How we use proposals

While it is kind of sprawling I like how polls can come up in discussion threads, since the discussion itself provides context for why the poll exists. This happened when I asked a simple question about how we could manage shared calendars: https://www.loomio.com/d/U2Z6nYtR/calendars-on-loomio- When the deliberation moved to seeing if we should become a member of may First I decided to create it outside of the discussion. I wasn't quite sure whether this was the right thing to do or not, and kind of regretted having done that since it decontextualized the poll a bit.

When it comes to norms I think Loomio itself structures conversations in a particular way. I know that a lot of work and thinking went into the design of Loomio. I wonder if it would be helpful if we got some online guided training on how it is used, which included how we specifically use it in social.coop?

Thanks for your thoughts. I notice that that thread is from early October 2022, which is pretty recent, but before Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter was finalized and the subsequent really huge influx of new Mastodon users. Now I'm wondering how much social.coop in particular grew at that time.

I found the Moderation thread (which started on January 13, 2023) extremely uncomfortable, and at least one seasoned member of the community said that it felt like a bunch of people yelling at each other instead of listening. It sounded like part of the issue was the increase in size of social.coop, but I don't know how much of that has to do with the "Twitterpocalypse" as opposed to other recent trends. It's also entirely possible that it was just a more fraught topic.

In any case, I do believe there's some relationship between community size and the most appropriate tools for discussion and decision-making. Maybe I should read up on what community-size Loomio is designed for...

I am almost afraid to ask this and have a positive reply, but social.coop seems a great organization to use sociocracy to collaborate (see https://www.sociocracyforall.org/). If anyone is interested, I will be glad to share our -very good- community experience with sociocracy.

Could you post a few sentences describing what Sociocracy is and does? I at first assumed it was a software platform, but having clicked through it looks like something else. What was the context in which you used it, and what did you like about it?

There are some great introductory resources (including basic descriptions and a short video explainer) here: https://www.sociocracyforall.org/start-here/

Thanks @Dynamic for the question and @Alex Rodriguez for the support and help.

Sociocracy is a very practical system for taking decisions in a distributed, effective and efficient way, based on many of the same values of the Cooperative movement.

Alex reference is perfectly on point and Sociocracy for all a great organization to take as reference. They actually wrote a bit about the correspondences and complementation between Cooperativism and Sociocracy.

For those interested, it may be helpful to read

• Sociocracy in co-ops - Sociocracy in co-ops https://www.sociocracyforall.org/coop/

• The just passed Sociocracy in Cooperatives Conference 2022 - https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy-in-cooperatives-conference-2022/

In our case, we are a group of families growing a semi-rural or semi-urban community and sociocracy really allows us to do things that are quite unusual to see both in very practical terms as ideologically.

I hope that is useful... :)

I also stan Sociocracy @Eduardo Mercovich :) happy to share resources and support however I can.

Hi all, I just started a "Sociocracy Academy" with Sociocracy For All (SoFA). I'm in two groups that have been using it very successfully, what I really like is how it upends implicit power structures (privilege, whiteness) in diverse groups. It can be an antidote for balancing insider/outsider relations too?

If I knew where/how to go to join a group tasked with one of the many dynamics under discussion... argh!

lol...originally (WayBack) I was a member of the CWG but/and the mystery of how all the platforms are interrelated has never been resolved for me: when are we in Loomio, where/how do I get to the Wiki, is there also convo about social.coop occurring on Mastodon, are there other platforms also in use somewhere? I need a visual map/diagram that illustrates the interconnections and what logins are required to access the various spheres of interaction.

Apologies as I am keenly aware that my scattered presence is the main culprit in my not knowing.

Hi Stephanie. I'm rellieved to hear that someone who used to be on the CWG also finds the multiple platforms of social.coop confusing to keep track of. I've been pinning a lot of my own confusion on being new, but it sounds like you've been around for a while and are still finding it all hard to navigate.

Absolutely no idea what the solution is, but I feel validated.

Finally took the time to look into that - it is dynamic governance! Very interested in that topic, please ping me if you are about to set something up. Deffo game to try ;)