As a follow-up to the March Community Call, we’ll be meeting again on 2023-03-27T17:00:00Z to discuss the tangible applications, benefits and outcomes that members of the GOAT community want to pursue through cooperative efforts. We can use the regular BBB meeting space, unless there’s another preference:
We already have some ideas, as recorded in the Miro board and elsewhere, and they cover a lot of territory. So one way I’m thinking we might proceed is to try to sketch out some broad areas of interest (eg, peer learning, business admin, conferences & events, etc), then focus on those areas where people, who are present for the meeting, would actually show up to do the work and want to reap the rewards. We could go into breakout rooms to explore those areas of interest separately, or discuss them as a larger group, or any other exercises that might be fruitful. Open to totally different approaches too.
I also want to put out a call for anyone who may be interested in facilitating or helping to coordinate the discussion, regardless of whether you’re new to GOAT or coops or anything like that, to take the reins on this one, or reach out reach out separately if you want to get more involved some other way.
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I won’t be able to make this one! Hope it goes well and I am looking forward to joining the next call.
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Welllll, I don’t know if I screwed up the calendar or LettuceMeet somehow, or we just didn’t get any other takers, but I left after 10 min alone in the BBB room.
If anyone wants to take the lead and reschedule, go for it! I’ll be happy to play a supporting role any way I can.
Apologies for not having been able to make it on the 27th @jgaehring
I’m happy to take a turn in the date poll hot-seat:
I’ll aim to close the poll and call a winning date by 2023-04-25T04:00:00Z so that folks have time to nestle it into their calendars.
CC @samuejao @paul121 @julietnpn
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Hi coop curious!
Thanks Calix for taking up the herding bell. I wanted to follow-up with some enthusiasm for our next meeting!
@jgaehring and I had a really nice conversation this morning and I am looking forward to convening as a bigger group to hear what everyone is thinking about in relation to GOATy coop, org structures, and community needs.
I would be happy to facilitate the conversation.
On the theme of the ‘Get to know a COOP’ I wanted to share a short film I recently produced about la CAPE- a Quebec-based farmer tech coop that I have been collaborating with over the years.
This film was developed as part of the Diversity by Design research lab at the University of Ottawa.
Check it out here: Grassroots innovation with farmer networks in Quebec
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@samuejao, that’s a really cool tech coop. I’m going to share video with some people I’ve been talking to in the ranching business and see if it sparks any ideas/interest.
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A winner appears! 
2023-05-01T17:00:00Z→2023-05-01T18:00:00Z
Let’s use our standard BBB room: Gathering of the Herds: GOAT Meeting Space
In terms of agenda, fine with Jamie’s initial prompt:
We already have some ideas, as recorded in the Miro board and elsewhere, and they cover a lot of territory. So one way I’m thinking we might proceed is to try to sketch out some broad areas of interest (eg, peer learning, business admin, conferences & events, etc), then focus on those areas where people, who are present for the meeting, would actually show up to do the work and want to reap the rewards. We could go into breakout rooms to explore those areas of interest separately, or discuss them as a larger group, or any other exercises that might be fruitful. Open to totally different approaches too.
I also want to put out a call for anyone who may be interested in facilitating or helping to coordinate the discussion, regardless of whether you’re new to GOAT or coops or anything like that, to take the reins on this one, or reach out reach out separately if you want to get more involved some other way.
See you all there!
CC @jgaehring @julietnpn @GOATforMikeD @samuejao @paul121 (+ Andre, Miguel O, if anyone knows their usernames on here who can @mention them? )
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Talking coops, commoning and solidarity economy, seems a fitting way to observe Int’l Workers Day and I can’t wait! 
And thanks so much for picking this up, @3wordchant. I added it to the community calendar:
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Awesome! I have a few more I will share in another thread!
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Looking forward to this discussion!
