Loomio
Tue 15 Oct 2024 7:00AM

Organizing Circle Meeting: 2024 24 October (Thursday) 1300 UTC

KT Kathe TB Public Seen by 7

The Organizing Circle for social.coop will meet 2024 24 October (Thursday) 1300 - 1430 UTC. We will meet here: https://socialcoop.meet.coop/kat-aiw-mpv-6vv.

KT

Kathe TB Tue 15 Oct 2024 7:08AM

Agenda

Tentative agenda! To be consented to at the start of the meeting or revised/discussed in thread here.

1300 [5 min] ADMIN

  • Who is here?

  • Does anyone need to leave early?

  • Confirm our next call on 7 November 2024 1300 UTC

  • Who is note taking?

  • Who is facilitating? Kathe

1305 [10 min] Check in:

1315 [10 min] Recaps

1325 [10 min] Updates: What is the status of your to-do items? Can someone help you?

  • Call a round to check in with people

1335 [20 min] Updates from working circles

  • Finance

  • Tech

  • Community

  • Legal - defunct

1355 [25 min] Scoping: How we at social.coop decide things

  • What kind of decisions do we want to keep making the same way we have been?

  • What kind of decisions do we need to change or revise how we make?

1420 [5 min] Tasks: What are you taking out of this call as a task or todo item?

1425 [5 min] Feedback: What worked well with this call and what could be improved? Explain why.

KT

Kathe TB Thu 24 Oct 2024 2:40PM

Notes

1300 [5 min] ADMIN

  • Who is here? 

    • EVERYONE \o/

    • Meaning: Caitlin Marie Matt edumerco Kathe flancian

  • Does anyone need to leave early?

    • Flancian: need to leave after 1h

  • Confirm our next call on 7 November 2024 1300 UTC

    • SG

  • Who is note taking? Matt/Flan (both compulsive note-takers)

  • Who is facilitating? Kathe


1305 [10 min] Check in:

  • How are you showing up today? What are you bringing into the space? [https://feelingswheel.com/]

    • We like the wheel a lot (and see empathy as a positive emotion ;-), it's more than great ;)


1315 [10 min] Recaps

1325 [10 min] Updates: What is the status of your to-do items? Can someone help you?

  • Call a round to check in with people

  • Kathe: did the recaps and this agenda thread :)

  • Edumerco: good progress on several fronts; including a design for the onboarding process (Marie/Edu/Matt)

    • did CWG take over? help still needed? 

    • Matt: don't think we discussed that by the last meeting I attended. I believe the CWG was going to review and give feedback on the process via one-off meetings.

    • Wiki Nav Bar

  • Flan: meta: having trouble keeping track of tasks, should we have a spreadsheet or use the wiki or some other designated place? bug tracker? :) I can take that as an AI if people are into it.

    • yes please!!! (@em)

    • kanban? like the bug tracker idea, use git.coop issues? (@matt) 

    • use Loomio as an issue tracker?

      • e.g. for onboarding? 

    • Use wiki?

    • Proposal: have a 'root node' for all the initiatives/projects we're juggling, that can then link to e.g. bugs, loomio threads, docs as necessary. Then merge that with our backlog.

    • Reactions to the proposal:

      • edumerco: loomio is good for discussion but not so good for other things. Do agree that we need a list of initiatives we are driving somewhere. Context switching is imposing a high burden. A page in the wiki sounds great.

      • marie: open to any spaces but from the perspective of someone who is doing the agenda from time to time including the todo list, if I miss a meeting a lot of structure seems to be lost. Would be happy with a simple spreadsheet or something like this. It would make it easier to maintain and clean up our todo list. Add items at end of meeting, review at start of next meeting.

      • flan: sorry for tanking the agenda coordination by bringing up a proposal in the middle of updates :)

      • matt: find issues in git to be very effective: they are there, it's a list, they have owners taking care of them.

        • It does require you log into git.coop though. But the CWG does it.

        • Find it helpful and relatively easy.

        • The wiki sounds like the wrong tool relatively speaking.

      • Kathe: it sounds like we have opinions, propose we pin this for later discussion. We have identified a problem which has a couple of ways we could address it. Let's discuss it in the next call.

  • Cait:

    • Organized meeting between OC and Finance Working Group.  

      • Some people missed out but we had enough attendance.

    • Longstanding desire/to-dos :  (1) to use SC calendar on Next Cloud to update our actual meetings AND (2) to make an Official Announcement on the top of Social.Coop with notice of OC upcoming meetings and recaps

  • Marie: happy to see people have been driving the agenda independently :) It'd be great to take the time to review the onboarding process documents, we want the OC to do a quick check.

