@Matt Noyes , @Eduardo Mercovich , @Flancian, @MarieVC (social.coop/@MarieVC) : Do you plan to attend our meeting on Thursday, 19 December?

I will be there

Me too

Agenda

Tentative agenda, to be revised and consented to at the start of the meeting.

1300 [4 min] ADMIN

• Who is here?

• Does anyone need to leave early?

• Confirm our next call date

• Who is note taking?

• Who is facilitating? Kathe

1304 [5 min] Check in:

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

1309 [1 min] Recaps

• Review recap from last call https://www.loomio.com/d/yK3eNVXn/organizing-circle-meeting-2024-5-december-thursday-1300-utc/4

1310 [5 min] Updates: What is the status of your to-do items? Can someone help you?

•  

  Kathe - schedule legal meeting

•  

  Kathe - Loomio thread on using wiki to draft/document onboarding process

•  

  Matt: communicate with CWG about matrix/Zulip etc - IN PROCESS

•  

  Matt: Draft and push candidate solicitation

•  

  Flan: start a thread or book a meeting to discuss next steps in the messaging space cross-WG -> https://social.coop/@flancian/113442146418892106

•  

  Caitlin: moving our public calendar item meeting date

1315 [5 min] Updates from working circles (quick!)

• Finance

• Tech

• Community

• Legal

1320 [15 min] Year in review: What did we do this year? (take 5 minutes and review/collect your thoughts https://www.loomio.com/d/QBtcgaOq/organizing-circle-recaps-2024- https://wiki.social.coop/wiki/Organizing_Circle )

Broadly our activities over 2024 broke down into three categories: how we do things in Organizing Circle, coordination activities across working groups with Social.coop and started broad discussions on various topics. We 1) held regular meetings every other week, 2) developed a sense of team, and 3) decided to operate Organizing Circle mostly following Sociocracy patterns with formal agendas, facilitation, note taking, and documented our discussions/decisions on the wiki and in loomio threads. We facilitated coordination between working groups (Tech, Finance, and Community) by exchanging regular updates in our meetings and setting up meetings between Organizing Circle and each working group during the fall. Finally we started several important discussions on a range of topics including social.coop decision making structures, compensation, and onboarding, as well as collaboration with the external cooperative movement.

1335 [15 min] Hearts: What worked well about how we operated?

We are particularly proud of how we operate as a circle, although there are places to improve. We created a safe/brave space where each member is heard by the rest of the group. Each member has something valuable to offer the group and is missed when someone doesn't attend. Clear agendas (with topics, timings, and durations) make it easier to know how and where to contribute as a member. We are able to hold each other accountable with our todo and update agenda items.

1405 [15 min] Deltas: What may need to change about how we operate moving forward?

There are some things that have not worked well over the last year. We have started several conversations around big topics that are unresolved and not clear how they would be. The role of Organizing Circle in the broader governance of social.coop is still unclear. We are reliant on 1-2 members of the circle for meeting facilitation and administration duties. How to develop and maintain policy documents still feels tenuous.

1420 [5 min] Backlog:

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

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

  • Meeting notes archiving and organizing https://www.loomio.com/d/PIeVbXCH/determine-a-meeting-notes-location-for-oc-and-wgs-

• revisit onboarding documentation

• 2025 set goals and priorities for social.coop for the next year

1425 [5 min] Feedback: How are you leaving this call?

Notes

1300 [4 min] ADMIN

• Who is here? - Kathe, Marie, Caitlin, Eduardo M, Matt N

• Does anyone need to leave early?

• Confirm our next call date: January 16th

• Who is note taking? Matt

• Who is facilitating? Kathe

1304 [5 min] Check in:

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

1309 [1 min] Recaps

• Review recap from last call https://www.loomio.com/d/yK3eNVXn/organizing-circle-meeting-2024-5-december-thursday-1300-utc/4

1310 [5 min] Updates: What is the status of your to-do items? Can someone help you? 

• Kathe - schedule legal meeting

• Eduardo M - Loomio thread on using wiki to draft/document onboarding process

• Matt: communicate with CWG about matrix/Zulip etc - IN PROCESS

• Matt: Draft and push candidate solicitation - we have two candidates - could pick one at any time

• Flan: start a thread or book a meeting to discuss next steps in the messaging space cross-WG -> https://social.coop/@flancian/113442146418892106

• Caitlin: moving our public calendar item meeting date

1315 [5 min] Updates from working circles (quick!)

