Hi Everyone!
My first post on the forum !!! Rather exiting !!!
Should we return to our monthly CoTech governance call we used to have every last wednesday of the month?
Let’s embrace the below decision making proccess.
https://wiki.coops.tech/wiki/Newcastle_2019/Governance_Decision_Making
We still have a little bit of time left, please think of any proposals and bring them to the circle call.
Btw. Is anyone up for hosting the call on their service ( whereby etc.)
Yes, we should and we’re happy to lend our zoom pro account to the cause
Yeah I was wondering about this too recently! Is this a general CoTech thing or only for the CoFund contributorzzz? And does an agenda get made/circulated before hand? (If all this info is already available somewhere please feel free to just point me there)
As I understand it the plan going forward is for them to be one and the same thing, ie to continue to be full members of cotech, co-ops will need to contribute £1 a week per member. Have a read of the link shared above for details. The wiki page still describes them as proposals but I’m fairly sure they’ve now been approved on Loomio.
Yes, I understood the same - but I think it’s a bit unclear when exactly that’s all happening. I guess it’s down to us to figure it out! 
@Michal_Animorph @SzczepanOfAnimorph do you have any more understanding on this, or should we just figure it all out on the call at the end of the month? And if we want to start paying our dues, how do we set that up? thanks all 
And if we want to start paying our dues, how do we set that up?
You can find out more about the fund in the fund
category. Let
me know if I can help!
@Lucy this is certainly work in progress! The proposals passed on Loomio in January paves the way for a complete decision-making process. On the same Loomio thread people kindly highlighted what needs to be looked at going forward, these concerns (and more to be discovered!) will be addressed at the coming gathering during Worker Coop Weekend.
The following call will be our first opportunity to use the process depicted on the drawing from the wiki.
We highlighted ‘External idea’ as an option so in theory even a person from outside CoTech could suggest a proposal to the Call. We would encourage everyone to post their idea before the governance circle meeting (e.g. on this thread), so we can add it to the agenda. The Call will aim to workshop proposals and get them to a stage when they can go to Loomio (unless there’s important work to be done to satisfy raised concerns, e.g. more research). Only then it becomes important who has contributed to the Fund (has a Voting Share), because only members of the co-ops that contribute financially can vote.
The pilot year of Fund has come to an end now, it was passed Loomio on the 8th of Feb 2019. We will produce a report summarising it and describe how it will continue existing as a part of CoTech governance.
Thank you all for supporting and contributing to this transition!
RE AGENDA: I would like to suggest doing a little summary of our last gathering in Newcastle.
Also, would be great to discuss the implications the proposals passed this January (describe above) and the fund report from this thread.
@KingMob thanks for agreeing to host the call, could you post the details, please?
Am I right in thinking we now have to contribute a small fee to become a voting member of CoTech now and have the ability to make decisions?
Unfortunate we weren’t made aware of this decision, but these things happen. It would have also been good to be aware this deliberation was occuring, as we would have liked to contribute as a smaller and newer cooperative to CoTech, though one now without the ability to decide on it’s direction.
Cotech General Circle Call
Time: Feb 26, 2020 04:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 787 309 757
Thanks for this, the fund has been unfolding since November 2018 in an entirely transparent manner outlined in the report I linked to above. So far taking part in the gatherings/hacks was indeed instrumental to shaping the direction of CoTech but the Governance Circle Calls established last year in Sheffield aim to facilitate engagement in-between the gatherings. The current iteration of decision-making process is building on this, and this work is ongoing. Please join the call tomorrow!
Thanks. It’s not a problem, these things happen, as I said. The point is to get better.
It would be good to be clear if we now have to pay to make decisions, at £56 per year per person. What I am reading is we need to pay this by 28th of February 2020, which is two days away and we heard about it yesterday (25th of February).
There is a difference between transparency (where it is on the person to find out how things are working) and being informed about decisions that effect you (where you are actively told).
For me, democratic institutions work on both principles, but when it is something important, like fundamentally changing the institutional arrangements of an organisation which your organisation is a part, then I would have been pleased to receive some kind of warning that this decision was being made or had been made. An email or two would have sufficed.
Indeed, the proposal itself says “Co-ops will be asked in the meantime whether they wish to be voting members”. I haven’t recieved any offer to become a voting member until I found this out (for myself) and asked this question. I don’t know if anyone else has on this forum, or more widely. And think it plausible others would be also surpised they were not aware of either a decision being considered or a decision being made. People are about to lose quite a bit of power to shape this institution, as far as I understand it, unless I am mistaken and the voting rights are limited to administration of the fund, which is not clear to me.
It seems that @Lucy is also confused and is asking similar questions. There is clearly an internal communications piece that has been skipped here. This isn’t to be overtly critical of people driving this work forward (which I support) but to be clear about how it has unfolded.
We will try and join the call today to clear this up. I would suggest considering a proposal to move this implementation date backwards to allow members to be more informed.
I highly suspect many of the coops that are part of CoTech will respond with a bit of surprise that CoTech will slip into being a subscription based model at the end of this month and they now have to budget for this if they want a say. To be totally clear, I am not opposed to this model per sae, but I am concerned most people don’t know.
I posted my concern about this to Loomio, I hope to be able to join the call this afternoon.
Sorry folks. I don’t know how to join a Zoom call? Is it not just in the browser?
I don’t want to install their random crappy app.
I dialled in via phone:
United Kingdom
+44 131 460 1196
+44 203 051 2874
+44 203 481 5237
+44 203 481 5240
Awesome! Well done for finding that!
Argh! Sorry I missed the call - checked in a day too late. Thanks for taking part and keeping minutes - I’ll join the next one.