Cryptography.dog Retreat Notepad Day 2

📓 Retreat Playbook: https://hackmd.io/s/ry8hC552Q 🗒 Day 1 pad: https://hackmd.io/s/H1qMWxpCX 🗒 Day 2 pad: https://hackmd.io/s/SJDGiYKy4

[TOC]

Day 2 - Roadmapping

Recap, consensing on vision and mission

Consensed on adding this in LOOMIO:

For our members and neighbours who are looking for meaningful livelihoods while building and learning about technologies together. Our cooperative is a resilient respite–a radical garden and safe harbour–where we support each other, work in solidarity, and cultivate collective growth unlike people serving capital. Our organization provides autonomy, democratic control, and a space to imagine radical and alternative futures.

• LOOMIO “technologies” scope
• our co-operative is a radical garden that cultivates commons-based economies
• unlike this technocapitalist future we are sold our organization prioritizes people over capital

• Want neighbours represented in Vision at least
• “Cultivates” language
• “meaningful livelihoods” in Mission
• Vision:
  • Radical // Futures
  • Solidarity

Mission

✍️ Decide on mission (with further wordsmithing on Loomio)

1. Our cooperative is the Garden of Meaningful Livelihoods upon which its members and neighbours learn and build technologies together. (4+2+4+3+3+3)

2. [Co-op name] cultivates collective growth for those seeking meaningful livelihoods building and learning about technologies together. (2+3+3+1+1+2)

3. [Co-op name] cultivates collective growth and meaningful livelihoods around building and learning about technologies together. (1+1+1+2+2+1)

4. We build and learn technologies together, supporting each other with meaningful livelihoods. We cultivate collective growth for our members, our neighbours, and for the benefit of our environment. (3+4+2+4+4+4)

Picked 3: [Co-op name] cultivates collective growth and meaningful livelihoods around building and learning about technologies together - Concerns around the word “around,” needs to be wordsmithed

Vision

✍️ Decide on vision (with further wordsmithing on Loomio)

A. Through cultivating collective growth with our networks of solidarity, we envision a future built upon principles of democracy and autonomy that radically differs from our technocapitalist societies. (3+2+1+2+5) 13..

B. Through working with our neighbours in solidarity, we provide a respite and safe harbour to support each other democratically and create an autonomous space to imagine radical alternative futures (1+1+4+1+3+1) 11

C. Working democratically, we provide respite from the world put to the service of capital, in order to cultivate collective growth and space to imagine radical alternative futures. (5+3+2+2+4) 16..

D. In a world where capital takes precedence over people, we work in solidarity to imagine radical and alternative futures where autonomy, democratic control, and kindness flourish. (4+5+5+5+4) 23..

E. In a world in service of capital, we provide a respite by imagining radical and alternative futures where autonomy, democratic control, and kindness flourish. (2+1+4+3+3) 13..

Picked B: Through working with our neighbours in solidarity, we provide a respite and safe harbour to support each other democratically and create an autonomous space to imagine radical alternative futures - Respite and Safe-harbour don’t both need to be there. - Removing “through” at beginning, start with “We” or “The Coop” - We may need to add back “members and neighbours” depending on how Mission goes - Do we need to be explicit about what we are against? (e.g. see A. or E.)

Roadmapping

Legal Requirements

• Retreat Playbook “Understanding Co-op Requirements for Incorporation, Development, and Compliance”
• Retreat Playbook “Critical Steps”
• Ontario Co-op Requirements
• Questions:
  • “Identify 3 people who will incorporate”
    • Founding Member is not same as Board
    • Don’t necessarily have to be same people as Directors (President, Treasurer, etc.)
    • Minimum commitment time would be until AGM + 4 months (~24 months)
• Can call the Ontario Coop Association, Canadian Worker Coop Federation, we should speak to them and take advantage of resources once we are far enough along

Capacity and Milestones

• benhylau:
  Can commit to full time 6 months being in Toronto but wants to be involved long term, need to work with other folks interested in governance and finances, interested in technical projects and governance and fundraising
• udit:
  Toronto for next year, committed to a few projects next 6 months, part-time capacity until June, long-term by project basis, types of projects that are HW related, ed + science + research, bridge people needs with projects
• garry:
  For next 4 months, full-time work + teach, hasn’t changed much from earlier pad, peer-to-peer tech, design efforts, more RADICAL moar better
• dc:
  Earlier pad still accurate, uncertainty from PhD commitments, try to bridge co-op + PhD work, more clarity over next 4 months, 24 months based in Toronto, types of projects: current proposed project, loop possibly loop other work (e.g. facilitation work) through coop, don’t want to do grant writing, can help setting up coop operational stuff, literacy + design research around p2p web
• yurko:
  Full-time work situation won’t change near-term, some bandwidth as contributor to projects, not much capacity towards coop operations, can take some stuff on but it’s new, project is a reason to motivate to work on tech, anchored in Toronto
• elon:
  I want to work with the infracture that is required such as setting up services and maintaining them and working on new hardware and technologies projects with others, should be available whenever, based in Toronto

