Ideas that merit further exploration

Web-based Tools for Radical Routes

A 'meme stash' is a place where memes are put. The first time I heard of a 'dank meme stash' was in the bernie sanders campaign (haha) - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/02/23/how-bernie-sanders-became-the-lord-of-dank-memes/ - basically a place to put fun images, catchy propaganda and hilarious but concise ideas that we can all contribute to, to help the RR publicity working group maybe.

Quora: fora (maybe loomio.org is good for this but I think you can put it on your website)

Mumble: voice chat software http://freecode.com/projects/mumble

Signal: like WhatsApp but open source and secure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)

Jitsi Videobridge: like Skype but open source, high quality, low latency and secure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitsi

Just might be good when people can't meet - although we really like meeting in physical places.

(Posted by Jed, with thanks to Tom from Federici)

Add more below, if you like.

Plan C have been thinking about the difficulty of sharing power amongst our diverse selves. Their 12 proposals for improving their own practice are an interesting set to measure RR up against. Play that game here!

http://www.weareplanc.org/blog/anti-authoritarianism-in-practise/

RR is already very good at some things, Could Do Better at others. I see future workshops at gatherings, very clear-and-easily...

"Low Hanging Fruit"; the first broadcast to catch some suggested solutions coming out of the 5.1 co-op visits

Co-ops have been being visited by the '5.1 and beyond' team since September 2016, and an early theme for improving Radical Routes' coherence and accessibility, was the way in which working groups operate.

Other key themes included how gatherings and the website work, but this first broadcast from team 5.1 and beyond is about working groups.

Working Groups

Many members of Radical Routes co-ops are not active in a particular working group. Of these, some are happy with that situation - chopping veg at gatherings or supporting other members of their co-op at home, so that those members can be a part of RR more easily. However, lots of individuals - and some whole co-ops - have expressed that they do want to be more involved in working groups than they are.

Working Groups That Work

The remits of each working group are sketched out in the member's pack (online here - you need to sign in), but it's up to the working group itself to design its own more detailed remit and operation. Some working groups rely heavily on working group meetings at the gathering. These can be a good place to get new members - as face-to-face is the best way to meet people - but for some groups the actual work is mostly done between gatherings by e-mail, skype, online forums and inter-gathering face-to-face meetings.

Barrier to participation - 'All or Nothing syndrome'

Lots of people are nervous of taking on a small job for an RR working group, because they believe it will turn into a massive, unending task. You might call it "All or nothing syndrome"; where people imagine RR has to be a full-time job or else it's not worth doing. Smart grownups are sometimes very averse to becoming a beginner at something again. Also, newcomers often perceive working groups as full of burnt-out people with no enthusiasm left for the work!

Overcoming 'all or nothing syndrome'

If they think this is a problem, working groups might take time-out from the work itself to reflect on how they're doing it. Most working groups need new members, and ideally there would be distinct roles which new people can learn and takeover then teach someone else. If an individual becomes indispensable, then a group is in trouble.

Even from a good steady core of capacity, working groups often identify a particular thing they would do, if they only had the capacity. Where these tasks are discrete and boundaried, the working group could advertise on the list or at gatherings.

When working groups identify tasks they'd like to make happen, but they do not have the capacity for it, then specific invitations for new members would make sense but reasons working groups don't do this include:

• not believing that people will step up and prove reliable

• not beleiving they have the time to even draft the job-description/request

• feeling like they have their way-of-working and are nervous about taking new members on.

Our visits have heard many voices from people who do want to step up though, so we can but urge working groups to go for it - make requests, share dilemmas and target tasks. Take a leap!

Successful Entry Points, and mutual aid between working groups.

Legal Working Group ran a 'legal group reading group' over a few gatherings, which was a successful advertisement for the work of the group. Some people who went along to that reading group didn't become members of legal working group but did gain increased confidence which led them to join other working groups.

Legal Working Group is a group that creates things and connections which it can then show off! Currently, Gatherings Group is also working on a "How to plan gatherings" and CSG is working on a "Guide to mediation", as well as working with Secretarial on updating the member's' pack. Just like law and policy, all of these documents are unlikely to ever be 'finished for good', but will evolve alongside the law and society. Co-operating on draft by draft is what a federation of co-ops does. The co-op of co-ops of individuals - that is RR - is unlikely to agree on exactly where we're going, but there is no shortage of ideas on how to improve the journey together.

We expect many more suggestions for how to use gatherings to come out in the future, but the last one for now, is how working group meetings work at gatherings.

Working Group Meetings At Gathering

The RR main business meetings on Saturday and Sunday of each gathering can be very big, a little scatty and made sense of afterwards by secretarial working group in the minutes! In contrast, Working groups meetings at gatherings could be much less bewildering and intimidating, being small, task-focussed, coherent, pleasant, organised and accessible.

• not just fire-fighting, but being friendly and integrating new members

• sharing and refocusing the remit of the group.

• using agendas, good process and minutes

• defining roles

• sharing skill

• Some working groups might advertise their inter-gathering skypes and face-to-face meetings.

• Have a clear enough remit and get enough members to carry out that remit

Having a set agenda, e-mailing the minutes out quickly to all who were present, referring to past minutes to create agendas and continuity all work to create a coherent group. At the gathering just past, Kids group reported that they had used their meeting to agree a clear definition of what the responsibilities of a core member are. A year ago, this was a working group undergoing a crisis of participation.

However you feel about Radical Routes' working groups, or your working group, we hope there's something to think about above.

Sincerely

Jed on behalf of 'Team 5.1 and beyond' (A subset of Development Woking Group)

'If you just replace a person but the slot remains the same, then realistically, you haven’t solved the problem. I really get the ambition of getting everyone contributing and involved, but some people will put in more time than other people do. It’s about acknowledging that and handling it in a reflective way.'

• a voice from a 5.1 and Beyond visit