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Thanks everyone for the excellent conversation today. Here is a summary of the meeting along with a link to the full notes
GOAT Coop Discussion
05.01.2023
Participants: Calix, Ankita, Juliet, Jamie, Samuel
Facilitation: Calix
Scribe: Samuel
Full notes here
Executive summary
The group met for the ongoing conversation around COOP’s and related models for GOAT. Calix facilitated and after check-ins the agenda focused on A grant/Funding opportunity discussion and reviewing the shared Miroboard. The Miro board discussion was was open ended with Jamie highlighting some key idea that have emerged in the group and Ankita adding a new summary slide to Miro. On the theme of how to organize or structure GOAT Juliet brought experience of Parent Teacher Associations as an interesting model for shared/rotating power and ongoing engagement. Samuel touched on the value of a shared project to help work out/articulate a group’s purpose.
The group then turned its focus to a share-back from the POSE grant opportunity discussion on Friday April 28th. The call had been organized by a group that is pulling together an ad-hoc group on this theme of open source infrastructure for agriculture. The conversation then turned towards the POSE grant itself. Ankita gave an overview of the NSF and POSE and how it might relate to GOAT. Key points: It is not for funding established groups or tech projects. It is for catalyzing communities around open Source ag tech. Jamie discussed the idea of a common funding pool, the GOAT ‘Trough’, created from dues or funding that could be used to support tech projects emerging from the group. Samuel noted the importance of a governance structure and a mechanism for ensuring alignment with farmer needs, as well as a way to evaluate and assess proposed technologies. Ankita shared POSE’s restrictions on what it will fund and her own ongoing ‘laundry list of possible projects for GOAT to tackle’. Juliet and Jamie mentioned working on a synthesis of some group needs (?).
Calix called the meeting and polled the group to determine a meeting in 2 weeks. The group then check-out with reflections and suggestions for next steps.
Everyone’s points combined
- Future meetings
- Facilitation guide for these meetings
- Preparing for what’s next in this conversation
- Synthesizing roles / categories
- Needs of the community
- Having a shared project can help us get there
Actions Items
- Read up on POSE
- Followup meeting in two weeks
- synthesis document
- Getting a set of ongoing work dates on a shared calendar
- Shared document for Grant brainstorm
Agenda
15 minutes check in
20 minutes on Funding
20 minutes on Suggestion board
10 minute check out
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That date poll for next meeting: Crab Fit
Responses by 2023-05-08T21:00:00Z, please, so that we can choose a winner in good time
Thanks so much for excellent notes @samuejao and @sudokita 
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I know I kinda promised to do… something? My brain was in such a fog on Monday I’m struggling to even recall what that was, except that I offered to post it as a new forum topic.
I think it had something to do with summarizing the categories of “wants/needs” (or maybe it’s more accurate to frame them as “offers/requests”?), which we discussed during this meeting and in the original Miro board. These categories would cover the main reasons for people to join a GOAT-y Coop as active or even dues-paying members, so for example technical assistance, education & skill shares, networking & community building, or as a fiscal host & incubator. I think I wanted to document some more specific examples of the types of functions in each category as well, which is why I brought up that hypothetical case of someone looking to get a grant that would fund the development of a robot for, say, pest management in Oklahoma. That was a super-specific example I used to contrast the aims of this POSE grant, which would be for more general community building. And as an follow-up to all that, I also wanted to make sure to capture what kinds of organizations and other resources already exist to perhaps solve for some of these needs, or provide a forum for doing so. Some examples of that for fiscal hosting & incubators include the Software Freedom Conservancy and Commons Conservancy.
@julietnpn, does that match your recollections, since you also offered to help with some of the syntheses stuff?
Only Jamie has responded so far, let’s extend the poll 2 days until 2023-05-10T21:00:00Z, @julietnpn @GOATforMikeD @samuejao @paul121 (and, uhh, me!) please fill in ASAP
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Hey gang, sorry for moving slowly on this, but luckily it looks like the winning option is at the end of this week, anyway!
It’s a bit late my end due to timezones, but I’ll make it if I can.
2023-05-19T20:00:00Z→2023-05-19T21:00:00Z
Let’s use the same BBB link as last time: Gathering of the Herds: GOAT Meeting Space
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Added it to the calendar!
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