• Finance - Nothing new. Update on budgeting process pending. No movement on End of year report or 2025 budget.

• Tech - no update

• Community - nothing new

• Legal - nothing new

1320 [15 min] Year in review: What did we do this year? (take 5 minutes and review/collect your thoughts https://www.loomio.com/d/QBtcgaOq/organizing-circle-recaps-2024- https://wiki.social.coop/wiki/Organizing_Circle )

Broadly our activities over 2024 broke down into three categories: how we do things in Organizing Circle, coordination activities across working groups with Social.coop and started broad discussions on various topics. We 1) held regular meetings every other week, 2) developed a sense of team, and 3) decided to operate Organizing Circle mostly following Sociocracy patterns with formal agendas, facilitation, note taking, and documented our discussions/decisions on the wiki and in loomio threads. We facilitated coordination between working groups (Tech, Finance, and Community) by exchanging regular updates in our meetings and setting up meetings between Organizing Circle and each working group during the fall. Finally we started several important discussions on a range of topics including social.coop decision making structures, compensation, and onboarding, as well as collaboration with the external cooperative movement.

NOTES

• Recap looks good!

• Highlight move towards using wiki more consistantly as a positive development.

  • put this recap in Wiki -- annual history section in wiki page on OC

  • include recaps from other WGs,

  • ask for member feedback - maybe on Loomio

• This is the only meeting with space for a global view of the coop. Feels important to highlight here

• Sociocracy practice used in this circle is good as a working model.

• Volunteering time! OMG there is a lot of commimtment and energy here.

• As mastodon gets more written/published, we are emerging as a examplar case of cooperative model. Want more focus on the HOW this happens.

  • We have to write about this, bc nobody has our perspective,including other voices from SC

  • we should promote our specific character/practices more, brag about what we do

• Using this synth as 2024 memory/balance in the wiki? 

• A possible challenge for the next year: involve more community members on this. 

• Great to have this recap and build on it. Now we can see what to prioritize.

• edits to year end recap:

  • emphasize wiki

  • emphasize sociocracy

1335 [15 min] Hearts: What worked well about how we operated?

We are particularly proud of how we operate as a circle, although there are places to improve. We created a safe/brave space where each member is heard by the rest of the group. Each member has something valuable to offer the group and is missed when someone doesn't attend. Clear agendas (with topics, timings, and durations) make it easier to know how and where to contribute as a member. We are able to hold each other accountable with our todo and update agenda items.

NOTES

• We have many committed, cooperatively-engaged people putting in time

• important to name the practices: recaps, agendas, notifications, to-do items, meetings with WGs, caring approach to each other, integrating consent into decision-making about priorities and backlogs and nominations  

• Care for other circles

  • Creating comradary and care within the group

  • Good "C-factor" (care, cooropeation, comradary)

• using wiki more increases transparency, member access

• created a space for global view of co-op strategy/ops

• we are joined in this work, having never met in person(!)...

• edits: comradery, connective tissues, wiki, global view of ops 

• a good C factor (add reference here about Luis Razeto Migliaro) https://geo.coop/articles/how-create-solidarity-enterprise

1405 [15 min] Deltas: What may need to change about how we operate moving forward?

There are some things that have not worked well over the last year. We have started several conversations around big topics that are unresolved and not clear how they would be. The role of Organizing Circle in the broader governance of social.coop is still unclear. We are reliant on 1-2 members of the circle for meeting facilitation and administration duties. How to develop and maintain policy documents still feels tenuous.

NOTES

• How to involve more people in this work?

• Why and how this system works is unclear, but glad it works

• Member engagement: we are well resourced -- $ and people -- how can we engage them/us in meaningful ways? Stewardship? We could take on any number of projects, including making Fediverse strong. We are underutilizing our resources How can we steward all this?

