I’m bringing this Special Resolution to the upcoming General Meeting.
To change the names of Resonate’s membership/shareholder classes:
- to change “Fan” to “Listener-Member”
- to change “Music-maker” to “Artist-Member”
- to change “Collaborator” to “Worker-Member”
- to change “Founder” to “Founder-Member”
To change names of respective share types:
- to change “Fan Share” to “Listener Share”
- to change “Music-Maker Share” to “Artist Share”
- to change “Collaborator Share” to “Worker Share”
- to keep “Founder Share” as “Founder Share”
Over my time at Resonate, the original names of the membership classes have led to confusion in communication. That the class names are generic terms such as “Collaborator” means that it was often vague what someone was referring to.
I have stopped using the original names out of necessity at this point. Too many misunderstandings. Changing these names will free up the generic words to be used naturally again. No more double meanings. You can be a listener, a fan, a collaborator, a worker, an artist – all the above – without those terms implying membership class.
The hyphen naming system seems to be more normal within the co-op ecosystem too, which has other benefits. When Directors are elected from the different classes, their titles can naturally follow the same system: “Worker-Director”, “Artist-Director”, etc. This will make these folks and their role more visible in the co-op; good for transparency.
Another benefit of this system is that capitalization and punctuation are less relevant. Whether you write “artist-member”, “artist member”, or “Artist-Member” – I’m confident the point will get across.
I’m seen very few members use the current names (perhaps a symptom of their unintuitiveness), thus I expect the change to be an easy one. We’ll have to update the Rulebook, website and some documents – but since there is already work being done in those areas, it’s an opportune time for the change.