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---
title: 'Session 0: Kickoff + Onboarding'
collection: Cooperative Foundations
path: 'Cooperative Foundations/Session Content/Session 0: Kickoff + Onboarding'
parentDocument: Session Content
outlineId: 4473dfe4-b06a-406c-98a6-6bba510cb162
createdBy: Jennie R.F.
---
> **Peer Supports:** See [PS Guide: Session 0 — Kickoff + Onboarding](/doc/ps-guide-session-0-kickoff-onboarding-HzswkItl8f) for your role during session and this week's studio support meeting.
---
## ==Welcome==
* Tag Yourself activity
---
## Intro - 2 min
Session 0 orients us to the shared work ahead. This opening session grounds participants in the purpose and structure of the program while setting the tone for a peer-driven, care-centred space.
We'll begin building the relational trust and shared accountability that will carry us through the following 8 sessions. We'll reflect on our own privileges and lived experiences. By the end of this session, we'll have a shared understanding of how we'll learn together. This is the beginning of practicing cooperation together.
> "The most important thing is if there's **trust** between the people in the group because that's what carries it through." - Russ Christianson
> "every collective starts with a feeling" - Brewing Collectives — [a cool website from some perma-computing people.](https://brewing.permacomputing.net)
---
## Agenda
### Welcome, land acknowledgement, values - 10 min
* Quick round: name, pronouns, location, why you're here
Acknowledge land and virtual space, and share our values
* * We acknowledge and thank all those who have struggled for workers' rights and racial, economic, and environmental rights and emancipation
* We are recording this session for team members who can't attend
* Please post questions as we go in the chat
* Opportunity to ask more questions during Q&A at end
* If you have any access needs, put it in the chat or DM @jennie or @eileen
* See: [Accessibility Supports Available to Participants](/doc/fe4225c8-d8d2-48ed-873e-0eca72b611b6)
### Studio Pairings - 5 mins
* Show which teams they're in
### Peer Support team intros - 5 min
* Who is paired with who
* What Peer Support sessions look like
### Participant intros - 15 min (3 mins each)
1. Each team says hello - have one person talk for the team and the others chime in the chat with:
* name, pronouns, location
2. Tell us about your game - *briefly*
* can share pictures in the chat if you want
3. Biggest studio pain point *right now*
---
### ==Where you are: The co-op development journey - 10 min==
First, let's look at the statistics:
* Small business startup success rate: \~20% (8 in 10 fail)
* Cooperative startup success rate: \~40% (6 in 10 fail)
* Co-ops significantly outperform conventional startups – but it's still not a guarantee
**You're still going against the odds. But it's a worthwhile thing to do, because cooperative principles and practices will enrich your life and your relationships.**
Being a co-op improves your odds, it doesn't eliminate risk.
This program focuses on **pre-formation** - the relational and governance groundwork that determines whether your co-op will thrive or struggle.
Most resources out there focus on the legal and operational stuff: how to incorporate, how to file paperwork, how to structure bylaws. Of course that's important! But it's not where studios fail.
Studios fail because of unspoken assumptions about money, time, and commitment; wishy-washy and undocumented governance; conflict avoidance; unexamined power dynamics
This program exists to build the foundation *before* you incorporate. By the end of this program, you'll have shared values that you know how to put into action. We'll walk you through designing and practicing cooperative governance structures. You'll know how to decide *how to decide*! and we'll test low-stakes decisions. And you'll have drafted conflict tools ready for when (NOT IF!) tensions arise.
**You are here:** Pre-formation and building your relational infrastructure
**==Coop Journey Map ==***==(visual showing: pre-formation to formation to operation)==*
**What comes after:** Incorporation support, ongoing community (Ghost Guild), and continued learning. We'll talk about pathways in Session 8.
---
### ==Program overview - 10 min==
#### Program schedule, session themes, and format
We have 8 sessions (not including today)
* **Coop Principles and Power:** We go over the principles adopted in 1995 by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), which now form the ethical foundation for cooperative work — and then talk about how we can turn those principles in into *values*.
