# Microsolidarity

### Microsolidarity is a community-building practice. We're weaving the social fabric that underpins shared infrastructure.

The first objective of microsolidarity is to create **structures for belonging**. We are stitching new kinship networks to shift us out of isolated individualism into a more connected way of being. Why? Because **belonging is a superpower**: we’re more courageous & creative when we "find our people".

The second objective is to support people into **meaningful work.** This is very broadly defined: you decide what is meaningful to you. It could be about your job, your family, or community volunteering. Generally, life is more meaningful when we are **being of benefit to others**, when we know how to contribute, when we can match our talents to the needs in the world.

![A fractal view of belonging](/files/-LU3UZENfl3PUpJf4bFG)

### Learn more

This website is a resource hub for microsolidarity practitioners. For a thorough understanding of the project, read through the Essays, here online, or download a [pdf](https://github.com/microsolidarity/handbook/raw/master/print%20export/Microsolidarity.pdf) or [ebook](https://github.com/microsolidarity/handbook/raw/master/print%20export/Microsolidarity.epub).

1. [**Background**](/essays/background-and-introduction) – introducing Microsolidarity as a practice for cultivating communities of belonging & purpose.
2. [**Five Scales of Microsolidarity**](/essays/five-scales-of-microsolidarity) – the only theory you need to grasp: groups of different sizes are good for different things.
3. [**Leadership as Hospitality**](/essays/leadership-as-hospitality) – a distinctive way of thinking about power, authority & hierarchy.
4. [**A Developmental Pathway**](/essays/a-developmental-pathway) – one way to become a mature Microsolidarity practitioner: develop your skills at the small scale and gradually increase to larger groups.
5. [**From Domination to Partnership**](/essays/from-domination-to-partnership) – a fractal, radical, constructive approach to transforming power dynamics in groups of any size.

One you've read a few of the essays, you might be ready learn [how you can get started](/practices/how-you-can-get-started). If you're inspired, find out [how you can participate](/participate), or make a [financial contribution](/participate/contributing-money).

### 10-min intro video

{% embed url="<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfXfLa6dU6A>" %}

### Upcoming Events

[Microsolidarity Coliving Weeks](https://microsolidarity.substack.com/p/microsolidarity-coliving-week-august), August 11-15 or 16-22 (or both), Barcelona

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### Card Deck

7 years of Microsolidarity research and experience, packed into a playable card deck. [Get yours here](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/cards).

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### Updates

You can subscribe to [this YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6hicteAM1PrzfeWN5VT5dg/) or [podcast feed](https://anchor.fm/microsolidarity) to be notified when we release new conversations with microsolidarity practitioners. Be sure to [join the Discord](https://discord.gg/Kp2xVuSFAX) group if you want to connect with other practitioners. And join the [Microsolidarity newsletter](http://microsolidarity.substack.com) for occasional updates on this project.

## About this site

All the content on this site is published with a [CC-BY-SA](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) license. So please use it however you like without asking permission: just give credit, and use the same license for derivative works. Unless stated otherwise, assume the author is Richard D. Bartlett.

<div align="left"><img src="/files/-LUmaFh8Vgub5093AnXQ" alt=""></div>


# The Microsolidarity Card Deck

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## Belonging on Purpose

In 2025, 16 practitioners came together to put 7 years of Microsolidarity research and experience into a playable card deck.

Microsolidarity in your pocket

Practical grounded wisdom for weaving social fabric<br>

Each deck consists of 47 playable cards:

* 7 missions
* 12 unhinged conversation-starters
* 4 info cards to set you up or bring you back to the essential concepts
* 37 activity cards to get you into action
* 15 blank cards for your own power moves!

### How do I buy a deck?

Currently we're not able to ship card decks. You can purchase them in person in Berlin (contact <microsolidarity@gmail.com>) or at [Casa Tilo](https://eltilo.casa). If you want to be notified once delivery becomes available again, sign up for our newsletter [here](https://microsolidarity.substack.com/)

1 deck = €45

Or get a €25 discount when you buy 5 for €200

\ <br>

<figure><img src="/files/eRURnvkMEVYpRmRrT9mf" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### What are people saying about the deck so far?

“It’s a transdimensional object of joy. A psychoactive card deck.”

“This deck is getting me inspired to try out crewing with people from recent gatherings”

"These illustrations are gorgeous, the whole card design is beautiful. Perfect size, well printed, the colour combos are fantastic, really well done.” - Jmes


# Essays


# Background & introduction

At a minimum, microsolidarity can be practiced with a small group of 3 or 4 people connecting regularly to get to know each other & support each other in pursuing their developmental goals. At the larger scale, many of these small groups can congregate into a larger body which can coordinate collective impact and manage shared infrastructure, like: amazing gatherings, co-working spaces, or experiments in collaborative finances.

## Why practice microsolidarity?

The people who practice microsolidarity are motivated by a range of questions, like:

* How do we create a community that supports our growth?
* How do we cultivate high trust relationships in an organisation that mostly collaborates online?
* How do we activate more mutual aid, creativity & community within a local neighbourhood?
* How do we gradually develop the skills & relationships needed for high-stakes collaboration, e.g. starting a worker cooperative or building a co-housing village?
* How do we deepen intimacy and commitment in a loose network? E.g. developing real friendships and collaborations with people who only know each other through social media or through a conference.
* How do we create the high-trust culture necessary for a self-managing organisation to thrive?

## Who practices microsolidarity?

There are many groups around the world practicing microsolidarity to create belonging in different ways. The principles are flexible and adapt to the specific needs of different groups. Some of the communities & networks currently using microsolidarity:

* [Enspiral](http://enspiral.com) is a network of about 200 freelancers & entrepreneurs supporting each other to do more meaningful work. It’s the original community in which I learned how to do microsolidarity. We noticed that the people who get the most benefit from the Enspiral network have a solid sense of membership in a smaller group (e.g. 4-10 people in a company, project, or peer-support pod). This is why microsolidarity is focused on small groups.
* [Cultural Catalyst Network](http://culturalcatalystnetwork.org/) is a community of practice for activists & changemakers exploring personal, interpersonal, and systemic transformation. They’re using microsolidarity in conjunction with therapeutic modalities like Internal Family Systems to do a kind of peer-to-peer counselling.
* [Pico Island Congregation](https://pico.microsolidarity.cc/) is a local land-based community with no digital dimension (in contrast to all the other examples here). They’ve been deepening relationships since 2020 and are now starting to activate practical projects on the island.
* [Tangerine](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KZR6jkvMXfctr7C0uok4dvaIu04Njm3sdz7oYuKOkX0/edit#slide=id.p) is a network of young professionals employed at UNFPA, experimenting with more decentralised, self-managing ways of working within the hierarchy of the United Nations. They use microsolidarity practices to create the foundation of trust required for effective self-management in the network.
* [WildSeed Society](https://www.wildseedsociety.com/): is a BIPOC-led community, who use microsolidarity (and many other practices) to cultivate a spiritual, political, and economic community moving towards collective liberation.
* [Intentional Society](https://www.intentionalsociety.org/) is a community for people who want to grow. They draw from sources like Robert Kegan’s adult development theory & Ken Wilber’s Integral, and practices like Circling & Authentic Relating. (See their excellent [website](https://www.intentionalsociety.org/) for more info about all these peculiar terms.)

## The state of the network in 2022

Microsolidarity was initiated by me, Richard D. Bartlett, when I published [the original proposal](/articles/proposal) in 2018, announcing my intentions to start a small mutual aid community for people to do a kind of personal development, in good company, for social benefit. The plan struck a chord with a surprisingly large audience, so in 2020 [I shifted focus](/articles/2-update-2020), to not just build one community but to support many communities to form.

Over 2020 & 2021 my partner Nati Lombardo and I trained more than 200 people in the fundamentals of microsolidarity. I’ve also been working with about 15 community founders, accompanying them through the struggles and joys of establishing their own communities. The network has been developing mostly underground; I meet with community founders one at a time and occasionally publish [interviews on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhAtJq9uAnRHYyUKI4sX03FHLpCkclFDA). My intention for 2022 is to open up this network to be more public, so more people can come in and learn together and support each other directly without me being a bottleneck. To that end, I’ve published this new series of essays.

## What we have in common

The baseline that all these microsolidarity communities share is an intention to create relationships of **belonging**. We do this through mutual support: giving and receiving care in reciprocal peer-to-peer exchange. We're forming groups where people have the sense that *"I belong here; people know me & I know them; we have each other’s back; I know how to contribute."*

### Emotional intimacy before economic intimacy

Many of these communities also have an **economic** dimension. We tend to start with emotional intimacy (relationships of care and authenticity) and then progress to economic intimacy (sharing money, resources or practical support). If you want to do high-stakes economic collaboration, we recommend building up the skills, experience and trust with gradually escalating commitment e.g.

* **Low intensity**: coaching each other to reflect on your careers and take steps towards doing more meaningful work.
* **Medium**: freelancers share work opportunities with each other, collaborate on client projects, or share some of their income in a peer-to-peer solidarity fund.
* **High**: people in a land-based community share housing or other material resources.

As we escalate in commitment, we also escalate in group size. Read on...


# Five Scales of Microsolidarity

Probably the most distinctive piece of microsolidarity theory is the focus on group size: one of the "core competencies" of a microsolidarity practitioner is to develop a literacy of scales, to understand how a group of 4 is different from a group of 12 or 12,000. We’re learning the social physics of belonging.

### The only theory you need to grasp is that different-sized groups are good for different things.

Unfortunately in English, we are missing words for different types of groups. When I say "group of people", I could mean 3, or 300, or 3 million. These missing words are symptomatic of missing ideas and skills. In microsolidarity we use some new words, to be more precise and to develop a sensitivity to the unique qualities of groups of different sizes.

Currently there are 5 group sizes that we’re interested in:

1. The self-as-a-group
2. The dyad (2 people)
3. The crew (about 3-5)
4. The congregation (about 15-150)
5. The network of congregations

## 1: the Self

The first group has only one person, it’s Me (or You). Maybe it’s peculiar to think of an individual as a group, but I found it really useful to think of myself as a collection of parts, a network of overlapping identities who share custody of this body called Me.

This way of thinking has been used, for example, in formal therapeutic modalities like Internal Family Systems and Transactional Analysis. You’ll also notice it in informal usage, for example when you say, "there’s a part of me who wants X, but another part wants Y..."

\*\*The metaphor of self-as-group highlights the parallels between **how I relate to the different parts of myself** and **how I relate to other people.**

For example, there’s a part of me who’s anxious as I’m typing this, feeling uncertain, imagining there are people out there reading and evaluating my competence as a writer. I want to do a good job, I want to impress you, and this anxious part can catastrophise and say, *"Oh, you're doing a terrible job Rich, this is not working, this sucks, you suck!"* It's easy for this anxious character to take up a lot of space.

I get to choose how I relate to the anxious parts of myself. There's one mode where I can try to squash them down, push them out, disown them. My mental narrator puts on a brave loud voice and says, *"Anxiety is not welcome here! What's needed is confidence and certainty. Just shut up and go away!"*

I don't know about you, but this attempt to disown my anxious parts doesn't actually do much to address my anxiety. It’s not effective for me.

An alternative approach is to treat that part of me kindly, like I would treat a friend. *"Hey man, how's it going? What do you need? It's okay, people are not going to be judging you intensely. If you don’t write everything perfectly, it's probably fine. Do you want to take a break?"*

There's a way I can relate to the anxious parts of me, which is more compassionate, more curious, more welcoming, and more calming.

I invite you to imagine how the relationship between the parts of yourself has a parallel to your relationships with other people. If I'm constantly trying to disown, or ignore, or dominate the anxious parts of myself, I’m going to have the same instinct when I see the anxious parts of you, right? If you come to me with anxiety, I'm going to be defensive and polarised against you, which is not going to be a great foundation for a warm trusting relationship. If I can learn to be more compassionate towards these parts of myself, I’ll be more available to be compassionate towards you.

The parallel works in both directions too; sometimes I find it easier to give compassion to my friends than to myself. So I can practice giving kindness to you, and use that as a kind of role model for how I treat the different parts of me that I have a hard time relating to.

This is a foundational part of the practice of microsolidarity: **cultivating friendliness towards yourself**, understanding that there are group dynamics going on between the parts of yourself that will affect how you show up in groups with other people.

ℹ️ *Further reading:*

* *Internal Family Systems (IFS) is one therapeutic modality that has extensively developed this "parts" metaphor. See this* [*short video*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuJLv98ks-I) *or this* [*longer demonstration*](https://tim.blog/2021/01/14/richard-schwartz-internal-family-systems/) *of IFS used in trauma therapy, or read* [*this essay*](https://tasshin.com/blog/exploring-internal-family-systems/)*.*
* *Or read Emmi Bevensee’s article on the "*[*networked self*](http://emotionalanarchism.com/widening-the-bridges-beyond-consent-and-autonomy-emmi/)*" for an example of the parts metaphor outside of the IFS school of thought.*

## 2: the Dyad

A Dyad is a relationship between two people.

Microsolidarity is deeply informed by [Rianne Eisler’s work on partnership and domination](https://rianeeisler.com/partnership-101/). I’ll unpack that in a [later essay](/essays/from-domination-to-partnership), but for now we can use the oversimplified version:

* **Domination** is imbalance, coercion, abuse, colonialism, the most controlling parent of the most acquiescent child.
* **Partnership** is the balanced and consenting intimacy of two interdependent adults (could be a best friend, sibling, therapist, mentor, coach, imaginary friend, spirit guide, etc).
* Domination is **unilateral**; partnership is **reciprocal**.

Speaking for myself: I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian household, so while there was a lot of love in my family, there was also a strict authoritarian dimension. Our family had an explicit pecking order with the kids at the bottom, then mum, dad, church, and finally God at the top. This authoritarian principle continued at school: the teachers had the power to decide when I could speak, what ideas were acceptable, and when I could go to the toilet, and they’d physically punish me if I broke their rules. When I entered the workforce, there was the same domination-submission pattern: at first I had to submit to my boss, until eventually I reached a middle-management position where other people had to submit to me. Thankfully, I’ve also had friends, lovers, colleagues and collaborators that treat me as an equal peer: we relate as partners.

Take a second to scan through some of the important relationships in your life and see where they sit on the partnership-domination spectrum. Your story will be different to mine, but it’s a pretty safe bet that some of your formative relationships taught you more about domination & submission than about partnership.

So far I’ve only named fairly small groups (family, school, workplace), but this lens also applies to very large groups: think about the relation between women & men for instance. Most women have been taught to submit to men, and decades of feminist movement have only made partial progress on rectifying that balance.

### The partnership-domination lens applies to all scales

You can dominate yourself, individuals dominate each other, and groups of all sizes get stuck in domination-submission relations too. **Domination relationships are the root of all injustice, and partnership relationships are the root of all freedom.**

Imagine what society would be like if all these domination relationships flipped into the partnership mode: I’m talking adult-to-adult, not parent-child relationships, from home to school to work to community to government. This is a vision of society that gets me super excited!

With just two people, an intentional dyad is one of the simplest places to observe relational dynamics. It can be a potent space for growth, healing, and self development, a place to notice when am I being more like a partner, and when am I being more like a dictator. In a dyad I can develop the fluency to come out of domination patterns and into partnership.

Honestly, I don’t know if we can create a partnership society. But I’m sure we’re more likely to get there if we know how to create partnerships at the Dyad scale.

{% hint style="info" %}
*Further reading:*

* My [*subsequent article*](/essays/from-domination-to-partnership) *on how we think about domination and partnership in microsolidarity communities.*
* *Black vegan feminist Aph Ko argues that all oppression can be understood through the human-subhuman divide in their essay "Why Animal Liberation Requires an Epistemological Revolution" (chapter 15 of their book* [*Aphro-ism*](https://lanternpm.org/book/aphro-ism/)).
* [Transactional Analysis](https://www.simplypsychology.org/transactional-analysis-eric-berne.html) *is a therapeutic method for understanding interpersonal behaviour as parent-, child- or adult-like.*
* *And check out ‘NO! Against Adult Supremacy’, an anthology of zines available* [*online*](https://issuu.com/dogsectionpress/docs/no) *&* [*in print*](https://dogsection.bigcartel.com/product/no-against-adult-supremacy) *arguing that all the domination & abuse in the world has its root in the dehumanisation of children.*
  {% endhint %}

## 3: the Crew

The third scale, I call the crew. I chose that word because I was thinking of the crew of a sailing ship, where everyone has a role to play: it’s active, dynamic, practical, engaged, all the parts are plugged into a coherent whole.

