Social.coop - User contributions [en]

Finance Working Group

2025-10-16T18:47:24Z

Andrewe: /* Basic info */

{{Working Group
|Description=The Finance Working Group handles the finances including payments, reimbursements, and community contributions (in coordination with our fiscal host).
|Members=Caitlin Waddick, Josh Davis, Andrew Escobar
}}
The Finance Working Group primarily operates [https://www.loomio.org/socialcoop-finance-working-group/ on Loomio].

= Current members =

* Andrew Escobar · [https://social.coop/@andrewe @andrewe]
* Caitlin Waddick · [https://social.coop/@CaitlinWaddick @CaitlinWaddick]
* Josh Davis · [https://social.coop/@GuerillaOntologist @GuerillaOntologist]

We are eager for new members to join. If you are interested in joining the working group, please reach out to any of us on Social.coop.

= Financial Reporting and Expenses =

* [https://opencollective.com/socialcoop Open Collective profile]: current balance and income
* [https://opencollective.com/socialcoop Open Collective expenses]: submitted and approved expenses
* [https://www.loomio.org/socialcoop-finance-working-group/ Loomio]: annual budgets and financial reporting
* [[Submitting an expense|A guide to submitting expenses]]: reimbursement or stipend payments

[[Category:Working Group]]

Finance Working Group

2025-10-16T18:45:03Z

Andrewe: updated links to open collective and loomio, updated member list

{{Working Group
|Description=The Finance Working Group handles the finances including payments, reimbursements, and community contributions (in coordination with our fiscal host).
|Members=Caitlin Waddick, Josh Davis, Andrew Escobar
}}
The Finance Working Group primarily operates [https://www.loomio.org/socialcoop-finance-working-group/ on Loomio].

= Current members =

* Andrew Escobar · [https://social.coop/@andrewe @andrewe]
* Caitlin Waddick · [https://social.coop/@CaitlinWaddick @CaitlinWaddick]
* Josh Davis · [https://social.coop/@GuerillaOntologist @GuerillaOntologist]

We are eager for new members to join. If you are interested in joining the working group, please reach out to any of us on Social.coop.

= Basic info =

[https://opencollective.com/socialcoop Open Collective profile]: current balance and income
[https://opencollective.com/socialcoop Open Collective expenses]: submitted and approved expenses
[[https://www.loomio.org/socialcoop-finance-working-group/ Loomio]: annual budgets and financial reporting

The portion of the social.coop bylaws governing the disbursement of funds:

[[Submitting an expense|A guide to submitting expenses]] for reimbursement or stipend payment

[[Category:Working Group]]

Calendars

2025-09-05T00:17:11Z

Andrewe: cleanup

Social.coop has a [https://share.mayfirst.org/apps/calendar/p/KG92DPwX3ww442AD shared calendar] for organizing working group meetups and co-op wide meetings. If you are organizing work in the co-op you should feel empowered to add events to the calendar which will help let other co-op members know about the meetings.

public calendar: https://share.mayfirst.org/apps/calendar/p/KG92DPwX3ww442AD

subscribe: [https://share.mayfirst.org/apps/calendar/p/KG92DPwX3ww442AD CalDAV] or [https://share.mayfirst.org/remote.php/dav/public-calendars/KG92DPwX3ww442AD/?export iCalendar (ICS)]

To add or modify events on the calendar, join our [https://share.mayfirst.org/apps/contacts/circle/ca95M5J2a4wQ6FR5symutQnUTO9ypjs Social.coop Nextcloud circle] using your existing May First account or [[May First Movement Technology|request a new account]] sponsored by Social.coop.

Operations Q&A

2025-08-27T16:58:37Z

Andrewe: server access link: format

====== How is the work organized for the administration and moderation of the server, compared to the amount of users? ======
As of August 2025, we have about 460 active users. About 15 volunteers attempt to keep up with them all.

====== Do you have or need a specific organizational structure? ======
We have a handful of working groups (circles), described on our [[Operations]] page:

* [[Community Working Group]] (CWG) · 4 members
* [[Finance Working Group]] (FWG) · 3 members
* [[Legal Working Group]] (LWG) · 0 members
* [[Organizing Circle]] (OC) · 4 members, plus a representative from each working group
* [[Tech Working Group]] (TWG) · 3 members (4+ members with keys and [https://www.loomio.com/d/jrbG5tue/server-access server access])

Moderation is handled by the [[Community Working Group Ops Team]].