* **Speed Networking:** A chance to interact and chat more with your fellow cohort members in a fun way.
* **Studio 1&1s:** coordinators will have two studio 1:1s with you. This is a chance to share how you're doing directly with us, so that we can make adaptations or accommodations to support your team.
* **Shared purpose and Alignment:** We confront the fast pace that the industry sets for us and how we can challenge that. How do we find true alignment as a team without that pressure?
* **Actionable values and impact:** You're going to get sick of us saying the word "values." In those first two sessions, we cover *why* cooperatives matter to game developers who are challenging toxic industry norms, *what* we want to build through shared purpose and values, and in this session we will dive into the *how*: The day-to-day tools you need to make democratic work... work! How do you take your intended impact and make it actionable?!
* **Game Night:** We'll play a game together, yay!
* **Coop Structures and governance:** This session introduces governance models you can start using immediately.
* **Mid-program showcase:** A chance to share what you've been working on an celebrate alongside one another.
* **Decision-making in practice:** We talk about how you make decisions, who has a voice, how you handle disagreement — all the things that will shape what kind of co-op you become. We offer some tools to help with decision-making.
* **Equitable economics:** This workshop is on everything financial and how we make money transparent and ethical.
* **Conflict resolution & collective care:** We've been taught that conflict is to be avoided and that ultimately, it means failure. But in healthy cooperatives, disagreement (like feedback!) is valuable data - it tells us that there's an opportunity for us to create something better for everyone.
* **Self-evaluation & pathways:** This week, we we pause to reflect on what you've built, and where you're headed. We have two assessments: individual and studio. These will help you see how far you've come, and clarify your next steps beyond the program. And then we celebrate!
* **Wrap-up Celebration:** A chance to have fun, say goodbye, celebrate our wins.
* Plus your weekly Studio Support Meetings
#### How to participate
* Gamma Space / Slack explanation
* Slack structure: main channel(s), cohort channels, project channels, random and other general channels
* Expectations for engagement (Slack reflections, homework, participation)
* How to participate
* How to book with us
* Review accessibility practices (captions, breakout choices, asynchronous options)
*Note: Much of this info will also live in a Slack Canvas for reference.*
---
### Commitment and permission - 5 min
Let's talk about what commitment actually means in this program.
Time - About 2-5 hours per week (sessions + homework + Studio Support meetings). Some weeks will be heavier. If you can't make a session, let us know - recordings are available, but live participation is really important.
Openness - This work asks you to be vulnerable with your collaborators: To say what you actually think, to hear things you might not want to hear - this will take energy and might be unfamiliar. Give it your best shot.
Money - You're receiving a grant as part of this program. That comes with accountability - to yourself, your studio, and the cohort.
Purpose - Why does your studio need to be a co-op? Not "why are co-ops good" but what specific problem does working cooperatively solve for you that you couldn't solve another way?
You have permission to leave early - If you realize partway through that this isn't the right time, or this isn't the right team, or you need to step back - that's okay. It's better to face that than to go through the motions. We'd rather you make an honest choice for yourself.
Leaving isn't failure. *Sometimes it's the most cooperative thing you can do.*
---
This program will give you tools to notice when informal hierarchy forms, have hard conversations about money, power, and expectations, make decisions collectively, and navigate conflict as valuable data. It will NOT make you hierarchy-free, tell you exactly how to structure your co-op, eliminate disagreement, or do the hard conversations for you. *We're here to support you, but the work is yours.*
---
### ==Friction is part of the work - 5 min==
Before we build our community agreements, we want to chat about something that has come up in every previous cohort.
This program will ask you to have hard conversations - about money, about power, about what you actually want from this collaboration. Some of those conversations will be *uncomfortable*. You might discover that your group is less aligned on values than you assumed. You might have disagreements you've never had before. Someone might go radio silent, and someone might get defensive.
Examples:
* "I've been doing most of the work and I'm starting to resent it."
* "We said we'd share decisions equally, but one person always gets the final word."
