Coop Casual Conference

News and announcements
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Patio, the international network of technology cooperatives, hosts the weekly Coop Casual Conference on Thursdays. We have two slots for people in different time zones, at 08:00 UTC and 17:00 UTC.

We get together to take a break from our daily work and generate new ideas through cultural exchange. We can talk about shared experiences, common problems, best practices for worker cooperatives, and a variety of other topics.

You are welcome to come at any slot. Please note that a host usually waits 10 minutes for other participants. If you want to come later, please post in this thread.

We use a Big Blue Button room, to join use the following access code: ccc

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Noted that although this is hosted by Patio, it’s not a ‘tech coop exclusive’ meeting and any topics may be explored

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Thank you Siôn, this is not even an exclusive cooperative meeting, we will welcome all people interested in cooperation, even if they are from regular companies. Of course, cooperative workers from non-technical fields are also welcome!

We will have another slot today, everyone is welcome! Lately we have been discussing data cooperatives that can benefit ordinary people, and how concepts from the hierarchical corporate world can influence the cooperative’s power balance and work dynamics.

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Here is an incomplete list of the topics we have discussed. We can always return to any of the topics or discuss something new.

  • Facilitation.
  • Decision-making.
  • Co-op members’ commitment to co-op activities - how we inspire our colleagues to work together.
  • Do you have equity dynamics in our co-ops and do you own shares in the co-op or its products?
  • How does international ownership work?
  • Family; how does family structure relate to your cooperative structure? How does the concept of family affect our cooperatives?
  • USFWC session/track - wouldn’t it be great if the USFWC could see what it’s like to work outside the US?
  • What tools do we use for communication, financial management, project management.
  • How do we bill? Hourly? On a project basis? Retainer? Billing mechanism? Interfaces between different methods? How does it relate to Patio?
  • How and when do we detail the budget?
  • How do we siphon funds from capitalism to build the cooperative ecosystem?
  • How to do fundraising?
  • Strategies for communicating with leads: free consultation? paid consultation? initial email discussion?
  • What tools do you use to manage external communications?
  • Responsible/ethical use of Google/GitHub/etc.
  • Data Owner Bill of Rights.
  • How do we develop big products as a cooperative? Those that require a lot of development before reaching an MVP.
  • What open source projects can we use to support the cooperative community?
  • Bring your whole self to work.
  • How to get more customers, how to choose to work with a customer.
  • How do you do budgets and what do you use budgets for?
  • Internal co-op relationships - how we deal with difficult interpersonal situations.
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