All posts by Beigie Lam

Week 15 – Fall 2020

  • I currently don’t know “who” I am yet,  because I am still in the process of discovering what I believe I’m meant to do with my life as well as finding out the things I define myself by. I have some things I value such as my family, my friends, and morals such as treating people kindly, etc. but overall, I don’t have a strong sense of self. I do think that I should define myself by my relationships and experiences because in my opinion, a person is distinguished by these connections. People are different because of what they go through and how they decide to view the experiences they go through. I haven’t experienced that many things yet so if I had to answer this question, I would lack things to describe myself with.
  • I want to change the world in regards to problems of poverty and violence. The positive impact that I hope to have on the world is to alleviate some of this in my community. There are high rates of homelessness where I live especially with displaced Natives who have trouble affording the high prices of living due to the economy which is catered to the tourism industry. I would like to be able to do something to fix this problem even if I would only be able to provide a small amount of impact. At the very least, I might even impact others to focus on the issue and try to change the systems which are causing the problem.
  • “Born with a penchant for laughter, she lit up the lives of those around her.”
    • I think it would be nice to have an epitaph that described the way I lived my life and what kind of impression I left on the people I was involved with. A lot of my life is centered around my family and friends so I would want to have it stated that I was remembered by them as a person who lived happily and helped others live happily too.

Fall 2020 – Week 9

  1. If you are the Chief of Police for Afghanistan, what solution would you develop to pay the cops that are actually working, reduce corruption, and boost their morale.

Solution: 

a) Focus on administrative control and internal self monitoring:

  • Pay commanders or supervising officers based on the accuracy of their payroll lists so they would be incentivized to keep track of ghost policemen, also set up a policy of disciplinary action for both higher ups and regular policemen if they reach a certain portion of inaccurate payroll rosters so there are consequences for corruption.
  • Use a biometric (fingerprint scan) check-in/check-out system. This would help the individual working schedules without having to involve extra personnel. At the end of the month (or paying cycle) policemen and their superiors would receive their paychecks according to the number of days worked (successfully registered by the biometric system). Should a worker exceed a certain amount of absent days, their paychecks would be frozen until they provided documentation for justifying their absences. 
  • Reward workers with percentage pay raise to incentivize policemen who provide (a) daily reports of performed activities, (b) flagging people who do not follow the regulations, (c) flawless biometric record of attendance. 
  • An external supervising team that does not belong to the department so they tend to be unbiased and won’t cover the corruption.

b) Create transparency measures:

  • The mass media has the power to (a) expose corruption by releasing the names of the people who are caught faking as policemen and who are helping the ghost policemen to the public periodically with the internal department checks to improve the public trust and morale through a more transparent policy from the government, (b) discourage people from corrupt actions by propaganda and education about the punishment of violation (public judgement, court), (c) support the police stations for anti-corruption policy, (d) praise and highlight the policemen who are doing well and carrying out their duties appropriately, (e) increase citizen involvement on supervising police misconduct. 
  • Once the population can see who the “good cops” are, not only they will start trusting more the policemen in charge, but they can also help hold the good cops accountable if they ever start straying off into corruption again.

c) Create a system to build literacy:

  • Offer moral & civics education for the policemen as part of their training. For example, they could take classes in a school before being on duty.
  • Perform (bi)monthly assessments of ethics and public administration law, so that their scores can serve as data to either promote or demote officers. No permanent benefits or positions.
  • More emphasis on corruption control at the selection and training process, with integrity tests and polygraph tests
  • These changes reflect systems thinking principles of interdependence, multifinality, equifinality, regulation, and leverage points because we are trying to approach the problem from multiple avenues of the individual parts in the whole system by going through various levels of the hierarchy.
  • The proposed solution also introduces changes that would build an environment of self-regulation and peer-monitoring with consequences that would promote anti-corruption and cross-level accountability. That would make it more worthwhile for the commanders and non-supervisory employees to follow the proper procedures instead of being corrupt, we are taking advantage of leverage points at both the administrative level and the employee level by providing better benefits for “proper” behavior because taking a hard cut, punitive approach may create more resistance from all levels than trying to offer an alternative where every stakeholder is satisfied with the benefits they gain from following the rules of the system.

 

  1. If you are the entrepreneur, what multi-final solution will you develop so that you succeed, your venture succeeds (takes water hyacinth off the lake), and the people living along the lakeshore also walk away happy. Please be specific on how your solution might function and precisely whom you would work with. For example, refrain from including vague stakeholders like entire communities.

