Hey y’all-
As we’ve been having discussions in the Signal group about the funding model for groups when it comes to support by Bsky or others, I want to make a recommendation:
I think we should form our own organization that can be self-governed - a co-op! The reasoning for this is as follows:
- Every group can have a seat and a say - equal seats and equal say is a really powerful model, especially when we think about how we distribute funding to events as well as how we support larger regional events.
- I think it’s good for us to decentralize power as much as possible, so an org specifically for the meetup groups allows us to be on equal footing with other orgs like the Community Fund, Bsky, EAR, Eurosky, and Modal, as we provide our own distinct value to the Atmosphere.
- It allows us to extend protections to the individual groups and organizers through things like event insurance, etc. Many locations or venues we host in, if we need to sign a contract to use them, will bind a lot of the responsibility to the signer. With a co-op. the organization can take the liability, protecting individuals from unnecessary risk.
- We can organize as non-profit or for-profit, so we can work with a fiscal host like Modal if there are things we’d like to do that makes one or the other attractive .
I have a lot of experience setting up organizations like this through my work with my fraternity as well as the work I did with Northsky. I’d be happy to coordinate the effort together for everyone, as a co-equal.