2019-11-02 Hypha Worker Co-op <=> Nomadic Labs Meeting

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Time: Sat, Nov 2 @ 3-4pm ET
Location: https://link.hypha.coop/calls
Attending: luisa, dc, garry, udit, yurko, patcon
Cultivator: patcon
Notetaker: patcon

Agenda

• Intros
• Gameplan convo: Hypha branding
• Hypha<=>Nomadic Q&A

Notes

• intros
  • patcon.
  • luisa. how do we grow nomadic. how do we want to collab with humans?
    • don’t want to just take from others (re: learning co-ops), so want to offer branding stuff. help push. low commitment. get to know one another thru collab
  • dc. phd CANDIDATE. research ways. worked with these ppl on non-research (civictechto+tomesh). excited for convo (branding). we’ve had prelim convos. have worked PM. and participator design. excited to learn to collab in co-ops.
  • garry. SICK FACE. design at ocad. awhile ago. HE’S OLD. R&d @ pivotal. sessional faculty with web. met at tomesh. peripheral. same for co-op. interested in proj going thru.
  • udit. liked luisa’s “learning together” soliloquy. electro-eng background. design consult background, in strat foresight. now doing that w andlater
  • yurko. hacker at heart. programmer, but curious about all tech. tomesh origins. lots of solo projects, and wants to learn to work with others :)
• discuss branding
  • history of hypha
    • patcon. rambly story. retreat (udit props). weekly meetings. reading together. interviews. finally incorporated in aug 1
    • yurko. goal: to work on projects we weren’t always “allowed to” and to make a living together “be our own bosses”.
    • dc. overlapping spaces of volunteer/unfunded project. funding pursuit efforts, but was always loose. lacking infra for other stronger forms of collab. were 2-3 more ppl who dropped off during congealing process. retreat: values. hopes. dreams. motivations & mission. roadmap of work to do to actually become a co-op. what is our feel or way we want to work togher?
  • hypha. name was floated at retreat. lots of diff names. wanted to think of co-ops a diff want to structure work. wanted to think of gentler ways of growth. many were vibing on that. top contenders were all sorta organic in some way.
• luisa: what are our hope & dreams
  • link.hypha.coop/handbook
  • yj read mission/vision
    • anyone have thoughts on that
    • uv: language is kinda inward looking. which is cool for co-op. but quite diff for brands often
      • patcon
      • dc: some evocative language. from multi voices. solidarity. safe harbour. doesn’t feel “wrong” to be inward looking as co-op. part of why we started this. but maybe a “tension”? important to have this but have outward looking way.
  • dc: read values
    • we didn’t exclude any. just added all. and asked “does anyone have issue”. may not be overlapping set.
    • grace? uv: being able to admit wrong. being able to move on. being humble. pc: gratitude. yj: knowing limits and accepting. “we don’t know better than others”. gi: may have been one who added. +1 to udit. “fail beautifully”.
      • lj: word jumped out. grace, honesty. lots of inclusive language. but grace and honesty seem hard to talk about for some reason.
      • gi: use of language is pretty important. frequency of encountering some of these words important (esp in tech). want to place them. don’t know how, but want to think on it.
      • lj: not to disregard other qualities, but these interesting
  • lj: have worked with orgs that exhibited these orgs.
    • pc: SSB.
    • lj: may have heard of hypha.
    • dc: neighborhood for __ technology. public lab. collective vulnerability to work on important projects together. design justice folks, including toronto. re: collective vuln: e.g., publiclab writing CoC together. work remotely and use tools to cut around constraints. “oh wow, you managed to do it that way? beautiful”
  • lj: how do you see yourself projecting these values? who are those ppl?
    • dc: don’t know yet. early in collaborating. 2-3 projects. some values, can talk about individuals having, but maybe interesting to think of how a collective would.
    • pc: like hearing “talking to you isn’t like talking to normal tech ppl”. that makes me proud.
  • lj: how is it working with one another, esp in relation to these values?
    • uv: we didn’t talk about how these values get expressed. e.g., transparency. public handbook. solidarity = working with other co-ops. some of them are “table stakes”. integrity (why even working without that).
    • lj: moments where you go read the values?
    • dc: i do. HOW I ROLL. re-readerer. work inspaces where this is possible. e.g., union: equity statement at each meeting. feel most often: a commitment to try. maybe this is “honesty”.
      • would have said we worked together before, but this feels like new phase.
    • yj: still trying to reconcile what kind of work we’ll be doing. haven’t been in this space for two long.
    • gi: first time i’ve reread values. long time since writing. makes me nostalgic. where we were. whether these standards are holding true. or whether we need compound words to better explain where we are now (?). neat to be prodded.
    • pc: feels that
      • re: vibing on dc re-reading. like civictechto. things we repeat become mantras. we forget what we don’t put in our templates/mantras.
    • lj: like how recitation might be important
      • homework:
        • what is the aesthetic we want to proejc to clients?
        • what do we want to convey when we can’t speak through calls/soundbites?
        • what org do we look up to?
