Co-Tech Glasgow 2022

We’ve organised a field trip on the Friday afternoon of Co-Tech Glasgow for anyone interested in our co-operative history in Glasgow:

Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 1,000 objects related to the Glasgow Co-operative Movement and Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society dating from 1863.
The collection includes furniture, ceramics, banners, photographs and booklets. It also holds jars, bottles, tins, clothing, shoes, food packaging, leather goods and share books, in addition to booklets, leaflets, certificates, badges, trophies, yearbooks, tokens, a television and a car body.

Glasgow was closely associated with the development of the co-operative movement in Scotland.
Co-operative societies aimed to provide members with good quality products at affordable prices and pay them a regular dividend. The SCWS became an integral part of daily life for the majority of working class Scots. It was a major employer, manufacturer and retailer and provided welfare and banking through the share system. Co-operative societies also provided social, education and leisure opportunities through a network of clubs, choirs and women’s guilds.
It’s max 15 people so we’ll organise sign up on Thursday. We can travel out there together on public transport https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/venues/glasgow-museums-resource-centre-gmrc#how-to-get-here-3

2 Likes

Hi - to date, it looks like we’ll have a surplus of around £600 from the budget. I’d like to propose we put this behind the bar for the social evening so the entire evening is free to all.
This won’t go far though, as we’re also inviting folk who come along to the Open Session and some other local co-ops such as Green City who are organising the music/DJ-ing, so could we consider putting in a contribution from the Co-Tech fund as it’s Co-Tech hosted?

2 Likes

Best check with @chrislowis regarding the use of the fund.

Here’s how you could propose to spend money from the Fund - cotech / fund · GitLab

Historically people were not very keen on supporting party-related spending (particularly %%%) so might need careful phrasing!

Very excited to see you all this week!

1 Like

Hi Louise!

It’s great that the event has paid for itself - amazing job on organising and getting the ticket sales sorted out.

As Sz says, we have a bit of a convention to not use the fund for “just booze”, a proposal to use it for that might pass but I think it could be worth thinking of some options. Maybe:

  • Switch to a cash bar when the £600 runs out
  • Use the tab for guests rather than CoTech members
  • Propose to use the CoTech fund for some of the other expenses.
  • Don’t put any money behind the bar and put the £600 into the fund for the future
  • See if individual co-ops or companies will sponsor the bar tab

We’d give fund proposals at least 7 days to pass, so I don’t think we’ll get a decision before the money needs to be used. So you might have to spend any extra “at-risk” for now. I can chat to you some more about it when I arrive tomorrow if that helps?

2 Likes

Hi Chris

Thanks - yes, let’s have a chat when you get here.
I think having invited people for a social as part of Boss or Bossed? we do need to offer at least 1 drink, but we can have a think about it. We just need to have a policy in place by 7pm on Thursday!

1 Like

Apologies – I had hoped to attend both days but I can’t make it today. Tomorrow also looking unlikely. Hope everyone has a fun and productive time.

2 Likes

Hi guys

Lovely to see you all.
Here are some pictures from Glasgow. https://office.coops.tech/f/442360

7 Likes

Thanks so much for making it happen dear people at Media Co-op :balloon: - such a great time!

Here’s the notes from our workshop session on CoTech Coordinator - given the positive response from those gathered in room on the second day, this will be soon transformed into a proposal for Loomio @polly @KingMob @chrislowis

PS. please edit the wiki notes if I missed or misinterpreted something!

3 Likes

also there is some more video footage if anyone is keen on putting something together, let me know, I am happy to send it (they are large files).

1 Like

Hi, thanks that’s great!
Claire from media co-op is going to edit some footage / i’vs we shot on Thurs afternoon - anything you have would be really great. Her address is: claire@mediaco-op.net. If you can include a note on what’s in each file, roughly, that would be great. Thank you!

1 Like

Hey I’m a little late to the replies but thank you @Louise for an awesome event and thanks to @MelMcNab for the accommodation and thanks to @chris for the lift.
It honestly means a lot to me that you all helped me, it can be challenging and tough to get out to these events but I certainly will try my hardest to get to them, thanks again everyone :blush:

7 Likes

this is a very belated and very heartfelt THANK YOU to @Louise and everyone at Media Coop for organising such a fantastic gathering. No offence to anyone who’s organised past ones (includng myself) but I have to say I thought it was the best organised one yet. From the venue to the food to the agenda, everything was incredibly well considered - I didn’t managed to get to the Boss or Bossed sessions, but it was amazing to even have this as part of the schedule. Now tht I am in Scotland, I hope this is the beginning of a renaissance of scottish worker coops interacting and engaging with one another. :heart:

7 Likes

and big thanks to @MelMcNab and Code Operative for arrnaging accommodation and covering the costs for the rest of us. You didn’t have to do that, but I think it made it much easier for people like me (flying solo) to attend.

7 Likes

I want to echo what @aaron said - I’ve been on a little cloud of positivity and inspiration since coming back. Thanks so much to the Media crew who put in so much work to make it happen and everyone else for being awesome.

5 Likes

It was great to attend, a really great vibe and an incredibly warm welcome. I definitely got a boost from being together with everyone and hope to carry that sense of excitement and optimism back. Huge thanks to all for organising, hosting and participating. Can’t wait until we’re together again :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Hi folks - thanks to all of you including @chris @MelMcNab @hawkz @aaron @polly @liam @Eszter @SzczepanOfAnimorph for the positive feedback and for coming to Glasgow.

I hope we can host another event in Scotland sometime - it was brilliant having you all here.

Here’s a wee video Lucinda shot on her phone on Thursday afternoon at ‘Boss or Bossed?’ for the funders, edited by Claire and Jenni - feel free to share it on social media: Co-Tech: Boss or Bossed?

Here’s the embed code:

Have a brilliant Christmas and New Year and see you all in 2023.

4 Likes

Nicely done! Getting videos out is really good, what channels would that get circulated in?

Hi Steve
Thanks. We had to do something for the funder so we tried to make it relatively useful for ourselves to promote coops.
I’ve shared it with the workers.coop Comms and Mobilisation groups to use as they wish.
I also posted the link to Coop Dev Scotland and the Glasgow City Council team that look after coops and social enterprise here in the city.
We’ll post it on Fbk and Twitter for our own audiences.
But all suggestions welcome …

2 Likes