Democracy, autonomy and trust
Our decision-making approach is informed by a few principles:
- Democracy. Decisions about people should be made with those people’s input.
- Autonomy. Workers should be empowered to get on with things with minimum hindrance.
- Trust. We make agreements about direction and responsibility that help us navigate the tension between collective democracy and individual worker autonomy, recognising that we work different hours, shifts, timezones and locations.
These structures answer who decides what, and where? For how consent works once a co-op decision is needed, see How decisions are made. For when forums meet, see Organisational rhythm. For how we facilitate meetings, see How we run meetings.
Legal constitution
Ultimately, we share a legal constitution — our Articles of Association, recorded with Companies House. It governs the legal rights and responsibilities of directors, members and employees.
Changes to the Articles follow company law: most alterations need a special resolution (at least 75% of votes cast); entrenched articles need approval of 100% of members. See the Articles under Resolutions for the detail.
Mission, Vision, Values
We maintain a long-lasting Vision, Mission and Values document.
We use these as cultural, political and organisational points of unity that we can justify our decisions against in the last instance.
Annual Strategy Document
Every year we determine a more concrete, overarching strategy that translates our mission, vision and values into programmatic policies, goals and ambitions.
This strategy involves contributions from the membership and the advisors and is a key aspect of our decision-making.
Responsibility areas are mandated to enable the strategy and justify their decisions against it.
Steward mandate
When new stewards take on a responsibility area (usually on a 6 month rotation), they post a direction / strategy to all members and take on feedback.
This is normally posted on Twist.
This “mandate” is the justification for substantial steward autonomy: within it, stewards can make operational decisions without a co-op-wide consent process.
Responsibility area reflection
On the organisational rhythm, each responsibility area reports during the cooldown week (week 4 of the cycle). Those meetings are where the steward reports what has happened and what is happening next, members feed back, and directional or policy questions get fleshed out before anything becomes a formal proposal.
Attendance matters democratically because this is where mandate accountability and early policy shaping happen — not only where work is coordinated.
Members meetings
During each cycle’s cooldown week, all members gather to discuss the state of the co-op. It is an “anything goes” meeting insofar as, if it can’t be discussed here, then where can it be discussed?
This is a deep democratic space: a good place to discuss ideas for change, which can form the basis of proposals. Schedule and practicalities live in Organisational rhythm.
When to raise an ad-hoc Twist proposal
Written proposals on Twist are normally the last mile of a proposal-making process — not the starting point.
Twist is primarily a place to clarify and document decisions made in meetings, for final clarifying questions to be fielded, and for wording to be confirmed.
Twist is less good for rapid decision-making, because people are often busy or available at different times of the week.
Raise a co-op consent proposal on Twist when the change:
- Affects more than you, and more than at a project level; and/or
- Uses the co-operative’s financial or other shared resources in a material way (for example large purchases — see the equipment policy thresholds); and/or
- Commits someone else’s time over a long period (for example more than about a month); and/or
- Changes policy, structure, or membership conditions that others will have to live with.
If it sits clearly inside a steward’s current mandate, prefer acting within that mandate and reporting back in the next RA reflection, unless the steward judges that members should consent first.
Once a proposal is needed, the consent process, time limits, and participation rules are in How decisions are made.
Handbook
The handbook documents the decisions and policies we agree on the basis of all of the above.