Social.coop governance scoping

Kathe TB Public Seen by 220

Greetings everyone!

The Organizing Circle met today and below is the recap. We are looking for feedback on reworking the governance policy for social.coop. Please read the recap below and comment on what the Organizing Circle should consider when drafting this policy (aka what is the scope?).

We identified the need for two levels of governance: one for social.coop and a second for the Organizational Circle. Governance needs to address how decisions are made and what processes support this. We want to center the following values in our governance: transparency, engagement, equity, and simplicity. An identified tension is how to listen to individual concerns from the minority while hearing feedback the majority. A question is what decisions are made in Loomio threads vs in working groups or circles (ie recent discussion around involvement in a research project https://www.loomio.com/d/2bIqy6FW/proposal-to-participate-in-eu-research-project vs a theoretical proposal to redistribute surplus budget direct to members).

Many folks in the Organizing Circle are familiar with sociocracy (https://www.sociocracyforall.org/) and this structure seemed popular in the discussion. General tag lines for sociocracy are

Good enough for now, safe enough to try.
Those who do, decide.

We had lots of discussion around possible tech stacks including: Loomio threads for agenda/recaps supported by Wiki for documentation of termed policy. A challenge would be to ensure we revisit policies in a timely way.

In the Organizing Circle we are going to loosely adapt a consent decision model. Kathe TB (me!) noted that she is getting training certification and could offer training if folks are interested in the future. Folks were generally enthusiastic about the agenda construction, facilitation, and timeliness of the meetings to date.

Question to the general group: We seem to be outgrowing direct decision with Loomio and need a bit more structure. What else should we consider in designing the governance document for social.coop?

Link back to agenda and notes thread: https://www.loomio.com/d/zI1q0w95/organizing-circle-meeting-2024-january-30-tuesday-1300utc

Kathe TB Mon 19 Feb 2024 3:23PM

@Ed Summers edsu Documenting existing practices could also be useful to help us clarify where we are starting from.

Ed Summers @edsu Sat 24 Feb 2024 12:30PM

@Kathe TB as far as I know all we really have at the moment is in the wiki? https://wiki.social.coop/wiki/Governance

Kathe TB Sat 24 Feb 2024 4:00PM

@Ed Summers edsu Nice. We did notice the wiki and it's good to confirm there isn't anything else floating around!

Kathe TB Tue 27 Feb 2024 3:15PM

Organizing Circle identified the following types of involvement with social.coop all types currently are open to volunteer entry.

Types of Involvement

Microblogging - Mastodon server account: inactive, invisible, and visible

Entry: Required OpenCollective account, no mandate on contributing (https://wiki.social.coop/wiki/Bylaws)

Financial contribution - OpenCollective account: non-contributing and contributing

Strategic contribution - Loomio account: inactive, invisible, and visible

Entry: Required OpenCollective account, no mandate on contributing

Operational contribution - Working group involvement and key role holders

Entry: social invitation, and sortition process

Social groups - non-working groups: reading groups, Matrix discussion board

^ Taken from https://www.loomio.com/d/xMeTqRsg/organizing-circle-meeting-2024-27-february-tuesday-1300utc

Does this align with your understanding? Are we missing anything?

Ed Summers @edsu Tue 27 Feb 2024 9:18PM

@Kathe TB it does ... but I'm having trouble understanding what "inactive, invisible, and visible" means in this context.

Kathe TB Tue 27 Feb 2024 11:38PM

@Ed Summers edsu In this context an inactive user is someone who has an account but never opens it. An invisible user is someone who reads content but does not post. A visible user posts or boosts content.

@MarieVC (social.coop/@MarieVC) might have a better explanation.

Kathe TB Tue 27 Feb 2024 3:17PM

Decision making

Organizing Circle recap-ed how decisions are made on social.coop in the following way

Decisions in social.coop break into strategic and operational. Strategic decisions guide operational decisions and are currently made via Loomio with a staged proposal process and modified consensus (https://wiki.social.coop/wiki/Bylaws). Operational decisions are taken on via working groups and key role holders, loosely by domain but often modified by capacity.

^ Taken from https://www.loomio.com/d/xMeTqRsg/organizing-circle-meeting-2024-27-february-tuesday-1300utc

Does this align with your understanding? Are we missing anything? Is there something about this you would like to change? Is there something that has not worked well in the past?

Katanova Tue 27 Feb 2024 9:12PM

With regards to how money is spent, here's an idea: use the money to enable members of social.coop to travel to meet each other in-person.

I believe that one of the most important things we can do as a community is enable our members to talk with each other face-to-face, enabling members of social.coop to build meatspace connections.

Poll Created Tue 26 Mar 2024 2:25PM

Membership aspects Closed Tue 2 Apr 2024 2:00PM

Outcome

by Kathe TB Tue 2 Apr 2024 7:48PM

This proposal for membership involvement is accepted. We will revisit this in 6 months or sooner if needed. This decision is also trialing the review feature of Loomio and set for (an unrealistic) 2 days to see how it comes back up for review.

What is the decision you need to make?

We identified the following types of involvement with social.coop (all engagement is voluntary and at choice):

Microblogging - via Mastodon server account. Members may be inactive (account abandoned), invisible (no content generation but reading and possibly sharing via other avenues), and visible (content generation)
- Entry: Required OpenCollective account, no mandate on monetary contributing (https://wiki.social.coop/wiki/Bylaws)
Financial contribution via OpenCollective account. Members may be non-contributing and contributing.
Strategic contribution via Loomio account. Members may be inactive, invisible, and visible.
- Entry: Required OpenCollective account, no mandate on contributing. Required social.coop Mastodon account, no mandate on activity status.
Operational contribution via working group involvement and key role holders
- Entry: social invitation, and sortition process
Social groups are non-working groups: e.g., reading groups, Matrix discussion board, regional meet-ups.
- Entry: social invitation

(See wiki draft here: https://wiki.social.coop/wiki/Governance#Membership_aspects)

Why is this important?

In order to move forward with an engagement plan for the community we need to identify and define where we are right now. This will be used to develop introduction material and orientations as well as look to build out our governance model by defining the aspects of membership or ways we connect as members.

What are you asking of people in this proposal?

Organizing circle is experimenting with some of the Loomio options and are the ones asked to consent to this decision. If you have an Objection, please say why and propose a change to the proposal that makes it safe.

All other members are invited to comment on this decision, we value your input!

Remember we are seeking consent for a ‘good enough’ decision that is 'safe to try', so we can make a good decision for our organization.