Risks

• benhylau thinks we may have insufficient committed capacity to do startup short-term, and operational work long term (need to plan more capacity in short-term)
• It’s possible to do this all part-time
• Unclear how much work is needed, so let’s do milestones first
• Looks like most people will be part-time involved for the short term
• Work, Grants, Support?

Financial Sustainability

• Ben: “One year of runway”? …we could itemize our fixed costs:
  • Set up: $1000 just in papers
  • Space: virtual
  • Financial + legal admin: (from grant) $5,000-10,000 <– dc: oops, we lowballed ourselves :/
• Future opportunities?
  • Funding via cost to join (membership share) v. sweat equity
• Goals/recommendations to create a feasibility plan
• Look beyond grants funding, work with aligned organizations
• Self-funded projects that could be revenue generating
• Understanding shared capital vs. member loan
• Freelance work run thru coop
• Take accounting flexibility to part-time nature of members
• What work is paid for what is not, what are our aspirations (e.g. lead generation work)
• Surface labours around projects and have long-term plan to get those efforts compensated

Prioritizing and Working Groups

What needs to happen based on above?

• Drafted business plan and conduct feasibility study (including approach to Y1 financing).
  It should include:
  • Fixed cost for Y1
  • Start up costs
  • Recurring administrative costs
  • Ways of fundraising and how to prioritize them
  • Process of lead generation, market sizing, opportunity cost analysis
  • What gets paid and what doesn’t, some long-term plan to expanding that scope
  • 1-5: 2-3.5 scale of business planning, iterating later
• Choose name
• Set up “virtual office” (incl. infra)
• Select mailing address
• Select “incorporators”
• Drafted early/inital core bylaws
• Drafted articles of incorporation
  • Labour to get ready to submit, not a huge task in itself
  • “All board structure” <– RADICAL
• Consult a lawyer over by-laws (“Confirmation of legal standing”)
• Submitted articles of incorporation 2019 Q1
• Set up a bank account
• Final bylaws
  • Role of Member vs. Contributor
  • Mindful of many starting with flex/part time
• Adopt financial operating plan (remittance, payroll, taxes, etc.)
• Initial member handbook (small starting doc: “What it means to be a good member,” “How to get involved,” “Plain-language duties and checklists for required roles: president, secretary, finance person”)
• Transfer infrastructure to Coop management
• Hold the initial General Meeting 2020 Q1, by-laws adopted, director/board for upcoming year set)

What is most important? When?

• 2019 Q1 lynchpin time period
• 2019 Q4 / 2020 Q1 AGM and Bylaws

Working Groups

• Business Planning (Perform feasibility study) <– first bigger deadline

  • Udit
  • Ben
  • Dawn (interest but low time)

• Governance (Bylaw/Incorporating/AGM Set Up)

  • Dawn
  • Udit can help

• Infrastructure Ops (Virtual office, infra, and processes to collaborate)

  • Yurko
  • Elon
  • Dawn
  • Garry (interest but low time)

• Finance & Accounting (Bank Account, Payroll, Invoicing, Remittances)

  • Ben
  • Yurko

• Consensed that Working Group Outcomes to be defined in proposal by working group members and shared throughasync update

Governance and Future Plans

• Current Tools/Practices

  • Mailing list (<48 hours)
  • Shared Calendar
  • Chat (casual space)
  • Github for notes + milestones
  • Loomio

• How will we work moving forward?

  • Loomio for most work
    • Loomio cluster per working group
    • Move active pushing discussions and records into Loomio
  • All hands calls (with early agenda)
    • Monthly
  • For next 2 months Business and Governance WG meet together

• Each working group must answer: (With emphasis on Business/Governance)

  • Define Scope (and Milestones) as well as Outputs
  • Describe how people are working
  • Decide how communication happens
  • Decide how people can participate

• Questions for specific working groups:

  • Need a way to share password management?
  • Move to new domain?
  • What is our document policy?

• Consensed Next All hands will be mid-Jan (after Jan 7), on a Wednesday evening

  • Check in on specific timeslot later, given Yurko’s commute and other folks shifting availability

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