So I would rework this a bit. It's not clear here what the working groups do nor that some are looking for open volunteers and others are going through the selection process. Can we update this a bit? Maybe borrow some of the language from the recap/notes from the last OC meeting?

Is there room for At Large members in the CWG? I would love to help out, but as I've never done moderating before, feel it's better that I get a feel for how it's actually done so that I can volunteer confidently next round there is a call for volunteers.

@Melissa Santos do you want to tag in here?

@Kathe TB not sure of Loomio best practices, but replying directly to Silver

@Silver Huang YES! I've been an at-large member of the CWG for some time now.. over a year? And there's a lot of valuable stuff we can do to contribute - everything from responding to requests from members and other coops to attending meetings to helping talk out sticky moderation issues. (We do also need a few more moderators, to be clear - but there's plenty of other work too!)

CWG has dreams of doing more member activities: socials, bookclubs, whatever would be fun to get people engaged. But our current roster doesn't have time/energy for doing that kind of work. I think CWG could do a lot of Community oriented things if folks are interested in joining in!

@Melissa Santos Oh that sounds wonderful, I would love to be able to contribute even in peripheral ways.

My only other question would be timings for meetings, as I'm in Australia (Melbourne time). Unfortunately, I can't do too late (anything extending after 9 pm) or early (before 9 am) any more, because of my health (ME/CFS). I'm not sure what times the meetings usually take place, but if I'm unable to attend due to time zone difficulties, will that be a barrier or issue to volunteering?

@Silver Huang it would make things harder, but not impossible! A couple of us are on the US west coast and could maybe meet with you in our evening/your next morning. Our usual meeting time is 9a my time, which I think is 2a your time! not so likely. we also do a lot of thinking/talking things through asynchronously either via DM or we're experimenting with using Zulip for chatting.

Do sign up if you're interested, and we'll get in contact with you and sort something out!

@Melissa Santos Cool! Okay, will sign up, and thank you!

@Silver Huang  Yes! I invite you to just start attending meetings of working groups. CWG and most working groups welcome people to just drop in and get feel for the vibes and start asking questions. Onboarding new members for the working groups is informal right now. We [the Organizing Circle members] intend for the working groups to formalize their own membership processes and responsibilities: who is "IN" and who is "OUT" and who "has permissions" and for how long.

HISTORY AND OVERVIEW OF THE MOMENT: We are struggling to create continuity through processes for membership succession within Social.Coop: older members of Working Groups should be replaced with new people, bringing new energy, and the work should continue without work stoppages or losses, or revolutions. ... I am a member of the Finance Working Group and its current rep to the Organizing Circle. I would like to stop repping to the Organizing Circle, but I don't see another person to do this work yet. We will see who joins the FWG this season. Then, also, we would want to stagger the new FWG representative's starting time on the Organizing Circle.... so, the new At-Large members of the OC (who start in January 2026) can get comfortable before we replace the FWG rep to the OC. Reps to the OC from the Community Working Group and the Tech Working Group have already had turnover with some success.

A little more information here:

Organizing Circle coordinates efforts between the working groups and catches anything that does not cleanly fall into work group domains. Organizing Circle is looking for 3 new at-large members that will be selected via sortition (random jury picking from a volunteer list). This group is particularly looking for facilitation experience but everyone is welcome. Meeting cadence has been 1.5 hours every other week but that is something that the new group could change. The new group will tentatively start January.

Community Working Group moderates our Mastodon instance and new member joins. This group generally maintains a budget for moderator stipends. Community Working Group is looking for volunteers, if you select 'Community Working Group' on the form, someone will reach out to you about getting you integrated and spun up. No experience needed. There is a lot of work done asynchronously via Zulip but there are also regular meetings 1-2 times a month.

Tech Working Group maintains our instances and generally tends our tech stack. This group generally maintains a budget for tech services. Tech Working Group is looking for volunteers, if you select 'Tech Working Group' on the form, someone will reach out to you about getting integrated and spun up. No experience is needed but some may be useful ( @Flancian can you specify what might be useful below). Most of the work is done asynchronously and their Matrix channel is quite active. Meetings are irregular.

Finance Working Group budgets and authorizes charges to our Open Collective account. Finance Working Group is looking for volunteers, if you select "Finance Working Group" on the form, someone will reach out to you about getting integrated and spun up. No experience is needed. Meetings are irregular.

Legal Working Group mitigates legal risk to our volunteers and organization. Specifically this new group will be tasked with 1) aggregating concerns from members around legal issues 2) tracking international developments to regulate social media and 3) develop a organizational structure to shield volunteers from legal risk. This group will maintain a budget for legal and professional consultations. Legal Working Group has tried a few times to get off the ground and we are hoping that 2026 is the year! This group is going to be formally stood up via the sortition process (random jury picking from a volunteer list).

Come join us and help continue to make social.coop the best part of the Fediverse!