wiki_ghostguild/content/wiki/cooperative-foundations/peer-support-playbook/session-guides/session-6-equitable-economics.md

title	collection	path	parentDocument	outlineId	createdBy
Session 6: Equitable Economics	Cooperative Foundations	Cooperative Foundations/Peer Support Playbook/Session Guides/Session 6: Equitable Economics	Session Guides	e90f4170-5f49-4705-ac9f-c42214aaf73b	Jennie R.F.

What happens in session

This session covers revenue sources, financial transparency, compensation models (equal pay, needs-based, role-based, hybrid), and profit-sharing basics. Studios discuss what financial sustainability means personally, explore open-book practices, and start thinking about what "fair" compensation looks like. The session connects financial decisions to the governance structures from Session 5.

IP ownership is not covered in the session. It's been moved to the studio support meeting this week so studios can work through it in a smaller setting with your support.

:::tip Homework assigned: solo reflection (done in session), studio conversation about financial transparency, studio + PS working session on compensation models, and a noticing task about financial information flow. These conversations are prep for the PS meeting this week.

:::

👀 Your role during session

• Observe how your studio reacts to the compensation models discussion. Where do they light up? Where do they tense up?
• Listen for financial information gaps. Who has financial literacy? Who doesn't?
• Note whether anyone avoids the personal financial sustainability question
• During the breakout activity, sit with your studio and listen. Don't steer.

👆 Your role after session

• Check that everyone understands the homework and is willing to have the financial conversations
• Note any immediate tensions about money that came up during the session
• Make sure they know the tools mentioned: CoBudget, OpenCollective, coop.love
• If tax credits or Ontario-specific funding questions came up, point them to the S6: Tax Credits & Funding

This week's studio support meeting: Financial transparency, compensation, and IP

📚 Materials

• Compensation models reference (equal pay, needs-based, role-based, hybrid)
• Studio's governance draft / SOFT Miro board from Session 5 (financial decision-making sections)
• Revenue sources overview from the session

🗺️ Context

Money is where values meet reality. This studio support meeting helps the studio have the financial conversations that most groups avoid. Your role is to create enough safety for vulnerability while pushing past comfort. These conversations don't need to reach decisions today. They need to happen.

This week's meeting also introduces the IP ownership conversation, which was moved out of the session to give it the space it needs. It's a studio-specific topic and works better here than in a full-group presentation.

👆 Before the session

• Check whether they completed the Session 5 governance draft / SOFT Miro board exercise. If they didn't, note it, but don't let it derail this week's meeting. You can revisit governance gaps later.
• Check in about whether they've started the studio conversation about financial transparency (the homework from Session 6)
• Review the studio's governance draft / SOFT Miro board if it exists. What did they decide about financial decision-making?
• Be prepared for this session to be emotionally charged

🌊 Session flow

Check-in (5 min)

The session covered a lot of ground about money. Anything surprising, or anything you're dreading talking about?

Financial transparency (15 min)

Start with the personal reflection prompt from Session 5 homework:

What financial information have you never been allowed to see at work? What might have been different if you had?

Let each person share. This grounds the conversation in lived experience before it becomes abstract.

Then move to the studio:

Prompts:

• "What financial information would feel vulnerable to share with your studio?"
• "What would you need in order to feel safe sharing it?"
• "What's the minimum level of financial transparency you'd want in your coop?"

Practical questions:

• "Who currently knows the most about the studio's finances? Is that a choice or a default?"
• "If you were to do open books, what would that actually look like? A shared spreadsheet? Monthly summaries? Full access to accounts?"
• "What's one step you could take this week toward more transparency?"

Don't push anyone to share financial details they're not ready to. The goal is naming the discomfort.

:::warning Don't let the studio skip the transparency conversation to jump straight to compensation. Transparency is the prerequisite. If everyone isn't on the same page about what financial information gets shared and how, the compensation discussion won't have a foundation.

:::

Compensation models (15 min)

Review the four models briefly:

• Equal pay: same rate regardless of role
• Needs-based: adjusted for members' actual financial situations
• Role-based: different rates for different roles
• Hybrid: base rate plus adjustments

Discussion prompts:

• "What feels fair to you? Where do you notice tension between 'fair' and 'comfortable'?"
• "What would you need to know about each other's situations to decide together?"
• "Which model aligns best with your values?"

Dig deeper:

• "If you chose equal pay, what happens when one person is working 40 hours and another is working 15?"
• "If you chose needs-based, who decides what counts as a 'need'?"
• "If you chose role-based, who decides which roles are worth more, and doesn't that recreate hierarchy?"

You don't need to reach a decision.

IP ownership (15 min)

This is the first time the studio is working through IP questions together. Frame it clearly:

"Before you can share surplus, you need to decide who owns what you're creating together. In traditional studios, the company owns everything and workers walk away with nothing. Cooperatives can do this differently, but only if you make the decisions explicitly."

Questions to work through:

1. Who owns the game? The cooperative as an entity? Individual members jointly? If the coop owns it, what happens to that ownership if someone leaves?
2. What about work created before the coop formed? If someone brings existing assets, code, or designs into the project, do they retain individual ownership or contribute it to the collective? How do you value those contributions?
3. What happens if someone leaves mid-project? Do they retain any ownership stake in work they contributed to? Can they take "their" assets (character designs, code they wrote) with them? What's the difference between leaving voluntarily vs. being asked to leave?
4. What happens if the studio dissolves? Who controls the IP? Can one member buy out others? What if you can't agree?

==This is the kind of conversation that gets harder the longer you wait.==

Not deciding means defaulting to whatever legal structure you eventually incorporate under. Worst case is realizing too late that everyone's expectations were mismatched.

The studio doesn't need to resolve all of this today. The goal is to find where they agree and where they're uncertain.

Close (5 min)

• "What's one financial conversation your team has been avoiding?"
• "What's one concrete step you can take before next session?"
• Remind them: Session 7 is about conflict, and money is often where conflict shows up first

⭐ Tips

If someone shuts down:

• "Money stuff can be really personal. You don't have to share anything you're not ready to. But notice what you're protecting and why."

If the group avoids specifics:

• "Saying 'we'll figure it out later' is a way to avoid financial conversations. Try to name one specific decision to discuss today."

If one person has significantly more financial literacy:

• "Part of transparency is making sure everyone can participate in financial decisions. Can you explain that in plain terms?"

If there's a clear financial power imbalance:

• Don't force anyone to disclose. But you can note: "Financial differences affect power whether you identify them or not. The question is whether you address it openly."

If they want to decide compensation now:

• "You can start with a provisional model. Try it for a period, then revisit. Consent-based: is this good enough for now, safe enough to try?"

If IP ownership creates real tension:

• Don't try to resolve it in this meeting. Help them identify specifically where they disagree, and make sure they know this needs to be resolved before incorporation. If it's heated, suggest a dedicated conversation with just that topic on the agenda.

🏁 After the session

• Note how the financial conversations went. Where was there openness vs. avoidance?
• Note any power dynamics around financial literacy or financial resources
• Note any IP ownership disagreements. These need to be resolved before incorporation.
• Bring observations to your PS check-in, especially anything that concerns you about studio dynamics

🚩 Red flags to watch for

• One person controlling all financial information or decisions
• Someone minimizing their own financial needs to match the group
• "We don't need to talk about money yet": avoidance that will become a crisis later
• Financial plans that assume best-case scenarios with no contingency
• Major gaps in financial literacy that no one is addressing
• IP ownership assumptions that haven't been discussed, especially if someone brought pre-existing work
• Compensation discussions where one person's opinion is treated as the default