Multifinality:  Designing a system in which the individual actors and inputs, the subsystems, and their interactions all meet their own goals while the system as a whole also meets its own (multiple) goals.

Water hyacinth infestation is a major problem on the shores of Lake Victoria. The moss doubles every month and blocks the fishermen’s access to the lake. It also results in spread of disease and hence they want it removed at all costs. 

An entrepreneur has figured out that she can take the hyacinth, crush it, and use it to make compost and briquettes. She hires four people to cut the hyacinth, crush it with manual machines, and bring it to her workshop. 

This system works well for 2 weeks and her need for the hyacinth increases substantially. But the communities on the shores are unhappy that she is making money from the hyacinth. They stop her employees from accessing the hyacinth. 

How does she solve the problem?

 

Solution:

  • The root of the problem is the dissatisfaction the locals have towards her for taking this thing that “belongs” to everyone and making money out of it. While the communities on the shores of the lake have a problem with her making money on the hyacinth, they do not have a problem with the harvesting itself. Thus, our solution involves some type of profit splitting with locals, using the fishermen as leverage points, and not shifting the issue elsewhere or involving other parties.
  • She should solicit help from the fishermen, who benefit from her harvesting the hyacinth, to involve individuals who live in the communities on the shores in her business. She should hire locals (willing to do the job) to collect the hyacinth as well as pay them for the rights to harvest their hyacinth. 
  • She could also involve members of the communities who live on the shores to help expand her production of the compost and briquettes. She could teach them how to harvest safely and efficiently, and how to control the hyacinth’s growth to a proper amount. She could package her process and sell it to members of the local community for a discounted price.
  • Once she has the production running smoothly, she could look to expand her market for the compost and briquettes. 
    • we are trying to change the system in order to reduce resistance from other stakeholders because they are also a part of the overall system.
    • taking different approaches with the different groups of people as her partners recognizes that while they are separate individual parts, they all have an effect on the overall success of her venture so she should work with all of them for an equifinal and multi-final solution.
    • this solution also recognizes the interdependence of the various stakeholders and how they are holistically involved from the water hyacinth being a type of checks and balances for the fishermen, for the owner of the venture, and the locals, it can aid in preventing overfishing and the compost and briquettes that it makes benefits the locals in return as an alternative to coal while being the source of profit for the venture.

