Loomio
Sun 10 Dec 2017 1:54PM

The way forward for OurField Weston..

GH Grahame Hunter Public Seen by 45

Abby Rose: I just updated the title of this group to be more general about the way forward for OurFieldWeston as I think we have moved into a more general discussion now. (Jan 24th 2018)

_Background _

We have 43 members in the OurField Weston co-operative: 42 members with one farming share, and John Cherry who has 18 farming shares, so a total of 60 farming shares altogether. For each farming share £150 was subscribed.

In addition, the external co-operative members but not John Cherry contributed £50 to theOurField organisers account from which various external costs and events have been paid.

The co-operative farming account has £3,952 in cash so each farming share is worth now £65.82 _ and also _ 250kg of unhulled spelt from the 2017 harvest.

The cooperative farmed a large part but not all of one field (20 acres out of 28 acres).

In the next year I would propose as follows

  • That John is bought out of his major stake in the farming shares (it is anomalous, as he is effectively “employed” by the cooperative to farm for them)

  • That the cooperative farms the entire field (so takes on a further 8 acres in addition to the present farmed area of 20 acres)

  • That the increased risks of the above are partly mitigated for the present cooperative members, by attracting 18 new members to replace John's large stake – so retaining the original total of farming shares at 60.

__ If these points can be agreed,__ the consequential matters going forward are:-

  • At what price do the new members acquire their farming shares?

  • Do new co-operative members also pay £50 away, for the organisers’ portion?

  • Is it reasonable that if the organising committee is allowed to fall away, that _ the administrative and event costs are taken up and apportioned by all the 60 farming cooperative members equally_ (some members may not attend events)?

  • Are the members of the co-operative willing to contribute to a continuing accounting / facilitating role which will have some costs: probably around £30 monthly, or 50p per member per month.

  • What will be the method of calculating the price at which any retiring members would be paid out?

  • Will present co-operative members be allowed to increase their farming stake - ie to acquire one or more new farming stakes from retiring members?

  • If yes to existing members increasing their stake, would they then be allowed more votes in polls?

TA

Tony Allan Sun 10 Dec 2017 3:56PM

_Background _
From Tony Allan
Thank you Grahame for summarsing the situation and the issues that need decisions.

In the next year YOU proposes as follows

That John is bought out of his major stake in the farming shares (it is anomalous, as he is effectively “employed” by the cooperative to farm for them) AGREED

That the cooperative farms the entire field (so takes on a further 8 acres in addition to the present farmed area of 20 acres) AGREED

That the increased risks of the above are partly mitigated for the present cooperative members, by attracting 18 new members to replace John’s large stake – so retaining the original total of farming shares at 60.

AGREED. I have a potential new member.

__ If these points can be agreed,__ the consequential matters going forward are:-

At what price do the new members acquire their farming shares? `I NEED MORE INFORMATION

Do new co-operative members also pay £50 away, for the organisers’ portion? YES

Is it reasonable that if the organising committee is allowed to fall away, IS THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE FALLING AWAY? that _ the administrative and event costs are taken up and apportioned [<< DO YOU MEAN THESE COSTS ARE LIABILITIES OF THE MEMBERS?] by all the 60 farming cooperative members equally_ (some members may not attend events)?

Are the members of the co-operative willing to contribute to a continuing accounting / facilitating role which will have some costs: probably around £30 monthly, or 50p per member per month. I AM WILLING

What will be the method of calculating the price at which any retiring members would be paid out? I NEED ADVICE ON WHAT NORNAL PRACTICE WOULD BE.>

Will present co-operative members be allowed to increase their farming stake - ie to acquire one or more new farming stakes from retiring members? YES

If yes to existing members increasing their stake, would they then be allowed more votes in polls?

NOT SURE. WITHOUT GIVING THE MATTER GREAT THOUGHT I JUDGE THAT A MEMBER COULD ONLY BE ABLE TO HAVE TWO VOTES NO MATTER HOW MANY SHARES THEY HAVE. HAS SOMEONE MORE EXPERIENCE? AGAIN THANK YOU

D

Darren Mon 15 Jan 2018 9:07PM

I've been thinking long and hard about all this and trying to figure out a way forward that I hope would be agreeable with everyone whos been involved in Ourfield.
Theres a lot of stuff to consider and I've been trying to imagine peoples motivations for involvement, whether that be someone just buying a share and doing nothing else, the organising team, Grahame or John, as a way to inform the draft of a proposal I'm going to share.

