Livestream Co-op Finance Discussion: Panelist Suggestions Needed.
Matthew Cropp
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We just had a quick and productive hangout discussing pulling together a live-streamed & recorded "panel" on Google Hangouts on Air, and decided to move forward on two: one on finance and deal structure, followed by one on governance.
The call originated with this Loomio thread by @MairaSutton
~ Spreadsheet for tracking outreach and speakers ~
The plan is to start with the finance/deal structure discussion, and the idea is to have someone kick the conversation off with a bit of vision (Someone like Nathan or Trebor or, if we could get him, Doug Rushkoff?), and then proceed to a lightly moderated discussion with a group consisting of 2-3 people who have deep experience with co-op finance and 2-3 people with deep experience in converting for-profit businesses into co-ops. After introductions, these folks would start by engaging in a lightly moderated discussion with each other about how this might work in the case of twitter, and then we could bring in questions from those watching for the remainder of the session.
Our soft goal is to have all (or at least a good portion) of the line-up confirmed by the Thursday before the Platform Co-op conference, and if there are any gaps, we can hopefully fill them there.
As such, please use the comments section below to "nominate" individuals who you think might fit either the "Finance" or "Conversions" role well (please clearly indicate which you are nominating them for, and provide a 1 paragraph summary of why they might be a good fit), and, once we have a list, go back and "like" up to 3 from each category. Once we have nominations and likes tabulated, we can put out asks to those individuals, starting with the most "liked" nominations.
David Backer Mon 7 Nov 2016 7:52PM
Shaping up to be a great panel! Could I feature audio of it on Commonsplace (https://commonsplace.org/), the cooperative economy podcast I've been working on? Going to be featuring an interview with Nathan in our next episode and this would be a great addition.
john gieryn Mon 7 Nov 2016 8:00PM
Shoot- no way to edit the proposal at this point please see this link to get access to the consolidated speaker-outreach-list ← sorry I messed up the link in the proposal :P
Matthew Cropp Mon 7 Nov 2016 9:21PM
Looking through the proposed speakers list above, some of the suggestions seem to fit more in the proposed second session that will focus on Governance/Operations. With that in mind, below are the folks who appear relevant to the first session (correct me if I'm wrong and other should be added to the list), with an * for people who also have significant experience in the other category as well.
[Finance]
-Dan Fireside, Equal Exchange
-Betsy Black, CFNE*
-Chris Cook, ("If anyone is interested in complementary (eg LLCs, LLPs, prepay credit) methods for financing & funding Co-ops without using shares (of any type) or even debt then I'd happily contribute.")
-Brendan Martin, The Working World*
[Conversions]
-Noemi Giszpenc, Cooperative Development Institute
-David Hammer, ICA Group*
-Jenny Kassan, SELC co-founder, lawyer
-Kyle Westaway. Start-up lawyer, converted www.nobl.io
As such, would it make sense to invite all at once, or do so sequentially (for instance, it seems like having a conversions lawyer would be useful, but two might be less desirable if the second slot bring in someone with a different expertise?
john gieryn Tue 8 Nov 2016 6:32PM
That would be awesome @tommcdonough.
+1 to all your comments Matthew Cropp- as I imagine you're doing a significant segment of the outreach, I think you could go ahead and implement the strategy that makes most sense to you unless someone else feels strongly that the urgency requires we reach out to more than what you're thinking. I don't know the strength of your connections; if we're aiming to have some people relatively confirmed before the conference this weekend then I might suggest reach out to two unless you feel like they'll both say yes.
I've modified the excel sheet to reflect that some of the selections are intended for session two— I think the way I wrote the proposal warrants that change without invalidating the current votes please let me know if you think otherwise :)
john gieryn Tue 8 Nov 2016 7:02PM
@chriscook1 I think we should confirm you right off the bat, if you're interested! I love the quote that @matthewcropp shared in his comment just above
Chris Cook Tue 8 Nov 2016 8:26PM
I'm in
Danny Spitzberg Wed 9 Nov 2016 1:41AM
fwiw- Kyle Westaway deals with multi-million dollar deals, and is also familiar with co-ops after helping www.nobl.io convert. Jenny Kassan has experience with million dollar deals.
john gieryn Wed 9 Nov 2016 1:03PM
Do folks (especially @dannyspitzberg who i wager has greater familiarity) feel that Michel Bauwens would be a good for for thr second event on Gov & Ops? I was talking to him (to get Rushkoff's email) and i thought i might check his interest- he's happy to participate
Danny Spitzberg Fri 18 Nov 2016 8:10PM
Michel is great as an orator about the commons movement in general, but for this discussion, I suggest we recruit technically-inclined people (including law and finance folks). Update: Brendan Martin from Working World is up for it
john gieryn · Mon 7 Nov 2016 7:45PM
Some folks I think will want to vote on this: @mairasutton @dannyspitzberg @chriscook1 @matthewcropp @priscillagrim @asolache @tommcdonough @davidbacker @thomaseuler1