* "I thought we agreed on this, but I actually don't think I had a real say."
* "I can only commit 10 hours a week and you're working 40 - how do we make that fair?"
* "I want to leave the studio."
This is normal. This is the work!
We bring these questions up to normalize friction. And because unspoken assumptions are where studios fall apart. The friction you feel now, when the stakes are low and you have support, is infinitely better than discovering it later when you're under deadline pressure or financial strain.
A few things to reframe…
* Discomfort often means something important is coming up.
* Disagreement tells you something isn't clear and gives you an opportunity to include more people.
* If everything feels easy, you might not be going deep enough.
We're here to support you through the hard parts - that's what Peer Supports are for. But we can't do the hard conversations for you.
---
### Community agreements - 15 min
Now let's start to create the building blocks for shared agreements for how we'll be together in this program.
Why? We are identifying what we **need** and **commit** to each other in this space. This supports our working cooperatively as a cohort! Everyone here will participate, including Peer Supports.
We're going to do two things. First, we'll look at some draft agreements together and react to them. Then you'll spend some time on your own adding context and reflections that will help us build better agreements over the coming weeks.
#### Step 1 - Trust (together, 5 min)
Walk through the pre-loaded agreement stickies. People react with emojis, add new ones if they want. These are phrased as agreements already so let them do that work.
*These are written as things we can hold each other to. If you add one, try to phrase it the same way.*
#### Step 2 - Context sections (self-directed, 7 min, music on)
*The rest of the board is reflection space. These aren't agreements yet. They're the ideas and values we'll build on. Move through at your own pace and add stickies wherever something comes up for you.*
#### Step 3 - Pull back (together, 2 min, music off)
Ask people to read what's there.
*We'll come back to all of this. Some of what you wrote today will turn into agreements later. Some of it will stay as context that shapes how we work together.*
---
### Activity: Power Flower overview - 10 min
Your first piece of individual work is a reflection on your own power and privilege using a tool called the Power Flower. The template has been added to your studio boards, so you can copy it out of there into your own private board or document.
This is a tool for thinking about identity and power. Each petal represents an identity category and has two layers:
* Inner petal (closer to the centre): the identity group that holds the most structural power in Canadian society. These are pre-filled for you.
* Outer petal: your identity. You fill this in.
The categories are: race, ethnicity, religion/faith, gender, age, sexual orientation, language, disability/ability, social class, immigration/citizenship status, plus two blank petals you can define yourself (examples: industry experience, body size, housing status, education, neurodivergence).
When your outer petal matches the inner petal, you hold a dominant identity in that category. When it doesn't, you hold a marginalized identity. Most people have a mix of both.
#### Instructions:
1. Look at each petal. The inner petals are already filled in with the dominant group identity.
2. In the outer petal, write the language you'd use to describe yourself in that category. Use whatever feels right. "Unsure" and "questioning" are okay.
3. Fill in the blank petals if you want to, or leave them blank.
4. When you're done, look at your flower as a whole. Notice where your outer petals match the inner petals and where they don't.
Why we're doing this: you're going to build a cooperative with other people. Every person in your studio carries a mix of identities - some dominant, some marginalized. Those identities shape who speaks first in meetings, whose ideas become the default, who feels safe raising a concern, and who doesn't. Cooperatives don't erase power dynamics. They give you tools to notice them and decide together what to do about them.
Reflection on the questions listed after you've filled it out - no need to write your answers or share with anyone, just think.
This is private and for your own reflection. Baby Ghosts won't see it. Your studio won't see it unless you choose to share. We'll use it as a jumping-off point in Session 1.
Complete this in your private Miro board before Session 1.
---
### ==Closing - 5 min==
* Each person shares one intention or hope for the program
* Reminders: next session prep, Slack channels to check, Power Flower homework
---
## Homework
1. **Complete your Power Flower** – Use the template in your private Miro board. Reflect on the identities, experiences, and forms of power you bring into this space. This is just for you – we'll use it as a jumping-off point in Session 1.
---