Milwaukee Starting to Feel Like Some Kind of Holy City in 2009
Because some adventurers decided to explore ways of
Combining grass roots with high tech resources
To raise funds for the sacred movements of the month.
In the first month’s experiments a variety of concepts were explored:
* Knocking on Your Noosphere Door to Fund the Renaissance
After a period of brainstorming and guiding principle crystallization
A team of fund raisers for the Renaissance self-organized
With a very specific mission:
Send well crafted e-mails to their friends inviting them to offer
$5 in 2007 to advance the Renaissance project of their choice.
This very simple concept is, in my minds eye, like just about everything,
Also very complex.
At the dawn of the movements that will find Milwaukee someday
Considering herself and being considered as
The Holy City, or, one of the Holy Cities, of
The Sweet Water Seas,
Simple projects are “foundational.”
A sub-text of each project involves…
* basic and general principles
* social processes
* organizational structures
Basic Principles
There is a social vision here, captured by words like
“Co-op,” “mutual aid,” “reciprocal altruism,”
A system of social entrepreneurship.
Worker or consumer members want something
The merely commercial class cannot offer.
Evolutionary meaning and care for the earth
In work and consumer roles.
Participatory, humane, exuberant worlds
Of work and community.
Work as a calling.
Social Processes
Experimental projects with lots of
On line communication and
Personal encounters and gatherings.
Project teams of about 5 people
Self organizing for their specific piece
But sharing ideas and perhaps
Work and compensation with
Other co-op teams or
Supporters outside the network.
Organizational Structures
Someday, methinks, there could be a myriad of
Self-managed renaissance co-ops,
With co-op workers and co-op consumers
Sharing memberships,
In many hybrid forms.
Here is the bare bones of one organizing structure
Drawn from the example of the
Mondragon Worker Cooperative Complex
(William and Kathleen Whyte, “Making Mondragon:
The Growth and Dynamics of the Worker Cooperative Complex.”
There could be a general assembly
Responsible for the broad governance
Of this emerging worker cooperative complex.
There would be an audit committee
Reporting to the general assembly
For maximum transparency for trust.
The general assembly would chose
A governing council, which would
Choose and closely interact with
A co-op wide manager.
Both the governing council
And the manager
Would be advised by a
Management council and a social council,
Chosen by member co-ops.
(to be continued)