  • Matt: OC nominations

    • No remaining nominees, will discuss shortly


1335 [20 min] Updates from working circles

  • Finance - Caitlin

    • We are supposed to have a quarterly meeting but each meeting is a singleton organization-wise. Nobody's proposed a meeting lately but we need one. 

    • Our first annual budget was approved earlier in the year; the big thing there was how to spend the surplus, which is significant. We think we are not stewarding the financial direction as well as we could.

    • We need to start working on the next budget, probably in a meeting in November.

    • We also need to take next action w.r.t. disbursing contributions to the organizations we chose for 'community budgeting'.

    • Next round of community budgeting needs to be started.

    • Weak point: no fixed schedule of meetings.

    • We have a reserve even after we account for the the discretionary reserve of 6-12 months operational cost we must hold as a responsible coop. 

    • Need a bigger dreaming session on finance!

    • Edumerco: this connects with the discussion w.r.t. some kind of compensation for logistical/admin work being done. Important to keep in mind not just work but context (econ/soc/personal) in which people work. 

    • Need a way to track contributions (this applies to all areas of work, not just finance)

      • Caitlin: we need to take a deeper look at diversity and equity issues for all community working groups. Financial resources are only one kind of resource about which this discussion is relevant

  • Tech

    • [Flancian] Bill issue again, we paid two months now (thanks Dan!). But we'd like to discuss the ideal process to pay bills and track who does that when.

    • We're still open to spam, as is the wider Fediverse. We have the specific issue of running into mailgun quotas we need to solve in the TWG. Also, we could work more on scripting with the CWG.

  • Community

    • [Flancian] had a discussion with a coop member who reached out as they needed to talk. It was about 1. decision making in loomio and how it affected them and 2. next steps towards actually having a general policy w.r.t. federating with corporate interests/potential bad actors as defined.

      • I would like to make a proposal to the OC.

        • find a way to respond to burnout

        • organize a discussion of big strategic question of SC relation to corporate presence in Fediverse

        • OC set goals/objectives for next year and publicize to SC members

    • Hollie moving forward on coordinator role

    • invoicing skill share and proposed schedule for calendar


  • Legal - 

    • Caitlin is trying to get a discussion together with Nathan Schneider and Andrew?? Alex??

    • For OC, to discuss: https://www.loomio.com/d/qTYHKsoh/legal-working-group-lwg-reactivate-tasks-for-the-organizing-circle- 

    • FWG/We propose to put our servers in the name of Innovation. Tech Working Group would do it. @Flancian

    • Innovation would provide or become: fiscal host, governance host, technological host...

      • Innovation asks us to name our legal liabilities. 

        • contact at Innovation is Shaun 

        • contact is Graham at P6/Innovation

      • Our current host is Platform 6, which may merge into Innovation.

    • Kathe will schedule the meeting (woohoo!), using Caitlin's notes on Loomio


Quick poll -- How we access social.coop 

  • Matt: Tusky (phone), browser

  • Flan:

  • Cait: Ice Cubes (phone), Toot (phone), website 

  • Edu: browser (computer); Fedilab or Moshidon (mobile, android)

  • Kathe:

  • Marie: website only (browser)


Backlog: Equity Audit for SC?

1355 [5 min] Reaction: Ekumen initiative

  • Started with anti-meta fedipact, wanting to move towards pro strategic allignment. 

  • Ursula LeGuin's term... 

  • Started already here => https://ufoi.org/

  • mechanism for inter-instance moderation issues/principles/policies (Spam, instance blocks, etc.)

    • social

    • processes

    • technological

  • Notes on codeberg, anagora, matrix -- move/mirror to Loomio for discussion

  • Is OC interested in this?

    • Marie: important discussion, like idea of writing this up, keep door open for changing understandings; if publishing on Loomio, need to be careful about heated discussion this can provoke -- need way to have constructive conversation.

    • Caitlin: overall like the idea, want  to hand this off to CWG since they do our moderation. SC and CWG centering community care, good if it helps us do that

    • Kathe: scoping thread -- what would you like to see covered in an agreement? -- would give people a way to get involved early on, balance of framework and white space... Could lead members to leave, but may be good to do anyway? Delicate discussion, though. Good to start a Loomio thread

    • Matt: 1) great to see this intiative for greater coordination with other instances, 2) so many nuances, dialogue with members, report not suited for the nuances, how will the discussion will evolve? 3) SC members and others organize an online session to discuss this.

    • Eduardo: not proposing to replace human moderation with automated responses: start with conversation (s)among promoter group, then take that minimally formed proposal to Loomio in some form...


