Loomio
Thu 25 Oct 2012 12:46AM

The name of our cooperative

MR [email protected] Public Seen by 53

I'd like to get all of your support, or discussion, to do the following actions.

Set up a cooperative company called Freerange Cooperative Limited.

Establish the seven directors: Barnaby Bennett (Christchurch), Gina Moss (Melbourne), Greta Gilles (Melbourne), Joe Cederwall (Wellington), Federico Monsalve (Auckland), Jacqui Moyes (Wellington), Byron Kinnaird (Melbourne).

The seven directors will establish the company, set up the constitution. Basically a normal company exists to provide income to its share holders, while a cooperative exists to provide value to its cooperative members. This value can be non-financial. The seven directors will work out what the value is that the Freerange Cooperative is providing to you all. Effectively we are setting up as a media cooperative that produces print and online media of various types.

BK

Byron Kinnaird Thu 25 Oct 2012 6:04AM

I tend to use "Project Freerange" at the moment (although just "Freerange" seems to work), and I think it remains relevant for the co-op. I like the idea that as a 'Project' we have aims, tactics, projects, etc, that fall under our cooperative spirit & organisation (which will be articulated in the coop documents). This also allows Project Freerange to openly take on projects like Songs For Christchurch which (for example) don't use the 'Press' function apart from its contact list. It also offers Freerange to evolve more flexibly, if for example, the Press platform is joined by another platform that we develop in years to come. But now im getting into the discussion of how exactly the co-op is defined, which is inevitable I suppose.
I also think "co-op" has developed connotations of food.

MN

Mark Newton Thu 25 Oct 2012 8:37PM

[[[I just wrote the following post after reading only the first line of Byron's post. Interesting how similar our idea's are]]]

I also use Project Freerange most often and think it is a good name, but I also like Freerange Press, and Freerange Cooperative Press. However, I wonder if using "press" in the title limits the scope of whatever Freerange's aims are going to be... It started as an architecture group, right? On the other hand, if the role of Freerange is now primarily printing and publishing, it would make sense to use "press".

Definitely looking forward to nailing down some terms of reference so that people like me, with only a loose association with Freerange, know what we're doing. I wonder if the ToR should be defined prior to the naming i.e. if we know what we're trying to achieve and how we're going to do it, then choosing a name might be a whole lot easier.

Sorry, that's probably a counter productive suggestion. I say call it "Project Freerange", and have sub-branches within that i.e. Freerange Press.

MB

Mairead Bilton-Gough Fri 26 Oct 2012 1:58AM

There's no real reason behind my choices, but hey, any input is good right?
I like Freerange Press, Project Freerange or Freerange Cooperative Press. They have a nice ring to them.
I also think Mark's suggestion is good: "I say call it 'Project Freerange', and have sub-branches within that i.e. Freerange Press."

And freerange.coop reminds me of chickens and eggs...

JM

Jessie Moss Sun 28 Oct 2012 9:10AM

I like Freerange Cooperative Press. It makes it pretty clear what it is, that is a cooperative press....and being cooperative seems to encompass projects too.

DF

Dale Fincham Sun 28 Oct 2012 7:30PM

I was about to write my response until I saw Byron's... literally took the words right out of my mouth re: his excellent distinctions between 'Project Freerange' and simply 'Freerange'. I think simply 'Freerange' works well for co-op, which allows 'Project Freerange' the fluidity of different trajectories.

GM

Gina Moss Mon 29 Oct 2012 1:36AM

I like Freerange Co-op, because it covers all the bases and branches of what Freerange does, having Press in the name limits it a bit I think...

EKP

Eric Krassoi Peach Tue 30 Oct 2012 2:18PM

Hey everyone. I've not been participating in the discussion because I'm not really fussed and am happy to leave the decision-making to all you capable folk. I'm still keeping an eye on this though, but I am happy with whatever you decide. Take care and see you in December.

BK

Byron Kinnaird Sun 18 Nov 2012 12:56AM

From comments below, it seems that 'Press' can reasonably be excluded from the Co-op title for flexibility and future diversity. We're left with strong support of:

  1. Freerange.
  2. Freerange Co-op.
  3. Project Freerange.

Thinking again on this, the legal title is important, but we all obviously use the above variations colloquially, so the final decision feels less weighty. "Project Freerange" is a great url, and although it predominantly represents the Press at the moment, I like this as a web presence. I can see either Freerange or Freerange Co-op being suitable legal titles, although personally I find Co-op unnecessary. If we are to choose 'Project Freerange' I think we need to develop more clearly the terms of the organisation, because we haven't declared what our Project is yet, so it seems preemptive, but I still quite like it because it sounds very active. Thoughts from the Egg?

JC

Joseph Cederwall Sun 25 Nov 2012 8:59PM

I agree with Byron's thoughts below - the Legal name is not a huge issue as it does not prevent us from using any of the other variations. Basically for the Legal name if we are registering as a co-operative company in New Zealand then we may or may not have the word 'co-operative' or 'co-op' in it. However it must have 'Limited' in the name.

I would personally favour 'Freerange Co-operative Limited' over 'Freerange Limited' as that just sounds oxymoronic and weird.

I think there is some evidence somewhere which shows people prefer to do business with a co-operative company over a regular company and i think its valuable having the word in there as it says what we are about. Outside of NZ co-ops are far more widespread and well respected and certainly not contained to the food industry.

MR

[email protected] Wed 28 Nov 2012 10:05PM

Freerange Cooperative Ltd it is!

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