A crew is a very small group. The numbers are not precise, but I think about 3, 4, 5 or 6 people. It’s a group that can fit around a dinner table and have one shared conversation. If you have 8 people for dinner, the conversation will almost always break into multiple sub-conversations. This is just a result of our cognitive capacities: it’s easy for 4 or 5 people to hold a shared mental context, but the complexity increases exponentially with the size of the group. So the crew is on the small side of that line, where we can develop a shared understanding very efficiently. It's within our natural limits. We don't need a lot of infrastructure to keep a group of 5 people coherent, whereas a group of 50 people requires governance, structures, rules, and so on.

*"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ― Margaret Mead*

A crew is a really efficient unit & it can also be highly impactful: five or six people can make a massive contribution to the world. One of the crews that made the most difference to my life was a company that I co-founded called [Loomio](http://loomio.coop). Loomio is a cooperative, we started with six people. We make software for democratic decision-making in groups. Our tool has helped hundreds of thousands of people around the world: a level of impact I could never have created on my own.

**For most people, if you want to create a livelihood of meaningful work, you’ll need a crew to do it with**. The size is important, because it is small enough to stay highly coordinated with minimal explicit rules & roles, and large enough that your enhanced impact is worth the cost of collaborating.

Not all crews are about "getting stuff done", though. I’m in another crew that’s met every 2 weeks since the start of the pandemic. The space we’ve created together is tender: we share what’s going on in our emotional lives and exchange commiserations & celebrations. This crew is not about “doing stuff” at all, and yet it has had a significant impact, creating more ease in my life, alleviating the loneliness of lockdown, and giving me new opportunities.

Generally speaking, **the crew is the main site of activity in microsolidarity communities**: occasionally we have gatherings at the larger scale, but most of the time, you’re meeting with 3 or 4 other people.

{% hint style="info" %}
*Further reading: you’ll find tons of resources for crew practices to experiment with, over on the* [*Crewing page*](/practices/crewing)*.*
{% endhint %}

## 4: the Congregation

The Congregation is somewhere between 15 to 150 people: small enough that most of the members can know a bit about each other and big enough to support many Crews to coalesce.

I call it a "congregation" because the main activity at this scale is congregating. We get together once or twice a year for a really great time. Ideally the gathering is face-to-face, but it’s possible to do it online. I think of it like a dating pool, an opportunity for people to meet each other, for crewmates to find each other and for new crews to form.

The "minimum viable purpose" for a congregation is that it supports crews to form. In my experience the best way to find your crew is to spend some time in a congregation: I found my Loomio crew after I joined the [Enspiral](http://enspiral.com) congregation (a professional network of 100-200 friends supporting each other to do more meaningful work).

The crews and congregation are in reciprocal co-development. Loomio wouldn’t exist without Enspiral, and Loomio’s success has made major contributions to the development of Enspiral. So there is an advantage to working at both of these scales simultaneously.

### Social fabric is the substrate for shared infrastructure

In addition to the minimum purpose of supporting crews, the congregation can also pursue other ambitions. The larger scale creates opportunities for more collective impact. The Enspiral congregation for example has delivered numerous projects that require coordination beyond the crew scale: operating co-working spaces; organising conferences, retreats and workshops; [publishing a book](https://betterworktogether.co/); and running many experiments in [participatory budgeting](https://guide.cobudget.co/) & other forms of economic mutual aid. (Read more in the [Enspiral Impact Report](https://emmibevensee.com/?p=1041).)

While a crew can develop high coordination with little more than "vibes" (high trust & implicit shared understanding), coordinating a congregation requires more physical, financial and legal infrastructure. Successfully managing this shared infrastructure requires mechanisms for [commons governance](https://coopworkdesign.wordpress.com/2015/02/06/design-principles-for-collaborative-management/), including the ability to create and adjust rules, resolve disputes, and sanction antisocial behaviour.

![The effect of group size on relationships](/files/8cigERUCRLj2Z1hhBSoO)

Coordination costs scale nonlinearly with group size: a group of 5 people has 10 relationships, but a group of 50 has 1225. That’s 1225 possibilities for interpersonal tension, conflict & mistrust. So the bigger the group, the more difficult the governance challenges. ​​Anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggests there’s a threshold, somewhere around the 150-person scale ("Dunbar’s number"), which is about the limit of how many relationships one person can keep track of. This is why the maximum size for a congregation is around 150 people. Up to this size, the coordination can be fairly informal & efficient, especially in a group that puts extra effort into cultivating high trust relationships, so everybody knows a bit about everyone else. But in a group of 100,000, most people are strangers to each other, so it becomes a very different kind of organisation, with governance challenges that are out of scope for the microsolidarity practice.

### People before projects

For collaboration and governance geeks like me, this is all fascinating stuff, but for a lot of people this is daunting or uninteresting. So it’s important to remember the shared infrastructure, commons governance & collective impact are optional extras. If you’re not interested in this level of coordination, just return to the "minimum viable purpose": if the congregation is only supporting crews to form, then it is successful.

{% hint style="info" %}
Further reading: you’ll find resources for congregations over on the [Congregating page](/practices/congregating).

*Note: for now, a congregation is broadly defined as 15-150 people. It’s likely that there are other important thresholds within that range, e.g. at 15 or 50 people. In time, we may find it useful to create new terms to distinguish these additional sizes.*
{% endhint %}

## 5: the Network

The Microsolidarity Network is a new addition in 2022. It’s the space for congregation hosts to get together, to learn & support each other through the ups and downs of community life.

If you want to join, you’re welcome: there’s [an online space to chat](/participate/join-us-on-discord) with other practitioners, and we’re [hosting gatherings in Europe and the USA in 2022](http://thehum.org/microsolidarity-gatherings). You'll find an [overview of the network here](/participate/network-map).

Notice it’s "the network" not “a network”: there is currently no generic term for a collection of congregations. Maybe in future we’ll see congregations coming together to form their own “federations” or “assemblies”.

### All good things happen inside a good context

Through each of these 5 scales I’m trying to illustrate a particular attitude towards development: **growth always happens inside of something else**. Your personal development is much more likely to proceed smoothly when you have a crew. It’s easier to find a crew when you’re in a congregation. The congregations are learning from each other in the network. Each step up the ladder of scale creates a developmental container for the previous.

On the other hand, larger groups are more complex: trust decreases and coordination costs increase with the square of the number of relationships. That’s why it’s called "**micro**"solidarity: for most people, it’s more fruitful to focus on the smaller scales, where groups are easier to manage. And if you have the ambition to make social change at the very large scale, you’ll almost certainly need to have firm foundations at the small scale.

Once you start to understand the “social physics of belonging”, the distinctive characteristics of groups of different size, the next topic we have to address is leadership. Read on...


# Leadership as Hospitality

Another distinctive aspect of microsolidarity is how we think about power, leadership & authority.

Microsolidarity communities are designed to distribute authority and maximise autonomy, but it could be misleading to call them "non-hierarchical". Non-hierarchy implies that nobody has more status or importance than anyone else. In my work with non-hierarchical groups all over the world, I’ve never met one that achieved true equality. Even when we remove the formal ranking system of a management hierarchy, some people have more status & influence than others.

So while there’s no *formal* hierarchy in a microsolidarity community, some people inevitably have more influence than others. For example, if you spend weeks preparing and organising a community gathering, you’ll have more influence on the event than a participant that just showed up briefly. There are inevitably concentrations of power, but they can be temporary & dynamic, flowing through a living system of relationships. We strive to work with these power imbalances with a high degree of awareness and care, sensitive to how concentrations of power increase the likelihood of domination. While we’re used to seeing people use their power to disempower others, power can also be used for liberation.

### Not all hierarchies are domineering

Whenever we see hierarchical structures, we expect to see domination, but to me it’s very important to decouple "hierarchy" from “domination”. There are hierarchical forms that are not domineering. Think for example of the relation between a tree trunk and its branches, or between an apprentice and mentor.

{% hint style="info" %}
*I’ve written elsewhere about the difference between hierarchy & domination, where I unpack these concepts in more detail and suggest 11 practical steps towards healthy power dynamics:* [*Hierarchy Is Not The Problem... It’s The Power Dynamics*](https://www.thehum.org/post/hierarchy-is-not-the-problem).
{% endhint %}

For a lot of people "leadership" is a dirty word, because we’ve had so many negative experiences with inept & unaccountable leaders. The kind of leadership we practice in microsolidarity has more to do with **hospitality** than **authority**: think about host and guest, rather than boss and employee. A **boss** has coercive authority. They tell you what to do and you must obey or face negative consequences. In contrast: a **host** has no coercive authority. The host creates a context and invites you to participate, and you are truly at choice: there’s no punishment if you decline the invitation.

This approach to leadership is invitational, generous and flexible. The host’s job is to elevate the dignity, wellbeing and autonomy of their guests. Ideally, the host can tell the guests to "make yourself at home" – this is the point where the distinct roles dissolve and everyone becomes equally co-responsible.

In a microsolidarity community, anyone can make an invitation, e.g. to initiate a project, host an event, or discuss a governance proposal. Everyone is encouraged to take these acts of leadership. But we have to be honest: some people’s invitations are more likely to be accepted than others. So you could say in microsolidarity communities, **leadership is the capacity to make a compelling invitation**.

How do you develop this capacity? It’s partly about knowledge: knowing what’s happening in the community, knowing a lot of the people, having a sense of what the group needs or what it might respond favourably to. And it’s also about trust: people are more likely to accept your invitations if they trust your integrity, that you’ll do what you say, and that you have their best interests at heart.

{% hint style="info" %}
Creating a compelling invitation is just one aspect of leadership; for a more comprehensive picture, refer to [Full Circle Leadership](https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/beyond-dreamers-vs-doers-full-circle-leadership-869557da1248) by my brilliant crewmate Alanna Irving.
{% endhint %}

Here’s some of the principles of leadership we’re aiming for:

* **Temporary**: nobody leads all of the time, everyone leads some of the time. We take turns and share roles with a peer or understudy.
* **Liberatory**: your maturity as a leader is measured by the degree to which you help others activate their own agency and come out of domination-submission habits.
* **Legitimate**: you can be an effective leader so long as people respect you. You will lose that capacity if you lose their respect.
* **Accountable**: people with more influence need more accountability. We take extra care of how power imbalances interfere with consent, e.g. when making commitments, divulging vulnerable information, or with issues like sex, money, drugs & spirituality.
* **Always a teacher, always a learner.** Know who your mentors are. Who do you learn from? Who gives you tough feedback? Who are the specific people you are accountable to?
* **Effective:** you’ve earned people’s trust because you have a track record of getting stuff done.
* **Growing:** you own your mistakes and take difficult feedback as an opportunity to learn. You’re willing to work to restore the trust in your partnerships after a conflict.

The next article describes a "developmental pathway" you could follow to develop the competence to take on significant leadership roles within a microsolidarity community. Read on...


# A Developmental Pathway

While there is no formal credentialing system for microsolidarity, you can be a more or less mature practitioner. A really mature practitioner will have developed in many areas, including:

* **skills** like meeting facilitation, conflict resolution, or introspection;
* **reputation**, the product of time spent developing relationships and making contributions to a group;
* **character**, e.g. generosity, courage, humility, grace, and other virtues which can be cultivated with practice & support.

This is a non-exhaustive list and the process of developing these areas is non-linear. Like other practice-based methodologies, the proof of work is in the embodied presence of each practitioner.

It may be useful to think of the developmental pathway in terms of group size: hosting a group of 50 is more challenging than a group of 5. So if your aspiration is to host a group of 500, you can cultivate your competencies one step at a time, in groups of escalating size.

![nested scales of microsolidarity](/files/pLETqsRMdwRCxE8RqnQ8)

This article describes a possible developmental pathway for how you could develop the capacity to confidently host a Congregation. It’s important to note: as a rule of thumb, my recommendation is *not* to start "working on yourself" or to work at the dyad scale, but to start with a crew. The crew is a safe & cozy container to get started: it’s more supportive than working on your own, and less exposing than working in a dyad.

In the absence of a formal credentialing system, you can self-evaluate your competence with the support of people who know you well. Ask questions like: "what skills do you think I should develop to be better equipped for this role?"

### **Participating in a Crew**

The minimum requirement for anyone participating in a microsolidarity community is a kind of "**interior curiosity**". This is the capacity & willingness to investigate your inner experience. In a conflict for example, this means you are not purely fixated on what the other person has done; you can also look inwards to explore your own feelings, needs & desires. You can examine the judgements & stories that you’re attaching to your experience.

One of the reasons to participate in a microsolidarity community is to develop your agency. Agency is the opposite of helplessness: it’s the capacity to take purposeful action.

Interior curiosity is a prerequisite for agency, because it helps you to articulate your desires, fears & boundaries.

Interior curiosity can be cultivated through meditation, contemplative practice, psychotherapy, coaching, [Gendlin Focusing](https://focusing.org/felt-sense/learning-focusing), [Circling](https://tasshin.com/blog/what-is-circling/), etc. If you participate in a Microsolidarity Practice Program or a Gathering, you will experience some of these practices to cultivate your interior awareness.

If you are willing to develop your interior curiosity, you are "qualified" to participate in a crew.

### **Hosting a Crew**

To **host a crew**, you don’t need much more, just some basic organising and facilitation skills. This means you can coordinate & schedule a sequence of meetings, help the group to settle on a "good enough" plan, and guide them through the kinds of group practices [documented in the Practices section of this site](/practices/crewing).

Crews usually have a "**caller**" or “convener” (the person who creates the first invitation to meet), and then the hosting responsibility will be rotated so each participant can practice being a host.

It doesn’t take much effort to start practicing your crew-hosting skills. See for example the How You Can Get Started section, which describes a process where four friends meet for six one-hour meetings. Think of it like courtship: you’ll probably need to go on a few "get to know you" dates and meet a range of different partners before you even think about marriage and babies.

When you’re hosting a crew, you may notice that you want to develop in certain areas. This might be practical e.g. to develop your skills in facilitation, conflict mediation, or project management. Or you may encounter your own behaviour patterns that limit your ability to be an effective host, e.g. if you react defensively to criticism, or you’re not sure what to do when someone is feeling upset.

Some of this development could happen in a crew (e.g. giving each other feedback; or taking an online course together to learn new skills), or it might be better in a dyad (e.g. working with a therapist or coach).

### **Hosting a Congregation**

After you’ve hosted a few crews and you have developed a sense of competence at that scale, you might be ready to host a congregation. This is mostly about creating the space for many crews to form, so it requires more facilitation & coordination skills. You have new questions to answer, like: *how will potential crewmates get to know each other? Who is invited to join? What do we do when community members come into conflict?*

As the group size increases, you are likely to encounter some of the common challenges that all decentralised organisations face. While 5 people can develop a high degree of trust & shared understanding with very little effort, you’ll never find a group of 100 people where everyone trusts everyone else. **As group size increases, you collectively need to learn how to grow, maintain, and repair trust.** Practically, you will need to develop skills in decision-making, conflict resolution, project management, feedback and learning. You can learn more about these in [The Hum’s online course: Patterns for Decentralised Organising](https://bit.ly/3A84BXO). (Remember, it’s easier to learn these skills with 15 people before practicing with 50.)

Furthermore, your role as a congregation host is to support the development of any congregation members that want to take on more responsibility. Ideally, most participants will feel confident to host a crew, and many will be willing to take on some of the congregation-hosting responsibilities.

If you want to be part of a co-owned community, it’s imperative to start cultivating decentralised leadership as soon as possible. For example, I was one of the hosts for the first gathering of the Enspiral Europe community. For the second gathering, I played a logistical support role in the background, but the main hosting energy came from two other community members.

It’s possible for a community to mature to the point where it is truly co-owned by the participants, and your role as the original founder is no longer critical to its ongoing success (e.g. see this [discussion with Enspiral founder Joshua Vial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_3OxvUkPPo)). It could take multiple years to reach this point, so as a new congregation host you can expect to make a long term commitment to holding the community as it develops.

