It’s AGP time, download your Agenda of Awesome and get started!
Last year on this day our member community launched & I wrote:
“Today is all about us friends-we are the workers, makers, builders, and this year we take today for our very own. May Day is symbolic because of the spring celebration of renewal and because of the international labour movement. Entrepreneurs have no unions looking out for us, we can’t strike when our boss is mean or the conditions suck, but we can and did build a community where we look out for each other. Now we have a home of our very own! Our new member community is a place for us to organize, support, rally and cheerlead one another along on our creative journey.”
We built the community-now let’s build the union.
It’s May Day again and we are taking big steps to create the first (as far as I can tell!) online co-op for makers + creative entrepreneurs who believe in cooperative values and want to work together. Let’s build better on and offline communities that increase stability, success & general goodness for all members. How we create this community is going to be up to us, this party is just the very beginning of the work to be done & we’ll take the next steps together!
Why a co-op?
The potential of being part of crafting a vibrant sharing economy where we all succeed is what first led me to the DIY/maker movement and is the main ethic behind our whole community. Cooperatives empower all members to have a sense of ownership, make collective decisions, choose where + how to invest profits, educate their members and increase access to services + supplies. Co-ops are also always accountable to their members in a way that big companies like Etsy or Ebay, no matter how cool they are, just can’t be. Most importantly as a co-op we have more power and ability to innovate and support each other as we learn + grow.
How to get involved!
Take our Community Survey: Take a 3 part survey on OMHG, the creative community & vote for our proposed changes.
Become a Community Member: Your membership now makes you a community citizen with full rights & responsibilities-be part of creating this cooperative with us.
Join the AGP: (for members only)Our AGP starts today with a day long meeting in the forums for members to decide on these community changes, sign up for roles & responsibilities, brainstorm future products and gather our volunteer interim board of directors.
For non-members & members: We’re having a 2 hour #OMHG chat on our survey questions from 12-2pm EST and a video meet up for members from 6-9pm EST.
Become a Community Advisor: Connect with us and help steer this new direction of our community by offering your mentorship. We’re looking for professional advisors with cooperative, social enterprise, and start up experience to support our next steps.
Spread the word: Share our AGP graphics, post about our co-op adventures or your love for OMHG on your own sites and social media, let’s talk about how the creative community can get innovative by working together!
Click to share on Twitter:
Happy May Day! Become a member & start a co-op for creatives with #OMHG http://bit.ly/1nKFIrL
What are our next steps?
Our AGP is only the start and is to determine our making this big leap and signing up for key roles. Next up in the forums our interim board will create our by-laws and articles of incorporation, a budget and plan a course of action for our collaborative projects!
Do community citizenship, co-operative values & pioneering a never-before-tried kind of worker’s cooperative sounds exciting to you? Dig in and get started with us – share your ideas and knowledge, they are needed. You can sign on at any time for this adventure but hopefully you’ll be inspired to be part from the beginning.
Happy May Day workers, makers & creatives of the world!
