Organizing the 2022 Annual General Meeting

Rich, frankly, every interaction from you in the past few weeks on this forum has felt like back seat critique, delivered in bad faith. Maybe that is not your intention, but you need to reflect on how you are engaging in this space, and how you are presenting yourself to others. Too many times I have seen tasks you were meant to do land on other people who have to do it last minute. Then when people bring this up, you bring up your term “alternative readings” which more often than not feels like gaslighting.

Cooperating requires basic accountability. I don’t know why you have difficulty being accountable, but if we are to depend on you for work getting done, we need to know that we can depend on you. I, honestly, can’t.

@LLK posted a resolution here 4 hours ago. Perhaps others have as well.

LLK didn’t write that resolution 4 hours ago, it’s been in the works for a couple of days, maybe even a week. And more importantly, it was delivered before the deadline, which has been public for a while (it’s in the first post). (I learned my lesson around this when the last General Meeting was announced almost exactly 14 days before the General Meeting, giving absolutely no time to add resolutions to be discussed by those not on the board). This sounds like “accountability for you, but not for me”.

This will be my fourth AGM. It is not ideal but this is how they have all come together in my experience.

This is exactly the point. If this happens every year why is there no reflection on why that’s happening? Why is there absolutely no action on preventing this from happening?

For what it is worth, the @directors’ obligations under the rules are to “Call” the meeting.

You didn’t even do that! @melis_tailored above suggested skipping that step after I brought up the fact that no organizing around this was being done. I agree with the suggestion, but the board failed in its one official duty to the AGM.

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Another view might be that the Board didn’t get in the way of Members’ initiative.

speechless :frowning:

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I accept that you feel that way but I’ve been here consistently building for four years in good faith.

I followed the AGM organizing process you invoked in this space, including attending and gathering notes at last week’s Conversational Assemblies, in good faith.

I came here today (skipping work at the factory) looking for the state of the AGM organizing in good faith.

I tried to share resources with the Dev team three weeks ago at the DSP Sync meeting in good faith.

When others focus on other priorities and procedures, I argue in good faith that a DSP roadmap and resources for compliance, executive function and administrative capacity are crucial.

As someone who hopes for the success of this project far beyond my persynal interest, when I point out how transformative your contribution was @psi in opening the maintainer circle, I do so in good faith.

When I argue that the Manifesto and critical positions on race, class and gender are necessary for establishing the social and historical context for the coop and that this is crucial for navigating its long-term sustainability and autonomy, I’m coming in good faith.

When I insist we work in ways that are accessible, welcoming and respectful to folks that relate to time, being and sociality in diverse and pluralistic ways, that is coming in good faith.

This is fair.

Also fair. We make our own determinations about each other.

Being present here now. Speaking from my truth in good faith is a part of my accountability, and also, I would argue, my value to my comrades. (Even if they disagree. lol.)

Perhaps submitting to the will of my comrades is how I can show accountability?

I am open.

“Another view might be that the Board didn’t get in the way of Members’ initiative.”

Initiative is about proactive action. What people want to do that can make our future better.

Instead we are in a pattern of reactive action. Work is being required of people who are trying to avoid a worse future they anticipate would happen if they didn’t act. My work on the AGM is a reaction. I don’t want it, but am doing it. It sucks.

Your lack of proactive action has made made it significantly more difficult for co-op members to take their own proactive actions. All they are left with is reacting, as @psi said happened to him at the last General Meeting. Reacting is what they suffer from everywhere: their job, their life in Capitalism. We are inviting them to this co-op to leave those conditions and be free.

When some have the power to create conditions and others only have the power to react to those conditions, this is a power dynamic. @richjensen as Chairperson and informally, you have this power. How are you using it?

Rather than using that power to create better conditions, what I’ve experienced is that you use it to micromanage people who are doing their best to react to negative conditions, often conditions you created. This isn’t good for me, for you, for anyone. It doesn’t feel empowering. It is miserable. And I can’t imagine anyone spectating this discussion thinks “Wow, Resonate! I want what they have.”

These conditions I find myself in are not freedom.

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Respectfully, I do not accept this as an accurate representation of our relation to the work we share here.

We both create and react to the conditions we present. We both suffer and we are both responsible for navigating our suffering. This is the case for everyone in this space.

The power relations that count most in this space are those from outside. Those with surplus time or social advantages or expertise should feel responsibility for supporting more marginalized and precarious members in their development of these capacities.

I have felt that our collective fluency and creativity around these dynamics has been lacking. Again, the Manifesto was a start in recognizing the context for this work.

Democracy without context in global solidarity is not progressive.

Asking basic questions is not micro-management.

I accept that the irritated reaction I often get has to do with how people feel about me or their relation to positions I represent to them and not the quality of my questions.

Silos of expertise is a serious problem in society and here in this coop. I have argued that it will never be resolved, only mitigated against and respected.

Coding, coop governance, and distributing music commercially are technical domains that have their distinct social patterns.

Likewise, making a life out of radical music, facilitating its distribution and actively listening to it are distinct relations to the form.

Our co-op must account for these divergent relations.

Asking and answering simple questions is probably the best medicine for this.

I think this is fundamental.

Recognizing one’s perpetuation of siloing requires a degree of self-awareness that many lack.

With all the irony intact for taking up space in this thread, I am sorry I have not done more to ‘take myself out of the picture’ more skillfully.

It is at the center of my contribution here.

My intention is to be open to direction in service of the whole.

DMs are open.

Maybe @Hakanto and others feel that this is an irrelevant abstraction that I deploy to escape my responsibility for the harms I have caused.

I am not here to escape responsibility.

I will be accountable to the collective.

In my recent experience, when I reach out to the people that have disagreements with me, or when I make time to enter the public spaces they establish, they refuse to engage or are not available to appear.