Note: to be an effective congregation host, you should also be participating at the smaller scales. You’re not creating a community *for* others, but *with* others.

### **Participating in the Network**

The Microsolidarity Network is the place where Congregations connect. Until now, the Network has been mostly invisible. I’ve been meeting with congregation hosts one at a time, and publishing [interviews on Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhAtJq9uAnRHYyUKI4sX03FHLpCkclFDA), but there has not been an active conversation space for them to meet each other.

We’re now in the process of creating a new digital meeting space and defining the terms of engagement. If you want to participate, please join the [Discord community](https://discord.gg/Kp2xVuSFAX): a space to chat and coordinate with other practitioners. In 2022 we’ll have some meetings online and in person so we can deepen the connections across the network.

### **Hosting the Network**

At the moment the Network is hosted by me; I currently have sole "authorship" rights to define the microsolidarity framework and to make any decisions about how the network functions.

As the project develops in size & maturity, there are governance questions to answer e.g. *Who decides what is included as an essential component of the microsolidarity practice? Who gets to call themselves a microsolidarity practitioner? How does a community join the network? How does someone contribute to the project? Where does funding come from and who can spend it?*

Currently all these questions are answered by me, i.e. I’m acting like a "[benevolent dictator](https://communityrule.info/create/?r=1619810752488)". As the network matures, it seems natural that it should become more collectively governed over time. I imagine a “Meta Crew” working together to host the network and develop the big picture. This is ironic, but honestly I’m unsure about the best way to find my partners for this Meta Crew! I’m nervous about the “design by committee” effect, where my precise and opinionated authorial voice gets diluted by too many compromises. But I’m more concerned about working alone: it’s incoherent & unsustainable.

So by publishing this new series of essays I’m hoping I might find some co-hosts who can help me steward the mission. I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for. I can imagine many people making diverse contributions, like illustrations, zines, or blog posts, without needing my permission. But for the more significant governance questions, I feel I need to be more selective. I’m looking for people with sufficient experience at the congregation scale to be able to meet me as a peer. I think it’s also important for the Meta Crew to be connected to diverse contexts, not just 30-something techy white guys who all listen to the same 5 podcasts. Most importantly I want to convene a group with that mysterious thing called "chemistry". This is a live question so I’m eager to hear your thoughts. If you have ideas, please [join the Discord](https://discord.gg/Kp2xVuSFAX) and share!

I want to be a host, not a dictator. To further unpack the difference between these two, read on...


# From Domination to Partnership

I’ve spent the last decade working in groups who organise without a traditional command-and-control hierarchy. My journey started with the Occupy Movement in 2011 and has taken me into many different groups since then: open source software projects, cooperative companies, social movements, DAOs, networks and associations. I’ve worked with everyone from anarchist collectives to the United Nations. All of these groups are striving for a way of working that decentralises power, authority & decision-making.

Some of these groups have been exquisite, most of them struggle, and many of them fail. A more pessimistic person might conclude that we are fundamentally incapable of working together without a central authority, but I’ve seen enough evidence to know that’s not true. It’s not that people are *incapable* of collaboration, it’s just that most of us lack tools, skills and role models. We’ve been trained and conditioned to relate to each other in hierarchies of domination, so becoming the kind of people that can thrive in egalitarian networks is "easier said than done".

Because of the over-use of hierarchies in contemporary society, many of us lack the techniques, behaviours, role models, ideas, tools, experiences, beliefs and values required to thrive in egalitarian groups. Many of us don’t really enjoy being in groups, because most of the groups we’ve been in are dysfunctional, with weird power dynamics, unwritten rules, slow decision-making, and unresolved conflict.

Microsolidarity is designed to remove some of the obstacles that keep us separate from each other. It’s a guide to bring us back into a collaborative way of being, it’s a reminder of what it means to be a social animal. The goal is not to obliterate hierarchies or individual autonomy, but to redevelop our atrophied muscles of collectivity & collaboration. It’s a ladder that connects the very small scale to the very large, in distinct measured steps.

### Two different kinds of relationships

My understanding of groups is deeply informed by Riane Eisler, who explains that we have a spectrum of options in how to organise, from very egalitarian to very authoritarian. She described the "**partnership-domination spectrum**" as a lens for understanding groups:

> "In the domination system, somebody has to be on top and somebody has to be on the bottom. People learn, starting in early childhood, to obey orders without question. They learn to carry a harsh voice in their heads telling them they’re no good, they don’t deserve love, they need to be punished. Families and societies are based on control that is explicitly or implicitly backed up by guilt, fear, and force. The world is divided into in-groups and out-groups, with those who are different seen as enemies to be conquered or destroyed.
>
> In contrast, the partnership system supports mutually respectful and caring relations. Because there is no need to maintain rigid rankings of control, there is also no built-in need for abuse and violence. Partnership relations free our innate capacity to feel joy, to play. They enable us to grow mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. This is true for individuals, families, and whole societies. Conflict is an opportunity to learn and to be creative, and power is exercised in ways that empower rather than disempower others." – Riane Eisler, [Partnership 101](https://rianeeisler.com/partnership-101/)

In my writing elsewhere I use many related terms fairly interchangeably: horizontal and vertical, decentralised and centralised, egalitarian and authoritarian, self-managing and hierarchical. Each of these terms has their own nuance, but they’re all roughly pointing at the same spectrum. I think Eisler’s formulation of partnership and domination is the most precise and useful.

* "**Partnership**" is when we join together in networks of free association, where people are **linked** by shared interests and diverse competencies. People with power use it to elevate others.
* "**Domination**" is when we’re organised into hierarchies and people are **ranked** in order of power & importance. People with power use it to make others smaller.

This is a simple framing, but for me it represents some very powerful insights. What I take from Eisler’s work is fractal, radical, and constructive.

## Fractal = common features at all scales

The partnership-domination lens is scale-invariant, meaning you can use it to evaluate groups of any size. You can look inside a family to see if the relationships are more partner-oriented or more domineering, and you can also look at the relationships between countries, genders or species.

The large and small scales are mutually interactive. After escaping the Holocaust as a child, Eisler went on to examine what were the features of German family life that created the conditions for the Nazis to take over the country. She developed the ‘partnership-domination’ lens to explain the interaction between large & small groups: dominator countries create dominator families and vice versa.

Nazi Germany is an extreme case, but for the last few thousand years of human history it seems like we’ve been more-or-less stuck at the domination end of the spectrum. Hierarchies are the norm in many parts of contemporary society, especially schools and workplaces, but also many families, churches, and clubs. Even in social groups that lack a formal hierarchy, status games are ubiquitous; there’s some part of us keeping track of everybody’s ranking, looking for ways to win favour with the high-status people, and to "get ahead" of those with low status.

Seeing the interaction between large and small is hopeful, it gives me the sense that we can change the world by changing our neighbourhoods.

## Radical = getting to the root

The will to dominate is at the root of racism, sexism, ableism, and all the other -isms. Domination is the common cause. We could eliminate all of these -isms, but if we don’t know how to come out of domination patterns, we’ll just invent new -isms, new excuses to dominate each other. *(See* [*A Class Divided*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Class_Divided) *for an example where a schoolteacher contrives to create prejudice by splitting her classroom based on eye-colour.)*

It’s important to understand how everyone’s experience of domination is different due to their race, class, gender, etc. But it’s possible to be overly-focused on the differences and lose sight of the common cause at the root: the domination! There’s a fundamentalist streak that appears sometimes in the contemporary movement for social justice that is willing to use domination to achieve its aims. For me that’s intolerable and incoherent. *(That’s a complex & controversial topic which I will only briefly touch on here. If you want more context please read my other articles:* [*On Leaving the Church of Social Justice*](https://richdecibels.medium.com/on-leaving-the-church-of-social-justice-c84668df5acb) *and* [*Metamodern Social Justice*](https://richdecibels.substack.com/p/8-metamodern-social-justice)*.)*

### Constructive = focus on what you want to see more of

I share Visakan Veerasamy’s [motto](https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1324978566455468035) that in the long run, it’s more effective to "focus your time & energy on what you want to see more of", rather than to define yourself by what you’re opposed to.

I’ve spent a lot of time in groups that are oriented "against" something: anti-capitalism, anti-globalism, anti-racism, anti-hierarchy. While it’s important to understand the forces that are opposed to your mission, I think it’s often counterproductive to organise a group around an “anti-” framing.

It’s easy to unify people around what they’re opposed to, but it’s a temporary & shallow bond. It’s dangerous to know more about what you’re against than what you’re for. It creates a culture of infighting & witch-hunting. We become oversensitive, jumping at anything that vaguely resembles the thing we’re against.

Look at "anti-hierarchy" for example. Anti-hierarchy is intimately coupled to hierarchy, the concepts are tightly bound together. Anti-hierarchy is permanently constrained by what it is not, so the space for creative possibility is artificially truncated. This is why ‘microsolidarity’ is named for what it is, not what it isn’t.

I want to live in a society that has much less domination, but my primary orientation is not *against* domination exactly, it’s *for* partnership. Partnership requires justice, respect & accountability and it invites pleasure, joy & exchange. Partnership celebrates difference, it breeds hybridity and creates thick harmonies.

## Putting it all together

This fractal, radical, constructive framing of power dynamics creates a mission for us.

We know a lot about hierarchy & domination; but the partnership end of the spectrum has not had so much attention. We’re thoroughly trained for domination: most of us have spent more than 15,000 hours in schools organised around the dominator principle. If you grew up in a WEIRD (Western Educated Industrialised Rich Democratic) country you’re steeped in the lineage of thousands of years of domination-based society.

If we want to live in a world that has less domination at the large scale, it makes sense to me to start making headway at the small scale. This is one of the key objectives for microsolidarity: to help us grow out of domination and into partnership habits. We’re only focused on the small scale, up to 150 people. Even at the micro-scale, there’s a lot of work to do! I notice how I habitually dominate the parts of myself I’ve classified as shameful. Just practicing with one other person, or with 5 people, or with 50, at that small intimate scale I can pay attention to when am I being more like a partner, and when am I being more like a dictator. I can get curious, increase my awareness, and develop the fluency to move towards partnership.

{% hint style="info" %}
This essay is just a brief intro to a complex topic . For a deeper dive into this way of thinking, see [*The Chalice & The Blade*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/470367.The_Chalice_and_the_Blade) by Riane Eisler, and [*The Dawn of Everything*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56269264-the-dawn-of-everything) by David Graeber & David Wengrow, [*Emergent Strategy*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29633913-emergent-strategy) by Adrienne Maree Brown, and [*The Authoritarians*](https://theauthoritarians.org/) by Bob Altemeyer.
{% endhint %}

### Microsolidarity is an R\&D project

So microsolidarity is like a distributed R\&D project, exploring a very challenging and complex set of research questions.

One of our lines of inquiry is investigates the power dynamics illustrated in this essay:

* \*\*How do we, as people conditioned for domination hierarchies, grow into the kind of people who can thrive in egalitarian networks? \*\*
* If we’ve been trained for dominance and submission since childhood, can we learn as adults to relate to each other in a spirit of partnership?
* We’ve spent so much time practicing for competition; can we balance these skills with an increased capacity for collaboration?
* When coercion is the norm, how do we learn to activate our own agency and celebrate the autonomy of others?
* Can we use our differences as a resource rather than a source of conflict?

To me, the power questions are an essential component of some of the other questions about community and belonging:

* How do we re-stitch trust in societies where it has been eroding for decades?
* Can we create resilient communities adapted to our contemporary context, where more people are living in multicultural urban environments, working precarious patchwork careers, and socialising extensively through digital connections?
* How do we replace what is lost by the receding tide of religious social practices?
* Can we have belonging without conformity?
* How do we cultivate a community context that supports our growth?
* How do you develop curiosity about your inner experience and friendliness towards yourself?
* Can we learn to see groups as a collection of relationships, not just a bunch of individuals?

In my brain at least, all these questions are knotted together, they can’t be cleanly decoupled. You start tugging on one, but it is tied to all the others. In future essays, I hope to unpack these questions in future essays. But for now if you're feeling ready to get started, read on...


# Community Smorgasbord

this is a community-smorgasbord


# Practices


# How You Can Get Started

## If you’re on your own

If you’re on your own and you want to get started, you can check if any of the [existing congregations](/practices/congregating) are open for new members. Or it might be simpler to just start practicing with your first crew. This can be a fairly small commitment. For example:

* Think of 3 or 4 people you know that might be interested in getting to know each other at a slightly deeper level.
* Invite them to a **time-bounded experiment**: a sequence of peer-coaching meetings. Each meeting will focus on one group member.
* Use the [Case Clinic method](https://www.u-school.org/tools/case-clinic) to support each member to get the group’s perspective on a challenge they are facing.
* Wrap up the experiment with a retrospective meeting where everyone can review your time together, discuss what you liked, what could be improved, and decide if you want to keep meeting together.

{% hint style="info" %}
See for example [this report from Jarred Filmer's experience starting crews](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qxJhtjBsKocrXdWmk/experiments-with-microsolidarity-crews) in the rationalist & Effective Altruist communities.
{% endhint %}

People usually enjoy the experience in a proto-crew (if they can overcome the friction of scheduling a regular time to meet). After the first sequence of meetings though, it’s common to decide to split. That’s normal, people have many competing commitments and packed schedules.

#### A time-bounded experiment gives everyone a way to leave the group without losing face or causing offence.

If your first group disbands, try again with another group. You will probably need to rearrange the membership a few times to find the right "chemistry", i.e. a match in interests, values, schedules etc.

Once you find a crew that has the right chemistry, you can experiment with many different practices: co-working sessions, peer-coaching, take an online course together, go on a road trip, start a co-op... at each retrospective meeting you can make adjustments and navigate towards the process and outcomes that make the most sense for everyone.

If the crew decides to keep meeting, try to decentralise responsibility as soon as possible; it should feel like "our group" not “Jenny’s group”. Share basic tasks like scheduling & hosting the meetings.

Once you’re comfortable working at the crew scale, you might want to start a "congregation" (think of it as a dating pool where many crews can form).

## If you’re in an existing network, community, or organisation

If you want to introduce microsolidarity to an existing medium- or large- scale group, it’s strongly recommended to start with a single crew first. Together you can strategise, distribute the workload, and renew each other’s enthusiasm when things don’t go according to plan.

Look for opportunities to initiate small groups inside large-group activities. For example, if you frequently find yourself on a Zoom call with more than 6 people, see how the dynamic changes when you spend a little time in breakout rooms (*"let’s breakout into small groups for 20 minutes and come back to compare notes"*). If you have a company retreat for 30 people together for a week, add a daily meeting with small groups of 4 or 5.

You can host a "[practice program](/practices/how-to-run-a-practice-program)", a sequence of meetings where people can get a taste of some of the core practices of microsolidarity. After the program, if there are many people interested in ongoing practice, you can initiate a “crew formation round”, a bit like a speed dating event where potential crewmates can get to know each other. For inspiration see the [Enspiral Pod Formation Process.](https://handbook.enspiral.com/guides/pods#the-pods-process-at-enspiral)

## Starting a congregation

Probably the funnest and most effective way to start a new congregation is with a physical gathering: a few days spent together in a beautiful location, deepening relationships and initiating collaborations. (Though the pandemic has proven it is also possible to initiate new congregations with only digital gatherings.)

* See Rich’s article sharing [design patterns for creating a transformative congregation gathering](https://medium.com/microsolidarity/congregation-how-to-ffe35c65d70).
* Here’s an example of what kind of info to include in an [initial invitation for a new congregation](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/congregating/gathering-invite).
* The Pico Island congregation has [excellent documentation from their gatherings](https://pico.microsolidarity.cc/resources/pico-gathering-fire-starter).
* We’ve recorded interviews with congregation hosts about their gatherings. You can watch on YouTube: [Enspiral Europe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6T65zm2Jl4), [Pico Island](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CmvciBqGTk), [Blivande](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_RMDS8Ix8M\&t=7s); or listen on your preferred podcast app: [Enspiral Europe](https://anchor.fm/Microsolidarity/episodes/Enspiral-Europe---1st-Gathering-e16qok9), [Pico Island](https://anchor.fm/Microsolidarity/episodes/Pico-Island-Congregation---1st-Summer-Gathering---June-2021-e136g6k), [Blivande](https://anchor.fm/Microsolidarity/episodes/Blivande---1st-team-retreat---Oct-2021-e186q95).
* We highly recommend designing the gathering so everyone is allocated to a temporary crew for the duration of the event. Then at the end of the event (or shortly after) you can run a "crew formation" round to initiate new crews while there’s a peak of enthusiasm and engagement in the community.