I'm making the assumption that most people are involved because of one or more of these :

  • learn more about farming
  • explore an alternative economic arrangement for farming
  • learn about more sustainable farming methods
  • be involved in the production of some of your food
  • get involved in an interesting participatory project
  • support the OurField project financially

I haven't include 'an investment', because I doubt anyone joined to make money, although I imagine we would all like to see OurField be financially viable.

With this in mind, the belief that theres still a reasonable desire among people for OurField to continue, and given recent posts from Graham and Abbie I'd like to propose we set up some kind of not-for-profit co-operative to continue and expand the OurField experiment.

For anyone who would like to see something more profit motivated created, I think that could easily be created, based upon the model of OurField once/if we can map out a viable way of making this kind of collaboratively managed farming enterprise work. Its early days and this is all rather experimental.

I think it would be great if all those who've been involved (that would include the Cherrys, Graham and the organising team) would join this co-operative, although possibly some may wish to step out at this stage.

I'll leave it there for now - I've been working on a proposal for how this co-op would be created and organised, I'll post it in the coming days.

TA

Tony Allan Tue 16 Jan 2018 8:48AM

Dear Darren
Very many thanks for taking the initiative in providing a thoughtful analysis and for suggesting the establishment of a cooperative mode for the OurField enterprise. Your six motivations are perceptive and I remain committed to the OutField project because I I am moved by all six.
I have no experience of being a member of a cooperative nor am I informed on their workings or of the resources needed to manage one. I look forward to your draft proposal. Considering and discussing it will be a very useful process for all of us.
Count me as being very much in favour of the OurField activity.

D

Darren Sun 21 Jan 2018 11:04PM

Apologies -out of necessity this is rather lengthy, but also, I feel, quite important.

My proposal for how to move forward would be -

If they wish any existing 'investors' can take their portion of the OurField working fund that would include the income gained once the spelt is sold and accounts for last year finalized and leave the OurField group.

People who wish to continue with OurField would pay their part of the working fund to buy shares in, and become a founding member of the new OurField co-op. This money would then continue to be used as working capital.

OurField Co-operative Proposal

The OurField Co-operative will be formed for the purpose of developing, through action research, a viable model for a collaborative farming enterprise where the membership is empowered to actively collaborate on the management of the enterprise.

People who have been directly involved in the running of OurField, but have not got a 'farming share' (eg the organisers, John and Grahame) can also become founding members. I would suggest that this is either for free, in recognition of services rendered, or at the same rate as existing 'investors' - a point of discussion.

Membership is then opened up with a requirement of £200 for new members. I'd hope that by opening up membership we'd get some more members ready to be actively involved in orgaising the enterprise and hopefully more money invested to fund increase activities.

I dont believe it was ever explained how John came to have so many 'farming shares', but making the assumption that he has paid £150 for each of his 'farming shares' into our working fund, my suggestion is that he can either cash out at their 'accounts finalized' value, or alternatively have this value, or possibly £150 per 'farming share', transferred into a similar value of co-op shares.

Anyone who wishes to support OurField financially, beyond the amount required to acquire enough shares to qualify for membership, can purchase more shares.
All shares are withdrawable at their agreed value - with a 3 month notice you can get your money back. The co-op can choose to pay a small interest on shares or suspend the withdrawal of shares. If the co-op is found to be making a loss - the value of shares can be reduced, to reflect this loss.

Its often said that farming is not profitable, I don't imagine we are likely to start making huge profits, but if we did suddenly find ourselves with a significant surplus I'm sure we could usefully spend them - remunerating members for their work for the co-op, expanding our activities, donating food to food banks, supporting other like minded projects etc.

We should start planning for this (and possibly future) years growing. If we gain new members or members purchase enough shares, and Weston Farm is agreeable we could increase the area to include the rest of the field, or possibly even expand into a second field.

I suggest that OurField is set up and operated so that, as much as is practically possible, decision making and other co-op business happens on the internet in a fashion that is visible both to members and the public (so people can learn from our experiences). To save members who do not have the capacity for involvement from floods of emails, we move significant portions of discussion about our activities away from the main Loomio group. These alternative discussion venues (I would suggest, at least initially, sub-groups of our Loomio group) are open for the participation of all members.

Organisation structure

Ideally I think we should incorporate as a co-operative society. I've attached a draft constitution for a co-operative society.
This is the rules of how the co-op will operate. Because of legal requirements they are complex, but we can write our own much simpler rules to operate under, but will have these robust rules to fall back on if that is ever found to be necessary.

