2026 Away Weekend Planning

Discussion
1

Starting this thread for us to think about what we could potentially tackle in an away weekend, please add your thoughts/iterate on the list.

The working group will solidify the actual agenda but want to spread out the request.

  1. Strategy & Direction

    • Vision, values & political identity

    • Campaign prioritisation

    • Theory of Change

  2. Organisation & Governance

    • Structure, roles & accountability

    • Recruitment + membership journey

    • Code of conduct

    • Decision-making (strategic vs day-to-day)

  3. Finance management / income streams

    • Current finances snapshot

    • Money pots (e.g. Punch up?)

    • Income streams (donations, grants, membership, fundraising)

    • Financial transparency & accountability

    • Priorities for spending

    • Risks & reserves

  4. Tech stack review

    • Map current tools (signal, forum. nextcloud, etc.)

    • What’s working / what’s painful

    • Data security & access control

    • Ownership & maintenance responsibilities

  5. Breakout sessions on WG
2

Thanks for this, great work.

I suppose a question I have, is it worth having initial discussions (for me particularly around Strategy and Direction) before the away weekend so we’re entering that space with more of a sense of peoples positions? Or do we think it’s better to keep our powder dry and let that be a more organic/generative conversation/debate on that weekend?

3

Hi! I’ve responded to this on Signal but will also respond here. My idea with this is for each of these conversation topics to have owners that are responsible for crafting some kind of proposal/ convo format and then to bring what they’ve worked on to be discussed at the away weekend. The strategy leads specifically could put in that leg work in a smaller group - lets organise a time for us to meet via Signal to work this out.

3 Likes
4

Hi all - per our meeting today will update with summary of our notes here:

Venues

AP: Mikaela to confirm availability for Bidston , for Jan 9th - 11th, March 27th - 29th, April 4th - 5th. Alternative venues to be found afterwards.

Finance

Bidston’s standard nightly rate is £30 per person/per night
We are assuming food is ÂŁ15 per/person
Travel is ÂŁ25 (can potentially rent vans for transit)
So… if total cost is roughly £100

Tiered pricing system (per person)

  1. ÂŁ120
  2. ÂŁ75
  3. ÂŁ50
  4. Pay what you can

What people would like to see out of this weekend

  • Shared vision, coherent strategy, and a timeline
  • Clarity on Coop Brum’s purpose, structure, and membership
  • Policy drafts presented but not dwelled on
  • Engaging, energising, community-building activities
  • Action-oriented sessions with momentum

Next steps

  1. Mikaela to confirm up-to-date Bidston availability > will send follow up poll to secure a date > members to confirm within 48 hours
  2. CB members to give feedback on “what they’d like to see for the CB away weekend” in this forum thread
  3. Mikaela to draft agenda
  4. WGs to take on focused topics in the agenda

Full notes available here CB Away Week Planning Notes - Google Docs

5

Please add comments in this thread to the proposed away weekend agenda:

6

Hey I can’t edit googledocs from my phone so just marking here to edit later…

The collaborative timelining exercise will probably take an hour on it’s own. It will be into the past as much as the future, in order to get people onto the same page vis-à-vis coop brums history. I think we could do a collaborated map at the same time, where people bring up stuff it can also be added to the map.

7

A flexible off peak return on the train looks to be about 52 quid.

8

We can rent a car for £50 + petrol, I think we’d likely have enough cars between us to get us there for cheaper

9

would renting a minibus be an option if it’s a similar number of people as have attended the PU interclub events?

10

Could be, just not sure the price differences between 24h and all Fri+Sun. Perhaps we can ask when we pick up the minibus tmw

1 Like
11

Meeting minutes

Start time: 18h

Sam, Mikaela, Mani

  1. Check-in
  2. Update since we last met
    1. Confirmed venue as Bidston
    2. Passed ÂŁ300 for the deposit
    3. A draft of the agenda was circulated to the WG
    4. Mani discussed with Hayden
    5. Ethan + Sam talked about omni directional mic
  3. Agenda discussion
    1. Agenda viewable here: 2026 CB Away Week Planning - Google Sheets
    2. AP: Mikaela to write guidance on what is needed from each of the discussion groups before the away weekend
  4. Deadline for payment
    1. BOARC cancellation deadline is 15 Feb
    2. 5 February to confirm individual attendance, funds to be sent via Open Collective
    3. AP: Mikaela to ask Jane about writing sliding scale informative
  5. Mini bus booking?
    1. Minibus = 12 seats = ÂŁ200?
    2. Renting a car = ÂŁ56
    3. Hypothetical Cars = Abbas (5), Lucy (5), Ethan (3), Ben can rent a car
  6. Ownership
    1. Up to individual WG on what they want to produce/how they want to lead the sessions, the Away Weekend planning team can provide support + guidance on how to move forward.
    2. Possible option to overlap with the build fight program, spending part of the time reviewing the program and the other half building out CB strategy
    3. AP: Mani to ask for consent on away group having some kind of guidance/support/oversight
  7. Using the forum for planning
    1. AP: Sam to post on Signal instructions on how to use the forum w/ focus on new people
  8. NEXT Meeting: Jan. 8th, @ 6PM
12

definitely happy to help with writing sliding scale guidance.