Call for volunteers
Ammar
Public
Seen by 197
Social.Coop is looking for volunteers to participate in the Working Groups as existing members step down after spending a deeply appreciated term of 2 years helping run our collective.
If you have the time and energy, we encourage you to fill the interest form: https://share.mayfirst.org/apps/forms/s/sGpeGSpKjzbqafY2XnPNkHnS
Please select as many WGs as you wish, if selected you would be on one of the working group only so don't hold back!
How will the selection be made?
A randomly selected committee of 3 active social.coop members will convene to:
Review governance documents and social.coop organizational structure.
Review interest form responses and select members for the working groups prioritizing the needs of the working groups.
Make and announce the selection of the new members.
New members will serve a term of 2 years, we encourage everyone who can contribute their time to fill the interest form so we can have a diverse set of skills, views, and backgrounds helping with the coop governance.
More information on the working groups
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. 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!
Silver Huang Sun 28 Sep 2025 1:34AM
@Kathe TB Yes it does, thank you!
Daniel Brandes Sun 28 Sep 2025 5:35PM
Since the three need some background to make an informed decision, should applicants put some credentials into the free form at the end?
Ammar Tue 30 Sep 2025 4:07AM
@Daniel Brandes Credentials will be appreciated and will help the committee (in the case of Organizing Circle) and Working Groups with their selection
However, lack of prior experience shouldn't stop applicants from applying, since any and all skills can be acquired
@Kathe TB anything to add?
Caitlin Waddick, FWG/OC Thu 9 Oct 2025 5:10PM
@Ammar @dnlbrnds... Daniel and others: Yes, thank you! You could add one or two brief comments about what you personally have to offer. We are excited for your interest! After you fill out the form, the current Working Group members will reach out to you to ask about your specific gifts, skills, credentials, offerings. ... ANYTIME: You can reach out and sit in on a meeting of a Working Group to feel the vibes and ask questions.
Generally, the Working Groups require members who can show up reliably to most meetings and communicate between meetings and share power through collaborative decision-making (which they do in different ways). ...Only basic communication skills are necessary: willingness to use Loomio, use of Direct Messaging on Social.Coop, video conferencing skills (using Meet.Coop), and chat skills (the OC just started using Zulip; other groups have used Element and Matrix and Discord to "talk").
Kathe TB · Sat 27 Sep 2025 10:49AM
@Silver Huang does this help at all?