WAO! We’re almost seven.

Last week, four members of We Are Open Co-op, plus one collaborator, descended on an American-style villa in the Netherlands for a meetup. We left with three members, two collaborators, a new pair of socks, some plans, and great memories.

Our aims and ‘rules’ for the week, such as they were, could be outlined simply:

Take some time away from client projects to reflect on who we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re going.
Hang out with each other in real life and have some fun.
The co-op will pay for everything. Except spirits.

Well, we managed two of the three. And it didn’t get too messy after some heavy pouring by the bartender at the TonTon Club 🥃

Collaborator pathways & member benefits

Sketchnotes about collaborator pathways outlining member benefits, etc. — CC BY-ND Visual Thinkery

After an extended period of dormancy in 2022, we knew that Bryan intended to step down as a director of WAO to become a collaborator. We’re looking forward to actually working with him more this year than last, now that he’s done the “wandering and crying” (his words!) needed to find what’s been calling him.

The image above was drawn by Bryan during a session where we though about what it means to be a collaborator with, versus being a member of, WAO. As with any business, it’s about money and power, although that operates in a different way within an organisation with a flat hierarchy and consent-based decision making.

Essentially, we would love to grow the co-op by working with more collaborators. The benefit for us includes everything from accessing new clients to learning new skills and discovering different ways of working. We would hope that the benefits of working with WAO are manifold and obvious, but for the avoidance of doubt, it’s autonomy, solidarity, and a pathway to becoming a member.

Highway to membership

Talking of pathways to becoming a member of WAO, we talked about that too! Outlining a policy for this is a bit of a ‘Goldilocks’ strategy, as while the first principle of the International Cooperative Alliance is ‘voluntary and open membership’ there has to be some kind of speedbump. That barrier can’t be too high, though, otherwise we’ll never be able to welcome anybody new.

What we’ve settled on for now isn’t too much different from what went before. To join WAO, you need to:

bring in work from your network
have worked with every current WAO member
mesh with our values

Some of this is subjective. Of course it is. But then being a member of WAO currently also means being a company director so we want to get it right. While things may change in future with more than one class of membership, for now any additional members of WAO are taking on joint legal responsibility.

Introducing the ‘Context Understudy’

When you’re a small organisation like our co-op, knowledge management can be both easier and more difficult than when you’re either a larger organisation or a single freelancer. It’s not sustainable for one member to be on every project, but nor is it reasonable to spend time documenting every little thing on every project.

At the meetup, we created the role of the ‘Context Understudy’. It’s a title that may change in name over time, but the idea is that they are the go-to partner for co-working. Just like an understudy in a theatrical play, they can step in as and when needed. They’re also the default person to co-work with on the project.

It’s worth noting that you have to be a member to lead a WAO project but you don’t have to be in order to be a Context Understudy. In fact, in terms of the ‘highway to membership’, bringing a project to the co-op and working on it in this way is a perfect fit.

We haven’t got a name we’re completely happy with for other roles on the project. ‘Skills provider’ feels… a bit corporate? Although that’s exactly what other people are bringing. As with everything, it’s a work in progress.