# Crewing

Methods for people to support each other in small groups

* **Pods**: personal-and-professional development in small groups, a new practice in development at Enspiral. Comprehensive [resources here](http://handbook.enspiral.com/guides/pods). (For more on this: listen to the [recording of the Crews/Pods session at Enspiral Summer Retreat 2019](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/discussing/enspiral-summer-retreat-feb-2019); and [this update 6 months later](https://anchor.fm/Microsolidarity/episodes/Nati-and-john-talking-about-pods-at-Enspiral-e9giqj).)
* [Case Clinic](https://www.u-school.org/caseclinic) is a peer-coaching method from Theory U. It has a practical output (helping someone with a challenge they're currently facing), and it tends to produce a lot of insight and interpersonal bonding. It's an excellent place to start, you can get a long way in one meeting.
* [Feelz Circle](http://emotionalanarchism.com/how-to-form-a-radical-feelz-circle/): 3 processes for sharing emotional care between friends/ comrades/ lovers.
* [Befriending a Protector](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Eygv0lSxCVPGcCleEbHGycpWtLIFTmL7m5Pu6cMBSXM/edit): a peer-therapy process based on Internal Family Systems.
* [Courage & Renewal](https://couragerenewal.org/courage-renewal-approach/) - approach from Parker Palmer for creating a circle of trust. Includes some guidance for cultivating a safe space for vulnerable conversations, plus great descriptions of why this is valuable.
* Mia Mingus wrote this excellent guide to [Pods and Pod Mapping](https://batjc.wordpress.com/pods-and-pod-mapping-worksheet/) for the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective. In this context, your pod is "the people that you would call on if violence, harm or abuse happened to you; or the people that you would call on if you wanted support in taking accountability for violence, harm or abuse that you’ve done"
* [Metagame Mastermind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDWuHsyznf4?t=753): a kind of stoic crew. 3 people, 3 week sprints, 3 commitments (one life practice (e.g. meditate daily), one renouncement (e.g. no sugar), one gift to the world).
* [The Elephants](https://medium.com/things-ive-written/the-elephants-182870501589) long term personal development for Crews, focussed on goal-setting and accountability.
* [RMMAN Pods Guide](https://rmman.org/pods) - beautifully documented guides to starting different kinds of support pods, from the Rocky Mountain Mutual Aid Network.
* [Working Out Loud](https://workingoutloud.com/en/circle-guides): a guided 12-week process for peer support in small groups, suitable for workplaces: *what am I trying to do? who is related to that goal? how can I contribute to them to deepen our relationship?*
* [Stewardship](https://loomio.coop/stewarding.html) peer support system for Partnerships.
* Be The Change Earth Alliance use [Action Circles](https://www.bethechangeearthalliance.org/action_circles) to support people who want to change their life to be more ecologically sustainable. They have a comprehensive [best practice guide](https://www.bethechangeearthalliance.org/circle_guide) for convening these circles, including sample agendas, facilitation and communication tips, etc.
* The [Scuttlebutt](http://scuttlebutt.nz) software community are actively forming crews they call [Faerie Rings](https://hackmd.io/0iNeYQ9wR3qqerxjvfKnhg). Documentation currently focusses on how to do matchmaking to form crews within a congregation. Faerie Rings are mostly "get to know you" spaces for people who are participating in a big distributed project, but don't have many opportunities to connect face to face.
* [Ako Groups](/articles/ako-group-guidelines): peer support within a learning context, e.g. university
* [How to give feedback in a small peer group](https://qualityswdev.com/2017/01/22/how-to-give-and-receive-feedback-in-an-agile-organization/). Written by Manuel Küblböck for a professional context, but the principles apply transcontextually.
* [How to host an Empathy Circle](http://cultureofempathy.com/Community/Handouts/How-To-Empathic-Listening.htm) - a simple group process to strengthen your empathy muscles.
* [Working Out Loud support circles](https://workingoutloud.com/en/circle-guides)
* [Future Conversations](https://futurescanning.org/future-conversations-programmes/) - a series of 6-8 guided conversations designed to build community resilience.
* [Green Hollow: A team story-telling game](https://amble.studio/green-hollow-game/) that takes you back to an ancient village to spark insights about modern teamwork.
* [Asynchronous meetings](https://twitter.com/StefanMorales/status/1491535898957139971): group chat with audio messages
* If you have more to add to this list, please [join the Discord](/participate/join-us-on-discord) and share :)

## Economics

* [Sharing Money With Friends](https://medium.com/@richdecibels/sharing-money-with-friends-what-could-go-wrong-c4120b712396) -- a short blog on the technical aspect of managing profit-sharing agreements in a collective of freelancers.
* [Squad Wealth](https://otherinter.net/squad-wealth/) - growing trust in small groups to collectively get free of meaningless employment and build shared prosperity


# Congregating

Methods for bringing many crews together into groups of around 15 to 150 people.

Resources:

* [Congregation: How-To — 8 Design Patterns for a Transformative Event](https://medium.com/the-tuning-fork/congregation-how-to-ffe35c65d70). This story documents some lessons from hosting the big annual gathering of the Enspiral congregation.
* [How to Run a Sharing Circle](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d9RvLcremejPWHfLExOr4O7yEtT51R4x_xYYRmvq2rc/edit?usp=sharing) - a crucial piece of social technology, explained by Nati Lombardo from [TheHum.org](http://thehum.org).
* [Excellent documentation from the Pico Congregation](https://pico.microsolidarity.cc/resources/pico-gathering-fire-starter) on how they run their community gatherings
* Coordinating many crews to form within a congregation - [Enspiral's pod formation process](https://handbook.enspiral.com/guides/pods#the-pods-process-at-enspiral)
* An example for [how to invite people to a gathering to initiate a new congregation](/articles/gathering-invite)
* Notes on [how to avoid cults](/articles/cults)

### Congregations

Unofficial list of congregations and proto-congregations that match some of the microsolidarity patterns:

* [Enspiral](http://enspiral.com) - by invitation
* [Cultural Catalyst Network](http://culturalcatalystnetwork.org) - occasionally open for new members
* [Pico Island Congregation](https://pico.microsolidarity.cc)
* [Intentional Society](https://www.intentionalsociety.org) - open for new members (online)
* [Starter Cultures](https://www.startercultures.us/)
* [Rocky Mountain Mutual Aid Network](https://rmman.org)
* [A New Republic of the Heart](https://newrepublicoftheheart.org/community/) - open for new members (online)
* [Blivande / Edgeryders](https://edgeryders.eu/t/a-template-for-microsolidarity/9277) - open for new members (in Stockholm)
* [Building Belonging](http://buildingbelonging.us) - open for new members (online)
* [Wild Seed Society](https://www.wildseedsociety.com)
* [Terran Collective](https://www.terran.io)
* [Life Itself](http://lifeitself.us) (formerly known as Art/Earth/Tech)
* Regenerate Change: [Social Alchemy Pods](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RNZ-_3N7il4-dRmp5X8HbCkDVIMSus1k/view?usp=sharing)
* [Alter Ego Network](http://alterego.network) - by invitation
* [Liminal Village](http://liminalvillage.com)
* [Emerging Leaders Project](https://emergingleaders.us) - open for new members (online)
* [Maastricht Congregation](https://www.notion.so/an-extremely-detailed-Process-Overview-70cae0766a9a43ec891017f65b50415e#aec2b4cb6578418ab1cd097468a8f885)
* [RatPark](https://ratpark.org)
* [Future Thinkers](https://futurethinkers.org)
* [P3 Berlin](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/p3-berlin-march-2020-tickets-83713773149)
* [beta.gouv.fr](https://beta.gouv.fr/communaute/)
* [Agile Open France](https://agile-france.org)

If you have more to add, please [contribute](http://microsolidarity.cc/contributing)


# How To Run a Practice Program

Over 2020 & 2021 Rich Bartlett & Nati Lombardo organised a series of "practice programs" to introduce people to microsolidarity and to initiate new collaborations. If you want to introduce microsolidarity to an existing group, you could take inspiration from our process design.

We prefer to work with 20-30 people at once: small enough to feel intimate, big enough to create many different interpersonal connections. We meet on a video call once per week, for 90 minutes, for 4 weeks. We "never host alone", i.e. always have at least 2 facilitators working together.

Theoretical content is delivered asynchronously: everyone is giving a suggested reading list (or video/podcast list) to work through in their own time. For example, your suggested reading list could be some of the articles on this website, or other videos or readings you find inspiring.

There’s no "lecture content" delivered on the calls, our meeting time is exclusively used for practicing different relational modalities.

Here’s a sketch of our process design:

## Cohort-based program

### **Call 1**

Call 1 is a kind of "speed dating" event where you get to meet a lot of new people in brief 1-to-1 encounters. It’s also a kind of “relationship yoga” where you can cultivate a more mindful awareness of what it feels like to relate with people, and practice different ways of showing up. You can stretch your “listening muscles” and “curiosity muscles”. For example, the “[listen & loop](https://thetaoofwealth.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/listen-loop-and-dip-the-art-of-mindful-conversation/)” method rapidly accelerates the depth of connection you can experience with someone new, in just a few minutes.

After meeting 3 or 4 new people in these brief encounters, we bring the full group back together into the main meeting room. We take a few minutes in silence for people to write in their journals, asking questions like *"How did it feel today to be in the different groups? What did you notice about the different relational practices? What did you notice about yourself? How does it feel to meet someone new?"*

After a few minutes of silence we close by asking a few people to share some of their reflections out loud.

{% hint style="info" %}
See also the [Authentic Relating Games Manual](https://authrev.gumroad.com/l/AR-Games) for lots more ideas about how to host “get to know you” meetings like this one.
{% endhint %}

### **Call 2**

We start with silent reflection: *"It's one year from today, you're in the best possible community/network/group. What does it look like?"*

People share their answers in a group of 3 or 4. After each share, listening partners reflect back what they hear is important to the speaker, e.g. ideals, principles, values, desires, needs...

Back in the main meeting room, another silent reflection/journaling about **blocks**: "*What's blocking you from having the community that you want?"*

Then we use the "[Troika Consulting](https://www.liberatingstructures.com/8-troika-consulting%20/)" practice from Liberating Structures to give each other support to work through the blocks. Troika works in groups of 3, each person takes about 15 minutes to be the centre of attention while the other two coach them.

After the Troika practice, when everyone’s back in the main meeting room, have a stretch or a dance break to get back into our bodies, then we finish with silent reflection & sharing like we did on Call 1.

{% hint style="info" %}
The [Liberating Structures website](https://www.liberatingstructures.com/ls/) has heaps of great practices for creating much more lively meetings.
{% endhint %}

### **Call 3**

By this stage, people have participated in a "speed dating / relationship yoga" session, and everyone has been on the giving- and receiving-end of a rapid-fire peer-support session with the Troika practice. So for the third call, we go into a deep peer-support process.

We use the [Case Clinic](https://www.presencing.org/resource/tools/case-clinic-desc) method from Theory U. It takes a little over an hour, and is focused on just one person (the "case-giver") being supported by 4 or 5 peers. The process is designed to access collective wisdom and to help the case-giver respond to an important and concrete challenge they are facing. The idea is not to give them advice exactly, but to accompany them in their challenge, to deeply empathise with what it is like to be them, and to help them clarify their situation and see new perspectives.

In our experience, Case Clinic is uniquely effective at producing insight (both for the case-giver and the peer-coaches), and developing a sense of connection between people. It’s especially effective when people are "softened up" by Call 1 and Call 2.

{% hint style="info" %}
See also: Theory U is a massive world to explore; [their free online course](https://www.edx.org/course/ulab-leading-from-the-emerging-future) is fantastic.
{% endhint %}

### **Call 4**

The final call is a "retrospective" i.e. looking back on our time together to take note of what we’ve learned and commit to some actions to take next.

We ask people to reflect on personal questions and then share in small groups. E.g. *"What's your **learning edge**: e.g. are there new skills or behaviours you want to practice? Is there one **insight** that struck you, that you want to remember? **Action/Intention**: what is your next step to practicing microsolidarity? What **support** do you need to make this happen?"*

We also ask for detailed feedback on every aspect of the Practice Program, from the facilitation to the digital tools. We ask *"What worked well?"* and *“What didn’t?”* and we look for one or two concrete changes we can make to improve the next program. This is partly for us to keep improving our craft, but more importantly, it demonstrates one of the fundamental practices for creating consistent learning and continuous improvement in groups. (We recommend that high performing collaborative teams spend at least 10% of their time in retrospective mode.)

Finally, we have a closing round, where we hear final remarks from everyone in the meeting. This is the first and only time that the whole group really gets a chance to see itself as a full circle.

Over the course of 4 calls we progress up the ladder of scale, from 2 people, to 3, to 5, to the full group of 20 or 30. In this way, people get to experience the unique affordances and challenges in groups of different sizes.

{% hint style="info" %}
*You can read more details about our approach to hosting excellent online meetings in this article about* [*Technical Facilitation*](https://www.thehum.org/post/technical-facilitation-in-online-meetings)*.*
{% endhint %}

*If you use this guide, please get in touch and let us know about your experience! It will be excellent to improve these resources based on your feedback.*


# Participate


# Network Map

Explore [the network map](https://www.figma.com/file/LjL10J1l2rzii0hsJWj6uU/Microsolidarity-Dreams-%26-Realities) for a better understanding of the current state of the Microsolidarity Network and find out how you want to participate.

{% embed url="<https://www.figma.com/file/LjL10J1l2rzii0hsJWj6uU/Microsolidarity-Dreams-%26-Realities>" %}


# Join us on Discord

You are welcome to join us on Discord to chat with other practitioners: [invite link](https://discord.gg/u4p3xUCwpC).

The Microsolidarity Network is open to anyone interested in microsolidarity, but we mostly want to hear from people who are *doing* microsolidarity, not so much from people who just want to talk about it.

Some guidelines to keep in mind:

* You are welcome to participate. Tell us about what you are doing and let’s learn from our experiences together.
* Don’t assume your experience is shared: people here come from very different backgrounds. We have different material conditions. We have different belief systems. Don’t expect to find conformity of ideas.
* You are not expected to agree with everyone but you are expected to be kind & respectful.
* If you’re having a stressful interaction with someone, take a break or ask another person to step in to add a third perspective. If you need support, ping Uli and he’ll make sure someone from the hosting team is paying attention.
* This is a private party. We’re creating a convivial atmosphere and you will be removed if you insist on being a dick.


# Events

### Summer 2026 Events @ Casa Tilo (Barcelona, Spain)

[Microsolidarity Intensive](https://microsolidarity.substack.com/p/the-microsolidarity-intensive-august), August 11-15

[Microsolidarity Coliving Week](https://microsolidarity.substack.com/p/microsolidarity-coliving-week-august), August 16-22

<figure><img src="/files/LX6IKCEZUgyePxOIwssT" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Microsolidarity Practice Programs

Short cohort-based courses to practice Microsolidarity and connect with other community builders. New cohorts are announced via the [**Microsolidarity newsletter on Substack**](https://microsolidarity.substack.com/). Read more about the current programs [here](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/practice-programs).

### Online Monthly Network Meeting

We meet 7.30-9pm CET on the first Thursday of every month. Here's a sample of what happens in these meetings:

{% embed url="<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQxeVJ8PXlY>" %}

This is a members-only meeting where you can connect with other practitioners, to give and receive support in your community-building journey.

To become a member, [contribute at least €3/month to our Open Collective](http://opencollective.com/microsolidarity).

### Previous Gatherings

#### 2024

* (EU) Microsolidarity Summer Camp happened Aug 2024 at Kunst in der Natur in Austria and was organized by Sarah Pelham, Alexander Popiak, Mirjam Rahedy, and Jesse Evers. Sarah writes about the event [here](https://sarahpelham.substack.com/p/what-i-learnt-co-hosting-the-microsolidarity).
* (USA) Microsolidarity Summer Camp happened July 2024 at [Elkenmist](https://www.elkenmist.com/) and was organized by Sara Bajor. Read her reflections on the event design process [here](https://substack.com/home/post/p-146965196).
* A Winter Gathering for active participants in the Network was held in February in Andalucía, Spain. A collection of reflections can be found [here](https://microsolidarity.substack.com/p/microsolidarity-network-newsletter).

