Annual Rhythms of OC

Some thoughts on annual 'rhythms' of Organizing circle:

1) Building and communicating the history of social.coop - where have we been, how do we share and define our collective history, who do we recognize as community builders past and present [September - December]

• Update wiki history/about pages

• Mastodon announcements for recognition for individual community builders past and present

• Mastodon threads on historic retellings

• Aggregation of community tools list for coop $$ support and donations

2) Visioning the future - What do we want to prioritize going forward? What has worked well in the past that we want to carry forward? What do we want to change? [January - March]

• Operational visions for coop future - virtual calls + closed loomio threads

• Loomio and mastodon push for community sourced vision for coop

• Synthesis from community and operational visions (draft + feedback + vote finalized)

3) The doing - How do we strategize, support, and hold ourselves accountable for implementing these changes? Who is doing the work and how are they recognized? [April - August]

• First half of 'open' agenda pre-drafted based on year vision

• Regular check ins with operational circles

• Recaps report outs to the Loomio community and Mastodon shorts

• Organized ongoing training in self-governance, FOSS administration, and community moderation

Thoughts?

I am remembering the 8 Shields model of organizing, as inspiration. https://wildernessawareness.org/articles/category/8-shields/ Personally, I prefer the concrete project management tasks in The doing!

From OC discussions https://www.loomio.com/d/OgmSvYG7/organizing-circle-meeting-2024-17-july-wednesday-1200-utc-m

• Focus less on the how and more on the why. How can change each year.

• Keep:

  • Past-present-future structure of the year

  • Good reminder to revisit standing topics

  • Visioning as a co-op is especially good, can we pull in more member engagement

• Change:

  • Add calendar deadlines (budget! and other working group contributions)

  • Add check ins with fincal sponsor (innovation.coop) and member platforms (meet.coop and mayfirst.coop)

  • Expand to include social.coop not just organizing circle

Revision v20240730

1) Past - Building community by telling story of social.coop - where have we been, how do we share and define our collective history, who do we recognize as community builders past and present [September - December]

• Activities could include:

  • Update wiki history/about pages

  • Mastodon announcements for recognition for individual community builders past and present

  • Mastodon threads on historic retellings

  • Aggregation of community tools list for coop $$ support and donations

2) Future - Visioning where to go - What do we want to prioritize going forward? What has worked well in the past that we want to carry forward? What do we want to change? [January - March]

• Activities could include:

  • Operational visions for coop future - virtual calls + closed loomio threads

  • Loomio and mastodon push for community sourced vision for coop

  • Synthesis of visions (draft + feedback + vote finalized)

3) Present - the doing - How do we strategize, support, and hold ourselves accountable for implementing these changes? Who is doing the work and how are they recognized? How can we build capacity for people doing work (training)? [April - August]

• Activities could include:

  • First half of 'open' agenda pre-drafted based on year vision

  • Regular check ins with operational circles

  • Recaps report outs to the Loomio community and Mastodon shorts

  • Organized ongoing training in self-governance, FOSS administration, and community moderation

Calendar

1. End of year reports to Loomio: January 15

   1. Finance: previous year's spending breakdown

   2. Tech: prior year major updates and incidence report

   3. Organizational circle: major policy or operational shifts

   4. Community: major incidence report and community kudos

2. Next year budget priorities: February 15