Fall 2020 – Week 6

  1. Ten specific ways:
    1. I have gotten more hands on with the project since starting because my role has changed from being a completely new member to someone with an active stake in the project.
    2. I have developed more self confidence to speak in the group because initially, I was intimidated by being the youngest member on the project and would always wait to insert my comments last.
    3. I have become more independent in working on the project and can take care of my own  individual tasks now.
    4. I learned how to use Unity and work from home/remotely.
    5. The meeting approach we took to work together changed from one meeting a week to about three.
    6. I have improved about reaching out to my team members for help when I am stuck on a problem (for a long time) instead of using my time inefficiently trying to solve it by myself with no results.
    7. I’ve learned how to present what work I do to the group in a cohesive way that allows for better feedback on the design process such as with user interfaces.
    8. I’ve learned how to streamline my workflow by prototyping designs in Powerpoint first before I develop in Unity so that I save time figuring out what elements I should create in what order.
    9. I’ve improved on the way I document my work; I keep my updates in our meeting minutes very specific so that when other team members open the project, they can see specifically what I did and it helps with troubleshooting.
    10. I’ve learned a lot more about business models and how investors look at ventures based on not just the innovation but also how feasible the monetization structure is. Cash is king and I never really thought that that also applied heavily to green entrepreneurship too.
  2. My small, personal goals for this project are to finish the game we are working on and continue developing for this project and getting better at using Unity.
    • The Big Goal of this project is to complete development of the virtual reality headset game and distribute it to non-formal education centers to inform people of the significance of their local  watershed in the Lehigh Valley.
    • Junior is most likely to be the Implementer and Specialist because he has the most experience with the project and is the one actively doing development work via Unity as well as mentoring new members on how to use the program.
    • Jennifer is the group’s Shaper and Resource Investigator because she leverages her experience in teaching and formal education to bring a new perspective to the project. She also reaches out to collaborative partners for resources such as media/historical photos for our game. She is also a Completer/Finisher because she looks over the text resources and catches corrections and edits. 
    • Beigie also satisfies the role of Implementer because she is now contributing to creative and technological development with the game now that she has learned how to use Unity and has adapted to the workflow of the team. She will also be assisting Junior if there are new members to the team so she can also be considered a Specialist. She also does the Recording in the team with minutes.
    • The working process of our team is still generally the same. Team procedures for decision making usually switch between coming to a consensus after discussion or deference to experts in the relevant field. Decision making is done at team meetings where we attempt to give everyone a say because this project is not one which might require more authoritative leadership, and it is important that we allow everyone who is a part of this project to voice their opinions. The process of our meetings is generally going over status updates quickly and then reviewing things that require either editing or decision making; everyone has access to the minutes, but it is usually one person making direct edits while others leave comments. 
    • Communication methods involve Gmail/Hangouts, GSuite, and Zoom, since some platforms are more convenient for different purposes. Whole team meetings occur every one or two weeks for about 1 and a half hours. We meet amongst ourselves two times a week for updates and working sessions together. Responsiveness is very high and not a problem for our team because everyone is very on point with checking their emails; at most, it will take a day for a response due to time zone and location differences.
    • Our interpersonal relationships are getting better and better with frequent communication; we’ve come a long way since the start of last semester. We Zoom frequently and also share details of our personal lives with each other so we are very comfortable with working and providing feedback to each other. We recognize each other’s strengths and are leveraging those in a way to make our work flow even better.
  3. Facebook Reality Labs Research Grant Request for proposals on responsible innovation in AR/VR: “Consider Everyone
  • General Outline
    • Educational technology and STEM curriculum development, designed to also address the learning needs of multiple groups such as children/adults, English language learners, and informal educators. 
    • We are creating virtual reality (VR) games that are cross-compatible (i.e., computers and mobile devices, including VR headsets). These learning games have their foundation on active, game-based, and situated learning experiences to immerse learners in aspects of local history, geography, and environmental science of the watershed they live in, in fun and engaging manners.
    • Our PI, Dr. Al Bodzin has an extensive history of many years of research in this area 


    • We have previously developed a prototype that was tested among 60 students at a local urban high-school.
  • Product description
    • Design and Development of  five iVR gaming learning experiences;
    • They will focus on promoting users’ spatial knowledge of the Lehigh Valley watershed using environmental case studies which impact the watershed and water quality within it;


    • Each will be designed to take 15-25 minutes to complete.
  • Results of Prior NSF and Other Support

    Socio-Environmental Science Investigations (SESI) Using the Geospatial Curriculum Approach with Web GIS. (NSF #1614216, August, 2016-July 2020, with one-year no cost extension, $1,199,794). Primary Investigators: Alec M. Bodzin, David Anastasio, Thomas Hammond, Kate Popejoy, and Breena Holland. Resulting publications are noted with an * in the References.
    Broader impacts: The developed SESI investigations have great societal relevance since environmental problems have a disproportionate impact on underrepresented groups, and also promote the development of STEM-related skills.

  • Expected Outcomes

    • Educational
    • Promote learning regarding the concept of watersheds.
      1. Increase awareness about importance of one’s watershed
    • Systems-thinking and feedback loops;
      1. How a small action (e.g., littering) can have a huge impact on the environment.
    • Changes in affect, behavior towards games to learn.
  • Research  
    1. Advancing our iVR learning model
    2. Understanding how the iVR learning model impacts interest in the games, engagement, and learning with a full spectrum of users from age 13 to adults.
  • Social
    1. Increase in number of visitors to local nature centers, especially from target groups such as adolescents, adults, and English language learners.

 

  • Measure of Learning:  
  • Environmental issues and impacts in local watershed: Open-ended questionnaire prompt about knowledge of environmental issues and impacts in a player’s watershed. (pretest and posttest)
  • Timeline
    • Initial funding during the research and dissemination phases will be the University and grants from different organizations whose programs are in line with our venture’s vision. After that, we will be working on building scale with our product from local to regional in order for our venture to be self-sustaining. Ideally, we would be reaching a steady state by two years after launching our product. 