#### 2023

* We had the first gathering in Belgium in May 2023, here's what we learned ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-mgfPm6hsg) | [audio](https://anchor.fm/Microsolidarity/episodes/What-We-Learned-From-the-1st-Gathering-of-Microsolidarity-Practitioners-e1jnnmi)).
* The second gathering in 2023 was outside Denver, Colorado. We debriefed here ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0y4qGz0pXQ\&t=15s) | [audio](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/Microsolidarity/episodes/Reflecting-on-our-Denver-Microsolidarity-Gathering-in-October-2022-e1t5o66/a-a951ejl))


# Contributing Money

raising money to support the Microsolidarity commons & deciding together how we spend it

If you want to contribute money to the network, there are two places you can donate:

1. You can send Euros to [our Open Collective account](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity), fiscally hosted by [Open Collective Europe Foundation](https://opencollective.com/oce-foundation-eur) (a non-profit organization based in Belgium).
2. You can send US Dollars or Crypto [to our Every.org account](https://www.every.org/oceurope/f/microsolidarity) (hosted by a non-profit organization based in the US). Donations here are tax-deductible under the US IRS 501(c)3 tax code.

Supporting us on Open Collective with at least €3 per month will give you access to the monthly members-only calls where you can meet other practitioners.

## Fundraising Goals

Our intention to grow a common fund that can be used for anything that supports the network. Here's some of our fundraising goals:

* to pay the facilitators for organising & hosting our monthly calls
* to provide scholarships to make paid events more accessible
* to produce media that supports the network & educates the wider public (e.g. editing the podcast, writing a book, making a Netflix series...)
* to pay for a "community coach" who can support a cohort of many microsolidarity community hosts
* to buy a retreat centre where communities can go for trainings & retreats.

## Financial Transparency (updated Dec 17 2024)

Since October 2022, the network has been fiscally hosted by Open Collective. Since that time, all paid Microsolidarity events have contributed at least 10% of profit back to the commons.

You can see all transactions on [our public page](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity). The data are summarised here for ease of reading:

### Balance

The current balance is €7,174.89. After we pay the staff for the two online courses in 2024-Q4 the balance will be €4,947.98.

### Events

Here’s the financial performance of all events to date:

<figure><img src="/files/zbFwD0VJCupMEUW7E0cH" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Donations

Members Contributions to our Open Collective EU account total €5,174.02 to date. We receive about €215/month in recurring donations from 56 paying members.

We received $5000 to make the Denver 2022 retreat more accessible. We received another $5000 at the end of 2023, which we used to offset the costs to make the Network Retreat 2024 and US Summer Camp 2024.

### Monthly Expenses

We pay €100/month to Jocelyn Ames to facilitate the Monthly Member Calls (since July 2022). We pay about €180/year for Zoom.

### Historical Data

Prior to October 2022, Richard Bartlett & Nati Lombardo used their company [The Hum](http://thehum.org) as the legal & financial vehicle for running Microsolidarity events. For full transparency, the financial performance of the 6 paid events that we ran through [The Hum](http://thehum.org) between May 2020 and Oct 2022 is included in the data on this page.

From Oct 2022 to Sep 2024 we had [another Open Collective account](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity-turtle-island), hosted in the US. This is now shut down. Here’s the summary of transactions:

* Regular contributions: $378.88
* Lump-sum donation: $5000
* Fees: $439.57
* Expenses: $4807.47
  * $2,500.00 for scholarships for the US Summer Camp 2024
  * $1,363.79 for food for Network Retreat Spain 2024
  * $943.68 for flights to Network Retreat Spain 2024

## Decision-Making

The network is currently governed informally, with Richard Bartlett playing the role of "[benevolent dictator](https://communityrule.info/create/?r=1619810752488)". As we start to collect common resources, it seems natural that decision-making power should be shared with more people. Here's a proposed approach to get us started in that direction:

* all paid events that generate a surplus should contribute at least 10% to the common fund
* anyone who has contributed money to the network is entitled to have a say about how the common fund is governed
* "having a say" means you can make proposals for how we spend the collective money, and share your advice on other people's proposals
* final decisions are made by the administrators of the two Open Collective pages (Jonas Gröner, Jocelyn Ames, Sara Bajor, Michal Korzonek, Richard Bartlett)
* anyone can become an OC admin, by the approval of the existing admins
* for the time being, Richard Bartlett holds veto power, as a backstop in case of emergencies (e.g. irreconcilable conflict)


# Community Bookshelf

Microsolidarity practitioners take inspiration from many sources, we’re "standing on the shoulders of giants". Please add your favourite books & links to this list:

**Theory**

* Political metamodernism, as introduced by Hanzi Frienacht’s book [*The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36107916-the-listening-society). See Rich’s [intro to metamodernism here](https://twitter.com/RichDecibels/status/1294300519847034880).
* [*An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25159550-an-everyone-culture) by Lisa Laskow Lahey & Robert Kegan
* [*The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12837878-the-empowerment-manual) by Starhawk
* [*Community: The Structure of Belongin\*g*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2774428-community) by Peter Block
* [*Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29633913-emergent-strategy) by adrienne maree brown
* [*The Chalice & The Blade*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/470367.The_Chalice_and_the_Blade) and [*Nurturing Our Humanity*](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/45150709-nurturing-our-humanity) by Riane Eisler
* [*The Dawn of Everything*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56269264-the-dawn-of-everything) by David Graeber & David Wengrow.
* [*The Tyranny of Structurelessness*](https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm) by Jo Freeman.
* [*Reinventing Organisations*](http://reinventingorganizations.com) by Frederic Laloux

**Bodies of Practice**

* **Sociocracy**, e.g. see [*Many Voices One Song: Shared Power with Sociocracy*](https://www.sociocracyforall.org/many-voices-one-song/) by Jerry Koch-Gonzalez & Ted J. Rau, or listen to this interview with Ted on the podcast [Sowing the Seeds of Change](https://anchor.fm/roz-savage/episodes/Ted-Rau---Sociocracy-for-All-e1a718s)
* [**Art of Hosting**](https://artofhosting.org/)
* For communication practices like Authentic Relating, Circling, Collective Presencing, see the [resources section of the Intentional Society website.](https://www.intentionalsociety.org/resources)
* Internal Family Systems
* Transactional Analysis
* [*Focusing*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/666175.Focusing) by Eugene T. Gendlin
* Non Violent Communication (NVC)
* [Mega library of facilitation techniques](https://www.sessionlab.com/library), curated by Session Lab, drawing from [Liberating Structures](https://www.liberatingstructures.com/ls-menu), Hyper Island Toolbox, IDEO, Thiagi, etc...


# Volunteers wanted

{% embed url="<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScH0XPEh1k7laRGNOATmusQ-Dj4eoeCtEFkGHuS3UaHRsUQXA/viewform?embedded=true>" %}


# Practice Programs


# Vibes Program

A short cohort-based course to practice Microsolidarity and connect with other community builders.

**Join us** for this Practice Program if you want...

* to cultivate deeper connections and more collaboration within a network
* to initiate more learning, mutual aid, and a sense of belonging within your community
* to develop a work culture where people care about each other's wellbeing and growth

### About this program

This is a 2-week program. You can access [this short curriculum of videos & texts](/practice-programs/vibes-program/course-content) to learn about the core concepts in your own time, and we will meet twice each week to experiment with relational practices (for a total of four 90-minute group calls). You'll also have access to a discussion forum to connect with other learners, share resources and ask us questions.

### Course Topics

* **Introduction** to microsolidarity
* **Dyads**: relational practices to develop a feeling of safety for more vulnerability and intimacy.
* **Crews**: key considerations and different formats for support in small groups.
* **Congregation**: case studies from different congregations, sharing how to start and maintain a self-organising network of crews.
* **Leadership & engagement**: how to encourage participation, engagement and co-leadership.
* **Reflection & learning**: how to get into the habit of reflection & continuous improvement, at a personal and collective level

### Time Commitment

* ​There are **four 90-minute live calls** where we’ll practice together
* You follow the course content in your own time. You can expect to spend around 30 minutes in preparation for each of the weekly topics.
* There is a digital forum for connection, interaction, and Q\&A.

### Times & Dates

The next cohort will start on Tuesday, Nov 12, 2024. We meet for 4 live calls over 2 weeks, on Tuesdays & Thursdays at 9-10.30am CET. Register on [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/events/microsolidarity-vibes-program-fall-2024-68e87597).

Can't make it this time? Subscribe to the [**Microsolidarity newsletter on Substack**](https://microsolidarity.substack.com/) to hear about programs and other offerings from the network.

### Tickets

Register on [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/events/microsolidarity-vibes-program-fall-2024-68e87597). Tickets are available from €140 for a Standard ticket, or €190 for a Supporter ticket which makes possible our scholarship fund. Income from ticket sales will be used to pay the hosting team, and we'll share 10% of the income with the [Microsolidarity common fund](/participate/contributing-money). If you want to join but money is a barrier to you participating, you can [apply for a scholarship](https://forms.gle/636P4sYKuHEWRAGG8).

### Testimonials

Here are some quotes from previous participants

"It was mindblowing how quickly you can develop trust and belonging - I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't experienced it. We created a feeling of trust and safety within a few minutes, it's bonkers!"

"I only spoke to 3 people and already I got such a strong feeling that I want to get to know everyone here - I don't often feel that in a random group of people."

"It’s so helpful to do these peer-support processes with people who are outside my community - it’s so valuable to get the perspective of someone who cares but is not involved. It's usually hard to find. it takes a lot of scene-setting, and a specific social contract, which is what the Microsolidarity Network is creating."

"It felt like there's a large pool of wisdom that I can enter, and I don't have to be reluctant about it. I can share my problem even when I can't explain it very well, and people are open to listen to me and give me their thoughts."

"In this process I felt like how it feels when I confide in one of my close friends. These two people I had only just met, they were so focussed on listening to what I needed, and putting their best efforts into helping me... that's a very powerful feeling. They were there for me."

### **Your Hosts**

This program was originally developed by Nati Lombardo & Rich Bartlett. They hosted it 4 times through 2020-2022. Since 2023 the program has being run as a community-organised event. Facilitation is led by: Jocelyn Ames, Sara Bajor, Jonas Gröner, and Gui Trevisan.

### Other Questions?

Please ask in the [#practice-program](https://discord.gg/u9dfEkcpmY) channel on Discord and we'll try to help :)


# Course Content

This online course content was originally developed as a training program for [The Hum](http://thehum.org). In 2023 we decided to open-source the content and share it with the world. On this page you'll find a curriculum of videos & texts covering the core concepts of Microsolidarity.

It's much more interesting as a practice than a theory though, so consider joining us for the next 2-week online [Practice Program](/practice-programs/vibes-program) :)

The Program includes 4 facilitated workshops to connect and practice with other community builders. Each of the workshops is connected to these 4 content modules:

1. [Introducing core concepts](/practice-programs/vibes-program/course-content/introducing-core-concepts)
2. [Crewing](/practice-programs/vibes-program/course-content/crewing)
3. [Congregations](/practice-programs/vibes-program/course-content/congregations)
4. [Leadership & Engagement](/practice-programs/vibes-program/course-content/leadership-and-engagement)
5. [Links, Resources & Practices](/practice-programs/vibes-program/course-content/resources-and-practices)


# 1. Introducing core concepts

{% embed url="<https://youtu.be/bS0CcMqH2Ik>" %}

### Video Transcript

Hi! Welcome to the Microsolidarity Practice Program. Thank you for joining us, I hope you're going to learn a lot and meet some cool people. My name is Richard, I'm going to be sharing a short series of videos: I'll be doing some and my partner Nati will be doing some of the others. Together, we want to share a little bit of theory, not a lot of theory, but just enough so that we have some of the same ideas in mind as we go into this practice time.

So what is microsolidarity? At its simplest, it's a framework for community building, it's a methodology, a collection of practices, ways of thinking about how we build community.

It's also a network of community builders. So now that you're participating in the program, you're also welcome into this open source R\&D network, as we're learning together, how do we do this community building thing?

I [published a proposal](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/articles/proposal) a few years ago, describing my first guesses at some patterns for community development, and immediately got a reaction from many people who said, hey, I've got something to add to this. So if you have something to add, you're welcome to participate in this open network of peer exchange and learning.

What all of these microsolidarity communities have in common is a foundational intention to create relationships of belonging. We do this through mutual support. I say "mutual", because it's reciprocal, it's about people giving and receiving, it's about horizontal, non-hierarchical, peer-to-peer relationships of exchange. That's quite essential to me. And the belonging piece is really essential too; these are relationships that are intended to make a real difference in your life. That's the aspiration. That we have a sense that "I belong here, people know me, I know them, they have my back, I have their back". That's what we're trying to produce.

And then optionally, there's an extra intention on top of it, that some of these communities are also reaching an economic dimension. So sometimes I will say that it starts with emotional intimacy (of relationships of care and authenticity) and then they may also go to this next level, which is an economic intimacy (people sharing money or resources). This could be, for instance, a collective of freelancers who might be sharing work with each other, they might be sharing some of the income. Or a land-based community, they'll be sharing housing, for example, or other kinds of resources. So that's a destination you may want to head into. It's the destination that I'm heading to. But it's not a requirement; it might not be appropriate in the context that you're in. You might be just here for the belonging, and that's perfectly good aspiration.

So what's the problem? What is the riddle or the puzzle that microsolidarity is trying to solve? The way that I think about it is that most people, maybe not everyone, but a lot of people want deep relationships, we want connection, we want community, we want this sense of belonging, we want to be in a web of social fabric. That's, I think, hard coded into our genetic inheritance as mammals, we're social creatures, we want this thing. So why do you need a framework? Why do you need training? Why do you need practice? Well, to my perspective, the reason this thing can be so challenging is because we've been conditioned for a different way of being. We've been conditioned for individualism, we've been trained in hierarchies for competition, to think of ourselves as atomized individuals, to think about the self as a competing unit with all the other selves around. My experience, in school and in church and in work was always as an individual who was being measured on his own merits and would fail or succeed, depending on how qualified he was. In my school I didn't have any training in collaboration. While I said we've got some genetic inheritance as mammals to be social, I think a lot of our institutions put obstacles between us and that genetic inheritance. So the job with these relational practices that we'll introduce in the microsolidarity program, is to remove some of those obstacles and come back to a way of being which is deeply natural to us, to be in relationship, but we've trained something completely different.

So this is the kind of--people talk about unlearning. Can we remove those lessons that we've picked up in the past and find a new way? To my mind, the way to do that is to practice, that means to experiment, to try, and to have a sustained regular commitment, to practice finding new ways of being together. If we're trying to shift from an individualistic mode to a relational mode, we can't do that on our own. And that's why we bring people together to practice.

So let me tell you just a little of the background. Where does this come from? Who am I? What's my story? So in 2011, 10 years ago, I joined a community called [Enspiral](http://enspiral.com/). That community is based in New Zealand, where I'm from, it's a global community, but very much the home base is still New Zealand. How do I describe it? It's complicated! I think it's a network of friends, supporting each other to do more meaningful work. There's a lot of freelancers, creative people, entrepreneurs, experimental people who want to do meaningful work. We want to put our working energy towards making a positive contribution to the world. And we support each other to do that. There's this peer-to-peer exchange.

It has played such an important role in my life, I don't really know how to distill it down into a couple of points, the simplest thing I can say is that it's my community of belonging, it's where I feel the most seen, the most respected, the most trusted, the most known. This is the place where I feel like, these are my people, they've got my back, and I've got their back. I feel like this community has provided a context for me to grow and develop and to mature. And it's been a space where I get to witness other people grow and support them and their development, too. It's been a really excellent community, and given me a sense of security and safety and purpose and meaning and connection, even when the world feels topsy turvy and there's all kinds of chaos going on. It's provided me with so much purpose and direction.