1400 [5 min] Decision: Recruiting New Members to OC... Matt

  •  -- Four of the remaining nominees are currently on the CWG ops team: Dan, Django, Melissa, Hollie, and one was but dropped off (Katanova). The rest appear to be men. Perhaps it makes sense to open a new round of nominations? 

  • Finding a way to be conscious around equity, diversity.

  • Be very clear on the criteria used to select/recommend.

  • Jury by sortition (selection process), nomination. Another round of nominations, OC = jury (for example, selecting 5 people).

  • Process: 

    • issue request for nominations

    • OC select set of candidates

    • run vote

    • Note: need clear criteria


1405 [15 min] Scoping: How we at social.coop decide things

  • What kind of decisions do we want to keep making the same way we have been?

  • What kind of decisions do we need to change or revise how we make?


1420 [5 min] Tasks: What are you taking out of this call as a task or todo item?

  • Caitlin: learn how to use NextCloud to update meeting time announcement for all SC users and make an announcement on Social.Coop for next meeting and today's meeting recap that all SC members can see. 

  • Kathe: Recap and agenda(?), organize Legal meeting

  • Matt: 

    • find language on inclusive nomination criteria/process

    • draft short process for election of new member

  • Marie: info/1st Loomio message next meeting (details about the meeting), reminder, to-do list (will also contact Flan, to explore possible to-do list tools)

  • Edumerco: make another meeting with the CWG to keep going the onboarding process. 


1425 [5 min] Feedback: What worked well with this call and what could be improved? Explain why.

KT

Kathe TB Wed 30 Oct 2024 3:59PM

Recap

We primarily caught up on updates this call. We affirmed that we need to recruit a new At-Large Member and will reopen the nomination process.

There was a meeting between the Organizing Circle and Finance Working group (notes here https://www.loomio.com/d/1Owjg9CG/finance-wg-and-organizing-circle-call-26-september-2024/1) Historically Finance Working group has met infrequently (quarterly) and generally dealt with very routine reimbursement request approvals. We are in the enviable position of having a financial surplus. This year is the first year we are trying out a budget approach and looking to crowd source donations to aligned efforts. There was some tension in this meeting between wanting to operate as unstructured as possible and recognizing that we likely need more processes in place. Currently our server and other bills are paid by individuals who then request reimbursements (this also means these accounts are held privately). This has created problems where individuals leave or forget to pay and the entire coop is impacted. Actively trying to work through this and it might require us to develop a legal structure. Finally, the work Organizing Circle is currently doing to increase communication between the Working Groups, especially recaps, was greatly appreciated and felt that this work should be elevated even more (eg coop-wide announcements on Mastodon).

There was also a meeting between Organizing Circle and Tech Working Group (https://doc.anagora.org/social-coop-tech-group?edit#, see [[2024-09-23]]). Historically Tech Working Group operates on a very ad hoc basis, when things go wrong they get fixed! We always seem to find the people to make this happen but it would be nice to have a clear way to onboard new people to proactively manage burnout. Organizing Circle might be able to help with this by developing role descriptions and recruiting members for TWG. Overlaping a little with the conversation in FWG, it would be really nice to have a coop credit card to point bill paying to. There has been some migration towards centrally managed accounts this year.

Finance Working Group is trying to get their next meeting on the calendar. We need to start the budgeting process for next year and evaluate how this years budget ended up playing out.

Tech Working Group is running into billing issues again. Spam has been a recent issue again and we have run up against mailgun quotes. Spam is a regular Fediverse issue that is bigger then the server; talking with CWG about possible scripted solutions.

Community Working Group notes that there is some ongoing social fall out from recent Loomio discussions/decisions around dealing with bad actors. There is general confusion by very loomio-engaged members on how proposals are put forward and decisions made. Some of this might be helped by more visibility of Organizing Circle and the Working Groups by either a newsletter or more public recaps. Hollie is taking over the coordinator roll (yeah!) and there has been more skills shares on invoicing and calendar practices.

Legal Working Group is still in a proto stage. Historically our fiscal host has been Platform 6, however this is merging with Innovation. Innovation is asking about our legal liabilities, providing additional motivation to get this group off the ground.

Some of us are working on an Ekuman Initiative to develop mechanisms for inter-instance moderation issues, principles, and policies. We noted that this sounded similar to https://ufoi.org/ and there was general interest in seeing how this develops.

There were a few proposals surfaced this meeting, no decisions:

  • organize a public discussion on how social.coop interacts with corporate presences in the Fediberse

  • tracking projects of the Organizing Circle (and possibly extending this to collaborations with other working groups) specifically in relationship to managing to-do items

  • revisit onboarding documentation

  • set goals and priorities for social.coop for the next year