The Insterburg is part of the "Studierendenwohnheime des KIT e.V." (WeV), an association of self-governed student dormitories in Karlsruhe. The WeV consists of four dormitories in total: HaDiKo, Kolleg am Ring, HFK and Insterburg.
But what does "self-governed" mean in practice? First of all, it means that can choose who moves in with us ourselves, rather than some higher administration choosing this for us. Further, the composition of the interiors and the garden is in large part left to us inhabitants. Moreover, Insterburg accomodates a variety of facilities, such as our own band practice room, a work shop, a bar and much more. These facilities are lead and maintained by us inhabitants. With this creative freedom however also comes responsibility: The continuance of our dormitory is based on the voluntary involvement of the inhabitants.
The Insterburg has two inhabitants, who act as House Captains and take a majority of the administrative tasks e.g. issueing rental contracts, managing the finances of Insterburg and administering applications. Further they work closely with the administration of WeV. The House Captains are elected democratically by the inhabitants at the general assembly.
Each floor has a floor speaker, who represents the floor towards the house. Further, it is the responsibility of the floor speaker, that the floor is searching for new floor members after a move-out. Additionally, the floor speaker is the first contact person in case of a conflict on the floor.
The general assembly (HVV) takes place once per semester and all inhabitants attend. Here we vote on big decisions for the dormitory, fix the budgets for the following semester and petition on aquisitions. Also, on the HVV the House Captains are elected.