So then in 2019, my partner Nati and I decided to move, to leave New Zealand and to move to Europe. So now we live in Italy. I knew when we decided to move that I was going to really miss being close to the home base of Enspiral. So we had this puzzle, can we create something like Enspiral but in Europe? Or can we create something online perhaps, that is going to meet a lot of those needs? And because of the way my brain works, I wasn't just thinking, "can we create a community for ourselves?", there was also a question of, "if we can design a community, are there some patterns in that design that would work for other people, too? Would they fit into different contexts?"

We're not just running the same script that we had in New Zealand, it has to adapt somehow, we're with different people with different values, different culture, different experiences. So what are the design patterns that we can run? Because obviously, we can't just cut and paste from one part of the world to another.

And I thought it would be important to document this process. So I published an essay called Microsolidarity, and in the process of publishing that discovered so many peers around the world who have, I think, a very similar vision to what I have and what Nati has. Not just in the vision, but also in the practice that these people are also building community that is about belonging, and is about meaningful work. So we've found each other through this process, and we're learning together.

So the most important piece of theory to have understood, is about the scales of Microsolidarity. This is about looking at different sizes of group and understanding what are the unique attributes of these different group sizes? And how do we use them? So I'm going to take you through four different scales.

The first group, it's the smallest group, it's got one person. It's the self. Maybe this is a peculiar idea to think of an individual as a group, but I found it a really useful way of thinking, to think of myself as a collection of parts, that there's kind of different characters inside of me. This way of thinking has been used, for example, in [Internal Family Systems](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuJLv98ks-I), which is a therapeutic modality, but it's also used in other systems as well. Let me try and explain to you why I find it so useful. I think there's some kind of metaphor, there's some kind of parallel between how I relate to the different parts of myself and how I relate to other people. So for example, there's a part of me who's anxious, right, who is here, on camera, feeling uncertain, imagining there's other people out there watching this, and I want to do a good job, and this anxious part is... he can really easily catastrophize and say, "Oh, you're doing a terrible job Rich, and this is not working!" It's very easy for this anxious character to take up a lot of space.

How do I relate to that anxious part of myself? There's one mode where I can try and squash them down and push them out and disown them and say, "no anxiety is welcome here! What's needed is confidence and certainty. Just be present and do a good job!" And that doesn't really work. I don't know about you, but this attempt to disown my anxious parts doesn't actually do much to address my anxiety.

An alternative approach is to treat that part of me like I would treat a friend, to say, "Hey, man, how's it going? What do you need? It's okay, people are not going to be judging you intensely. If you say 'um' too many times, it's probably fine." There's a way I can relate to that anxious part of me, which is more compassionate, more curious, more welcoming, more calming.

Now, I said that this relationship between the parts of myself has a parallel to my relationships with other people. So if I'm constantly trying to disown, or ignore, or dominate the anxious parts of myself, when I see the anxious part of you, I'm going to have the same instinct, right? If you come to me with anxiety, I'm going to be defensive and polarized against you, which is not going to be great foundation for a compassionate and warm relationship. So if I can learn to be more compassionate towards these parts of myself, I'm gonna be ready to be more compassionate towards you. And vice versa; it's easy for me to give compassion to my friends, sometimes it's more easy than to give compassion to myself. So I'm learning from this relationship with you how to treat the relationship between the parts of myself. This is a really important part of the work, is treating yourself as a group, and understanding that there are group dynamics going on between these parts of myself.

The second scale, I already named it as friendship, that's one of them, but there's lots of other kinds of two-person relationships. I call that general pattern a "dyad", it just means two people in a relationship. It could be like a friend, it could be a coach, it could be a partner. The essential thing here for me is that we can always be... I've mentioned already this idea of a peer-to-peer relationship, this reciprocal, horizontal, non-hierarchical thing. In the language of [Rianne Eisler](https://rianeeisler.com/partnership-101/), who's a theorist that I learned a lot from, she talks about how we can relate to each other in partnership, or in domination. Partnership being: these two characters are different, we've got differences, unique competencies and strengths and weaknesses and so on, but we are relating to each other in mutual exchange. Or we can be in domination, where there's someone who... we use this difference as a way of ranking who's the important one, who's the powerful one, who's the one who should be in charge? Who's the authority? And who should be submitting? Domination and submission always come in this dyad.

Her theory, which I found really inspiring and useful, is that there's a kind of spectrum between partnership and domination; any relationship can be somewhere on that spectrum. We can use these dyad relationships as an opportunity to practice. I noticed I'm being dominant in this mode, where I don't want to be, I'd rather be a partner; then can I move the relationship along the spectrum towards partnership. Part of the reason I'm so inspired by her work is that she connects the very small scale, (for instance, family relationships and styles of parenting can be more partner-oriented, or more domineering), she connects the very small scale of the family to the very large scale of societies. She demonstrated, I think quite convincingly, how for instance, in Nazi Germany, there was something happening in the family life in Germany that led to a fascist government. There's an interrelationship between the very large scale and the very small scale. So if we want to be living in a world that has less domination at the large scale, she gives me good reason to think that we can start making headway towards that at the small scale.

So a lot of what happens in microsolidarity is just practicing with another person. Paying attention to when am I being more like a partner, and when am I being more like a dictator. Getting curious about that spectrum and learning how to move and be fluent to be able to move between those two points.

The third scale, I call the crew. I chose that word, because I was thinking of the crew of a sailing ship, where everyone has got a role to play. A crew is a small group. The numbers are not precise, but I think about 3, 4, 5 or 6 people. You will notice at this size, I always think about a dinner table, if you have five people at a dinner table, you'll probably have one shared conversation. But if you have eight people at a dinner table, you're almost certainly going to break that one conversation into multiple sub-conversations. This is just the fact of how much we can keep track of, how many different perspectives and voices and mental models we can keep track of. When it's a very small group of say, four or five people, it's very natural and easy for us to hold a shared context. And once we've got eight people or ten people, we need to break it apart into smaller groups to manage the complexity of all those different perspectives. So the crew is on the small side of that line, where we can develop a shared understanding, we can develop a single point of view together very efficiently. It's within our natural limits. We don't need a whole bunch of infrastructure to keep a group of five people coherent, whereas a group of 50 people requires governance, it requires structures, it requires rules, and so on.

The crew is a really efficient unit. It's also a highly impactful unit; one of the crews that made the most difference to my life was a company that I helped to start called Loomio. Loomio is a cooperative, we started with six people. It's a software project that's trying to help people make more democratic decisions. It's helped hundreds of thousands of people around the world. It's something that I'm really proud of, and there's no way I could have created that on my own. It's impossible for an individual to have that degree of impact, but with five or six people, it's possible to really make a massive contribution in the world. And like I said, it's very efficient. We don't spend a lot of time having to come up with complicated structures to manage. So that crew size is are really essential. This is basically where most of the work happens in microsolidarity, I've noticed so far, mostly it's happening in these crews.

The final scale I want to talk about I call the congregation. I think that's a funny word, I've got a churchy background, so using a churchy word is funny for me. The reason I call it congregation is because the main activity here is congregating. It's about coming together. I've named a very broad range, between 30 and 200 people. The most important factor is that it's not too large. If you have 200 people, you can get to know each other, and people can sort of keep track of the relationships. If you have 20,000 people, then most of the people are anonymous, most people are strangers to each other, so it's a very different kind of organism at that scale.

The point of congregating is it's a temporary gathering, it's a coming together. It could be face-to-face, like we do with Enspiral, or it could be online. I think of it like a dating pool, getting together is an opportunity for people to meet each other, for crewmates to find each other and for new crews to form. The main thing that the congregation is doing is just supporting the development of many crews. It's just there as a container for crews to form, and it's an opportunity for the crews to learn from each other and to support each other. This is something that I really valued at Enspiral; we've got all these crews, we've got all these companies, we've got these little support groups and peer groups, and occasionally someone will leave the one crew and go to the other one and give them some support. Maybe there's a difficult conflict going on, it really helps to have someone who can come in and mediate: someone who's part of the wider community but not involved in this specific crew. So being in a congregation, in my opinion, makes it easier to form and to maintain a crew because you've got this wider context of support.

So that brings to the last point that I want to make: who is this program for? It's for you, welcome! We've noticed there's two categories of people who take this program and hopefully you recognize yourself in one or the other side. On the one hand, we have people who already have a community or they might have an organization. They might explicitly think of it as a microsolidarity community, probably they won't, because it's a new thing, but they've already got some kind of organizing context with a bunch of people in it. They've come here because they want to increase the depth and density of connection, they want to have more tools and resources and practices in their toolkit to create more connections across the network or more connections across the organization. So that's one.

The second group is people who feel like they don't really have that community context, they don't really have that organization where they want to be doing this. They might feel more isolated, and they're ready to start building those connections around them. If you're in the second category, the stuff about congregations might be not so relevant. If you're in the second category, if you're someone who doesn't feel like you've got a lot of people that you're in relationship with, it probably makes sense to focus on the crew scale. Once you've got one or two crews running well, then you can start thinking about "what if we had many crews and we could start to form a community". I just wanted to give that primer to say you're in the right place, but depending on which category you're in, you might want to choose where your focus goes, where your priority goes.

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# 2. Crewing

{% embed url="<https://youtu.be/xHOzHHSAxww>" %}

### Video Transcript

Hi there, I'm Nati, I wanted to share with you some ideas about crewing. So, first of all, what are crews? For us, a crew is a small group of three to six people that support each other through emotional, practical and sometimes economical reciprocity as well. Now a note here about the number, three to six people is quite important. Through our years of practice, we understand that this is the number best suited for crews. If you're over there, and you have around eight to ten friends, and you want to crew together, then I recommend splitting into two crews. Start there, and then reshuffle the membership between the crews later on.

So what are the crews for? Well, in our community, crews are a very helpful place to build relationships across the congregation. They're a great way to connect and build deeper connections with people that you wouldn't normally interact with. Crews also help us to experience deeper connection with others and to actually feel seen. They are a great space to get support, to develop ourselves, but also to develop our projects. One of my crew members once said that, for them, the crew was the fastest vehicle for personal development, and I totally agree. It's in those deep relationships where we can experiment with new ways of being, feeling support, and to develop ourselves and grow as individuals. Crews are great to practice our collaborative and relational skills. In a crew is where we can get help to discover and set our developmental goals, to figure out the right ways to move forward if we get stuck, and to get good feedback from our crew members.

Next I want to share with you some considerations for crewing. What are the useful things to think about when you want to start a new group? First of all, we say that each crew has a caller, that is the person that creates the initial invitation. The caller is the person that brings the first impulse. Something simple like "I want to do X thing together, who wants to join me? How about we meet every two weeks?" That "something" that you want to gather for that will be your intention. What is the purpose, the "why" you're meeting together. In our network, there are a lot of different intentions that people bring into their crews.

Some of those intentions are, for example, a book club, or running a particular process for personal or professional support, or doing a course together, or discussing a particular topic, etc. There's a lot of different intentions someone might have for starting a crew. Sometimes the caller will bring a clear intention, put it out there to the community and find crew members: people interested. But sometimes the intention can be vague, like, "I want to go for personal development", and that's it. The details will get figured out together on the first call with whomever is keen to join.

Okay, so another consideration is about the norms. How do you want to be together? What are the behaviors you want and which ones you don't want? You can talk about what are each other's needs, expectations, fears, desires, what is it that each person brings into the crew. Then you can think together about what are some of the basic agreements then you need. For example, it's very common that crews will have a confidentiality agreement, meaning that anything that gets discussed in the group, it won't be shared outside the crew with anyone else.

Another thing to consider is the structure of the crew. What is the meeting format, what are you going to do when you meet together. Again, this can be a proposal that the caller brings, or something that gets decided together on the first few calls. You can follow a premade structure, or you can design your own. A lot of crews I know actually use a mixture of different practices and processes at different times. A lot of crews find clearly defined structures easier to keep their engagement going, but there's also a few crews that either have a very loose set of practices, or they don't have any structure at all. They just decide on the go, what is that they're going to do.

It's also useful to consider rotating the hosting. The idea is that the caller is the person that brings the initial invitation, but after that, it's important that people in a crew feel that they are equal, that they have equal responsibilities for that crew. So taking turns to pass around the hosting can really help to increase the sense of belonging and ownership that people have of that crew. When I say hosting, I mean, facilitating the calls, and maybe sending a little reminder beforehand to let people know when you're going to meet, and if there's any prep that they need to do in advance. This also helps people develop their hosting skills in a small setting that can feel safer for people to try things and get feedback from their peers.

So the next consideration is about rhythms. When are you going to meet, how often, and for how long? Planning it from the start, it helps with clear commitment, and minimizing the scheduling needed for each call. Ideally, you can find a rhythm that is right at the beginning, so you can commit to, say, two months, and have regular meetings in your calendar to help you out.

A part of the rhythm consideration is also the idea of cycles. When will you finish crewing? Or at least when are you going to stop to reflect on your crewing? We use the phrase "start with the end in mind". This gives people the chance to consider their capacities, and know if they can commit with clarity. It also helps to know that there will be a time when people can step down from the crew, if for example, their capacity or their priorities change. It tends to happen that the first time in a crew, people feel really connected with the others and they don't want to stop. Or maybe they don't want to let people down if they don't have as much time for meeting anymore. Or they may want to crew with some other people and try something different. So it's good to have a space in time to stop, reflect and decide if you want to keep on going or not. Maybe it's time to split and create a new crew or maybe you just want to have a break.

Stopping to reflect is not only useful for deciding if you want to continue, but also to learn together and be able to improve on your crewing. For this we use a process called a retrospective. It's a simple process for a meeting to reflect on your crewing. We ask: on the last cycle, what worked well, and what didn't. Based on what we hear, we can decide on some changes we want to make for the next cycle, if we decide to keep going together.

For example, maybe we tried a specific structure, and we noticed that some of the formats didn't work well for a few of us, then we can choose to try something different or to adjust the format to suit us better. Or maybe we just want to dry different rhythms for our meeting, or even change our intentions. Retrospectives also help us surface tensions to be able to address them. So no matter what considerations you choose to use, I highly recommend you to incorporate retrospectives into your cycles. If you choose a longer cycle for your crew, let's say you're going to be crewing for a year, then make sure you have a retrospective meeting every month or so.

Okay, that's all the considerations that I wanted to share with you for crewing. If you want to learn more about different practices and structures for crews, make sure to check the extra resources in this module.

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# 3. Congregations

{% embed url="<https://youtu.be/UmGXbEz8L4o>" %}

### Video Transcript

Welcome back! In this video, I'm going to share with you some more information about congregations. So I'll get into some of the detail about how we organize within our congregation and also name a few different case studies, so you can hear about some of the different contexts where people are using microsolidarity practices.

So first up, just to recap, what is a congregation? It's a group of up to about 200 people. The main thing we do is congregate. We come together occasionally and those congregation gatherings function like a dating pool. It's an opportunity to meet new crew mates. So you get new connections and new opportunities and you might say, Hey, would you be interested in forming a crew with me?

That is the main purpose of a congregation: it's to support crews to form and to support them to exchange lessons and opportunities. That's the primary objective of your congregation. I put such a focus on that purpose because of my experience with communities over the last 10 years or so, noticing that community members who don't have a crew are often the ones who tend to be isolated and disconnected and miss out on a lot of the opportunities and the benefits of community life. It's just been a recurring pattern that the people who have the most joy, the best experiences in communities are the ones who have a great connection in a crew. So now I make it a really explicit focus that when you're new and you're arriving and you're getting oriented in a community, one of your first objectives should be to find your crew.

If you find a crew, then you're likely to find a space of trust. When we go into communities, we support crews to form because it has this benefit for the whole network of increasing trust and increasing coherence. It becomes a really strong foundation of trust and social fabric, a baseline foundation for any upcoming challenges that the community might face. If there's lots of crews, then there are lots of trusting relationships and good communication flows. So it's a way of increasing the resilience as well as the coherence of the community.

Let me give you some more detail about Enspiral. It's my primary community of belonging. It's been around for a little over 10 years. I've been involved for most of that time. The group size fluctuates between about one and two hundred, it comes and goes. The main thing that we do is we support each other to do more meaningful work, and that support comes in many different forms, but mostly it happens in crews. I'm just going to run through and give you some examples of the different types of crews that tend to form within Enspiral. These are the big ones.

