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Organizing Circle: Difference between revisions
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→Origin of the group: added first step
Matt noyes (talk | contribs) (→Origin of the group: Added and edited text created by @edumerco) |
Matt noyes (talk | contribs) (→Origin of the group: added first step) |
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== Origin of the group == | == Origin of the group == | ||
DRAFT -- | DRAFT -- In February, 2023, in consultation with the Community Working Group Operations Team, @Matt_Noyes and @Mattcropp initiated a discussion of the idea of creating an Organizing Circle. The motivation included the following elements: | ||
* Rapid growth of Social.Coop leading to stress on the existing forms of organization, "particularly the Community Working Group Ops Team, which has been taking on onboarding, moderation, education, strategic planning and other tasks." | |||
* Working groups -- Tech, Community, and Finance (a legal working group is in the works) -- that function differently and often with little coordination. | |||
* Discussion and operations spread across multiple platforms – Mastodon, Loomio, Matrix. | |||
* Lack of coordination and internal communication has resulted in, among other things, a tendency to do-ocracy and a deference to members who are perceived to be leaders, either because of longevity, activity on the instance, or other qualities. This raises the risk of “tyranny of structurelessness” type dynamics, and has troublesome implications for diversity and inclusion. It also undermines accountability. | |||
* Lack the kind of organization needed to really operate as – and achieve, if we want it, the legal status of – a cooperative. | |||
After discussion on Loomio and in an online gathering, in July, 2023-07, @Matt_Noyes proposed the creation of an Organizing Circle (OC) in SocialCoop (SC) to: | |||
* increase coordination, accountability, and transparency of SC as a Fediverse actor; | |||
* incorporate members into operations and decision-making; | |||
* lay the groundwork for bylaws that meet legal requirements in case SC becomes an officially recognized cooperative. | |||
In order to achieve this, the OC would be a group of members consistently committed to: | In order to achieve this, the OC would be a group of members consistently committed to: | ||
* coordinating among working groups and ops teams, | |||
* providing a space for ongoing strategic conversation and coordination and | |||
* facilitating greater member participation in both operations and governance. | |||
The OC has limited powers, with most operational decisions made by the Working Groups (WG) and decisions related to Social.Coop as a whole subject to member approval. | |||
The OC has limited powers, with most operational decisions made by the Working Groups (WG) and decisions related to Social.Coop as a whole subject to member approval. | |||
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After this initial step, we started to organize the next steps for this OC to work and fulfill it's mission: | After this initial step, we started to organize the next steps for this OC to work and fulfill it's mission: | ||
* each working group choose one person to be on the Organizing Circle, | |||
* we welcomed other members interested in helping organize the OC, + these people organized the juried sortition process for choosing the At Large members. (See Organizing the Social.Coop Organizing Circle (2023-07) > <nowiki>https://www.loomio.com/d/GhC8oEcK/organizing-the-social-coop-organizing-circle</nowiki>) | |||
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These steps were carried out and the OC started to operate in 2024-01, | These steps were carried out and the OC started to operate in 2024-01, documenting it's meetings at the OC group in Loomio (see <nowiki>https://www.loomio.com/socialcoop-organizing-circle/</nowiki>) and putting more durable information on the wiki in [[Organizing Circle|https://wiki.social.coop/wiki/Organizing_Circle]]. | ||
[[Category:Working Group]] | [[Category:Working Group]] | ||