Patio Community Meeting - December 6th, 2024

Patio General Assembly

December 6, 2024

Present: Yuliy, Abril, Antonio Hernandez, Baris, Daniela Capponi, David from Colabs, Elizabeth Mitchell, Johnluther Limeleaf, Lucila, Naska, Nico, Steve Ediger, Tony Phillips, Barry Feldman, Manuel from Facttic, Paul Bowman, Tincho-Farox

Elizabeth and Barry taking notes.

1 - Welcome new tech coops: Pollux and Polycot, any others?

1.1 - Abril representing Pollux, coop from Rosario, Argentina

1.2 - Antonio Hernández, Polycot, 5 people US Coop

1.3 - Tony Phillips, NOVA Web Development out of Arlington, Virgina in the US

2 - ICA annual meeting in New Delhi: Report from @manuel.redjar.ar and @steveediger

2.1 - Steve gives brief report. Meeting exceeded all expectations. Met up with old friends from when he worked in  India. First day of conference was the kick off for the international year of cooperatives. PM Modi was there along with other gov't officials. Manauel and Steve met with Guarco to deliver the Digital Manifesto. Large number of apex organizations, coops, and individuals signed. Guarco was very receptive. Director of ICA will have to make the decision. Panel discussion that Steve participated in discussed coops and technology and federation and what these coops bring to the cooperative ecosystem. Side conference CODING, second annual meeting. Steve particpated in a "world cafe" meeting considering questions such as how would you coop benefit from joining a global tech federation. Lots of interative discussion. Not much talk about digitalization. Most coops present were not tech coops and non-tech coops didn’t focus on tech. Sea chage at TACOPA (CICOPA?) from last year. Patio recognized as an interational network of tech coops this year. Harold Brodsky 6 Principle Coops... incorporates ChatGPT. Steve is writing a full report that is currently 15 pages long with much more detailed information to be shared later.

3 - Jornada Coops IT meeting in Barcelona: Report from @naska_camplight_bg and @sergi_coopdevs_es

3.1 - Naska reports.

3.1.1 - Each coop has two minutes to present. Pictures of all presenters. Reported size (average about 50 members), hourly rates tended to be between 40 and 60 Euros/hr. Naska presented on Patio. Hope this will encourage people to join Patio. Workshops on process, differential wages. Much of the conference was in Catalan so even spanish speakers had some communication issues. Discussions about federations including federations from Argentina, Spain and UK. There will be more information in newsletter.

3.1.2 - Interesting perspectives on coops of different sizes. European countries and Spain supporting coop development. Many of smaller coops work with government programs. Bigger coops look for external clients.

3.1.3 - Hoping for 10 coops to join Patio as a result of this event.

3.1.4 - Had a chance to chat about many topics like work/life balance and working on projects we like.

3.1.5 - Challenges coops faced: size (too small, want to grow, want to stay the same size), finding clients

3.2 - Tincho: Was good to meet people in person. Commented on how it can be difficult to understand situations without actually being in location. Found it easier to comprehend the issues hearing from the people dealing with them.

4 - Update on progress and status of the skills and members database

4.1 - Barry: In process of setting up Grist on server. Want to populate information.

4.2 - Would move things from Google spreadsheet

4.3 - Steve E: Autonomic working on this

4.3.1 - Looking into Nextcloud and Mattermost single sign on that would include Grist database access.

4.3.2 - Infrastructure circle working on this

4.4 - Barry: Virtual private server at ChiCommons. Trying to make one of these be reserved for Patio. In progress.

4.5 - Baris: What circle owns this?

4.5.1 - Nico: What circle could take this on?

4.5.2 - Steve: The list of member coops and their owners/workers - the infrastructure can be taken on by infrastructure circle, but other pieces of this would be community support and internal

4.5.3 - Nico: It helps for one circle to own this. Let's discuss in next meeting.

4.5.4 - Antonio: Is this for content?

4.5.4.1 - Steve: Infrastructure piece (signing on, access). But getting coops to fill out this information would belong to another circle. It would help to have this filled out by individual worker, so we know specific skills and skill level.

4.5.4.2 - Barry: Internal organization should think this through.

4.5.4.3 - Antonio: Who maintains the database? Some links were not working.

4.5.4.4 - Next Friday at this time, the ?circle meets and this can be discussed

5 - Patio arranges talk on Odoo by @sergi_coopdevs_es and Adrian Pallejà to the Tech Peer Network of the USFWC

5.1 - Open to Patio network?

5.1.1 - Steve: Would be a closed network meeting for US peer network

5.1.2 - Barry: Maybe we can get recording

5.1.3 - Or ask Sergi to do a presentation at open Patio event

6 - Spanish-speakers group update.

6.1 - Nico: A group has been meeting, many from Latin America and Spain. Trying to be more inclusive.

6.2 - Naska: can we call it circle? Spanish Speaking Circle?

6.2.1 - Nico: Not yet a circle

6.3 - Steve: We need to have bilingual meetings

6.3.1 - Tony: jitsi has a good translation multilanguage audio channel feature

6.3.2 - Elizabeth: May First uses Jitsi and supports Spanish and English in meetings

6.3.3 - Look into Jitsi, which has support for translations

7 - Planning for next meeting.

7.1 - January 3, 2025

7.2 - Circle Reports 2024

7.2.1 - Each circle prepares and presents highlights from 2024

7.3 - Priorities and plans for 2025

7.4 - 2025 is international year of cooperatives (?)

8 - Manuel: participating in ICA was incredibly helpful for connecting with coops around the world

8.1 - In May, meeting about an incubation tool for cooperatives

9 - 2025 plans

9.1 - Naska: How to improve the website

9.2 - Naska: New year celebration

10 - Eighteen attendees today a record perhaps for an asssembly.

Please ask questions for clarification and discussion, and I will try to provide clarification.