 

Fall 2020 – Week 4

Partners: Jenn Nester, Spencer Moros, Ugochi Amadi 

Step 1:  Facts

  • Livelihoods of rural households
    • 500 women want to join the co-op
    • They are skeptical of the porridge because it is new
  • HIV/AIDS and breastfeeding
    • HIV+ should wean early
    • Not everyone knows if they are HIV+
    • Access to supplements that prevent spread of HIV through breast milk more prevalent
    • Nutritious alternative really a good supplement
  • Pesticides on produce
    • Cash crops
    • Subsistence crops
  • Childhood nutrition is a problem b/c local gruel is not providing all key nutrients
    • 35% of children have stunted growth
  • Breastfeeding can spread HIV from mothers to infants 
  • Want to reduce risk of spread of HIV by using new porridge formula for children instead of breastfeeding
  • Porridge formula is using locally grown crops in a different way (as opposed to traditional gruel)
  • Mothers usually give gruel from ~2 months to 24 months
    • Skeptical of using new formula because it’s not something they’re used to, the traditional gruel is cornmeal
    • Not something they’ve done before
  • The WHO recommends breastfeeding until ~6 months but the longer time of breastfeeding with HIV means greater risk
  • Reduce risk of HIV/AIDS by having children eat the porridge → Formula for new nutritious porridge is made from locally grown crops → locally grown crops have high levels of potentially harmful chemicals from pesticides / porridge can be sold to improve women’s livelihoods
  • Don’t know who has HIV or not, there is now aggressive plan for testing of HIV and most people who have it know that they have it
  • We’re developing the whole cooperative
  • Malnutrition team is a good example of people who are doing what we want to do

Ethical Issue: Is it better to expose the infants to the risky chemicals from the pesticides from the crops or spread HIV through prolonged breastfeeding?

Step 2&3: Stakeholders and Motivations

  • Mothers
    • Give their child the best food
    • Have their child grow safely & healthily
    • May have mixed opinions about the effectiveness of the porridge formula
    • Want to improve their livelihoods
    • Not risk giving HIV/AIDS to their children
    • Make some money – growing/selling the cash crops
  • Children 
    • Stay healthy (not get HIV/AIDS)
    • Get good nutrition / be fed
  • Cooperative Participants
    • More participants, lessen burden on individuals
    • Make some money – growing/selling the cash crops, getting some form of return from their investment be it labor or something else
    • Bring more success
  • Cooperative Organizers/researchers
    • Respect local traditions and culture
    • Attract women to join
    • Build reputation and credibility to gain more funds and resources for future
    • Reduce malnutrition, improve nutritional status of children
    • Increase livelihood of households
    • Reduce transmission of HIV/AIDS
    • Make venture financially successful/sustainable
  • Donors of money for the projects (secondary)
    • Improve nutritional status of children and livelihoods of rural households

Step 4: Formulate (at least three) alternative solutions:

  • Have mothers switch to the porridge formula or some diet of both the formula and traditional gruel after ~2 months of breastfeeding and educate women as to why this is best for their children  
    • Ethical Principle or code: consequence based thinking
    • Pros: Reduces risk of passing HIV to child in timely manner by cutting short the breastfeeding period, new formula compensates for key nutrients in infants’ diet, improve livelihoods with increased sales or production of porridge
    • Cons: May not convince a lot of mothers who don’t believe that the new formula will provide enough nutrients for their child, would expose children to more pesticides from the produce, would be more financially costly for the venture
  • Have women give children the traditional gruel from 2-6 months, then market the porridge as “stage 2”, 6-12 months wean children off breastfeeding entirely. Educate women as to why this is best for their children 
    • Ethical Principle or code: Consequence based thinking & ethics of care
    • Pros:  respect local traditions while supplementing nutrition, while child is eating gruel they have supplemental nutrients from breast milk; would be less financially costly for the venture, creates platform to market product to the mothers who want to make sure their child is developing with proper nutrients
    • Cons: Children are more at risk for acquiring HIV/AIDS (breastfeeding to 12 months instead of 6 months suggested), children are exposed to pesticides, people might still be reluctant to use the new formula
  •  Refer all of the mothers to a place where they can be tested for HIV/AIDS in order to identify the most at risk children, build better infrastructure for sex education so that people are more informed about the risk and spread of HIV
    • Ethical Principle or code: Consequence based thinking & duty based thinking
    • Pros:  Many at-risk children are identified as early as possible, targets problem at root by identifying mothers who should switch to porridge from breastfeeding, allows mothers to learn if they have the virus and what measures they should take for their own health, more people are aware of how HIV works and can take better preventative measures
    • Cons: Invasion of the privacy of the women, not many women get tested so there may not be many testing sites/facilities/resources, adds more stress on the venture as a whole, morally obligated to educate about HIV/AIDS if test positive, identifying at risk children puts a target on some mother’s backs, very expensive, doesn’t directly fall into the scope of the venture

