Nice, I see what you did there
Will try joining thanks for setting up!
1 Like
I had intended to be on this call, but something’s come up locally on a major project that I’m involved in, so I’ll need to give apologies on this occasion. I hope it goes well.
1 Like
I will leave the minutes till later tonight before archiving them on the wiki if anyone wants to add anything.
2 Likes
That was a good start, thank you everyone!
2 Likes
Feedback on the call from facilitator’s perspective:
- There was no agenda at the start of the call. - this will be fixed for June’s call
- It was somewhat unclear what the topic was supposed to be at each point in the meeting, which lead to a bit of jumping around on my part. - Polly’s facilitation style might be smoother than mine
- It was also unclear how to pass topics from person to person (that is until we discovered the raise hand button, which sadly does not exist for people dialling in from a mobile).
- Knowing which call to be in was difficult, I think next time having jitsi as the main one is the way to go. - Maybe the co-ordinator should be the one to “make the call” as it were to change to another service.
- The power of the call wasn’t clear. I don’t think the loomio proposal on the general circle has fully cleared yet, so it’s not known if the call can decide things. It was moot as it happens because the call had 8 coops represented, which is fewer than 12 (the quorum is 1/3 of CoTech, I’m not sure if 12 is 1/3 of the coops in CoTech). - I guess this is up to loomio to sort out. (Code-Operative hasn’t been accepted on loomio yet, that would be nice to sort out)
- I’m also not that familiar with Sociocracy so maybe some resources around that before the next time would be good. In particular, Id like to know at what point a facilitator is supposed to say, “that sounds like a new circle!” and what that means in terms of action points.
Overall though, very good first call. We got the next 3 call’s roles assigned, including @liam who is the coordinator for the next 3 meetings. I look forward to supporting him in his coordination efforts. I think getting to 12 coops shouldn’t be too difficult, especially if Liam has access to a mailing list or something which has all their contact details on.
I’m feeling very co-operative!
2 Likes
Oops, sorry I posted them before I saw this comment, feel free to improve them / fix the formatting etc.
No worries! Thanks Chris.
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for getting this call off the ground today, and in particular to those folks who’ve volunteered to take roles and steer in forward in the next three calls. I really appreciate everyones work on this!
I’m sorry noone from Go Free Range could make the call today, we’re all on site with a client this week and it was a bit short notice to free anyone up.
Thanks for the minutes - they’re really helpful. I have a slight concern about the 1/3 quoracy rule that was decided and would like to learn a bit more about the reasons behind it. It’s the first time I think I’ve seen this applied around CoTech decisions, and it’s not mentioned in our constitution, for example. It’s not that I feel it’s a bad idea per-se, it’s just looking at the last three decisions made on Loomio we’ve only had a maximum of 12 co-ops taking part. Given the time comitment to get involved in the call is greater than participating on Loomio I’m concerned that the monthly meeting will never be quorate by this standard and will fail to live up to the proposal’s call to make the meeting a synchronous decision making body for CoTech.
At least, I’d like us to consider whether all 36 co-ops listed on the CoTech website can be considered active participants to lower the barrier to getting quoracy. I think I’d prefer for us to decide that the meeting is the primary decision making body, and to use facilitation to ensure that people have enough time to consult and contribute to it. I think interest and participation in the meeting will dwindle if it doesn’t have the autonomy to make decisions.
That aside, I’m very excited that this is going ahead - so thanks again to everyone involved.
3 Likes
It is in the proposal from the gathering in Sheffield, perhaps @aaron and / or @dajbelshaw could explain their thinking behind it?
I think this is a good point, in addition I believe that the total is more like ~41 now since a few co-ops have joined but not been added to the site, for example, Creative.coop, Sleuth, GreenNet, DCDC, Form and Function (though this isn’t an addition as they are taking the place of Graphics co-op) and Code-Operative, so the required quorum is probably representatives of 13 co-ops.
See also the concern from Outlandish that the 1/3 quorum is too low on the Loomio thread.
I’m also not that familiar with Sociocracy so maybe some resources around that before the next time would be good. In particular, Id like to know at what point a facilitator is supposed to say, “that sounds like a new circle!” and what that means in terms of action points.
I’ve learnt a lot about how Sociocracy works in theory and practice from the book “Many Voices One Song Shared power with sociocracy” (Ted J. Rau & Jerry Koch-Gonzalez). I had a bunch of questions and @Kayleigh, @aaron and @polly helped me to understand things better in Sheffield. And we’re lucky to have @PeteBurden in the community too - so hopefully there’s some people to support you if you have questions. Thank you for taking on the role!
3 Likes
Thanks Chris! I can see the conversation is happening over there too. Perhaps I’ll cross-post 
1 Like
It is in the proposal from the gathering in Sheffield , perhaps @aaron and / or @dajbelshaw could explain their thinking behind it?
We need to make decisions and it’s unrealistic to have a representative from every co-op for every meeting. Most membership organisations have some kind of percentage requirement to make a quorum.
That makes total sense. I guess I’m arguing that 1/3 might be too high.
Hi all
I thought it was a great start. Thank you for letting me observe.
I agree, the “Many Voices One Song” book is great @chrislowis . Articles and videos about sociocracy - Sociocracy For All also has some great free resources.
On the Sociocracy idea more generally, I am very happy to answer questions and offer support to the facilitators if they want it.
But I am also cautious about ‘pushing’ Sociocracy for a number of reasons:
-
I don’t know if there is any kind of agreement in CoTech that Sociocracy (or at least decision-making by consent, rather than voting) is the way to go? Many people are much more familiar with voting it seems?
-
If that is the direction of travel, in my experience, Sociocracy is best implemented gently and in an emergent way - it often works better if it is implemented one step at a time (rather than a big bang), by building on what comes naturally and is easy. Are people happy with this kind of approach?
-
I also haven’t been invited to help or give support and don’t know if I have any legitimacy to do so?
What I did see today is John using the consent method rather well - by asking if there are any objections. This is a great example of building gently on what works well.
We also did a couple of ‘rounds’ including the final checkout round. This is a great way to pass topics from one person to another, for example, and also ensures everyone gets a say (a really important Sociocratic principle).
So in a way, maybe it is already happening? And I think it would be good to get more clarity on the questions above.
Pete
3 Likes