Recruit an initial leadership team
Chad Whitacre
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Forming a cooperative of users to #BuyTwitter is a huge undertaking. We need leadership. Who is willing to step forward and commit to spending time on this effort? At this point the specific ask is somewhat undefined, because we are bootstrapping. The requirements are open to debate and revision, but probably look something like the following:
- Commitment to a platform cooperative vision for Twitter.
- Expertise in M&A and related areas.
- Time and energy!
Do you meet the above criteria? Do you know someone who does? Let's gather names, run them through a quick vetting process (simple thread + proposal for each), and then make them coordinators on the project!
Background
The timeline of how we got here鈥攁s I (@whit537) am aware of it, please chime in from other perspectives:
2016-09-29 @ntnsndr published "Here's my plan to save Twitter: let's buy it"
2016-09-30 Robin Chase indicated that there is "a multi-sectoral alliance of NGOs with shared guiding principles" who is leading the charge. That was a mistake! 馃槷
2016-09-30 @whit537 created this Loomio group to facilitate open organizing, and invited Nathan Schneider (@ntnsndr), and the others Nathan originally credited, as coordinators: @arminsteuernagel1 @tommcdonough and Robin Chase.
2016-10-03 A ticket about onboarding @bonniefoleywong as a coordinator makes it clear that we need to take a step back and proceed in a somewhat more orderly fashion. :-)
Chad Whitacre Mon 3 Oct 2016 6:40PM
Picking up from https://www.loomio.org/d/VnSE63pT/comment/1143654 ...
Has Bonnie been asked about the role, and accepted in principle?
No. Sorry to be presumptive, and thanks for being a good sport, @bonniefoleywong. :-)
I think making an "onboarding" ticket ("recruiting"?) is okay, but we should wait for agreement from the person in question before starting a proposal on that ticket. Does that sound right?
Bonnie Foley-Wong Mon 3 Oct 2016 6:57PM
No worries. I'm multi-lingual in corporate hierarchies as well as self-organized groups, amongst other languages :-) Truth is, I'd rather be an information resource and possibly an advisor, whilst we figure out what there is to coordinate. I'd also happily be the friendly translator of institutional M&A and devil's advocate. I tread a line between the traditional capital markets and social impact markets.
Matthew Cropp Mon 3 Oct 2016 6:40PM
I'm happy to be part of these conversations; my day-job is with the Vermont Employee Ownership Center, where much of the work we do is educating about, and providing technical assistance to, groups of workers seeking to purchase their workplaces from retiring owners as an alternative to sale to outsiders. Most of the deals I work with are under $1m, but I am very familiar with co-op structures, values, education, and community capital campaigns.
Chad Whitacre Mon 3 Oct 2016 7:04PM
Awesome, thanks @timothyamcdonald @matthewcropp! I've made tickets for each of you:
https://www.loomio.org/d/broxYG43/onboard-timothyamcdonald
https://www.loomio.org/d/EbpMV4qw/onboard-matthewcropp
I think at this point we should be fairly liberal with "coordinator" status to help in building momentum. With that in mind, I'm setting 24 hour timeouts on proposals on the onboarding tickets. If we don't get any blockers in that time then I'll be happy to add you as coordinators! :-)
Sam Toland Mon 3 Oct 2016 7:10PM
My advice, as I have posted elsewhere, is that we should focus on driving discussion and membership - sharing resources, knowledge and opinion.
I think the focus on leadership etc. is crucial - but this will take a little time to feel out. The idea of co-ordinators is a good one.
Building the infrastructure of a project like this is more important (and a great undertaking) than getting into discussion about specific roles etc.
Nathan Schneider Mon 3 Oct 2016 7:51PM
Just to be clear, @whit537, Robin sent that tweet to us by mistake. She was actually referring to a coalition related to car-sharing.
Chad Whitacre Mon 3 Oct 2016 7:53PM
Ah! Okay, that explains that. :-)
Chad Whitacre Tue 4 Oct 2016 5:03PM
From @ntnsndr at https://www.loomio.org/d/EbpMV4qw/comment/1144924:
I would like to suggest that we should aim for gender parity among coordinators. There are active, engaged women in this group, and we want to make sure the group leadership reflects that.
Chad Whitacre Tue 4 Oct 2016 5:23PM
@ntnsndr It's pretty brittle to have to vote everyone in and out of coordinatorship. I think we want more open, inclusive, and fluid leadership. What if we separate leadership from the Loomio "coordinator" role? If we had three or four coordinators to act mostly as administrators or secretaries, then we could encode leadership in other ways.
Timothy A McDonald 路 Mon 3 Oct 2016 6:34PM
I am happy to help lead the social media effort. I was the Director of Community at Huffington Post and am on the Social Council for #NoKidHungry plus was director of communications for SMC Chicago. Will need s few others to help grow our community, but willing to take the lead on that.