2021-03-25 Tea Base <> Hypha hello
Who’s here: Dawn/dc, Jeniffer, Michelle, Pat, Udit, (later) patcon
Previous related meeting: https://meetings.hypha.coop/2021-03-11-michelle-zhong.html
Intros
- Michelle (she/her)
- one of the bylaw people at teabase
- just incorporated (submitted articles)
- official a co-op
- Dawn (she/her)
- Hypha one of 7 founding member workers
- phD re: design?
- ops and governance
- Jennifer (she/her)
- bylaws
- saxaphonist
- Pat (she/they)
- bylaw
- org and resource making
- Udit (he/him)
- hypha, co-founder
- business working group – look and feel, presentation online in IRL and business development + collabs
- Patcon / Patrick (he/him)
- civic tech in Toronto
- consensus building tools
Updates
- How is Teabase inc. going?
- just incorporated!
- developing bylaws
- multi-stakeholder co-op: boosters/consumers (monthly $ contribution) and makers (creators of stuff & programming through labour/time)
- Think about Teabase as collaborative and engaged org
- Makers:
- People who are more invested
- Looked into time banking (but doesn’t want to equate time <> money)
- Structure
- What does membership look like?
- How do we create a flat org?
- Evolve from current activities
- Ways Hypha can support?
- Brainstorm / ideas about this “sweat equity” for maker members
- Coops and scene/opportunities in Toronto?
- multistakeholder analogs would be new to us. food co-ops. single member class for
- Co-op devs - informational interviews Hypha did when starting out, some people contributed time and money??? - mesh of community and co-operative??? Catalonia???
- https://meetings.hypha.coop/2019-04-25-coopdevs-chat.html
- Food co-ops? https://karmacoop.org/how-to-join/
- boosters, makers, consumers (TERMS!)
- manage membership - platform? tech?
- roles? makers!
- uv: employees? Pat: worker-membership convo, re: staff representation in voting. couldn’t pay staff at first, so worried about that. also, some ppl want to do work, but don’t want to vote. so not sure what staff member would bring on org level.
- jennifer: some members are carrying heavy load. was thinking staff load rather than timebank. WANT staff, but not sure how it looks.
- dc: sweat equity. still doing at hypha. committed to tracking that internally. fourth pig recommended tracking it all. 4thPig paid that out many years later, pennies on the dollar
- clockify.me ??? tracking tool
- working group - member discretion to track
- most ppl undertrack
- not consistent.
- uv: high trust. considering new model where pay for all labour incl internal. not sure if possible yet.
- dc: how to separate labour. gov work is track for us (e.g. being on board, strategy), but not technically labour that would be paid out. legal guidelines that governance is not supposed to be paid. AGM, sitting on board. not a clear line. We made some odd principle decisions, bylaws: https://handbook.hypha.coop/bylaws.html
- disco https://disco.coop/
- 3 types of labour - living (brings revenue), care (reproductive maintenance,enables all the other work) , love (principle 6 , onboarding, solidarity)
- May First - movement technology co-op, host tech infrastructure, just revamped governance, representation on board from different member classes: https://mayfirst.coop/en/post/2019/content-new-board-elected/ and https://mayfirst.coop/en/expanded-strategy-team-2019/
- re: time-banking. CoopDevs makes timebanking software!
- michelle: timebanking as a way to get venue space instead of paying.
- banking time for space and offerings
- Pat: all hours same rate? different? 2h/month commitment. cap per month. don’t want someone taking over. what would count as time-banking.
- formula to curb, less discount as work more
- so after some amount will eventually become “free”
- aim to keep comsumables out, like swag
- uv: mechanisms to tweak variables over time.
- currently trying to think what member consultations would consist of. consensus building. online-offline.
- currently half-dozen, maybe less than 10 working on this.
- more internal consultations now. calling them staff. ppl who’ve been involved in programming for awhile. first round on consults. “what sort of membership would you want to be a part of”. how do pay out? what do you want?
- next will further consult with wider membership. attending ppl rather than running ppl.
- michelle: TB tried weekly bylaw checkin, but didn’t work out. so now rolling basis meet as things come up.
- garden/shop/market yay yay!
- committees led by maker members, but joined by booster members
- prob self-run, but overseen by board members
- board now seems more like “guiders” and “rubberstamps” rather than decision-makers
- not sure how to structure their roles
- Dc: Hypha’s board model
- In name only
- mostly done within working groups (operations)
- Idiom we use “all board model,” 6/7 members on the board, maps to active
- We say: “day to day happens in wg”
- Legal requirements only e.g., pass resolutions & financial statements
- Talk to MayFirst
- Having people on the board as a strategy to getting them to commit to your mission and your org
- to ask: adhoc vs beuracracy, transparency + attendence to board, officer hats
- silly hats in legal docs: https://github.com/BadIdeaFactory/corporate/blob/master/documents/operating.md
- Things to be aware of: people clocking in hours all at once, or staggering hours enough that people don’t see each other
- insurance for board stuff???
- members: 150. anticipate ~50 transfer to co-op. 18 ppl in co-op organizing, ~10 active
- Q: balance between chaos and structure? …
- hot pot analogy (pic reference: https://twitter.com/pikng/status/922731060802174976)
- pot is teabase. divider pot. diff sides for diff things. committee and categorys = diff ingrediants. meats and proteins = core programming. veggies = good for you. help grow. starches = things that keep ppl together, binding. BoD = dipping sauce. every co-op member is a seat at table around hot pot.
- LOTS of aligning work. h/t udit with strat brain. retreat notes
- https://meetings.hypha.coop/2018-11-28-retreat-playbook.html
- uv: maybe COMPOST project related
- re: handbook. start in ephemeral spaces and move to more longterm
- Documents where as many people can touch them and then move them to where people can see but edit less (if required)
- Hubspot??? - track opportunities? pipelines? knowledge of bizdev baked into tool
- Pol.is - decision making & consensus making - scalable - 7 people to 22K people = reimagining of public consultation; super excited about this tool
- https://pol.is/home
- walkthrough video: http://explorations.conversa.g0v.network
- weekly open calls for Polis User Group: https://bit.ly/conversa-calls
- conflict resolution: Hypha has only had to do it once. Mediation around different ways of working. there was a lot of generosity, space-giving. Difficult to be conversant in a smaller space; there’s no resources that will emerge in a small group. A very personal approach.
- didn’t have an official process, but developed a process when it was needed. Felt okay. Haven’t locked in/documented that process yet.
- Things to ask next time:
- Udit & composting, a magazine: one.compost.digital , business dev
- conflict resolution (Pat) - what does this look like in practice? structure and norms?
- potential to work with Hypha or connect with Civic Tech on the tech side of things?
- consensus building tech
- With friends?
- For events
- Potentially integrate a function about membership too
- How do we avoid tools falling into certain folks domain?
- Try to be conscious of tools suiting hierarchical orgs
- Avoid tools that force your hand. e.g., if tool (A) only lets one user “manage” on free version, and so would be forced to make it a few privileged people’s duties, but another tool (B) can have as many users as you need, then choose tool (B), even if tool one looks a bit nicer. Tool A can distort the power dynamics of your organization without your desiring it.
- people to help build tools??? website stuff??? Avoid scarcity mindset