So first we have the pod. A pod is a group that is mostly interested in connection, trust, learning, support. The objective of the pod is really to cultivate great relationships and support the people within the pod to grow in some way. It's not really about delivering work externally. It's more about an internal trust-building and connection space.

Then we have, what's called the Working Groups. They're like a committee, I'd say it's like a small group who's focused on doing some kind of constructive contribution to the community. So for example, we have the Brand Working Group and they're in charge of deciding who gets to use the Enspiral Brand and in what conditions; or the Communications Working Group, who looks after the newsletters and keeps people informed about what's happening in the community. So all of the responsibilities for running this network are distributed amongst these different working groups. And anyone in the community can take initiative and say, "I'm going to start a working group on this topic" and recruit a few people to help them. And in this way, the management, the ownership, the leadership in the network is distributed into these many different small groups.

Finally, we have Ventures, sometimes called livelihood pods. These are basically small companies or cooperatives that are doing paid work in the marketplace. So this is a space, for example, you might get some freelancers who are able to make a living on their own as an independent contractor in the marketplace, but they've come together into a pod where they've decided to share some of their income or maybe all of their income. To make it a more resilient, more collaborative style of working rather than being completely independent.

Not everyone is in a venture or a livelihood pod. But the peer support pods, the learning pods are a great place to start practicing the skills of collaboration. They're a great place to start building the connections and developing the trust, so that in the subsequent years, there might be an opportunity for you to form into a livelihood pod and then you'll have the skills and the connections to do so and to do it well.

I've mentioned our gatherings: twice a year in the different regions now, Enspiral is so global we're having gatherings in different parts of the world. Every six months or so, there's a gathering where people can come together for three or four days of in-person connection time. This is where a lot of the new collaborations get initiated by our mutual enthusiasm encountering.

In addition to that, we have online spaces. Some of those spaces are like Zoom, we have online meetings where people can connect and work together. And we also have online discussion forums and spaces to chat and to make decisions online. So there's this interplay between the digital space and the face-to-face encounter.

Let me explain the specific process that we use in Enspiral to support pods to form. First up, there's the Pods Working Group, a few volunteers who have put their hands up, who have taken responsibility for running the pods formation process.

Every six months or so, they'll put out a call for new pods to form, and we try and synchronize this call with the gatherings so that when we've got this peak of enthusiasm and this moment where everyone is paying attention to each other, because they've just been to a gathering, that's the time we'll call for new pods.

The working group will do this by starting an online discussion. It's really straightforward just saying, "Hey, if you're interested in starting a new pod, Leave a comment here, let us know. What's your intention? What time zone are you in?" Which makes coordination a bit easier. And then if you're interested in joining one of these pods, anyone can leave a comment. And from that point, once there's a caller who wants to start a pod and there are some potential people who want to join the pod, then from that point, they just self organise.

Every three months or so, the working group will encourage and remind people to run a retrospective within their pod. That's an opportunity to pick up any lessons, what have we learned about working together in a crew? They will collect those lessons together and share them with the rest of the network. So over time, we're building up a collection of resources and experiences, so that subsequent pods have an easier time because they've learned from the previous ones.

In general, the approach within this working group is to encourage maximum self-organization, minimum hand-holding. The working group will encourage people, it'll send reminders, it'll provide resources and run these retrospectives. But it's up to the individual members of the community to actually bring that initiation to say, "I'm willing to call a pod" or "I'd like to join one". It's not up to the working group to start the pods.

If you're interested in more of the detail, like really looking at the specifics of the processes that we use, [everything is documented pretty well in the Enspiral handbook](https://handbook.enspiral.com/guides/pods#the-pods-process-at-enspiral).

I want to share some examples of other communities besides Enspiral to show you how the patterns of microsolidarity are being reproduced in different contexts.

So let me start with the [Cultural Catalyst Network](https://culturalcatalystnetwork.org/). It's a community of practice for people who are working at the intersection of personal interpersonal and systemic change. That's a particular approach to activism where it's not just about changing the world, it's also changing myself and changing my relations.\
The way that they bring new people into this community of practice is with a cohort-based training. Much like the microsolidarity practice program, where there's some lessons, there's some activities, there's a group of people coming together at once. The catalyst network will bring people in, in a cohort together.

This is I think quite a compelling way to bring new members into a community because it means, once you've gone through that cohort training, you've met a lot of people, you've got a lot of information, you have got a lot of shared things to talk about because of that first introduction. So that seems like a really strong way to bring new people in.

They, like Enspiral, have self-organizing peer support crews. They might meet weekly, some of them maybe on a slightly slower frequency. But again, that's where most of the activity is happening. Once you've gone through that onboarding cohort, then it's up to you to self organize and find your own peers and get your own crews running.

There's also some online meeting spaces. I think they have a meeting every three months or so. They might get together to talk about an important issue for their community, or it might be just an opportunity to meet some new people and exchange lessons. And then they also occasionally have in-person gatherings like you can see.

They are occasionally open for new members to join. So you can leave a note on their website if you're interested in that. I think they're really cool.

Pico island is a small island off the coast of Portugal and the Atlantic ocean and the congregation there is meeting in person. So unlike the previous examples where there's digital connection, this is completely face-to-face. People living within a few miles of each other within an extended neighborhood. They have a congregation where they meet regularly for sharing circles. Every few weeks they'll get together and that's a space for people to meet, to connect, to share stories, to do activities, to start to build a sense of connection and neighborliness with each other.

Out of that connection, projects have started to form. So there's various crews forming out of this congregation. I think the first one was an animal sanctuary and now there are lots of creative projects, art projects, music projects, there's all sorts of different activities starting to blossom out of this soil of connectivity.

They also have biannual gatherings. That seems to be a very strong recurring pattern, all of the congregations that I know have the culture of gathering; that commitment to spending a few days together. I think the last one was four days, maybe five days together, where everyone can be on the same land and have plenty of time without any distraction, just focusing on the community. That seems to be a crucial component of the community life. And if you want to know more detail about how these gatherings work, I've got a couple more videos to share on that as well.

One of the reasons I love the [Pico Island congregation](https://pico.microsolidarity.cc/) is because their documentation is so strong. They're really committed to publishing everything they learn as they go. So even if you're on the opposite side of the planet, you can read everything that they're learning and integrate it into your own experiments.

This last example may be a little unexpected, but [even at the UN, they are experimenting with Microsolidarity](https://untoday.org/views-from-young-un-on-the-future-of-work/). Obviously it's a big old fashioned bureaucracy, it's a huge organization, but within that hierarchy, there are multiple voluntary networks. People are getting organized into microsolidarity crews to create more connection, more trust within the organization. These are spaces for peer coaching, so people can get advice and support from each other. They're spaces where people can learn, take courses together and get some accountability and support from their colleagues. And they're spaces for culture-change: they're spaces to practice different ways of organizing than what they're used to in their everyday work.

I wanted to share this example just to show you some of the potential of how the patterns of microsolidarity can be applied in many different contexts. What I'm trying to demonstrate is that the framework is simply to capture some practices, some protocols of encounter, some ways of relating to each other. It's really up to you to decide who do you want to use these practices with and for what purpose? It could be anything from the more hippie community of Pico Island to the quiet stuffy organization of the United Nations or something completely different that I would never think of. So I'm really excited every time I hear about a new community that's using these microsolidarity patterns because it's surprising me every time.

\\


# 4. Leadership & Engagement

{% embed url="<https://youtu.be/5RcNimyQs1c>" %}

### Video Transcript

In this video, we're going to cover some of the most common questions that come up when we're working with people that are getting into this microsolidarity stuff. Especially these questions around leadership: who's in charge? what about the ownership?, those sorts of things. And questions of engagement: how do we get people in my community to pay attention and to engage and do stuff together?

So first the leadership piece. This is obviously a really big topic and I'm going to try and just compress and pull out some useful small pieces, some stories from my experience. I don't think that's this is the last word to say on leadership in a community context, but maybe I'll open some useful questions.

A lot of people, when they get to this stage of the practice program, they're thinking, where do I start? That's one of the first questions. There might be a couple of people in the group that are ready to start a congregation, but for most people that's a commitment-, that's a bridge too far.

For most people we recommend starting a crew. Nati and I have different opinions on this, but just in my view, I think it's easier to start a crew within an existing group. Maybe something that's a little bit like a congregation. So it could be an existing community that you're part of: it could be a Facebook group, or maybe there's a festival that you go to every year that you really love... any kind of preexisting community that has some kind of shared identity, some kind of shared that sense of what it means to be "us". I think is a really great place to start when you're going to compose your first crew. You don't necessarily need it. You could just start with the people that are on this program.

The focal point here I recommend is: what's the smallest, first step that I can take in the right direction? Can I invite everyone into one conversation; are there the four people that I want to invite? We'll have one conversation, we'll do one [Case Clinic](https://www.u-school.org/tools/case-clinic) or some other kind of relational practice, and then if that goes well, then you make a slightly bigger invitation: would you like to come back? Would we have three conversations? Or six conversations? Just start small and let it grow step by step. That's really the essential piece.

Now there might be a couple of people in the group that are ready to start a congregation and I think it's essential to conceptualize this as a multi-year commitment. To establish a congregation where you're expecting to have at least dozens of people, building relationships of trust, really getting to know each other, starting to support each other in meaningful ways, both in terms of their emotional solidarity and economic solidarity. I think it's a lot of work involved. It's a lot of invention and construction and you're constructing something out of nothing, right? Maybe you've got something in your imagination, some very vague idea. How do you actually manifest that into reality? It's going to take a lot of time. It's nice to imagine that the community will be "self-organizing", that everyone is just going to take responsibility and make this thing. But yeah, at least for the start, while it's mostly imaginary and it's not real yet, the first couple of founding people are going to have to provide a lot of energy. It's just going to take a while. Eventually you might get into this position where many different people have this sense of ownership and many different people are taking acts of leadership and helping the community to go really well, but that's probably not going to happen overnight. So just be really, be really clear. Do you have the capacity and are you up for making this big commitment and making a big experiment?

At least when Nati and I were designing our first congregation experiment, we said, we're going to do a six month trial. The first invitation is: we're going to have a gathering, you're invited to come to this gathering and then we're going to have crews/home groups for the next six months. And then at the end of that six month period, we're going to review and decide if we want to keep going. While we announced ot people a six month experiment, in the back of our heads, we're already thinking, well, if that goes well, we'd like to do it again two or three times, maybe. So it's already a year, maybe two years that this experiment's going to continue. So you have to look a bit into the future when you're in that founding position.

Assuming like me, you want to be in a context where everyone gets to lead sometimes, where there's a sense of shared power, shared responsibility, shared accountability, that no one is a particularly special person. There's not really like a boss or one person in charge, that it's distributed. To get to that stage, your role as a founder, as initiator /caller or /host, whatever your language, a lot of what you're going to have to do there is about encouraging. It's encouraging people to step in and to step up.

For me, this is really simple. I love talking. I love having opinions about things. So when we're in a group conversation, I always want to volunteer with my advice or my idea, oh, have you thought about this? But as someone who's trying to encourage other people to own their own agency and to cultivate their own leadership, maybe it's more useful than me giving my answer is to say, "Hey Jim, what do you think? Hey, Sally, what do you think?" Like, "I think you've probably got something really useful to share on that point". Just doing this basic skill of encouragement, you know, "what you're doing is great. I love it. How can I support you? You should do more of it. Have you thought about doing it this way?"

It's a whole posture. It's a whole skill. As someone who's founded a bunch of different communities and crews and companies like this, it's a real practice, it's a muscle that I've had to stretch over the years to really learn how to get out of the self-serving approach like, "I'll do it. I'll fix it. I'll be the hero." You know, very much feeding my own ego, and looking how to cultivate and develop other people. It becomes like a choreography, that as we're encouraging other people to step in, that means I'm going to have to step out to a degree. It's like a two-player game, I'm going to have to make some space for the other person to arrive into.

So in that sense, shared leadership means giving up power. It means that, if I want to be in an environment where it's not just me calling the shots, but there's 10 people or there's 30 people that feel like they're empowered, like they have a meaningful say, that's going to mean that not everything is going to go my way. And again, it's a whole developmental process. It's a whole kind of maturity to get used to the idea that I'm not in control. Like this is a shared project and some things are going to go my way, but some things I'm going to be really unhappy about it. And I'm just going to have to learn how to cope with that. And as someone like me, who's kind of a perfectionist, who really wants things to be done a certain way, it's taken a lot of conscious work and self-reflection and cultivating my self-awareness and having feedback and reflection from other people, to learn. Where are my boundaries that are really important that I need to hold on to and say, this is essential? To say, I can't allow to cross this boundary. And where are the opportunities, which are much more often, when I can actually just let things go and be patient, be tolerant, be curious about how other people might do things in a different way.

And over time, I learned that when other people do things their way, a lot of times, their way of doing things is better than mine. You know, we've just got a different way of thinking. They've got a different perspective, a different set of priorities. Some people, maybe you'll be really natural at this. Other people like me, it really takes a lot of effort to learn. How do I give up power? How do I give up control? How do I allow for this group to be more spontaneous and less according to my plans. I still am kind of a beginner on this process of stepping in and stepping out, stepping forward and stepping back.

That really needs to be intentional. Like, I don't think that just happens by magic. You know, I don't think it happens overnight either. I think it's a patient process and I wanted to share a little story from from my experience at Enspiral, which for me was just a really striking example of a kind of leadership that I wanted to emulate. I had this role model, that I had never seen before: I love that, I want to do that.

So quite early after I joined Enspiral, maybe I'd been there for less than a year. We were at one of our big gatherings. It's this kind of peak moment in our shared calendar and everyone's present. Josh Vial, who's the founder of Enspiral, on one of the evenings he told the story about how he had been in a very significant leadership position since the start, and that he didn't want to be there all the time. Eventually he'd like to be just a community member, like all the other community members. He used this metaphor, which has stuck with me ever since many years ago, of starting a fire. When you first get that little flame going, you may have to blow on it a little bit. There's little embers, and you blow on it and that helps the flame to catch. And if you don't blow enough, then maybe the flame is gonna go out. But if you blow too much, then maybe the flames are going to go out, cause it's gonna blow them out.

He said that he could see his role as a founder of this community as being the one that's kind of blowing on the flame. That he wants to contribute. Because if he doesn't put the energy in there, then maybe nothing's going to happen; it's not going to happen without him. But if he puts in too much, it's also going to dissipate and disappear because people are just going to be relying on him to do everything.

And so he did just a beautiful job of saying, this is a balancing act, I'm trying to walk the fine line between these two poles and I need your support to walk that line. He announced in six months time, I'm going on a real holiday. I'm going to be unavailable. I'm not going to be here.

And so for the next six months, we went through a process together where basically we found what all the responsibilities were that he was carrying, and how could we farm them out to different people? Who has the permission to edit the website? Who has the spreadsheet that has everyone's email address on it? What are all these little tasks and the little roles that he was carrying and how can we distribute them? Over that six month period we got more and more people taking on their little piece of those very practical tasks. And then he went away, he went on holiday and he was unavailable. He was out of reach out of contact.

He came back six months later to find there was another 8 or 10 of us, that had really stepped up in a different way. Probably it was a bit of a mess. You know, it wasn't as efficient and perfectly designed as he had it in his mind, but the thing was alive and it was working and many more people felt like they had the sense of ownership, the power, the influence. Like, this is my place and it's up to me, it's my sense of responsibility.

So that explicit, intentional process of stepping back and making space for people to step in meant he could get out of the way as being the sole founder. I mean, he's still a really important character. He still anchors something about our values and our vision. And he still has a lot of relationships with a lot of the people. he probably knows more people than the rest of us do. But his role is much less, the difference is much less now. We're more playing similar roles because he went through that stepping back process, very intentionally.

That's very inspiring to me. That's the model that I'm trying to emulate, and maybe that's a useful way for you to think about your leadership too.

One of the main questions we get asked is about "how do I get people in my community to be more engaged?" Before we look into the how, I want to backtrack a little bit, and look at how engagement actually works. And I'm sorry to break it to you, but if you're expecting hundred percent engagement, you're going to be frustrated because engagement in communities doesn't actually work that way. For more that we try it, for more that we really want it, engagement works in different tiers and in different levels, depending on the capacity of people, their priorities and the way that they will like to engage or not.