====== Do you have regular meetings of the moderating team? ======
The Community Working Group meets every month.

====== How / By whom are the complaints/reports handled? ======
See both [[Reporting guide]] for the member-facing guide and [[Federation abuse policy]] for the actions that a moderator may take in response to report.

====== How many people-hours per week are needed? ======
See the section on the Community Ops Team Members Role: [[Community Working Group Ops Team]]

Each Moderation shift is 1 week, and the notes accurately show that the time spent varies greatly by the number of reports received. It can be as little as less than an hour/week or several hours if there are difficult reports or a spam wave.

====== Are there a lot of reports? ======
In the week of August 19-26 2025, we received 8 reports, 2 of which were reports by members of other servers about members of other servers. The other 6 were by members of our server, but about the behavior of members of other servers. Reports ABOUT members of our server are rare, but require a lot more thought and effort to handle.

====== How are the decision about moderation taken? ======
Generally, the oncall moderator relies on their own judgement (and refers to [[Federation abuse policy]] ) to handle most reports, but the rest of the Community Working Group is available (we have used Mastodon Private Messages in the past, and are currently experimenting with Zulip for this additional conversation) to discuss how to respond to a report.

====== How do you dispatch the tasks among the volunteers? ======
We try to have 4 or 5 active members of the Ops team so that the week-long shifts are spread out a bit. Whoever is on-call that shift makes an attempt to handle everything that comes in: reports, new member applications, etc.

====== Concerning federation, which policy do you apply? ======
Here is our [[Federation abuse policy]]

This covers both how we try to handle complaints against individuals and how and when we take action against instances.

Operations Q&A

2025-08-27T16:57:03Z

Andrewe: full names for groups and circle, correct member count for Finance, and linked note on members with keys and server access for Tech

====== How is the work organized for the administration and moderation of the server, compared to the amount of users? ======
As of August 2025, we have about 460 active users. About 15 volunteers attempt to keep up with them all.

====== Do you have or need a specific organizational structure? ======
We have a handful of working groups (circles), described on our [[Operations]] page:

* [[Community Working Group]] (CWG) · 4 members
* [[Finance Working Group]] (FWG) · 3 members
* [[Legal Working Group]] (LWG) · 0 members
* [[Organizing Circle]] (OC) · 4 members, plus a representative from each working group
* [[Tech Working Group]] (TWG) · 3 members (4+ members with keys and [server access](https://www.loomio.com/d/jrbG5tue/server-access))

Moderation is handled by the [[Community Working Group Ops Team]].

====== Do you have regular meetings of the moderating team? ======
The Community Working Group meets every month.

====== How / By whom are the complaints/reports handled? ======
See both [[Reporting guide]] for the member-facing guide and [[Federation abuse policy]] for the actions that a moderator may take in response to report.

====== How many people-hours per week are needed? ======
See the section on the Community Ops Team Members Role: [[Community Working Group Ops Team]]

Each Moderation shift is 1 week, and the notes accurately show that the time spent varies greatly by the number of reports received. It can be as little as less than an hour/week or several hours if there are difficult reports or a spam wave.

====== Are there a lot of reports? ======
In the week of August 19-26 2025, we received 8 reports, 2 of which were reports by members of other servers about members of other servers. The other 6 were by members of our server, but about the behavior of members of other servers. Reports ABOUT members of our server are rare, but require a lot more thought and effort to handle.

====== How are the decision about moderation taken? ======
Generally, the oncall moderator relies on their own judgement (and refers to [[Federation abuse policy]] ) to handle most reports, but the rest of the Community Working Group is available (we have used Mastodon Private Messages in the past, and are currently experimenting with Zulip for this additional conversation) to discuss how to respond to a report.

====== How do you dispatch the tasks among the volunteers? ======
We try to have 4 or 5 active members of the Ops team so that the week-long shifts are spread out a bit. Whoever is on-call that shift makes an attempt to handle everything that comes in: reports, new member applications, etc.

