2019-09-23 Hypha Worker Co-op: Hellooooo Fiqus Co-op

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Time: Mon, Sept 23 @ 3-4pm ET / 16:00-17:00 GMT-3
Location: https://appear.in/hyphacoop
Attending:

patcon - Hypha Co-op, Toronto, Canada
nico - Fiqus Co-op, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Contents [TOC]

Notes

Fiqus
- 7 years ago
- 2 locations
- 13 members
bizdev. do development, but now
2 years ago, started to feel uncomfortable just doing dev. wanted to build relationships between co-ops.
accountant = former member of co-op (admin)
11/13 are devs
huge number of senior devs (8+ years dev for more than half)
work a lot with python, and django
react, node, vuejs
elixir more and more (3 devs)
7 years ago founded FACTTIC as founding member
5 co-ops to start
4 years ago started FIT
really used to working for overeas projects
2 clients from Canada
- italian clients
95% are overseas, not local
hard to have teams on local projects
- difficult to pay for team, so they tend to hire just one
- easy to sell fixed price project. always hitting dificulty of estimation. risk. don’t give good definitions. common problem in AR area. USA companies are a little more used to hiring teams based on hourly rate.
do fixed price projects, but don’t prefer
pc: is it that US/Canada companies are more savvy to allow non-strict sales (e.g. hourly), or that the low hourly rate allows them to experiment? prob a little bit of both.
- in AR. see the development more as a cost and not a vlue to their business. maybe diff culture to USA.
- USA gets lots of startups. when startup grows, they get rid of AR developers.
pc: re: myplanet working with ukrainian devs, and eventually helping them immigrate. is that interesting?
- paid for travel visits. opportunity to know client and culture. change relationship.
camba working with co-op in UK, trying this. PM in uk.
patcon: explained his take.
nico (not “we”): starting point is starting working together. let’s start working. let’s talk numbers.
companies local try to “sell” best senior dev we have ($40-45/h)
- 80% they say no. 20% they say “ok we’ll try”
- they pay $40 because it’s worth it.
- who takes advantage of this difference? the big companies. they try to pay less and they keep the diff
- use money to train whole co-op movement to perhaps sell. think about difficulties of working together. ket’s keep the difference in the co-op movement.
- let’s increase value to $50 for our market rate (for local actions). and the other co-op that is selling, lower prices might allow more opportunities to sell more projects. “blended pricing”. using it to organize tech co-operatives.
- but this is still talking about tech. but if we can make it work, we can go outside.
pc: small point: maybe think about laying a small foundation of theory that tech is privileged, and we should eventually
nico: we should try to figure out our stuff first
nico: just found one network so far. cotech. separate cells. not quite like FIT yet.
nico: cotech was the only network we could find, but not as evolved yet.
FACTTIC: 20 co-ops. 15 are working . just 10 are stable.
more advantaged than other sectors, but need to build a solid thing first.
been working with AR co-ops for years. same culture. same language.
first project is more like a proposal. what do we need to have a good solid project that could make this work.
- then think about what we would do with the different rate
uk project was working with client, not co-operating
pc: not very strong tech worker co-op movement in canada. distributor/consumer co-op movement is very strong and agricultural in prairie regions. quebec has very strong identity and co-operative culture.
- but very adamant about conducting affairs in french, so language barrier
- co-op is very related to quebec “nationalism”, and seems to look out for itself more than outside co-ops
- very studied co-op culture in North America. unique.
- reseau.coop: worker co-op network (translation: “co-op network”)
- #action nico will reach out to reseau.coop, and will cc hypha
AR really loves co-op culture.
pc: mentioned smthng about different skills across worker co-ops in diff countries (canada vs AR)
two questions: HOW do we want to work, and WITH WHOM do we want to work (values reflected in client work vs mainly in internal org structure itself)
FACTTIC members going to kigala conf
what are hypha skills?
- patcon: haven’t honed offering yet, but quite diverse: web dev (python, ruby, html, css), infra and servers (mesh, server automation), android, design, strategic foresight, meeting/event facilitation.
working on website for CWCF (small, simple, but strategic)
- nico: perhaps good strategically for you
nico: good to work FOR co-operatives
- trying to find ppl for whom there’s no man-in-middle
- how to get new co-op clients in canada

Follow Up

Actionable Items

nico: invite patcon to mattermost
nico: send email to reseau.coop and cc patrick.c.connolly@gmail.com
patcon: summarize meeting for fellow co-operators
patcon: scheme on future collaborations
patcon: forward independant opportunities to Fiqus, esp co-ops (ongoing)

Upcoming Discussions

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