It can be tough to stay on top of discussions, especially if you have to remember to check in on yet another website. It’s much easier if you get a notification when there’s something interesting going on. This forum provides both in-site notifications to help you focus on the discussions important to you and email notifications which can keep you engaged without you needing to remember to visit the forum itself. While in-site notifications are currently standardized with very few customizations, email notifications are customizable from the “Settings” tab of your account profile. Email notifications come into two flavors – instant and digest. Instant notifications will send you an email as soon as someone posts, comments, or reacts. You can get everything passed to your email, or you can opt to only get updates on discussions you’ve already participated in, or new content based on who and/or what you follow. All in (almost) real time. Digest notifications, on the other hand, only get sent out once a day or once a week, depending on your settings, and include all activity from that time period.

The forum categories as they’re set up are pretty broad, so it’s still fairly easy for a post to get lost. Luckily, hashtags are here to help posts get found! Hashtags start with a hash or pound sign ( # ), and can be any combination of letters, numbers and the underscore ( _ ) character. Adding relevant hashtags to your posts can make it easier for folks to find the information they are looking for. They can be added anywhere in your post, and become hyperlinks that people can follow to find other posts with the same tag. Because hashtags can be pretty much anything you want, it can help to have some conventions in place to make things a little easier to find. Below are some suggestions: Use underscores to replace punctuation. CA, US becomes #ca_us. Ignore spaces. Credit union, becomes #creditunion Use singulars (e.g. #producer instead of #producers). Capitalization doesn’t matter, so #CreditUnion and #creditunion will both show up in either search. Try to avoid unofficial/non-mainstream abbreviations or acronyms. One caveat: the cooperative principles can be abbreviated to “#p” plus the principle number (e.g. #p6) Additionally, here are some suggestions for some hashtags which could be helpful: Type of cooperative (e.g. #producer, #consumer, #worker, or #non-profit) Industry (e.g. #electric, #grocery, #housing, or #ag) Geography (e.g. #ca_us, #ab_ca, #PNW) Subtopics in a category (e.g. #board, #HR, #financial, #feasibility) Other topics in the post (e.g. #dei, #rural, #BIPOC, #low_income) Relevant cooperative principles (e.g. #p1, #p6)

This is the post to read if you would like to better understand how the forum is structured and where to go for the kinds of discussions you are interested in. There are two main parts to this site – the forum itself where all the discussion takes place, and a members’ page which provides some context for who is taking part in the discussions. Each section is described in more detail below. Forum To help folks find what they are looking for and provide some structure for the conversation, we’ve broken the forum into categories and sub-categories. Forum members can post in any subcategory, but we’ve restricted posting to the main categories to try to keep things organized. Below is a guide to the categories and subcategories and the topics we imagine might be discussed in each. Guide to the Site You are here! Posting is restricted for this section to keep it focused on providing useful information on the purpose, structure, and features of the forum. New Member Intros This section is dedicated to welcoming those just joining the community and give them a place to introduce themselves. Managing Cooperatives This section is for discussion around the nuts and bolts of starting and running a cooperative organization. It is broken into the subcategories below. Ideas for Co-ops All co-ops start somewhere, and it’s usually just an idea that it would be cool to work together on an opportunity/challenge. This is the spot to have those discussions, whether it be that you have an idea for an actual cooperative or you have an issue and you want to explore possible cooperative solutions to it. Cooperative Formation There’s a lot that goes on between the initial idea and a living, breathing cooperative organization. This is the place to discuss all the challenges and triumphs of forming a steering committee, conducting feasibility studies, developing a business plan, writing bylaws, dealing with the legal issues of incorporation, and everything else that happens before the cooperative is a formal, legal entity. Cooperative Governance Governing a cooperative is a little (or a lot) different than running your average business. This is the place to discuss all that goes into keeping the cooperative operating as a cooperative. This could include board policy, the separation between the board and staff, setting up committees, addressing board dynamics, and recruiting/retaining board members. Membership Member-owners are the heart of any cooperative. Here you can discuss how to recruit members, how to keep them engaged in the organization, and how to educate them on issues affecting your specific cooperative and the cooperative movement more generally. Managing the Business Finances. Operations. Legal Questions. These are issues every organization faces, and we need a place to discuss them. This is that place, whether the issue is cooperative-specific (e.g. patronage), or more general (e.g. parsing a P&L statement or on-boarding new employees). The Cooperative Movement Cooperatives are not just stand-alone organizations. They are examples of an alternative economic model. This is the place to discuss that model and how we can advocate for it and help it gain purchase in mainstream discourse. It is broken into the subcategories below. Inspiration A great place to share the shining examples which are raising the bar on what cooperatives can accomplish, both on their own and working together. A place to go to recharge your batteries when the work’s got you down. Promotion A place to share stories/reports about the collective/general impact of cooperatives. Or to discuss how to increase awareness of that impact among decision-makers and the general public. Development Strategies One cooperative good; one hundred cooperatives better. This is the place to discuss how we can support new and emerging cooperatives and create environments where cooperatives are seen as preferred options. Tangents The cooperative identity is founded upon a set of principles and values, but cooperatives aren’t the only place those ideals can be found. Here’s the place to share other ways the cooperative principles and values are being lived in our world, and to discuss ways of connecting to these various expressions of cooperation. Admin As much as we’d love to focus the discussion solely on cooperatives and cooperative issues, it’s also important to reflect on how the medium is influencing the conversation. This is the place to discuss the forum itself and how it is impacting your ability to engage in the discussion(s). Suggestion Box Got ideas for improving the site? Let us know here! Or just vote for existing ideas you’d like to see us focus on implementing. Site Help / Troubleshooting Something not working the way you think it’s supposed to? This is the spot to drop us a line (or answer someone else’s questions!). Members Want to peruse who’s joined the community? This is the place to do it. You can view member profiles, follow members, or let us know if there is a member we need to pay attention to. Members have the option of including contact information in their profiles as well, so you can also reach out to individuals outside of the forum, if needed.