====== Concerning federation, which policy do you apply? ======
Here is our [[Federation abuse policy]]

This covers both how we try to handle complaints against individuals and how and when we take action against instances.

Main Page

2025-08-27T16:49:20Z

Andrewe: /* Working groups */

'''[https://social.coop/about/more Social.coop]''' is a cooperative corner of the [[wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]].

We primarily operate a [[wikipedia:Mastodon_(software)|Mastodon]] server. Our members fund our operations and decide how to set our community policies, steward our data, and manage our shared technologies. Members also provide the labor to run Social.coop at all levels.

We have a [[Code of conduct]].

If you are interested in joining Social.coop, please refer to our '''[https://join.social.coop/registration-form.html registration form]'''.

[[Social.coop]] was founded in 2017 in the wake of the [https://buytwitter.org/ BuyTwitter] campaign. Since then, we have worked toward the goal of placing ever more of our online social lives under good cooperative governance. To get a sense of how we operate, or to start your own fediverse cooperative, see our guide on "[[How to Make the Fediverse Your Own]]."

New to the Fediverse? Check out the [[Social.coop guide to Mastodon]].

==Learn more==
*[[Governance]] - How power flows, including processes and documents
*[[Operations]] - How we organize our activities
*[[Platforms]] - The online spaces we use and manage
*[[Tutorials]] - Guides for how to do things on Social.coop
*[[Meta]] - Wiki pages about the wiki!

== Working groups ==

* [[Organizing Circle]] (OC)
* [[Community Working Group]] (CWG)
* [[Tech Working Group]] (TWG)
* [[Legal Working Group]] (LWG)
* [[Finance Working Group]] (FWG)

== Common questions ==
1. Are there any coop jobs available to me? How do I find out about those?

There are a number of working groups involved in the [[Operations]] of the coop - check them out at that link. We intend to rotate in members regularly to prevent burnout, so please reach out to any group you are interested in participating in.

2. How do I ask a meta-question about the server or propose a change to Social.coop policy?

Great question! [[When and how to use Threads, Polls, and Proposals]]

3. Where does all the money go?

Our [https://www.loomio.com/d/xqw7FtUT/toward-an-annual-budget budget] was outlined and discussed in [[Loomio]]. As of writing, less than a 1/3 of funds go to stipends for various [[Operations]] groups, a little less than that is contributed to allied cooperative and technology projects (determined by the [[Finance Working Group]] .) The rest is split between reserves and hosting the server, paying for [[Loomio]], [[Meet.coop]], and other [[Platforms]].

4. Is this instance based in the US or somewhere else?

Our [[Platforms]] page says our hosting is [[wikipedia:Hetzner|Hetzner]], which appears to be based in Germany.

5. What's the Matrix chat thing and should I be on that?

[[Matrix]] is an open chat network, where we have a few rooms that you might be interested in. In particular, the Open Chatroom hosts a small amount of meta talk about the coop, and the tech chat is probably where to go if the server is down and you want to see what is happening.[[File:Organizational map of social.coop.png|thumb|alt=An organizational map of social.coop|An organizational map of social.coop]]

==About this wiki==
This wiki is maintained by Social.coop's working groups and ops teams. Members are welcome to make an account and contribute. ''Please register with the same username you use on Social.coop''.

===TODOs for this wiki ===
* Migrate Tech Working Group content
* Enable multi-theme support so it renders in an accessible way on mobile
* Document setup steps in the wiki proper, currently these are at https://anagora.org/wiki-migration
* Test coop-cloud-based backups/restores

Social.coop

2025-08-21T19:18:51Z

Andrewe: updated dates, details and links related to our fiscal sponsor Platform 6 and our domain name registrant Innovation Coop.

Social.coop emerged out of a desire to develop a way of doing social media that is more just, accountable, and ethical than the dominant corporate platforms.

In September 2016 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Schneider Nathan Schneider] published an op-ed in the Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/29/save-twitter-buy-platform-shared-ownership Here's my plan to save Twitter: let's buy it] suggesting that Twitter take itself off of the stock market and become a democratic user owned cooperative. On May 22, 2017 it was voted on at the Twitter Annual Meeting, but received 4.9% of the vote. During the organizing process, several participants floated the idea of building a social media cooperative for themselves.

