Collective steps to Commons regeneration

Food, agriculture, wood, medicine, leisure, work, inter generational legacy, forest management, education, health promotion, tourism, culture... When you go for land use you get the combo.

"How can platform cooperatives regenerate the planet?" - we are working on exactly that question with Joe Brewer here in the Earth Regenerators study group, hope to see you there.

I'll join! I guess we are all one big open collective

I would like to propose a session on this issue, if anyone wants to work on it with me. I dont really know how it works to create a session, but we can put together people from Open2020 (Loomio), from Earth Regenerators (Mighty Networks) and from Joint Agroforest Ventures (Telegram). If anyone wants to join forces just hop in. 🙌

Great @Diogo Jorge - to propose a session on this topic just hop on to the other thread: https://www.loomio.org/d/sKPCrZqM/open-2020-fringe-propose-a-session and write an outline of what the session will be about, and who is is for etc. then, if 10+ people give the proposal a positive reaction, just pick a date and time for the session and add it to the OPEN calendar at https://open.coop/events/ - any questions, just shout ;)

We're happy to join forces to help with the food & agriculture focus. Lucas has more time than me at the moment, so I'll give ping him to sign in here

Cool, It wasn't clear for me, thanks, I will do it.

Hello, I want to introduce myself and what we are doing as it applies to this thread. Unfortunately I do not monitor any platforms much as I'm spread between a lot of them. I cofounded Planetary C.A.R.E. (Collaboration for Agriculturally Regenerative Engagement) in 2018 with the continuing aspiration to become a global commons to accelerate regenerative agriculture. We plan to provide three major platforms: A Marketplace (farmer with wholesale buyer & farmer with suppliers); A data intelligence platform; and, A community platform to weave tighter connections within supply chain.

The Planetary CARE legal entity (formed in 2018 as a WY L3C) is a mashup with several components. I'll list them here. To me each one is important and adds much to the other.

[sidebar] After a couple years of development, I began actively building the PCARE team in February, 2020. Now, 5 months later, this structure has allowed us to grow from myself to 25+ at the rate of 1-3 new people per week. Everyone besides me is working part time (3-10hrs/week) and involved with some specific project within a scoping doc. When completed they move to another one. Key has always been to find synergy between their joy and what brings value to PCARE. This has only been possible due to the nonprofit/social enterprise portion of the company structure and the use of the Taprootplus platform to find people interested in both us and the project posted and then they many (about 50%) decided to stay with us, under a P unit, deferred compensation agreement, described below.

The mashed up parts are:

1. L3C - this is a legal blend of nonprofit & for-profit. We have all the benefits of both except we cannot accept tax deductible donations without them running through a fiscal agent. It does allow us to have volunteers which a for-profit company including B corp cannot. FYI- we also plan on being a certified B Corp.
   
   It also allows us to include in our Operating Agreement:
   a) P units (aka Profit units), tied to profit only, each on is worth $1.00, they must be paid off before profit is distributed to others, and if held more than 1 yr then it begins earning interest (we have it locked at 2%). This allows us to have people under independent contractor agreements designed as if it were for cash (salary, hourly or flat fee for deliverables) though payable in P units. This is important as it documents what has been required in fair market value to get to the place where P units are no longer required to fund the company.
   
   b) It is a multi-stakeholder cooperative. Since we have a really big, audacious mission, we know it will gain much by having the perspectives of people involved with every perspective of the supply chain. Therefore we have these classes of ownership: Workers (majority of equity); Farmers; Suppliers; B2B Buyers; Advocate organizations; Investors (in this sector); and, Researchers. Each class has some equity assigned to it and will elect a representative to the Board of Trustees (Directors).
   
   c) A sociocratic constitution that defines how the company is run. This is expected to only be a starting place and to change and evolve over the years to the needs of the specific people as time goes on. The key is to operate as a Teal organization (Reinventing Organizations)
   

2. The 10 ExO Attributes - The deep study of exponential organizations has resulted in insights and key attributes for those companies seeking to scale large within their niche. This is obviously many organizations that seek to go after large audacious objectives. Yet, in my view, toward regenerating the planet there are way too few. It's a massive undertaking to get accomplished within the next 15-25 years. See Open ExO for more depth and free signup to the community.
   

   I cannot guarantee I will see responses here, though I'll do my best.
   
   Planetary CARE is in a deep capacity building phase through 2020. We are rebuilding our website (adding in a major resource repository and a system to send qualified leads to companies seeking to expand their business in this sector).
   
   A couple ways to stay in touch with us: Join GRAFE.today, and sign up for our eventual newsletter. You will also find me on Linkedin
   

It looks like an amazing project Forrist. I hope it's a success for everyone involved.

Thanks Wes. It has been a step-by-step process. There is so much working going on by many orgs seeking to come together and collaborate. Both inspiring and lots to do so solidify the parts.