Tech Coop Network Charter

charter.md

Tech Co-op Network Charter - Draft

• Purpose
  • To build and maintain an association of all interested technology-related worker cooperatives in North America
  • To maintain a website for this association, listing all members
  • To promote and coordinate other activities as it sees fit
• Members
  • Members must
    • Have information technology as their principal area of business
    • Be co-operatives (either worker co-ops according to the USFWC definition, or other co-operative entities demonstrably adhering to the co-op principles)
    • Be based in North America
  • Interested co-ops should email the convener to join.
  • All members will be listed on the website.
  • Any member may be removed from the group by a consensus decision of the group minus the member in question.
• Roles
  • Roles should be listed prominently on the website “about” page.
  • Convener
    • Convenes meetings
    • Facilitates meetings
    • Reviews requests for membership and notifies site maintainer
    • Maintains agenda stack
  • Site Maintainer
    • Solicits semi-annual updates
    • Maintains member accounts
    • Helps members make changes to their info
    • Manages the group's email list
    • Upgrades Drupal, etc., as needed
    • Maintains site issue list
  • Secretary
    • Coordinates handling mailing list subscription requests and moderation
    • Handles emails directed to the Network's contact address
    • Ensures minutes are taken (either by self or by other volunteer)
    • Distributes minutes
  • Roles should be rotated (pending interest) approximately annually at a member meeting
• Member Responsibilities
  • Respond to semi-annual update requests from the Site Maintainer
  • Put forward individuals to fill roles from time to time as needed
  • Send a representative to attend, or contribute written remarks in advance of, at least one meeting per year
  • Any member not meeting the above responsibilies should be politely warned, and is subject to removal from the group should non-participation continue.
• Decision making
  • Meetings should be chiefly conducted via tele- or videoconference
  • Decisions will be made by the standard consensus model (all voting members present must either consent or stand aside for a proposal to be approved).
  • A draft meeting agenda should accompany each meeting announcement.
  • Representatives from at least 3 member co-ops must be present at a meeting for decisions to be made.
  • Meeting minutes should be distributed via the tech-coop email list and placed in the group’s document store within one week after the meeting.
  • Decisions may be made by consensus outside a meeting via Loomio or other such tools if representatives from at least 1/3 of the current membership participate.
  • At least one week's notice should be given via the group's mailing list for meetings or other decision-making processes.
• Email List
  • All members of member co-ops are entitled to join the group's email list.
  • Interested individuals that are not members of co-ops may also join the list, but may be removed from the list at the discretion of the membership.

"Any member may be removed..." should add "..and also if they themselves feel like being removed." :) We wouldn't want to coerce anyone into participating heh.