On April 24, 2017<ref>https://client.rdap.org/?type=domain&object=social.coop</ref> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enric_Duran Enric Duran] (working with Schneider, Matthew Cropp and Mayel de Borniol) registered the social.coop domain name, with FairCoop as the named registrant. FairCoop was an attempt to create a global financial system for cooperatives with the help of FairCoin, a Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency. FairCoop ceased to exist in 2022. [https://platform6.coop Platform 6] is now the fiscal sponsor of Social.coop on Open Collective, and the domain name has been transferred to [http://innovation.coop Innovation Cooperative].

To operate the cooperative, several volunteer working groups formed: the Community Working Group for moderation and on-boarding, the Tech Working Group to maintain the infrastructure, and the Finance Working Group to manage income and expenses.

Like many fediverse communities, Social.coop saw significant growth surrounding Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022.

See also:

* [https://platform.coop/blog/democratizing-social-media/ Democratizing Social Media] by Jakob Sitter Midttun, December 2023, Platform Coopertivism Consortium.
* [https://www.loomio.com/d/6V2tAIZa/ Issues], Loomio.
* [https://www.loomio.com/d/Jf5Wi4Ph/ Domain expired Social Coop down], Loomio.
* [https://git.coop/social.coop/tech/operations/-/issues/11 transfer domain to social.coop control], git.coop.

Finance Working Group

2025-07-23T15:33:32Z

Andrewe: /* Current members */

Finance Working Group

2025-07-23T15:29:54Z

Andrewe: /* Current members */

Finance Working Group

2025-07-23T15:28:41Z

Andrewe: /* Current members */

Submitting an expense

2025-07-17T19:24:57Z

Andrewe: update to align with Org. Circle policy and add relevant links to Open Collective

Social.coop is run through a system of open contributions. There are no employees, but the cooperative strives to recognize its contributors through stipends. Operating costs for the co-op also often occur through reimbursement of members. All expenses must be approved by:

* A members of the [[Finance Working Group]], which oversees the co-op’s economic activities; and
* [https://opencollective.com/platform6-coop Platform 6 Development Co-operative Limited], our fiscal sponsor, which carries out all payments.

The annual budget approved by the membership is the guideline for expenses. The Finance Working Group will typically approve any expense submitted by a working group member that falls within the approved budget. Smaller, reasonable, and well-documented expenses outside the budget are also likely to be quickly approved. Significant or questionable expenses clearly outside the budget and that are not obviously necessary may be denied or presented to the membership for an approval vote.

If possible, any expense outside the approved budget should be presented in Loomio to the Finance Working Group or the broader membership ahead of time, before the relevant activity is done.

=== Submit an Expense ===
A member or other approved recipient can '''[https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses submit an expense using Open Collective].'''

Expense submission must include:
* the expense amount in GBP (or the settled currency of the transaction)
* a clear description of the nature of the expense and its relationship to the current annual budget
* an expense tag with the relevant working group (if known)
* a receipt of the payment made (for expense reimbursements), a detailed line-item (for stipends), or an invoice.

The Finance Working Group (FWG) will then review the expense, ensuring it fits within the approved budget. If there are any concerns, FWG will share them with the member. Budgeted expenses require the approval of one (1) member of FWG. Unbudgeted expenses require approval from the Organizing Circle. Approved expenses are automatically directed to our fiscal host [https://opencollective.com/platform6-coop Platform 6] for final approval and payment (usually on a monthly basis).

While general budgeting decisions or annual budgets are approved by all members, individual members are invited to monitor [expenses on Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses), monitor the Finance Working Group, or join to help maintain transparency and accountability.

