Circle Call 2019-09-25
Circle Call 2019-09-25
CoTech Decision making Circle Call - forum thread
Co-ordinator - Liam/ Harry, Facilitator - Harry, Note-taker - Szczepan
Attendees: Calum (Code-operative), Jonathan (Webarchitects), Chris (Go Free Range), Hansen (Code-operative), Harry (Outlandish), Michal (Animorph), Cat (Dot Project)
Agenda
- CoTech gathering in Newcastle 13-14 December
- IT Network Coop-a-thon in Kigali in October
- Capacity and collaboration
- Git.coop CoTech membership - using CoTech Fund?
- Where we can get support for membership approach
- AOB
Notes
1. CoTech gathering in Newcastle 13-14 December (Calum)
Calum: We've got a venue in a community-volunteer cinema co-op. Started wiki page, started a discussion thread on CoTech forum. Now trying to learn based on Sheffield experience, also started thinking of agenda. In Sheffield, on the first morning we had induction/ state of CoTech. also want to summarise the current state, where things are. Then proceed to work in groups.
Chris: If some people are expected to facilitate sessions, it has to be clearly stated in advance. It's important for people to prepare to lead respective strands if they propose them. It would be great to keep track of collaborations in CoTech, perhaps add the to the website?
Harry: There are some people who are not that keen on hacking, some people are more happy to chat about their ideas or attend someone else's talks. Hence, providing a strand for occupying this group is needed. Calum, is the space big enough to accommodate for several groups working along?
Calum: There's a cinema room, there are tables and chairs, wi-fi.
Action
Harry: Introduction to people who organised some of the previous CoTech gatherings to rely on their checklists.
Calum: I will post updates on the forum.
Thanks to Code-Operative!
2. IT Network Coop-a-thon in Kigali in October (Jonathan)
14-17 of October. Thread originally started on ICA'a patio.
Cat: Where can we get information about it.
Harry: Jonathan picked it up from our discourse.
Jonathan also added info to the call's thread.
Action
Szczepan: I will send email to Developer Society & Aptivate who work with international dev organisations.
3. Capacity and collaboration (Harry)
Harry: To me this is one of the critical priorities of CoTech. When we started CoTech, we had too much work at Outlandish, then we had less and now we're overloaded again. We end up hiring people because we do not have good understanding of other co-ops and their portfolios/capacity. As a result we cannot benefit wider movement by redirecting work. I will be interested in making progress on this at the upcoming CoTech gathering.
Cat: Recently, we have been building consortium to work on Tech For Good stage. We would like to work with CoTech but it would take longer to turn round opportunities so they benefit the whole network. Also, it would be difficult to understand the capacity of other organisations.
Harry: We have found that it was fast and successful to reach out to particular organisations rather than post on forum.
Calum: I would like to have a discussion about more systematised way of getting work. I was also thinking of mapping resources.
Szczepan: There was an attempt to compile all the skills in CoTech at the hack last November, the spreadsheet created was posted in this thread.
Harry: It's a bit of chicken-egg situation. We can also log in the details on particular collaborations on our website.
Action
Nothing direct, but continue the discussion and address at the coming gathering.
4. Git.coop CoTech membership - from CoTech Fund (Chris)
Chris: When we started the fund we agreed that people who contribute to the fund will decide on spending. We currently have £3k. Perhaps we could contribute to Newcastle gathering? We use git.coop during our gatherings. Whenever someone wants to commit code for a first time it turns out they need to buy some shares in Webarchitects. To make it smoother next time perhaps we can just buy shares as CoTech?
Unanimously agreed to be a good idea.
Action
Chris: I will ask Chris and Jonathan from Webarchitects how to proceed.**
5. Where we can get support for membership approach (Cat)
Cat: We are accepting another member and we are considering another tier of membership. This introduces another way of making decisions. We are wondering if there is anyone who can give us a good advice on this? We want to prepare to grow on a stronger foundation. Could someone from the network advice on this?
Calum: We have two types of members, network member and full member. At the beginning, full member supervises the network member. Network member can become a full member...
Chris: On Loomio there is a worker co-op discussion group which covers other co-ops than just tech. In the past we got great advice from Sion Whellens and Hive.
Harry: We have changed our structure after struggling to accommodate for changes. Now you can be a full member, associate member, more info in this post. I would be happy to share some of our experiences. It might also make sense to create a co-op governance circle where we exchange our experiences.
Action
Cat: I will reach out for ideas and contact Hive.
6. AOB
Harry: Can we not have meetings on Jitsi anymore.
Unanimous agreement.
Chris: If we need to pay for something, we could cover it with Fund.
Calum: We have Zoom account.
Harry: I am happy to repurpose some of our whereby accounts.
Action
Harry will set up the next call.
Until the next one, 30th of October!