The constitution is unusual and allows decisions to be made on the internet and members to attend the AGM via remote connection (any method that enables two way communication). This constitution complies with UK law and would be acceptable to the Financial Conduct Authority - the registering body of co-operative societies. Its a bit long, but some may find it an interesting read, and I think provides us with a robust framework under which to continue.

We would need a secretary and at least three directors, although I think, if most business is completed online, and we get sufficient participation from members, we can structure things so that any additional work connected with these roles would be very limited or non-existent. Ideally the directors would keep track of the co-op's activities and be prepared to step up in the, hopefully, unlikely event that we encounter a crisis.

I'm happy, at least initially, to volunteer to take on the secretary role, which is the role that would involve the most extra work. I'd also be very happy for someone else to do this if anybody is interested/keen.

If it looks like we don't have the funds (there are registration charges & probably higher administration costs), or energy to set up the co-operative, we could, at least initially, continue our operation as an unincorporated association with clear articles of association (rules for how it operates) and a bank account.

I've got experience with organisation creation and am happy to work on the creation of an OurField organisation.

Planning and Decision making

As mentioned previously, I propose that we move most of the discussions away from the main Loomio group, to avoid the notification email overload that some people have expressed. I think we should set up different Loomio sub-groups to work on different aspects of our enterprise (eg. crop planning and management, produce sales, finance, administration, new member outreach - initially all these groups could be combined into a 'organising' group)

All these sub-groups would be open for any member to join - joining a sub-group does not create a requirement for a member to do anything - they can just watch, although I would like to point out that OurField will only be as great as our combined actions.

These sub-groups should work on (where possible and applicable, costed) proposals for action, to take back to the main group for voting.

WA

Wendy Alcock Thu 25 Jan 2018 10:29AM

I also wanted to add my thanks for your recent posts Darren. They have obviously taken a lot of time to generate and explain and you have made some really interesting suggestions. Thank you :)

AR

Abby Rose Mon 22 Jan 2018 2:33AM

Wow @darren4 thanks for your very in depth assessment of the situation. Brilliant you have taken this on and in such a thoughtful manner, amazing. There is definitely a need for others to step up and take on roles and responsibilities. I would be happy to be part of the Co-op model but I think this is something that John would have to consider quite a bit and it may be easier to continue as an unincorporated organisation for now as you suggest, with clear terms of how it's run. @grahamehunter is taking on a more comprehensive role from here on out in order to ensure that OurFieldWeston continues, so I will let him respond to some of your other thoughts for now about re-allocation of shares and new members etc!

GH

Grahame Hunter Tue 23 Jan 2018 7:20PM

I shall be at Weston early next week (29th January onwards) and will discuss this with John. It is not clear to me that there are any practical advantages from establishing a new organisation, over the informal arrangement that exists presently and which has already proven somewhat unwieldy. For many members I suspect the level of activity and commitment during the last 8 months has been about right.

The suggestion that the paid-up members may wish to be part of a more structured organisation is something we could vote on; but I think this should occur after we have determined who will remain in the OurField group after this year, such a vote to include the voice of the putative new members.

There are some issues about money and daily operations of our current OurField scheme which require attention. I had been waiting for a general posting / update from any one of the Organisers about their intended future role, but it could create more uncertainty if I delay further: so, in the next few days I will make a general post that will summarise what is happening currently with the money and other matters of general interest.

TA

Tony Allan Wed 24 Jan 2018 10:10AM

Thank you Darren, Abby and Grahame. Darren you have provided a very useful analysis and some very good ideas regarding options. Your experience is relevant.
Some thoughts:
1 We need John to be comfortable with whatever changes are proposed and he must participate - as much as he can - in discussions.
2 We need to hear from the founding members about what they feel about any proposed changes.
3 We need to hear more from Grahame. His initial comments are very useful. The relationship between OurFiled and The Farm is fundamental.
4 We need to recognise that most communication will be via Loomio and those making contributions would need to be comfortable with this model.
My position
5 I can contribute administrative time and I can buy an additional share(s).
6 I have one additional potential investor and could probably find 2 or 3 more.
7 I would be in favour of Darren acting in the role of Secretary

I'd appreciate seeing the latest version of the financial position.

AR

Abby Rose Wed 24 Jan 2018 1:26PM

Please see the important update here: https://www.loomio.org/d/69UaW2QX/important-announcement-organisers-role-after-jan-31st-2018 that is relevant to all.

GH

Grahame Hunter Fri 26 Jan 2018 4:03PM

Going forwards

There are quite a lot of linked points, and I will make several small posts to avoid burdening everyone with too much reading in a single Loomio block that I know downloads slowly on mobile phones..

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