🌍 Community Assembly 1 | October 9th

A post was split to a new topic: Automated monthly general play stats and membership reminder

A post was split to a new topic: Monthly Community poll on 5 featured artists

Alright, @boopboop! I’ll get both of these proposals on the agenda. Like all motions, they’ll require someone there to “second” the motion to kick off discussion. During discussion, folks may offer suggestions to change the proposal or adjust it. It’ll be up to you what you want to take or leave from these suggestions. Then we’ll send the final version of the proposal to the forum for a vote after the meeting.

If anyone has any other proposals, share them here by the end of tomorrow. Our current quorum policy cuts off any new proposals from arising within two weeks of a general meeting.

By the way if no one has already I second all @boopboop motions.

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Hey y’all, I’d like to give an update on preparations for the general meeting and pitch a new format for gathering, sharing ideas, and making decisions.

For an co-op like Resonate, having a general meeting has complex administrative, legal, and logistical requirements. These requirements exist to guarantee that all members be able to introduce and participate in decisions that affect the whole of the co-op.

While general meetings are often social events as well, at their core they are formal meetings to vote on major proposals – proposals which ideally should have opportunities to be discussed and refined before arriving at a general meeting.

current proposals

To pass the rulebook amendments raised by myself and @sganesh, a general meeting would be required. Nevertheless, it is not urgent to make these changes now versus at our annual general meeting in early december.

@boopboop’s proposals pertain to our platform. While a general meeting is a valid and powerful format to make such proposals, these could be just as well implemented by other means.

Reading the comments by @angus and @Sam_Martyn, they are interested in meeting other members, talking about what brought us all to the co-op, and what we want Resonate to be. This we can do whenever – all it takes is for someone to host the party!

progress and challenges

Over the past year, our small crew of workers and volunteers have made really incredible progress. This is all leading up to December 1st, the date planned as the “Resonate Renewal”. There is a lot of great news to share and celebrate, from governance refinement, administrative and tech backend development, a new resonate player and website soon to come, a new communications strategy, nominees for Treasurer and Secretary, the Handbook, new payment and bookkeeping standards, more organized collaborative processes, the rebuilding of this forum – it’s quite a list!

At the same time, resonate has deep challenges to overcome. At both the governance level and the technological level, there is significant work to be done and very little money to do that work with. To be clear, hosting a general meeting right now would require major logistical work from folks who are already at their capacity, at the same time taking them away from key projects the co-op desperately needs. For that reason, I have been considering canceling this general meeting and focusing on the annual general meeting in december. By then, new development work on administration should make general meetings much easier to organize.

community assemblies

This challenging situation has brought me some new clarity and excitement about how we can approach democracy at Resonate. The formal nature of the general meeting seems to be the wrong venue for what we want to do together most of the time. We want more opportunities to meet each other as people, discuss ideas for Resonate, and then have processes to refine or implement our vision.

So I’d like to shift our scheduled general meeting this saturday to become our first Community Assembly – a space to gather, check in on the co-op’s status, share visions and proposals, socialize, learn new skills, get involved and take initiative.

An assembly would still be structured, but less so than a general meeting. Unlike during a general meeting, proposals could be raised, discussed and acted on more spontaneously – with “straw poll” voting throughout the assembly so that participants are highly engaged in the process.

Popular ideas raised in these assemblies would be referred out to existing teams at Resonate for exploration and implementation, added to our development to-dos, or a spontaneous crew could be entrusted to take on a task for themselves. Ideas that aren’t quite settled could be taken on by discussion groups or continued in the forum. Finally, big decisions which are beyond the scope of an assembly can be put on the agenda for a general meeting.

Assemblies would be an active and lively part of Resonate, gathering together our community every month or two, then dispersing out our efforts, then gathering again. Orbiting each assembly would be social meetups, music parties, and workshops/skillshares hosted by the co-op and members.

The community assembly would also be an opportunity for members to take turns facilitating. The assembly will give future (and present!) chairpersons at Resonate an environment to practice and learn which the general meeting isn’t suited for.

december on the horizon

Leading the initative to have this general meeting was @brndnkng who hosted weekly meetups to discuss membership, co-op culture, and more. Thanks to his facilitation and the work of participants like @LLK, @richjensen and @sganesh, essential topics came to light – and a lot of important work has come out of it.

I believe that assemblies would fill an unexplored opportunity for democracy at Resonate, at the same time allowing the time and resources to make sure that our upcoming annual general meeting in december meets all its legal and administrative requirements. Please share your thoughts and hearts on this – and offer any advice or questions you may have.

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If anyone has thoughts here, please share. :rose:

thank you @Hakanto for your very thoughtful and thorough message!

i really appreciate the intentionality and flow of how this meeting is planned. definitely let me know if you’d like support with any aspect.

i’m down with keeping an eye on the chat and pulling questions from there to make sure they’re discussed within the duration of the meeting

looking forward to connecting w/ y’all!

