responsibilities before they approve you for admission to their house.
A friend can help you with language translation, or disabilities, but all answers must be your own. One may want to copy the questions into a text document to compose answers to past into the form. We accommodate many things if one is honest about their needs, roommates may need to discuss how to work matters out well and may discover that the ideal room situation for you is not where you expect based on comments on this website, so pretending to be someone you are not is unwise.
We depend on ourselves to cooperate, and to get along. We dislike applications submitted by people seeking to get a relative or friend out of their house, or merely to satisfy an obligation to secure lodging for a list of students who have difficulty. We enjoy a diverse membership with several languages spoken here, yet all admitted members demonstrate an ability to face challenges of communicating, and of paying an application fee from wherever they arrive from.
Possible Procedural Outline ( Rough Draft June 2015)
1. Meet members here, see what is available [1].
2. Read our Membership Agreement and and ask questions [2].
3. Apply online, indicate what interests you and when. Many questions are odd, yet express what you hope this coop will accommodate for you and what you are inclined to contribute toward our collective effort to share and pass on comfortable affordable homes for students. [3]
4. Gain House Approval. An admission interview/ House tour with Household(s) or a Coordinator elected to represent it.
5. Have Management receive Lease Application Forms [4].
a. Membership Agreement
Your specific lease and parking permit are defined near the top of your Membership Agreement.[5]
b. Background Information, and Information Release forms
Management submits information to a service that verifies your legal status as a law abiding adult
capable of consenting to our agreement and of paying all required Membership Dues as rent.
c. Application Fee, $35 now $45 pays for background verification service.
d. Payments to MSC can be combined in one check or money order. No Cash [6].
-- $300 Deposit
-- 1st month rent payment.
Both are due before you get keys to your bedroom or reserve the room vacant for >15 days.
[1] Ideally one physically visits, yet we rely on telecommunication for people who cannot visit MSC in Saint Paul, MN, before arrival. We need you to work with us as a part of a team that handles all responsible home ownership and cleaning. When many people share a kitchen we must adopt compatible habits, attitude, and standards. These evolve, but new people must accept how things are even as leaders seek seek to inspire a better future. Residents are often too busy for some peoples diverse expectations of respect. Not every home prepared to receive a complete stranger into their home at all times. Rules change as situations change, yet compassion, acceptance, tolerance and communication are always vital for cooperative homes.
[2] We are not a commune, so much as a fusion of independent people with distinct goals of self improvement and study. The Agreement is the minimal structure in which one must comply to live here any amount of time. Beyond that MSC has policies that include fines and fees, dispute resolution, house keeping standards, codes of courtesy, how to you get something fixed... We need you to ask yourself what will it really be like living with these people who will directly impact your daily life. That dialog starts before you arrive. An applicant who is only interested in securing a room with no regard for who lives there now is not an attractive application candidate compared with someone who
[3] If you don't know a current coop member you must skip step 1 and it is a disadvantage to only have online clues from which to guess what a particular house of people will be like to live with. This is your invitation for House Coordinators to contact you regarding their vacancies, expression of what you are looking for, and you attitude toward adapting to other people. If you respond to an add, they have or had a room opening with no line of compatible applicants.
Help Coordinators imagine you interacting as part of their household, so they ask you vital questions to assure a good fit. A good fit is a mutual thing. Coordinators seek to adapt to meet incoming needs, so they maintain a full house of content people amiably sharing, caring for, and contributing rent dues to pay costs of maintaining the house. We exist here to accommodate students, so one either is here to study or should facilitate others studying affordably. Succinct statements that illustrate understanding or courtesy that enables many diverse people to amiably share and maintain a resource without supervision suggest the kind of members we need to keep us functioning well. We rely on leadership from below as much as from those with time to fill leadership roles. Since residents play vital roles to sustain each home, responsible Coordinators evaluate applications as one would for a job.
We need your courtesy to accommodate study and sleep needs in your household.
We seek members who are:
--honest, trustworthy partners ( pay their dues, pull their own weight, seek to repay all nature of debts in time )
--graciously adaptable in someone else's home
--considerate of other people's needs, if not compassionate when warranted.
--resourceful if not self reliant ( helping and sharing is consensual. We are interdependent not "co-dependent" ).
--considerate of how ones actions impact others with different habits or even beliefs.
--mindful of each unique resident sharing ones home to subtly act as one cares.
[4] Management can only receive lease applications from MSC applications for a room in a specific house where the House Coordinator approves the applicant to join in the team effort responsible for running that house. Until then Management holds documents in waitlist folders awaiting completion.
[5] Yes, this means you sign a new Membership Agreement each time you change rooms and the Agreement may have been revised since you last signed.
[6] If you move in within 14 days, Management can agree to hold the room based on images of the Documents and payments so you will avoid international transaction costs. However, you must arrive with all payments and documents before Management can sign the binding lease agreement. You are not a member until all initial payments have been received and the signed membership agreement with an associated lease is on file. The House Coordinator can give you access to your room to move in and sleep upon arrival, but payments are required to receive room & house keys.