What if collaboration were a lot simpler - and more powerful - than we think it is? What if there was a way to leverage community strengths and resources to create more of what we want in our organizations, communities, etc.?

We at UNITE WNC and AVL Futures are excited to offer an opportunity for you to spend a day exploring a new model, tools and culture for creating collaborative networks that leverage community strengths and resources in powerful ways.

The workshop will be led by Richard Bartlett and Natalia Lombardo, who have been engaged in the craft of participatory organizing for more than five years. They are the co-founders of Loomio, a worker co-op building software for collective decision-making, and Enspiral, a decentralized network of 250 freelancers who have been working without bosses since 2010. Rich and Nati are currently touring the USA, from New Zealand.

In the workshop, Rich and Nati will share stories from radically participatory, non-hierarchical organizations. They will identify common challenges that groups face when they try to collaborate, and offer tools and processes that have been proven to overcome these common failure points. And they will give participants an opportunity to practice participatory organizing, as part of looking at how we might apply all or part of the model in initiatives happening in our communities and region.

“We were delighted to have the support of the Loomio crew when they came through Indiana in April. As a community-controlled arts/media coop, it’s super important we organize in a way that is aligned with our collective values. It was great to have a dedicated time to reflect on how we’re working, and to hear stories about how the folks at Loomio and Enspiral have approached these difficult questions. I’ve been familiar with the Loomio software for a long time, but after the workshop I had a much better sense of the cultural elements that make this kind of collaborative, generative mode of organizing possible.” — john gieryn, Indy Art Media Coop

Bios

Richard D. Bartlett is one of the cofounders of Loomio, an open source software tool for collective decision-making. He's also a Catalyst at Enspiral, a network of 250 tech social entrepreneurs experimenting with radical organizational forms. His background is in creative activism and DIY open source hardware. He's passionate about co-ownership, self-management, collaborative governance, and other ways of sneaking anarchism into respectable places. He writes at richdecibels.com

Natalia Lombardo is a co-owner of Loomio, a co-operative social enterprise building tools for collective decision-making. She helps groups to cultivate collaborative culture through values-driven behaviors. Her background is in community development through local action, permaculture, and creative activism. Born in Argentina, living in New Zealand: she’s a bilingual translator who loves to bridge cultures.

Workshop Details

Date: Saturday, June 3, 2017
Time: 10 am - 12 noon, 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Cost: $35 per person, all proceeds go to workshop presenters

Limited to 30 participants