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OlĂĄ pessoal, sou o Marco, falo de Santa Cruz do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Bastante interessado no Cooperativismo de plataforma. Sou mĂșsico e hĂĄ 11 anos coordeno a ĂĄrea de programas sociais da Sicredi Vale do Rio Pardo, uma das cooperativas de crĂ©dito integrantes do sistema Sicredi. A ĂĄrea que trabalho coordena a governança da cooperativa e gostaria de compartilhar e aprender com a experiĂȘncia de vocĂȘs. Aqui temos um quadro de associados de mais de 57 mil pessoas, praticamente impossĂ­vel de termos a participação massiva nas decisĂ”es da cooperativa, desta forma organizamos os associados em nĂșcleos a partir de critĂ©rios definidos e cada nĂșcleo elege um representante para discussĂ”es e decisĂ”es em assembleia, alĂ©m de termos disponĂ­vel uma plataforma para deliberaçÔes on line. TambĂ©m tivemos a mesma experiĂȘncia de que o espaço de assembleia formal nĂŁo Ă© para discussĂ”es e construçÔes e desta forma tambĂ©m estamos organizando uma rotina de reuniĂ”es de nĂșcleo para esta escuta mais prĂłxima do associado. TambĂ©m entendemos que o associado precisa entender o que Ă© uma cooperativa (educação cooperativista) para qualificar sua participação nas decisĂ”es. Vou me esforçar para entender melhor a Resonate, aprender e se possĂ­vel contribuir. Grande abraço

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Ola @Marco, que interessante!
Aqui estĂĄ um pequeno grupo - vejo que vocĂȘ se juntou agora (ahorita), vocĂȘ Ă© um artista no Resonate? Gostaria de saber mais sobre sua experiĂȘncia com o Sicredi. O Ășnico problema Ă© que nĂŁo falo portuguĂȘs (pero entiendo si hablas muy lento :grimacing:), sĂł espanhol e inglĂȘs. Como nos conseguistes?

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Marco!

Uma contribuição incrĂ­vel e maravilhosa para este tĂłpico e para o fĂłrum! Obrigado por compartilhar sua energia, seu trabalho e suas experiĂȘncias importantes na superação dos desafios das grandes democracias diretas. TambĂ©m Ă© muito inspirador ver vocĂȘ postar seus insights poderosos e diretos em portuguĂȘs!

Acredito que a visĂŁo motivadora para muitos membros Ă© o estabelecimento de um espaço digital seguro, justo e digno, onde as pessoas podem construir economias democrĂĄticas poderosas em torno da mĂșsica, conectando as necessidades locais Ă s comunidades internacionais.

EntĂŁo, bravo a vocĂȘ por fazer isso!

Marco da paz! Abraços de volta!

Marco!

Such an amazing and wonderful contribution to this thread and to the forum! Thank you for sharing your energy, your work and your important experiences overcoming the challenges of large direct democracies. It is also very inspiring to see you post your powerful and direct insights in Portuguese!

I believe the motivating vision for many members is the establishment of a safe, fair, dignified digital space where people can build powerful democratic economies around music linking local needs to international communities.

So bravo to you for making it so!

Peace Marco! Hugs in return!

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Hi @boopboop! My english is not the best too - hehehe, but It will be an amazing exchange of histories and learning experience talking to you. I’m a musician, but in Resonate, just a curios member.

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Just started! Come through y’all!

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@KallieMarie @LLK @richjensen @remst8 @Sam_Martyn @boopboop @Marco

Thanks to everyone who came to the assembly today! It was amazing to experiment with making proposals, improving them, and collaborating in a new way using the “democracy field”. I’m really excited for new methods like this that foster smooth, interactive discussions and decisions.

Truly everyone who showed up got to leave their mark on what we did today, and I’m so inspired by that.

I have our records and video from the assembly and will be sharing them here tomorrow. Today, I need to rest. Been a long week.

Folks wanted to continue our assembly at the same time next Saturday, so get ready for Part 2! Looking forward to it and for others to share their ideas. I’ll create a new event in the forum, and we’ll get that going.

Really appreciate y’all and everything you do here :evergreen_tree::evergreen_tree: Onward!

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Thank you everyone!

@Hakanto, where would be the best place for me to create that topic about trying to get the Resonate emails out of the spam folder?

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Terrific to hear, I’ll try to be there for Part 2 hopefully stay through the whole thing this time!

I’d like to suggest moving the session back an hour. So: 2021-10-16T16:00:00Z → 2021-10-16T18:00:00Z. This would push the meeting back to 9am in my region, the Pacific coast of america, which is a bit more accommodating to the concept of having a weekend than 8am provides.

Which brings up more proposals:

a) That there be a public backlog of proposals.

b) That there be a polling process so that Members in the Forum may recommend the order of consideration of proposals by the attendees to the Assembly. (I suggest that the Assembly should make its own determinations of priorities ‘in the moment’ but I believe that being informed by collective sentiment will help guide and improve the work of the Assembly.)

This reminds me of recent discussions in several threads that suggest that the implementation of a Membership-base Community Credential could underpin access to a broad range of vital services deployed and governed through the Forum, the Player and other spaces both inside and outside Resonate’s service areas (eg. in the inter-cooperative ecosystem and beyond).

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Great, I agree with most of this!

If moving it a bit later can help some US folks to join it’s great the more people come to the meeting the better!

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