=== '''Expenses on Open Collective''' ===
[https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses '''Submit Expense''']

[https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses All Expenses]

[https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses?sort%5Bfield%5D=CREATED_AT&sort%5Bdirection%5D=DESC&status=APPROVED&status=PAID&direction=RECEIVED Approved Expenses]

Submitting an expense

2025-07-17T19:14:33Z

Andrewe:

Social.coop is run through a system of open contributions. There are no employees, but the cooperative strives to recognize its contributors through stipends. Operating costs for the co-op also often occur through reimbursement of members. All expenses must be approved by:

* Members of the [[Finance Working Group]], which oversees the co-op’s economic activities
* Platform 6, our fiscal sponsor, which carries out all payments

The annual budget approved by the membership is the guideline for expenses. The Finance Working Group will typically approve any expense submitted by a working group member that falls within the approved budget. Smaller, reasonable, and well-documented expenses outside the budget are also likely to be quickly approved. Significant or questionable expenses clearly outside the budget and that are not obviously necessary may be denied or presented to the membership for an approval vote.

If possible, any expense outside the approved budget should be presented in Loomio to the Finance Working Group or the broader membership ahead of time, before the relevant activity is done.

== Procedure ==
The procedure for submitting expenses is as follows.

* A member or other approved recipient can [submit an expense using Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses). Submission must include:
** the expense amount in GBP (or the settled currency of the transaction)
** a clear description of the nature of the expense and its relationship to the current annual budget
** an expense tag with the relevant working group (if known)
** a receipt of the payment made (for expense reimbursements), a detailed line-item (for stipends), or an invoice.

The Finance Working Group (FWG) will then review the expense, ensuring it fits within the approved budget. If there are any concerns, FWG will share them with the member. Budgeted expenses require the approval of one (1) member of FWG. Unbudgeted expenses require approval from the Organizing Circle. Approved expenses are automatically directed to our fiscal host [Platform 6](https://opencollective.com/platform6-coop) for final approval and payment (usually on a monthly basis).

While general budgeting decisions or annual budgets are approved by all members, individual members are invited to monitor [expenses on Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses), monitor the Finance Working Group, or join to help maintain transparency and accountability.

= Open Collective ==

* [Submit Expense](https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses)
* [All Expenses](https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses)
* [Approved Expenses](https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses?sort%5Bfield%5D=CREATED_AT&sort%5Bdirection%5D=DESC&status=APPROVED&status=PAID&direction=RECEIVED)

Submitting an expense

2025-07-17T19:12:52Z

Andrewe: /* Procedure */

Social.coop is run through a system of open contributions. There are no employees, but the cooperative strives to recognize its contributors through stipends. Operating costs for the co-op also often occur through reimbursement of members. All expenses must be approved by:

* Members of the [[Finance Working Group]], which oversees the co-op’s economic activities
* Platform 6, our fiscal sponsor, which carries out all payments

The annual budget approved by the membership is the guideline for expenses. The Finance Working Group will typically approve any expense submitted by a working group member that falls within the approved budget. Smaller, reasonable, and well-documented expenses outside the budget are also likely to be quickly approved. Significant or questionable expenses clearly outside the budget and that are not obviously necessary may be denied or presented to the membership for an approval vote.

If possible, any expense outside the approved budget should be presented in Loomio to the Finance Working Group or the broader membership ahead of time, before the relevant activity is done.

== Procedure ==
The procedure for submitting expenses is as follows.

* A member or other approved recipient can [submit an expense using Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses). Submission must include:
** the expense amount in GBP (or the settled currency of the transaction)
** a clear description of the nature of the expense and its relationship to the current annual budget
** an expense tag with the relevant working group (if known)
** a receipt of the payment made (for expense reimbursements), a detailed line-item (for stipends), or an invoice.

The Finance Working Group (FWG) will then review the expense, ensuring it fits within the approved budget. If there are any concerns, FWG will share them with the member. Budgeted expenses require the approval of one (1) member of FWG. Unbudgeted expenses require approval from the Organizing Circle. Approved expenses are automatically directed to our fiscal host [Platform 6](https://opencollective.com/platform6-coop) for final approval and payment (usually on a monthly basis).

While general budgeting decisions or annual budgets are approved by all members, individual members are invited to monitor [expenses on Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses), monitor the Finance Working Group, or join to help maintain transparency and accountability.

Partnership with Platform 6

2024-11-05T21:19:08Z

Andrewe: Added some additional info about open collective. I am rather ambiguous about the draft agreement.

