Autumn Gathering 2021
The CoTech Autumn Gathering 2021 of CoTech
The Autumn Gathering 2021 of CoTech is set for Thursday 23rd and Friday 25th April 2021, 10am-5pm. This will take place in SPACE4 in Finsbury Park, London (owned and run by CoTech members!). It is totally free to attend. People who are not in CoTech coops are also welcome to attend, though they will not be invited to vote on any proposals.
For questions about the event, please contact polly@outlandish.com
Online access
We will be streaming some sessions via this BigBlueButton room:
If you have any issues with this please raise them on the Discourse thread.
Agenda
| Thursday
(working groups) |
Thursday
(discussions) |
Friday
(working groups) |
Friday
(discussions) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10-11 | Intro session | Intro session | Intro session | |
| 11-12 | Working on shared resource for co-operative company handbooks (following from previous gathering) | Branding discussion | Work | Community of practice: healthy power (Lucy) |
| 12-1 | Work | Agony Aunt Sessions / Strategy Group -
Learnings and Replication |
Work | How to collaborate with other coops / |
| 1-2 | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch |
| 2-3 | Work | Use cases for Shared Infrastructure | Work | Network Coordinator discussion? Network Coordinator Proposal |
| 3-4 | Work | An introduction DisCo with Irene Lopez | Work | |
| 4-5 | Work | How can we refer work fairly through the network? | Work | CoTech mini fellowship / collaborative learning experience (Lucy) |
| 5-6 | Decision Making | Decision Making | Decision Making | Decision Making |
| 6-late | Home and embracing sobriety for Friday | Party | Party |
The opening intro session on Day 1 is to bring everyone up to date on where we are so far. At the end of each day there will be a session for work groups to update the wider group on what they've worked on, and where necessary this will include a sociocratic decision-making round with work groups running proposals.
Working groups
Working groups are to be confirmed. They usually include:
- Communications (copy, outreach, branding, positioning etc)
- Governance and Membership (on-boarding, decision-making etc)
- Website improvements (working through the issues)
In addition to the work groups there will also be discussions that participants can chose to run and also attend. People can attend these as they wish. Please fill in your discussion on the timetable above if you would like to host one, and/or post on the forum (see link below):
Proposals
Website Circle: Off the back of the discussion about the CoTech brand and website (Thursday 11am) we would like to propose that we set up a circle to manage the CoTech website. Decisions about the design, technology and content of the website will be devolved to this circle. The circle is responsible for redesigning the CoTech website, building it, managing content, ongoing updates and maintenance etc. It will meet every 2 weeks for a check-in. Each member would be expected to do a few hours per month, to be charged to their home co-op.
Cotech Coordinator Working Group: We agree (the people attending the Autumn 21 gathering) in principle that having a Network Coordinator is desirable. Our proposal is for CoTech to constitute a working group whose purpose is to consults member co-ops and design a proposal for hiring a paid CoTech Network Coordinator. To be brought to the next CoTech gathering to make a decision. Circle will meet once a week, composition is open and voluntary and will be publicised on the forum. Hours in the circle to be covered by the individual co-op members. They will also create a roadmap for companion proposals (e.g. on funding and governance changes).
Venue
The gathering will be at SPACE4, 113-115 Fonthill Road, London, N4 3HH. It does not currently have disabled access. There are lots of food places in the immediate vicinity. Parking nearby is expensive, but it is only a few minutes walk from a tube and mainline station.
SPACE4 is an events and coworking space run by Outlandish, with input and support from a number of other CoTech coops. It is home to quite a few of the London-based coops, so it would be great to show everyone where we work.
Lunch
We will try to go for lunch / order in lunch in
WiFi
SSID: SPACE4.2 Passphrase: c00perative
Socialising and Networking
Friday 24th September Post-Gathering Party, we'll get some drinks in and some music and party in the space.
Accommodation
If you need a place to stay let people know on the forum and some London dwellers may have space. Otherwise there are loads of hotels locally.