wiki_ghostguild/content/wiki/cooperative-foundations/peer-support-playbook/session-guides/session-5-coop-structures-and-governance.md

title	collection	path	parentDocument	outlineId	createdBy
Session 5: Coop Structures and Governance	Cooperative Foundations	Cooperative Foundations/Peer Support Playbook/Session Guides/Session 5: Coop Structures and Governance	Session Guides	f317905f-1ee1-4412-89c6-6b12e007b7d4	Jennie R.F.

Pre-session

This session is facilitated by Jennie and eileen. Your role is to observe your studio during the session and prepare for this week's studio support meeting. Review the Studio Operating Framework Template (SOFT) in Miro before the session so you're familiar with its sections.

What happens in session

Studios learn about:

• legal structures (sole prop, partnership, corporation, worker coop)
• governance models (collective governance, advice process, sociocratic circles, board + membership, DisCOs)
• member management (adding, departing, removing members)

We introduce the Studio Operating Framework Template (SOFT) in Miro as a tool for documenting governance visually and in plain language. Studios do a breakout activity connecting their Session 4 Informal Hierarchy Check-In observations to governance design choices. We focus on making governance visible, designing structures from the patterns noticed in Session 4, and distinguishing between governance practice and legal incorporation.

👀 Your role during session

• Observe how your studio responds to the governance models: what clicks? What causes confusion or resistance?
• Listen for whether they connect their Session 4 Informal Hierarchy Check-In observations to governance design choices
• During the breakout activity, sit with your studio and take notes on what comes up. Don't steer, just listen.
• Note how they react to the member removal discussion – this can spur avoidance.

👆 Your role after session

• Make sure your studio can access the SOFT template on their Miro board
• Confirm they understand the homework: work on their SOFT draft with you, discuss financial sustainability, and do a personal reflection on financial access
• Note which governance model(s) they're gravitating toward

This week's studio support meeting: Studio Operating Framework drafting

📚 Materials

• Studio Operating Framework Template (SOFT) on the studio's Miro board
• Studio's Informal Hierarchy Check-In observations from Session 4
• Notes on which governance model(s) interested them

🗺️ Context

This is a working session. You're helping the studio start documenting their governance using the SOFT template. They don't need to finish: the goal is to find where they already have answers vs. where they need more conversation. This is a living document.

👆 Before the session

• Open the SOFT template and familiarize yourself with the sections
• Review the studio's Informal Hierarchy Check-In observations
• Have the governance models overview handy (collective governance, advice process, circles, board + membership, DisCOs) in case they need a refresher

🌊 Session flow

Check-in (5 min)

"What governance model stuck with you from the session? Did anything click, or feel wrong?"

SOFT walkthrough (10 min)

Open the template together.

• Purpose: values and goals (short-term, medium-term, long-term). These should connect to the values work from Sessions 2 and 3.
• Decision Making: how the studio makes decisions (consensus, consent, majority/democratic, delegation) at the studio level and the project level. These might be different.
• Structure: which governance model the studio is leaning toward. They can tag more than one if they're still deciding.
• Membership: requirements for joining and benefits of membership. The tags here (intensity, frequency, responsibility, resources, financial, individual growth, creative development, safety) are prompts, not categories they have to fill in order.
• More sections will be added after each upcoming session.

Start with whatever section has the most energy. For most studios that will be Decision Making or Structure since those connect directly to what they just learned.

Prompts:

• "Which of these sections can you fill in right now without much discussion?"
• "Where is there disagreement or uncertainty?"
• "Does your decision-making process differ between studio-level and project-level decisions? Should it?"

Draft together (20-25 min)

Start filling in what you can. When you hit a section where there's disagreement, note it and move on. Don't try to resolve everything today.

Pay attention to the Membership section. Studios often breeze through Purpose and Decision Making but slow down or avoid Membership. That's where the harder questions live (requirements, what you get, what happens when someone leaves). If they skip it, gently bring them back: the session content on adding and removing members is still fresh.

Close and gaps list (5 min)

• Make a list of sections that still need discussion
• "What's the most important unresolved question?"
• "Who's going to take a first pass at filling in what we decided today?"

👉 Also this week

Financial sustainability conversation

Session 5 homework asks each person to reflect: What does financial sustainability look like for you personally? What would you need from this project?

This is prep for Session 6 (Equitable Economics). Check in during the week:

• "Has everyone spent some time thinking about the financial sustainability question?"
• "And the personal reflection: what financial information have you never been allowed to see at work?"

These don't need to be discussed as a studio yet, just make sure individuals are reflecting.

⭐ Tips

If they want to pick a governance model immediately:

• "You don't have to commit today. Start with collective governance or advice process, you can add complexity as you learn what you actually need."

If the template feels bureaucratic:

• "You're already doing governance, this just helps you articulate it."

If they skip over membership/removal:

• "This is the part that matters most when things get hard. Even a rough sketch now saves a lot of pain later."

🏁 After the session

• Note where the studio has clear alignment vs. where they got stuck
• Note any tension around membership/removal: these conversations will deepen
• Remind them about the financial sustainability reflection for Session 6 prep
• Bring the draft status to your PS check-in

🚩 Red flags to watch for

• A studio that resists documenting anything: "we just know how we work" (exactly the problem!)
• Governance designed around one person's strengths or preferences
• Avoiding the membership/removal conversation entirely
• Confusing governance with incorporation: "we're not a real coop yet so we don't need this"
• A draft that looks perfect on paper but doesn't match how the studio actually operates