        • not just graphic design, but cultural practices?
        • orgs you want to work with?
    • https://vision.hypha.coop/
    • #todo link business plan
• Q&A
  • gi: waht kind of chaos are you facing?
    • getting help and how to get help. sharon is focussed on taking care of family. day-to-day business ops. extra hands in production.
      • how do we treat new people coming in? do we keep things from them? or do we build alliances with other orgs who share smae values? need to figure this out really quickly. uncertain and difficult
  • uv: how long have you been operational?
    • ~2 years
  • uv: what is it that you do?
    • lj: design tech. started out trying to use tech to use tech and design to help “purpose orgs” level the playing ground. not seeing tech as “privilege” but as tool they can use and medium they can play with in day-to-day.
    • first two years have been tough. feeding ourselves and getting work done.
    • exercising a lot of values, but not necessarily finding work that 100% aligns with those values. dont want to do that, but need work.
  • dc: thinking about bring in temp ppl? or longer term?
    • temp workers don’t always produce good work. and have moved on to other projects. so how do we foster another human to come aboard? don’t want to trick a person into joining if we’re living on a project-by-project basis.
      • feeling a little lacking means to employ someone
    • dc: hypha concern: what is it to be one-foot-in-one-foot-out? hard to know how to hold space for all and shift between. tough balancing act.
  • uv: is this fulltime commitment or other things?
    • lj: odd situation. pigeonholed ourselves and need revisiting. so 80% in within, and 20% is random other stuff. don’t feel comfortable bringing it in company, because it might hurt. capacity risk, not value misalignment risk.
    • ex: ookai project. interesting, but not conventional. eg: output is helping other organization put together a grant application. innovating classical music education. no tangible output until they receive funding. process is similar to developing a brand. similar. but it’s a grant.
  • pc: hypha is maybe like a big ship we can steer. lots coherent from outside, but inside, we’re really just doing what serve our members. and so maybe members can bring in any opportunity they see? (my hope)
    • dc: generally ++
    • as a nonprofit, maybe we can help smaller looser collectives. maybe we could do admin fee stuff, but be more badass.
      • pc: ADD THAT TO VALUES
  • lj: more inclined to do thru nomadic labs, things I’ve done before. things new, i do outside. e.g. ookai. does that make sense?
    • uv: because of brand image? lj: yes? positioning toward more established brands who cant take risks?
      • lj: sometimes feel bored of conservativeness that can come with this. so i do other things outside.
  • lj: how do you get more ppl? ppl you trust? we’re doing in reverse! you have 5 and flourish.
    • uv: back to dc’s comment. ppl have committed to try. we’ve committed to come back every week or two. but it’s been a long process of talking.
      • we need to work on things first. MOAR PROJECTS. not sure if this works yet. but ppl willing to try.
      • came together over shared set of values first.
      • pc: may years of interviews
      • lj: feel about regular take of time before offering thing.
        • how do you ask for time commitment when don’t know how it will turn out.
        • dc: wasn’t the first way we made asks of one another. that might be daulting. worked in many volunteer settings. some paid, some not. messy. but naturally place to find alignment. e.g. scoped volunteer project. find alignment. easier to see working into future.
        • maybe everyone doing something for no pay, but it’s to trial working with others. maybe mini projects as “interview”.
        • pc: maybe organziing events together.
        • uv: one thing that surprised me, re: branding/logos. the kind of ppl you might want to attract are the ones who might be interested in the weirdo projects. if you show your side projects, maybe it will bring in more of those sorts of clients. (this is his experience, even though clients often still want to run a more conservative project)
          • example of udit’s cool projects that bring in opportunity: https://recordings.fromlater.com/lonelyarcade.html
  • yj: tension with rest of world being like “you have to just do the work and make the money”, but the work we want to do might not be in alignment
    • ben feels there’s more than enough money to pay for our values
    • yj: feels this will work out as we do more projects
    • dc: mixed take. past dc: let’s figure out how to refunnel money into neglected proejcts.
      • but now: how do we make it better. transformational projects. new possibilities that open that wouldn’t be there if we just worked for square clients.
    • dc: have always done model 1: do the work to pay for “good work”. but now want to work on transformational projects. want more of that now.
• … missed some things
• next steps:
  • lj: don’t have time. but want to funnel in my 20% time into this, as a non-square project.
  • next step is getting to know our project of ourselves. energy. graphics. feelings. org alignment.
  • dc: next time: what are the models of branding you’ve gone thru?
  • lj: i run speculative futures ottawa

Action Items for Cultivator

• Migrate items with #todo:person to task board
• Publish meeting notes to GitHub
• Publish meeting template for next meeting

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