Step 5: Personal reflections/ experience of different people

  • Malnutrition Team
  • What accountability structure do you make in order to incentivize people but also have people join for the right reasons (might be second part)
  • Look at long-term effects of either side of the problem to decide which problem is more impactful (e.g., pesticides may not be as bad as HIV)
  • How do you start as close to the solution as possible?
  • Addressing skepticism isn’t the biggest issue (in terms of an ethical issue)
  • https://www.azurihealth.co.ke/ 
  • Partner with other entities to aid with product development
    • Put information labels or tags on the back or packaging of the porridge
    • Community health workers (need incentives)
    • Do partners have something to gain from working with you?
  • Focus on scope issues which is this cooperative that sells porridge for infants after 6 months of breastfeeding
  • Profit by making this product shelf stable and with low production cost that can sell for higher prices
  • Source input locally when practical but go to the open market if it is more efficient

Step 6: Best solution

  • Mixture of 1 and 2: Ease porridge product into lifestyle and diet of target consumers who in this case are the mothers buying for their infants by partnering with the Health Ministry and WHO to leverage introducing the porridge product as a second stage diet product for infants
    • can partner with other entities to put information labels or tags on to the product packaging
    • build scale of product in order to make a profit by sourcing ingredients locally when practical and making the porridge shelf stable with a low manufacturing price and selling for multiple times the initial cost
    • more successful in creating a market if have good reputation by partnering with the Health Ministry and WHO to focus on the proven benefits of providing key nutrients –> will not only make product attractive to mothers with infants but also those with elderly family members since it can almost be considered a diet supplement
    • supports local farmers and can help women improve livelihoods as well as reach initial goal of tackling malnutrition
    • gives a good timeline for women to get over their reluctance or disbelief of the product’s effectiveness versus traditional gruel as it is something they have never done before
    • cheaper and more realistic than handling the HIV education issue because that is out of the scope of the venture and very costly

Step 7: Impact

  • Potentially improve community health with sharing of knowledge
  • Potential positive environmental implications if venture gains scale and traction encourages farmers to use less pesticides if cooperative purchases for better price
  • might be negative impact if infants are very sensitive to pesticides used in the crops in the porridge
  • improve community livelihoods by employing women in the production and providing them an extra source of wages, porridge can also be given to women to take home for their families
  • Building connections for future projects or research collaborations, more social responsibility with locals and also the organizations the cooperative partners with to build scale and share profits
  • Upholding ethical practices builds image and brand of venture as being socially responsible and health conscious because they are also educating and combating the dangers of HIV

PART 2 (image not posted)

Step 1: Facts

  • See part 1 above

Issue: women work and the men take the money and spend it on things other than food for the family, women want their hard earned money to be spent on feeding their children.

Step 2&3: Stakeholders and Motivations

  • Mothers
    • Want to improve their livelihoods
    • Make some money – growing/selling the cash crops
    • Don’t want the money they earned to be wasted
    • Want the money to go to their children’s benefits
    • Use the money to feed their children
  • Cooperative Participants/ other members of the committee
    • Make some money – growing/selling the cash crops, getting some form of return from their investment be it labor or something else
    • Improve livelihoods of rural women
    • Change the issue of women’s wages not being used for their intended purpose in the local community while they are still in the community and also keep holding this effect after they are replaced or step down from the board
  • Men
    • make some spending money to use for their own purposes such as entertainment or alcohol
    • some might also want to help with the cooperative in order to build their own livelihood for the future
  • Cooperative Organizers/researchers
    • Respect local traditions and culture
    • Build reputation and credibility to gain more funds and resources for future
    • Reduce malnutrition, improve nutritional status of children
    • Increase livelihood of women in rural households
    • Ensure the added wealth is going towards feeding the children
    • Make venture financially successful/sustainable
  • Donors of money for the projects (secondary)
    • Improve nutritional status of children and livelihoods of rural households

