CoTech fund
What is the CoTech fund?
The fund is a voluntary system where members of CoTech can contribute £1 per member, per week. The subscription is collected annually in advance.
Why have a mutual fund?
The fund can be used for any purpose that supports CoTech including, but not limited to:
- Marketing and promotion
- Events such as the twice-yearly gatherings
- Paying for infrastructure costs (such as the community forum, Loomio subscription etc.)
Decision making
Those co-ops who have joined the fund decide collectively how the fund should be distributed. We try to achieve this by consent, but where necessary can use a "one co-op, one vote" rule.
Proposals for spending will be posted on Loomio, and only contributors will be able to vote on them.
Joining the fund
Email treasurer@coops.tech with the name of your co-op and the number of members who will be joining the fund.
How much is in the fund?
We post semi-regular updates on the finances on community.coops.tech. We keep a plain-text ledger of all transactions entering and leaving our Unity Trust bank account in git.coop.
History
At the CoTech Hack 2018 a working group on Governance and Membership developed a proposal for an internal fund.
The purpose of the fund was to pool our resources and strengthen the CoTech network. During the pilot year participation was voluntary, and participating co-operatives contributed £1 per member per week to the fund.
On 8th February 2019 CoTech approved a one-year pilot fund to test the idea.
Further reading
Report on discussion of the fund at Sheffield 2019 gathering