• Keeping an eye on backlog: have to face them before they become emergencies, need a regular backlog clearing practice

• Time commitment for serving on both working groups and organizing circle is high

• Talk with Framasoft to learn from them? In general, learning from other groups/people. https://framasoft.org/en/

• Learning from other groups we admire

• Our work feels under-recognized and under-engaged/valued generally by the membership - increase more communications

• member engagement -- we are now in a better place to reach out to members

• more use of sortition to draw in people... "Any cook can govern"

• EDITS:

  • backlog tracking/wrangling - give this a regular rhythm - avoiding crisis decisions when possible

  • under-engagement with general membership - leveraging our talents

  • tracking time commitments

  • filling out capacity building - learning from other groups

• TODO:

  • Kathe - post recap, announcement, 

  • Kathe/Matt - run a poll to see if people have read the recap (link to wiki), give them a chance to comment

    • Reflections on 2024

    • Harvest 2025 topics on Loomio

  • January: review Loomio permissions for subgroups (Caitlin, Eduardo, Matt)

[? min] Candidate selection: https://www.loomio.com/d/7lEkDjNh/call-for-nominations-organizing-circle-seeks-new-at-large-member

• Both great candidates

• No red flags

• Good to get new person involved; also good to elevate past contribution

• Good to include people with transnational experience, binary person

• Good to have involvement of someone from coop.cloud

• Good to boost diversity

  • Luke: https://social.coop/deck/@loppear 

  • Ammar: https://social.coop/@ammaratef45 

• TO-DO

  • Matt  -- contact both Ammar and Luke to thank them and invite them to participate

1420 [5 min] Backlog:

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

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

  • Meeting notes archiving and organizing https://www.loomio.com/d/PIeVbXCH/determine-a-meeting-notes-location-for-oc-and-wgs-

• revisit onboarding documentation

• 2025 set goals and priorities for social.coop for the next year

1425 [5 min] Feedback: How are you leaving this call?

• missed our meeting, really happy to be here working together, looking forward 

• grateful to Kathe for writing recap and editing it, posting it on Wiki

• need more space like this in the world; grateful to Kathe for facilitation

• we will start a new adventure in January with a new person! Onward!

• grinning, generating good concrete ideas

Recap

Today we revised the 2024 recap and made a plan for feedback/dissemination to social coop. We also selected a new At-Large member to start at the New Year!

2024 Organizing Circle Recap

Broadly our activities over 2024 broke down into three categories: how we do things in Organizing Circle, coordination activities across working groups with Social.coop and started broad discussions on various topics. We 1) held regular meetings every other week, 2) developed a sense of team, and 3) decided to operate Organizing Circle mostly following Sociocracy patterns with formal agendas, facilitation, note taking, and documented our discussions/decisions on the wiki and in loomio threads. We facilitated coordination between working groups (Tech, Finance, and Community) by exchanging regular updates in our meetings and setting up meetings between Organizing Circle and each working group during the fall. We improved and updated documentation on wikipedia. Finally we started several important discussions on a range of topics including social.coop decision making structures, compensation, and onboarding, as well as collaboration with the external cooperative movement.

We are particularly proud of how we operate as a circle, although there are places to improve. We created a safe/brave space where each member is heard by the rest of the group and created good C-factor in the group (reference from Luis Razeto Migliaro) https://geo.coop/articles/how-create-solidarity-enterprise. Each member has something valuable to offer the group and is missed when someone doesn't attend. Clear agendas (with topics, timings, and durations) make it easier to know how and where to contribute as a member. We are able to hold each other accountable with our todo and update agenda items. Finally this group provided a space for an overview discussion spanning social.coop as an organization.

There are some things that have not worked well over the last year. We have started several conversations around big topics that are unresolved and not clear how they would be. Relatedly there is a backlog of discussion topics that we were unable to clear. The role of Organizing Circle in the broader governance of social.coop is still unclear. We are reliant on 1-2 members of the circle for meeting facilitation and administration duties. How to develop and maintain policy documents still feels tenuous. There is a general feeling of under-engagement of our membership and capacities. While we have tremendous volunteers, we don't know who is donating what time and worry about burnout. Finally there is a feeling that we are not leveraging lessons learned from other organizations and have under-developed our volunteer training.

To Do List

• Kathe - schedule legal meeting

• Eduardo M - Loomio thread on using wiki to draft/document onboarding process

• Matt: communicate with CWG about matrix/Zulip etc - IN PROCESS

• Flan: start a thread or book a meeting to discuss next steps in the messaging space cross-WG -> https://social.coop/@flancian/113442146418892106

• Caitlin: moving our public calendar item meeting date