Step 4, 5, 6: ONE optimal solution

  • Potential Solution #1: Offer “store credit” rather than cash so the women can use their money to feed their families.
    • How does it solve the problem? 
      • Pros: Money goes where the earner wants it to go, there is no risk of it being taken away by the husbands or being sold off, more value if they use it as credit instead of cashing it out
      • Cons: Might cause domestic issues; go against traditional hierarchy
  • Potential Solution #2: Give the women the option to get paid in essential items as opposed to cash, make them accept part of the wage to the product that they are making and the rest will be cash or credit, buy in bulk things like goats that cooperative members can get for cheaper than market price so they can take it directly home
    • How does it solve the problem? 
      • Pros: builds livelihood of families because the members can save money and keep producing with things like goat milk and cheese, can bring the men in because it makes them money in the long run, production of things will build towards feeding the children
      • Cons: only about 20 women will actually be working in packaging the porridge so it’s unrealistic to create an entirely separate system of distribution of goods
      • How does it save face of those involved?
  • Potential Solution #3: Act as a bank for the workers, hold the workers’ wages and let them grow and only let them cash out when they reach a certain amount or emergency
    • How does it solve the problem? 
      • Pros: allows people to save and build capital, free as opposed to banks that need you to pay to make an account, allows women to save and improve their livelihoods because it prevents the money from being taken away by the men
      • Cons: Social implication that the men may get angry that the women are working without making anything, may still take the money after it gets cashed out
  • Maybe only 20 women will be working with the cooperative to grow/sell crops
  • Cooperatives emerged as a way for people to save money and collect capital
  • Research indicates that men are less likely to take all of the money that’s saved compared to a weekly wage
  • Women aren’t upset men are taking the money, they’re upset about their misuse
  • Don’t cut off the entire money source (maybe leave like 5% or something)
  • How to establish a banking system
  • Sporadic bigger rewards (e.g., every three months can buy a goat)
  • Bring together a group of people who have clout in the community
  • Get people with clout including men and religious leaders so that they can deal with this issue and consider taking ⅓ of the wages in cash while the ⅔ is going back to the cooperative as an investment so they can grow it
  • Have the council agree on what products they think the cooperative should make available to use the credit for such as goats, etc..
  • Address nutrition issue by having women who work in the cooperative walking away with a small amount of the porridge everyday that can feed two people
  • Elderly people are a big customer section for the porridge
  • Validate the solution by telling it to the other 6 leaders on the committee, also go out to men and other leaders (maybe 25 people one on one) and get them on board with the way to tackle the issue → bring people together to talk about the problem and let the people discuss and come up with their “own” solution → create a contract or system of more equitable bylaws that everyone involved will agree with and enforce in the community → go towards developing this in the community so they adopt it 
  • BEST solution:
    • Combine solution 1 and 3 where the cooperative can act as a bank where the women can keep their wages as credit and build capital until they reach a certain amount to cash out or want to cash out.
      • Banking system: 

        portion of wage=store credit (stored in every week)

        -portion of store credit=saved in the bank

        portion of wage=entertainment (given out every week)

    • Keep a portion of their wages as immovable credit and maybe cash out about 5-10% directly so that the men can have something to spend.
    • Have the cooperative act as a distribution center or “store” for alcohol and cigarettes at lower than market price so that the men are incentivized to spend at the cooperative instead of outside markets. They are only allowed to spend that certain amount of money on these types of goods or entertainment and the rest is saved so that women can keep it for buying food stuffs or other necessities.
    • The cooperative can act as a source of goods that the members can get stuff from for a better price based on the women’s needs and the men will feel motivated to save as well if they realize that saving for a couple months will actually build more value for them. 
    • ⅓ or some portion of the wage is the porridge so that the women can take it home at the end of the day for their families to eat
    • Men are also included in this solution because they are major stakeholders and getting their cooperation will make the problem a lot easier to deal with because it is a partnership where both sides will be achieving some part of what they want

Step 7: Steps

  1. Find out if women would want a banking system
  2. Make sure the men are also on board with the banking system
  3. If general consensus is yes, the banking system would be established
  4. Work with women to decide how much of their wages go between store credit and entertainment (make 3 options: 70-30, 80-20, 90-10)
  5. Establish the banking system
  6. Find out the most pressing needs of the women (specific foods, clothing, household items, etc) with which to stock the “co-op” store.
  7. Find out where to get those resources in bulk to keep prices low enough to incentivize purchasing in the co-op.
  8. Get those resources and stock the store.