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Tue 11 Feb 2025 6:10PM

Organizing Circle Meeting: 2025 13 February (Thursday) 1500 UTC

M MarieVC (social.coop/@MarieVC) Public Seen by 7

The Organizing Circle for social.coop will meet 2025 13 February (Thursday) 1500 UTC - 1630 UTC. We will meet here: https://socialcoop.meet.coop/kat-aiw-mpv-6vv

M

MarieVC (social.coop/@MarieVC) Tue 11 Feb 2025 6:24PM

Agenda

1500 [5 min] ADMIN:

1505 [10 min] Check in:

1515 [10 min] Agenda co-construction (potential items, topics discussed at previous meetings, work in progress) / Consent on the agenda

  • 2025 Priorities, scoping and formulation

Context: During the last two OC meetings, we identified the following points (see recap document): https://share.mayfirst.org/s/9WcFY8LACgp9nFj

Round1: Is this recap complete?

Round2: What 1-3 things do you want to prioritize? Can we come up with a common ~12 topics for the year? 

Jan - Setting goals and priorities

Feb -

March -

April -

May - [request for only one meeting this month]

June -

July -

August - Summer break (?)  [request for no meeting or only one meeting this month]

September -  [request for only one meeting this month]

October -

Nov -

Dec - Annual close out  [request for only one meeting this month]

1525 [35 min] Items to be consented at the start of the meeting

1600 [10 min] Updates from working circles (might be dropped this time to have enough time to finish the main items on the agenda / alternative proposal: write and share updates for each WG in advance)

  • Finance

  • Tech

  • Community

  • Legal - defunct

1610 [5 min] Updates: What is the status of your to-do items? Can someone help you?

  • Call a round to check in with people

1615 [5 min] Tasks: What are you taking out of this call as a task or todo item?

1620 [10 min] Feedback: What worked well with this call and what could be improved? Explain why.

KT

Kathe TB Thu 13 Feb 2025 4:34PM

Notes

1500 [5 min] ADMIN:


1505 [10 min] Check in:


1515 [10 min] Agenda co-construction (potential items, topics discussed at previous meetings, work in progress) / Consent on the agenda

1525 [10 min] Decision on 2025 Priorities

  • Context: During the last two OC meetings, we identified the following points (see recap document): https://share.mayfirst.org/s/9WcFY8LACgp9nFj

  • Proposal: We adopt the topics and calendar proposed in the share drive and move it over to a wiki page. 6 month term, reviewed in June 2025 with success metrics being development of policy associated with these topics that everyone feels good about.

  • Discussion container:

    • Solo: Review document (5 minutes)

    • Clarifying questions and first reactions

    • Good enough for now?

  • NOTES:

    • reaction round

      • everything is there, plan aspect is good, good doc, lots to do

      • not a lot about the tech side (TWG, a lot of experiments, strategic questions: do we want to use a different version of Mastodon, offer another platform,...?), social.coop tech bundle and its strategic side (// same spirit as the conversation with the FWG)

      • separating operational and strategy questions (big conversations)?

      • calendar  stops around June, good to have a 6mo. time horizon?

      • like the plan and staggered points, can jumpstart topics asynchronously by assigning one person to get each one started

      • worried about replacing at large members

      • fiscal strategy and financial strategy the same thing? Yep.

    • changes made to plan/calendar

    • good enough for now?

      • consented!


1535 [15 min] Scoping financial strategy

  • Discussion container:

NOTES:

  •     Caitlin first thoughts on financial strategy: SC has money that we are not spending, doesn't have to be spent, but usually we think in terms of budget. Need to grow our garden, compost, etc. Stewarding resources is key. FIrst step (2024) was community contributions budgeting. We are not an investment firm, goal is to spend resources in the way only SC could spend them. Where do we fit into the Fediverse? What does our little group mean for the Fediverse? Human and financial resources. We've never had an annual report. FWG is not very strong, not very experienced.

  • Round: what does Financial strategy mean to us?

    • Calix - FS means how to promote sustainability of cooperative through allocation of $

    • Marie - taking stock, evaluating what we are doing, comparing to our goals, really like intercooperation among co-ops

    • Matt - what Caitlin and Marie said. More community contributions budgeting.

    • Sustainability from standpoint of volunteer time (what would it cost to replace volunteers?) What does it take to sustain us as a co-op? What does it take to sustain Fedi? What does it take to sustain the people in social.coop who do the work?

    • FWG needs more support from OC, recruiting new members. Andrew saved the day - as active member.

    • TWG getting stuff done but vulnerable to people stepping away, OC should give guidance on stipends. so far convo has been steered by needs, lack of needs among existing members. May be inadvertantly excluding potential members. How is it in other WGs?

    • How are we having this convo with wider community? Related to big conversations and capacity building. How to assure that members have enough info to participate in the conversation?

    • Levels of participation/engagement

    • Where to put conversations around labor contributions is interesting but tricky to combine with financial stratgeies (overlapping but not the same). Emphasizing need to move towards a sustainable organization, supporting people's labor.

    • Kathe:

      • Immediate needs for planning for this year and supporting FWG

      • Larger long-term strategy questions

      • Kathe will draft along these lines


1550 [5 min] Scoping capacity building

  • Discussion container:

    • Round: What does capacity building mean to us? What does social coop and our working groups need?

  • NOTES:

    • Calix: being able to scale up ambitions, being sure we can keep doing what we are currently doing

    • Marie: good idea of needs, describing what we are doing, explaining it to wider community, if gaps between needs, offering space for learning, skills, comfort, confidence

    • Matt: people's engagement is most critical capacity. How do we get into conversation with broader member base to build interest/desire, then identify what they need.

    • Kathe: code word for education - what are people's ed. interests and needs that support ongoing work in SC?

    • Caitlin: member engagement, SC is not technically a cooperative, are we trying to become one?

    • Capacity Building as Education

    • Creating space - communicating spirit of supporting people's contribution and experimentation, engagement. Access is first step. How are we inviting and communicating?

    • How to build in more access, education and participation are keys, bringing in other peoplle. Being a cooperative as related but separate issue from cooperative legal status.

    • Access, engage, educate, operations sequencing

    • Kathe will write up re-cap.


1600 [10 min] Updates from working circles (might be dropped this time to have enough time to finish the main items on the agenda / alternative proposal: write and share updates for each WG in advance)

  • Finance

    • no meetings, not worrisome yet...

  • Tech

    • Mastodon upgraded

    • Progress on "alpha" server - different server provider, more cooperative host, for testing other software

    • four people on Monday call, onboarded to do tech work

    • problem with downloading federation relationships, feature not working well

    • TWG 2025 Roadmap https://anagora.org/twg%202025

  • Community

    • nothing new to report since last OC mtg

    • existing WG doing very well -- hand-offs

  • Legal - defunct, pending


1610 [5 min] Updates: What is the status of your to-do items? Can someone help you?

  • Call a round to check in with people


1615 [5 min] Tasks: What are you taking out of this call as a task or todo item?

  • Caitlin - nothing

  • Calix - updating calendar event (done!)

  • Marie - create loomio thread and reminder, draft of the agenda

  • Matt - 

  • Kathe - write ups


1620 [10 min] Feedback: What worked well with this call and what could be improved? Explain why.

  • good time management

  • calendar good and exciting

  • miracle of finishing ahead of time!

  • good topics

  • one of best facilitated meetings I've been to recently

  • scoped well and able to work, less anxious bc we are doing concrete things, learning by making. by doing

  • lot to discuss, focused on our conversation