Cooperative Development Working Group

• The issues involved from scaling is a case in point. :D

The procedures that suit a 25-30 person group won't scale to a group of 150 people, or a group of 5000 people. This was an issue that i saw directly with the internal friction within the London Hackspace.

The LHS's search for solutions is still a work-in-progress. :D

• I have a list of templates and model rules that i have looked at, including the Radical Routes models for Housing Coops, the Somerset Rules for Housing Coops, and Worker's Coops, the One-Click-Org's rules for Mutuals ( Based on the CoopsUK models), which are rooted within the UK legal system.

• I have also come across, but not directly worked with, or fully understood, some of the models used in the USA, the Mutuelles in France, and the Uhistu models for Mututal Associations from Estonia. Again, a different set of legal jurisdictions and legal requirements.

• Nothing set up yet for the file storage, or the wiki. That's something i was going to ask the TWG about. :D

We do have changes coming to the wiki, and that would be an ideal place to put any notes, etc. I guess we need to clarify the purpose of this group. There's a ton of information out there for the different co-op types in many different localities. Many attempts to create comprehensive directories of co-ops have been done, and it's a monumental task that I'm not sure has ever really been done.

I feel that what's needed is a place to come together to talk about co-op development, and to maybe find others to maybe start said co-ops with, who have similar interests. I'm primarily interested in worker co-ops in California, USA, and federating these with international groups.

Maybe instead of calling this a working group, we could call it an interest or collaboration group? Just so it’s not confusing for new members trying to understand all the different groups, making it clear that this is distinct from our internal operational groups.

We'd be getting advice from the internal working groups anyway, as they will be ideal for squaring up the necessary legal, financial, and, technical infrastructures that every coop will need. :D

I haven’t yet been involved in any coop development, but eager to learn!

Love the principles and you've done a beautiful paraphrase. Interested in this.

Platform 6, based in the UK, maintain a few on-line co-op development (CD) resources:

Wiki of useful CD resources

CD Loomio Group

The Cooperative Principles are not the full description of a cooperative. The ICA promulgates a statement on Cooperative Identity that is much more detailed and, to my mind, the first principle.

"A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise."

The "needs and aspirations" language in particular is both focused (on needs) and forward looking (on how we want to be).

What are our economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations at social.coop? Governance structure is one thing, but to what end?

I propose thinking of this as more of an "interest group" than a working group (which is more focused on the specific business of running Social.coop). This could be similar to the book clubs that we've had in the past. Perhaps it could be organized around a hashtag and a monthly call on meet.coop?

That could work. :D

It's how we organised the sub-groups at the LHS.

A bunch of people interested in a specific domain met up regularly to work on things. :D

A good example is the Amateur Radio Club at the LHS.

• Two members started studying together for the UK amateur radio certification exams. Another member who had already sat the exams, found out about them, and was helping them practice for the practicals.

• A couple of other members became interested, as they thought it would be an interesting way to explore the technology. When they started to organise attending the exams as a group, they realised that the only qualified test was in Reading, an hour's train-ride West of London.

• They also found out the criteria required to qualify as a test-centre. They realised that getting a room in the hackspace set up to act as a test-centre was cheaper than 6 return tickets to Reading. :D

• It became one of the only test-centres for amateur radio exams in London. ( A couple more opened up after people saw how we did things. )

• This in turn became another anchor point for the London Hackspace. One of the rooms was booked out for 8 hour-blocks, three days a month, for formal classes, and the exams. Other members were asked to be quieter in the workshop on exam days. :D

• It also became another source of new members who initially were interested in radio, but also learned to use the other facilities we had built. :D

Getting regular talks from subject-domain experts in the specific technologies that we are working on would also be good. :D

• The TWG would be able to explain the best way to keep the tech-stack running.

• The Legal WG would be able to explain the pitfalls involved in writing effective Articles & Memoranda, as well as the differences arising from the underlying foundations of other legal jurisdictions.

• Got to chew over other sources of interesting speakers. :D