I don’t say this aggressively but only in the interest of changing the pattern.

In some cases I have a different sense of the history of the coop over the last four years than others do. I put different problems at the center than those who seem most frustrated with me. In my view What we are doing here, for Whom and Why come before How we go about it.

I think it is crucial that we offer a plan to be a viable streaming business that serves successful professional independent artists.

When I raised this as a business requirement by the manager of the relaunch last year it was ignored. Then in January @melis_tailored and I had to struggle to have it considered as a priority in the alleged road-mapping exercise. Later, in the initial public Kielest session, this key objective would not have been part of the conversation without my contribution. Instead, a narrative about isolation and personal suffering, collectivity versus reliance on heroism, was presented as the central organizing principle.

I share this just to point out that these are disagreements of substance and purpose. And, yes, making this argument again and again takes up a lot of energy. It is hard not to be heard.

I strive to show respect and engagement to those with whom I disagree. I accept that how I suffer, or make liberation and collective joy, from our interaction is a quality of the work.

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No board meeting minutes have been published in the history of the co-op. How about you start there? Not saying it is personally your fault. You are in a position to change it and it would be a great thing to see happen.

Or you could help with organizing the reports for the AGM.

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:white_check_mark:

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as promised, below you’ll find a blanket agenda for our AGM happening in three days. please feel free to plug in info (resolutions, announcements, reports etc) you may be privy to that we’d need for this engagement. i’m including a link to our previous AGM HERE for reference.

**still figuring out how to make this post a wiki-post to edit. any support on this would be greatly appreciated. in the meantime we can add items below under the item-line it’s meant for. ( @directors , @workers , @psi , @ode12 , @Sam_Martyn @LLK , @remst8 , @tshiunghan @simonfreund )

(Skeleton) Agenda for 2022 AGM

  • Agenda
    • i. WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS
    • ii. ANNOUNCEMENTS
    • iii. REPORTS
    • iv. RESOLUTIONS
      1. Finances
      1. Governance and Board
      1. Membership Matters
      1. Special Resolutions
    • v. CLOSING ANNOUNCEMENTS

facilitation volunteers
also too, i wanted to give word that i’ve volunteered to support facilitation for our AGM. any additional support would be love b/c i’m not super familiar with the technical language on presenting matters for this meeting (i volunteered last year with support from people who had more experience) it’d be really helpful if we had a volunteer of two support with notes and the technical set-up for this meeting (procuring a meeting link, stewarding the meet.coop space/re: taking stack, mindfulness of adding chat comments verbally)

Technical volunteers

  • Need at least two!

Voting volunteers
another aspect that needs support is setting up the async voting post AGM to the forum. (@Hakanto mentioned he could support this if we’re unable to find someone else who has the know how, capacity)

  • @psi is down to do this with support.
  • @Hakanto will support

please feel free to chime in with ways you’d be into supporting this meeting (items, announcements, resolutions, or even questions you may have).

appreciate y’all!

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I turned the post into a wiki, and also added myself as a volunteer for setting up the voting.

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I have set up a meeting via meet.coop the link to join is:

@Hakanto – do you think it’s a good idea to update the RSVP post for the AGM with the meeting link already?

I’m thinking about making a reply on the RSVP thread with some details as well, such as that the microphone will be muted when joining, that people should turn off their cameras, if possible / when not speaking and such things…

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Thanks @simonfreund! I’ve added the meeting link to the AGM topic.

Big Blue Button (meet.coop’s service), allows for multiple moderators in a call at the same time. Whoever starts the initial meeting via Resonate’s account will be automatically set as a moderator – with the name “Resonate” (unless changed on the primary meet.coop settings ahead of time). That primary moderator will need to make certain users moderators when they join. Those who will need moderator roles will be:

  • whoever is facilitating
  • whoever is technically assisting with the call

During the call, to simplify facilitation and technical requirements, I recommend we use Assembly Fields. I’ll need to be a moderator to set that up.

Here’s a video overview of moderation tools on Big Blue Button. I anticipate we’ll only be using a few of these, especially if using Assembly Fields.

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@simonfreund have you talked with meet.coop about boosting capabilities of the call to accommodate more people?

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@Hakanto – I see. Would you be able to start the initial meeting and hence take over the role of a / the moderator? Or who would be the right person for this task in your eyes?

The link to login is: https://de.meet.coop (the link you sent me seems to be old / does not work)

Concerning the capabilities Wouter writes:

"in our cooperative servers you can have up to 100 people in the room.

And if you are indeed that many, it’s generally wise to agree on some norms for participation:

  • only one or a few people activate their webcam (you could even restrict the activation of webcams and limit this to only moderators)

  • agree on norms for speaking up, and use the chat or raise hand feature

  • use the whiteboard area to present plans, slides, etc, and avoid screensharing (the latter is more intensive)

I’d suggest to ask people to confirm before whether or not they’re participating, that’s useful to get an indication of how many people you can expect. Obviously your meeting will be very different on either end of the extremes in your range.

Another option we have is to rent a dedicated BigBlueButton server. We have two options published on our site. Then again, that requires some setup time and costs we cannot waive."

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Yeah I can start the initial meeting

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peace y’all

is it possible for us to open the room 30mins before we start tomorrow @simonfreund @Hakanto @remst8 @richjensen @psi ?

last year, i remember we had a prep-call right before to iron out the kinks before our AGM. i’m hoping to be able to do similarly, making sure we have facilitation, moderation, announcements, reports, resolutions, all of the documents that will be presented, accounted for before we begin.

i’m planning on joining the meeting room 30mins before we start. looking forward to seeing/connecting/prepping those who are able to make it!

2022-12-29T13:30:00Z

thank you

brandon

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Can do :+1:

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