Starting the ball rolling for discussions on strategy for the next year.
With the launch of Stirchley Co-operative Develop (AKA Jessie Eden house) I think we should consider what our big project is for 2026. It’s estimated to be finished around February 2026 but may drag on a bit longer due to the nature of large building projects.
We’ve been doing a bit of research that might inform our strategy:
Preparing the organisation administratively for a public project (registering a legal entity, bank account, policies etc)
Tech reforms (syncing OpenCollective with Single Sign On for automated tech access)
Public information campaign
OpenCollective Sub Project for collecting dues
Operational questions (purchasing, transport, distribution, decision making, business model)
Floating the new Food Co-op with a bit of money form the main pot
Political education
Doing the thing!
Goals
The strategy being that this will be a public organising project aimed at increasing Co-operation Birmingham membership to around 50-100 people by the end of 2026 with a functioning food co-op split into 10 household groups (with a bigger groups for SCD). Perhaps SCD can be used as a distribution hub for these groups and the first households group.
This will help build a co-operative democratic culture that will give the community a tangible benefit and alleviate poverty. We can then investigate spreading our activities beyond Stirchley into neighbouring areas, starting by inviting groups from other areas to visit us and see the project in operation.
Risks
We should consider and address the following:
Operational issues
Lack of sustainable supply chain
Lack of community engagement
Lack of political education of the membership
Becomes a service/charity rather than organising
Becomes too centralised and smaller household groups don’t function
Doesn’t function democratically
Is too too difficult to organise
Doesn’t have a business model that also benefits the wider Co-operation Birmingham organisation
Isn’t interconnected with other Co-op Brum projects
Doesn’t contribute to the wider organising infrastructure
Thanks for this, will consider more and reply in detail soon.
Something that’s been discussed previously is branding, as in something like a logo we can put on different projects to make clear the links between different projects and coop brum, good way of increasing visibility for the org when people interact with punch up/solid joy etc
Something that’s been discussed previously is branding, as in something like a logo we can put on different projects to make clear the links between different projects and coop brum, good way of increasing visibility for the org when people interact with punch up/solid joy etc
Yeh totally! We already have some colours from our website, I’d really love a logo. We could probably pay a designer like 200GBP for a good logo that we probs last us for the foreseeable.
i know a couple of friendly graphic designers who would probs be up for designing a logo. £200 is probs the top end of what i think should be paid for a solid logo
Also think that once we’ve come to a position as an org as to precisely what Coop brum is/what direction and strategy we’re following, we need written comms/verbal lines to be able to communicate that clearly and concisely
I think that the away weekend will help us solidify what this looks like because we really do need to sit down and figure out who we are and what we’re trying to do - from there we can think about how/where we want to prioritise our energy, get logos, etc.
Two projects I would like to be involved with, both of which have scope for growing membership/participation.
-pet care co-op (or could be part of a wider consideration of collectivising social reproduction - I didn’t want to lump pet care and childcare together!)
-healing justice/wellbeing co-op. things like somatics, accessible exercises classes, co-counselling etc. Probably starting with quarterly taster days?
Oh brilliant. Not wanting speak for other members of We Got To Move, but we would likely collectively be up for being part of this. I’m not based in Stirchley so haven’t been involved in the deflagging discussions, but was aware of the sessions at PH from Punch Up discussions, though so far I can’t make any of the sessions. Very happy to talk to Pip and I’d be willing to offer somatics if they are interested.