=== Current Status ===
Platform 6 Development Co-operative Limited (Platform 6) is the current [https://opencollective.com/fiscal-hosting fiscal host] for Social.coop on the [https://opencollective.com/home Open Collective] platform.<blockquote>Fiscal hosting enables Collectives to transact financially without needing to legally incorporate. In other contexts, this is sometimes called ''fiscal sponsorship''.

A fiscal host is a legal company or individual who holds a Collective’s funds in their bank account and can generate invoices and receipts for supporters and sponsors. You can think of a fiscal host as an umbrella organization for the Collectives in it.</blockquote>

=== Relevant Links ===

* [https://opencollective.com/platform6-coop Open Collective: Social.coop]
* [https://opencollective.com/socialcoop Open Collective: Platform 6]
* [https://www.loomio.com/d/bHO9Nizd/comment/2978826 Loomio: Changes to the fiscal hosting arrangements for social.coop]

=== '''Draft Agreement''' ===
In addition to the standard [https://opencollective.com/tos terms of service] for Open Collective and any addendums agreed to by Platform 6, this agreement was drafted to guide Social.coop and Platform 6:<blockquote>As an expression of [the principle of intercooperation and in] solidarity with the global cooperative movement, the unincorporated collective project Social.coop ("Social.coop") and the Platform 6 Development Co-operative Limited ("Platform 6") agree to a partnership.

Since Social.coop is not a legally incorporated entity, and it is not the property of any person or organization, by "Social.coop" we mean the expressed will of the collective's membership according the bylaws most recently ratified in Social.coop's Loomio group, along with policies decided according to those bylaws in the Loomio group.

Platform 6 will serve as the fiscal "host" of Social.coop's finances. In all other respects, Social.coop will operate as an autonomous, self-governing cooperative. Social.coop participants, not Platform 6, are responsible for their actions on Social.coop and its governance process.

Social.coop will be a member of Platform 6. Its membership fees will be assessed through a 2% commission on revenues.

If either party chooses to sever this partnership for any reason, one month's notice will be given to the other before action is taken, unless both agree to terminate the partnership sooner.

Ratified '''TKTK DATE''' in solidarity,

Platform 6 Co-operative, Ltd.

Social.coop</blockquote>

Platforms

2024-03-21T21:12:25Z

Andrewe: updated list to replace Ghandi for Cloudflare

Besides here at the Social.coop wiki, you can find us at the following places:

== Communication ==

=== [[Fediverse]] ===

* Our main [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon_(software) Mastodon] social media instance: [https://social.coop social.coop]

=== [[Governance]] ===

* [[Loomio]], a forum with decision-making tools for governance: {{#show: Loomio |?Has URL }}
* [[Meet.coop]] [[BigBlueButton]] instance, for online meetings: [https://socialcoop.meet.coop/ socialcoop.meet.coop/]

=== Chat ===

[[Matrix]] Rooms:

{{#ask:
[[Subobject Type::Matrix Room]]
|?Matrix Room Address=Address
|?Has Description=Description
|format=broadtable
}}

== [[Infrastructure]] ==

* [[GitLab]] - code/documentation projects and issue trackers: [https://git.coop/social.coop git.coop/social.coop]
* [[Open Collective]] - where we raise funds: [https://opencollective.com/socialcoop opencollective.com/socialcoop]
* [[Calendars]] - including meetings and social gatherings
* [[wikipedia:Hetzner|Hetzner]] - hosting
* [https://app.datadoghq.com DataDog]: system monitoring
* [[wikipedia:Cloudflare|Cloudflare]]: DNS

== Collaborations ==

* Our [[May First Movement Technology|May First]] organizational membership which provides additional services to members

Finance Working Group

2023-10-31T05:53:05Z

Andrewe: Updated membership

{{Working Group
|Description=The Finance Working Group handles the finances!!!
|Members=Caitlin Waddick, Josh Davis, Leo Sammallahti, Nathan Schneider, Matthew Cropp, Andrew Escobar
}}
The Finance Working Group primarily operates [https://www.loomio.org/socialcoop-finance-working-group/ on Loomio].

