Away Weekend: What is Co-op Brum WG

Discussion
1

Hi all -

As part of the away week, the ‘what is co-op brum’ group has had our first meeting. I will be posting our meeting notes here for posterity.

Best,

M

2

Meeting 06/01/2025

Attendees: S, M, R, H

Agenda

  • Check-in

  • Chat about CB generally

  • Next steps

What is co-op brum now?

  • Consensus decision making

  • Parent organisation for other organisations to set up and do things

  • Political people no political ideology

  • Group of friends, comrades, and mutuals

  • Lacking structure

What do we want CB ‘to be’

  • S: Bring more assets into communal ownership

  • S: Pluralistic organisation of the political left

  • M: Better organised + something marketable

  • R: Clear vision

  • Nothing larger than what it can handle

General thoughts

  • R wishes that there was a clearer message to say what co-op brum does, what are the benefits to joining, would like to feel like we have aims and goals that we’re working to within the organisation, short term and long term goals

  • R stopped being a member because they didn’t see the point of what was going on

  • Thinking about the basic history of CB, its links to the warehouse cafe (c. 2019) + pandemic

    • “CB was set up in response to the lockdown and wanting to have an alternative way of using that space and feeding people who wanted to be fed, the solidarity kitchen was started and that felt like the main reason for CB to set up. That’s why it was started, why the OC was set up, there were more short term and long term goals.”

  • Fall of Warehouse Cafe felt like the fall of CB > new resurgence because of new housing co-ops + eager people, still a very small group

  • Conflicting opinions of what CB should be often comes from new/old guard

  • We need to ask ourselves: What do we honestly have the capacity to do? What are things we would ‘like’ in CB that we can find elsewhere or in other political orgs/spaces.

  • Ambition is good - get the basics right and build on that

Next steps

  1. Confirm questions by 09/01 but emphasis on free flowing dialogue. We can record the conversation - do 1:1 interviews to help survey the membership. Groups can be larger but wouldn’t want more than a few people.

  2. Consolidate that info for key learnings

  3. Maybe do a theory of change?

[DRAFT] Questions

  1. What drew you to CB?

  2. When you think of CB today, what is it?

  3. Give us some context on what you would like CB to be? Why should it exist? What unique role/niche are we filling/could fill that isn’t already met by other groups?

  4. What do you think the aims of CB should be?

  5. Imagine CB is thriving, it’s 2028, what does ‘thriving’ look like? What should we do in the next 12 months to get us there?

  6. How much capacity do you personally have to put into CB? Tell us more about how CB fits into your life. Is there something that would support you/need to happen in order to be more involved?

  7. Is there an organisation or movement that you think CB could learn from? Why?

  8. Anything else?

Outputs

  1. A mission statement

  2. 3-4 Aims