= Current members =

* Caitlin Waddick (@CaitlinWaddick@Social.Coop)
* Josh Davis (@GuerillaOntologist)
* Leo Sammallahti (@LeoSammallahti)
* Nathan Schneider (@ntnsndr)
* Matthew Cropp (@MattCropp)
* Andrew Escobar (@andrewe)

= Basic info =
A simple [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nbMWrX20tnBAVhUGVBwl1lKcx7H5Lha1QRS5dViVN1Q/edit?usp=sharing budget spreadsheet] for our project to keep track of what our regular outlays are.

[https://opencollective.com/socialcoop Our Open Collective], to see what the current "cash on hand" and income of the co-op is.

The portion of the social.coop bylaws governing the disbursement of funds:

= Submitting expenses =
Social.coop is run through a system of open contributions. There are no employees, but the cooperative strives for fair and sustainable remuneration for its contributors.

The procedure for paying contributors and expenses is as follows:

A member makes a proposal in the finance group (with the Title labeled EXPENSE), detailing either:

* work to be done, the expected timeline, and the contributor's qualifications, and the cost (in USD)
* a service to be acquired, details about the provider, its benefits over alternatives, and the cost
* a donation to be made to an external open-source developer or collective, the work they do that benefits Social.coop members, and a proposed amount

If that proposal passes, the member may proceed. They may post an invoice to OpenCollective, with a link back to the relevant Loomio thread, for up to one half of the total amount.

When the work is complete (or equivalent), the member must post a follow-up proposal (with the Title labeled INVOICE, in the same thread as the EXPENSE), including details demonstrating the work done or service obtained

The contributor should post the expense to the OpenCollective page with a link back to the relevant Loomio thread.

Once passed, the expense is approved by an OpenCollective admin, and the contributor is paid within two weeks, or as soon as the OpenCollective account has sufficient balance

While general budgeting decisions are expected to be passed in the full group, all members are invited to monitor the finance group, and to join if they wish to participate in maintaining accountability.

[[Category:Working Group]]

Finance Working Group

2023-09-01T16:10:24Z

Andrewe: /* Current members */

{{Working Group
|Description=The Finance Working Group handles the finances!!!
|Members=Caitlin Waddick, Josh Davis, Leo Sammallahti, Nathan Schneider, Matthew Cropp
}}
The Finance Working Group primarily operates [https://www.loomio.org/socialcoop-finance-working-group/ on Loomio].

= Current members =

* Caitlin Waddick (@CaitlinWaddick@Social.Coop)
* Josh Davis (@GuerillaOntologist)
* Leo Sammallahti (@LeoSammallahti)
* Nathan Schneider (@ntnsndr)
* Matthew Cropp (@MattCropp)
* Andrew Escobar (@andrewe)

= Basic info =
A simple [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nbMWrX20tnBAVhUGVBwl1lKcx7H5Lha1QRS5dViVN1Q/edit?usp=sharing budget spreadsheet] for our project to keep track of what our regular outlays are.

[https://opencollective.com/socialcoop Our Open Collective], to see what the current "cash on hand" and income of the co-op is.

The portion of the social.coop bylaws governing the disbursement of funds:

= Submitting expenses =
Social.coop is run through a system of open contributions. There are no employees, but the cooperative strives for fair and sustainable remuneration for its contributors.

The procedure for paying contributors and expenses is as follows:

A member makes a proposal in the finance group (with the Title labeled EXPENSE), detailing either:

* work to be done, the expected timeline, and the contributor's qualifications, and the cost (in USD)
* a service to be acquired, details about the provider, its benefits over alternatives, and the cost
* a donation to be made to an external open-source developer or collective, the work they do that benefits Social.coop members, and a proposed amount

If that proposal passes, the member may proceed. They may post an invoice to OpenCollective, with a link back to the relevant Loomio thread, for up to one half of the total amount.

When the work is complete (or equivalent), the member must post a follow-up proposal (with the Title labeled INVOICE, in the same thread as the EXPENSE), including details demonstrating the work done or service obtained

The contributor should post the expense to the OpenCollective page with a link back to the relevant Loomio thread.

Once passed, the expense is approved by an OpenCollective admin, and the contributor is paid within two weeks, or as soon as the OpenCollective account has sufficient balance

While general budgeting decisions are expected to be passed in the full group, all members are invited to monitor the finance group, and to join if they wish to participate in maintaining accountability.

[[Category:Working Group]]