Jacob Nielsen did a big study on digital communities. And then what he found about this 1-9-90 participation rule was also later on mapped into other offline communities as well. What they discovered, there's 1% of people in a community that are going to be super active, right. There are the activators, they're going to participate, they're going to create content, they're going to set up events. They're trying to push into new things of doing, commenting, connecting.

There's a 9% that are going to be more active collaborators. So they're going to be supporting the 1%. They're going to be sharing the information around they're, maybe gonna comment on some of the posts, they're going to participate on the events and things like that.

But then there's a 90% that are passive supporters. And what that looks like is, they're actually there, they're reading the information, they're reading the comments, but you might not realize. They might share the information about events, but maybe not; they might participate in the events, but maybe not. Maybe their participation will be a little bit more sporadic.

So why is it useful to know about these different ways of engagement? Because the main thing that we can do is not to think, "how do I get people to engage" but acknowledge that this happens, acknowledge that this is the way that tends to work, and name the different categories, to clarify the paths, to move between those categories, to set up rights and responsibilities. If you are going to be in this space where you're more engaged, these are the responsibilities that you have, these are the rights that you have. This is how you become one of the engaged people.

People that tend to be in the one or the nine, they'll also collect more social capital. So it's important that we know how to move between those spaces. I'm not going to go deep into power dynamics, but maybe we can talk about it in one of our calls.

So I want to give you an example from Enspiral again. As you enter the network, you will become a "Contributor". You will be on that 90%. As you participate, you get engaged, and people get to know you, maybe you'll jump onto a working group. Maybe you'll be super active on the different channels that we have and so on. And as people know, you you'll be invited to be a "Member" - in this case that's the 9%.\
Members hold different responsibilities in the network. Members can invite Contributors. So those are the rights, but Members are a backstop, if something goes wrong, if something is happening, if someone has an issue, you can always reach out to a Member and you know that they're going to be there and jump into whatever needs to happen to resolve it.

Then we have a 1%. In Enspiral, the 1% from my perspective is people that are more engaged into working groups. All the things that need to happen in the network happened through working groups, right. They're people that say, let's come together and figure out what are the admin pieces that we need to solve, or let's come together and decide what we do with our finances, or in my case, how about we figure out how to distribute and how to create the pods and support the process.

So those are the people that would be a lot more engaged into making the community function. We also have a Board and they have final legal responsibilities. So there's also members that can jump into the Board, and we try to change them once in a while. The board doesn't do much more than b e our legal support because of the configuration of being a foundation in New Zealand.

So why is it useful to know all those bits? Because being able to acknowledge and name those different categories also gives you space to figure out what are the needs of different people in those categories? What do they need in order to engage or to participate in the way that makes sense for them, for their capacity and their priorities? If we know those needs, then we can create spaces for different people to engage in their own way.

We've seen as well with the right invitation that we can create for people. You might be able to shift the 1-9-90 to a 10-20-70, something like that. It's possible to shift these percentages, but it's very useful to know that this is how normally it tends to be in a community. So you can reduce your expectation, but also maybe your frustrations, on trying to get everyone to be super active.

\\


# 5. Resources & Practices

### Practice & Processes for Crewing

* [Case Clinic](https://www.u-school.org/tools/case-clinic) - is a peer-coaching process from Theory U. It has a practical output (helping someone with a challenge they're currently facing), and it tends to produce a lot of insight and interpersonal bonding. It's an excellent place to start, you can get a long way in one meeting.
* [Peer Action Learning](https://drive.google.com/file/d/14CPT41OnSFmLJbsXle12kum8bkdq3B5z/view?usp=sharing) - process that allows participants to address real and immediate challenges they face and get support to find ways to move forward.
* [Project Kitchen](https://handbook.enspiral.com/guides/project_kitchen) - Process to get support on a project
* [Feelz Circle](http://emotionalanarchism.com/how-to-form-a-radical-feelz-circle/) - 3 processes for sharing emotional care between friends/ comrades/ lovers.
* [Courage & Renewal](https://couragerenewal.org/courage-renewal-approach/) - approach from Parker Palmer for creating a circle of trust. Includes some guidance for cultivating a safe space for vulnerable conversations, plus great descriptions of why this is valuable.
* Lots of practices to be found [here](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/practices/crewing).

### Sequences for Crewing

* [ICT Support Circle](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AgjBnTSHBH-cvxd1BMW6-SZVxzGT4XpNJ1mTMwB6Rx0/edit?usp=sharing) - Sequence of 8 sessions for personal/professional growth based on Intentional Change Theory
* [Working Out Loud](https://workingoutloud.com/en/for-you) - Sequence of 12 sessions to build relationships that help you achieve a goal, learn a skill, etc.
* [Metagame Mastermind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDWuHsyznf4) - a kind of stoic crew. 3 people, 3 week sprints, 3 commitments (one life practice (e.g. meditate daily), one renouncement (e.g. no sugar), one gift to the world).
* [The Elephants](https://medium.com/things-ive-written/the-elephants-182870501589) - long term personal development for Crews, focused on goal-setting and accountability.

For more practices, inspiration, and facilitation methods check out the [SessionLab library](https://www.sessionlab.com/library).

### Congregation Resources

**Enspiral**

More info: [handbook.enspiral.com](http://handbook.enspiral.com/) & [betterworktogether.co<br>](https://betterworktogether.co/)Reflecting on the recent Enspiral Europe gathering: [video<br>](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6T65zm2Jl4)Enspiral Pods guide: [handbook.enspiral.com/guides/pods<br>](http://handbook.enspiral.com/guides/pods)Interview with Enspiral founder Joshua Vial: [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_3OxvUkPPo)

**Cultural Catalyst Network**

More info & apply to join: [CulturalCatalystNetwork.org<br>](https://culturalcatalystnetwork.org/)Karl & Leonie explain CCN structure: [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbSEvbw__r4)

**Pico Island Congregation**

Documentation: [pico.microsolidarity.cc<br>](http://pico.microsolidarity.cc/)Reflecting on the 2021 Summer gathering: [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CmvciBqGTk)

**United Nations**

One of the voluntary networks who are prototyping methods for self-management and peer support within the UN: <https://untoday.org/views-from-young-un-on-the-future-of-work/>

### Further Reading

* [4 types of power](https://brenebrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Brene-Brown-on-Power-and-Leadership-10-26-20.pdf), Brene Brown
* [Partnership 101](https://rianeeisler.com/partnership-101/), Riane Eisler
* [In-depth crew calling](https://johnsonhs.medium.com/in-depth-crew-calling-ac14454a92a9), Johnson Hseih


# Crewing Program

This program is a continuation of the Vibes Practice Program. We’ll dive deeper in to the why, what and how around crewing and practicing essential facilitation and leadership skills. Where the introductory Vibes program was all about experiencing what microsolidarity is about and practicing some basic relational building blocks, this program aims to answer questions like:

* “How do I create the vibe I experienced at the Practice Program in my own crew?”
* “I resonate with the theory of microsolidarity but how do I actually apply it?”
* “How do I start if I want to try crewing?”

We’ll specifically look at crewing as a core practice of microsolidarity and provide you with the basic principles and tools you need to get out there and start playing.

## Course Topics

* Exploring different types of crews and clarifying your calling around crewing
* Getting to know “the host within” and uncovering inhibiting parts dynamics -Practicing basic facilitation skills
* Understanding your role as a crew caller/ facilitator and how to support others to step in to their own leadership

## Learning outcomes

At the end of this program you’ll have everything you need to practice your hosting and community building skills through [crewing](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/practice-programs/vibes-program/course-content/crewing).

## Times and Dates

The next cohort will start on Tuesday, Dec 3, 2024. We meet for 4 live calls over 2 weeks, on Tuesdays & Thursdays at 6-7.30pm CET (9-10.30am PDT). Register on [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/events/microsolidarity-crewing-practice-program-fall-2024-bb4e17ed).

Can't make it this time? Subscribe to the [**Microsolidarity newsletter on Substack**](https://microsolidarity.substack.com/) to hear about programs and other offerings from the network.

## Tickets

Register on [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/events/microsolidarity-crewing-practice-program-fall-2024-bb4e17ed). Tickets are available from €140 for a Standard ticket, or €190 for a Supporter ticket which makes possible our scholarship fund. Income from ticket sales will be used to pay the hosting team, and we'll share 10% of the income with the [Microsolidarity common fund](/participate/contributing-money). If you want to join but money is a barrier to you participating, you can [apply for a scholarship](https://forms.gle/XQ2MqdAGsbiX4MNu8).

## Your Hosts

This program was designed and hosting is led by Jocelyn Ames, Jonas Gröner, Gui Trevisan and Sara Bajor. They've been hosting the recent iterations of the Vibes Practice Program. After hearing participants longing for more applied practice at the end of the introductory program they decided to create this next offering in response to this longing.


# Archive

These are the original microsolidarity articles from 2018-2020. They're a bit out of date now, maybe interesting for archival reasons.

### [#1: The Original Proposal](/articles/proposal)

### [#2: Update 2020](/articles/2-update-2020)

### [#3: Congregation Scaffolding](/articles/3-congregation-scaffolding)


# Community Smörgåsbord

Download the Community Smörgåsbord below, and use it as a template to discuss in your group what everyone is up for.

{% file src="/files/KMmDGfBs8MLVPmFrRYk2" %}

<figure><img src="/files/7TXeesXozZCTN5FutsZ0" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>


# Case Clinic

By Theory U

*Credit: this is an adaption from the official* [***Case Clinic recipe***](https://www.u-school.org/caseclinic) *from the* [***Presencing Institute***](https://www.presencing.org/)*. If you want to learn about this methodology and the Theory U framework it is part of, check out* [***u.lab***](https://www.u-school.org/programs)*, a free online course*

## Overview

Case Clinics are a peer support practice for a group of 3 - 5 people. The process guides one Case Giver to present a case, and the remaining team members to help generate new and innovative ways of responding to the challenge or question. A Case Clinic can be run in-person or online.

## Roles

**Case Giver:** Share a challenge that is current, concrete, important, and that you are a key

player in. You should be able to present the case in 10 min and the case should stand to

benefit from the feedback of your peers.

**Coaches:** Do not try to "fix" the problem, but listen deeply to the case giver while also

attending to the images, metaphors, feelings and gestures that the story evokes in you.

**Timekeeper:** Make sure you are moving through the sequence approximately on time.

(You’re also participating as a coach.)

## Sequence

1. Read thru these instructions & choose a timekeeper (3 min)
2. Intention statement by case giver (10 min)
   * Current situation: What key challenge or question are you up against?
   * Stakeholders: How might others view this situation?
   * Intention: What future are you trying to create?
   * Learning threshold: What do you need to let-go of? what do you need to learn?
   * Help: Where do you need input or help?
   * Coaches listen deeply and may ask clarifying questions (don’t give advice!)
3. Stillness (2 min)
   * Sit quietly together for a few moments. Listen to what is bubbling up in you. What images, metaphors, feelings and gestures come up for you that capture the essence of what you heard?
4. Mirroring (10 min)
   * Each coach shares the images/metaphors, feelings and gestures that came up in the stillness, or while listening to the case story (still not giving advice!)
   * Having listened to all coaches, the case giver reflects back on what they heard
5. Generative Dialogue (20 min)
   * All reflect on remarks by the case giver and move into a generative dialogue on how these observations can offer new perspectives on the case giver’s situation and journey. Go with the flow of the dialogue. Build on each other’s ideas. Make space for all voices. Stay in service of the case giver without pressure to fix or resolve their challenge.
6. Round of closing remarks (10 min)
   * Coaches: final words
   * Case giver: How do I now see my situation and way forward?


# Community Mastery Board

How do we want to be together?

*Adapted from* [*my blog post here*](https://becomingtogether.net/2024/03/22/community-mastery/).

**The Community Mastery Board** is a tool for actively shaping your group’s culture and norms through regular iterative cycles of trial-and-error experiments. It’s been successfully used in classrooms (where it was initially developed), amongst work colleagues and co-residents.

It works by surfacing and visually tracking what’s working, what’s not, and what we’re doing about it. For groups who need to allocate tasks, it also makes sense to combine it with a Kanban Board to represent what tasks need doing, who’s going to do them, and celebrating who’s done it.

In this blog I’m going to share the principles behind this tool, and share an example of how I’ve used it for co-living Crews in the past.

Here’s how a typical Community Mastery & Kanban Board would look for a residential community:

![](/files/dZvUGhH9HfJEc9Q23xK3)

One example of a Community Mastery – Kanban board

(yet to be populated by a rainbow of sticky notes)

**Awareness**

An Awareness is a problem or opportunity within the community. It may be a practical household related topic like "WiFi doesn’t work well when we’re all on Zoom calls", or “There’s a membership discount at the local organic grocery store if we register”, or something more personal or interpersonal like “I hear we all have our life challenges and I want to find ways to be more supportive of each other”.

I’ve found that framing an Awareness as a specific observation, like: "Noise from kitchen conversations travels through to bedrooms" makes for a more effective starting point than a more vague concern, such as “I’m not sleeping well here”.

**Test**

A Test is a strategy you’re going to try out to address the Awareness. A good Test is one that is easiest and quickest to implement and try out, not necessarily the ‘best’ one. If it doesn’t work, you can scrap it, change it or build upon it at the next meeting. The idea is to keep the group flexible and agile, finding solutions relevant to your group’s current needs and developing them as you go. This also reduces the risk of meeting ‘bore-out’ from spending lots of time nit-picking over ‘perfect’ solutions, and resistance against an overload of pre-emptive rules and structures to adhere to. I find it helpful to ask people "is this good enough for now and safe enough to try?".

**Mastery**

You can move a Test over to the Mastery column when it’s working and happening naturally enough that it’s become part of your community’s habitual culture. It’s integrated into how you do things without much need for reminders. Go you! Some people like to name this column ‘Agreements’ or ‘Rules’ instead. And if at some point they don’t work any more, you can always raise an Awareness about it!

*Now let’s look at the Kanban side of the board to get clear on who’s taking responsibility for what between now and the next meeting…*

**Tasks**

Tasks can be cyclical tasks which need doing on a regular basis, e.g. cooking dinner or cleaning the bathroom, or linear tasks that just need doing once, e.g. buying a slack-line for the garden or letting the neighbours know you’re going to have a party on Friday. You might add new Tasks as you run new Tests and evolve your way of being together. Tasks could also be roles like ‘Community Documentor’ or ‘Bell Ringer’ which you can rotate at every meeting.

**Homies**

This is a list of who’s at home (or in the class/office/studio/group) between now and the next meeting.

**To Do**

During each meeting, we go through which Tasks need to be done between now and the next meeting, and who is going to take responsibility for them. We stick Tasks in this column, just to the right of that person’s name in the *Homies* list. If they realise later in the week that they can’t do that Task, they try to find someone else to do it instead, or put it in the Known Void box (read on below). When the Task has been completed, it can be moved to the Done column! Hoorah!

An important concept here is that people take on Tasks that they have capacity and enthusiasm for. If no one does (especially on a regular basis),

**Known Void**

If there are Tasks to be done but no one has the capacity or enthusiasm for them this cycle, we can put them in the Known Void box. It may be that someone feels like picking it up later in the week, but even if not, it’s helpful to know, for example, that no one is cooking for a shared meal on Thursday evening, so we each sort dinner out for ourselves on that day.

If a Task regularly ends up in the Known Void box you might consider raising this as an Awareness and finding a Test to find other ways to get this Task done. For example, bathroom cleaning has low uptake? Why not Test doing a collective cleaning party, or hiring a cleaner once in a while? Rather than overextending yourselves and becoming bitter trying to maintain a system that’s not aligned with your capacity or joy, look for other strategies to meet your needs. A successful sustainable community system is one that’s designed to adapt to the true capacity of the individuals in the group, not one that’s tied to crossing off a rigidly fixed checklist.

![](/files/FtLVdfhtJ2n1SUjlDd7M)

Photo by Janusz Ratecki, CAN RÓWNOWAŻNIA#2 workshop

**Done**

Celebration leads to Success! I like how the Done list makes visible and acknowledges what everyone has contributed towards the life of the community since the last meeting. I’ve often started my meetings off by reading through this list to rounds of applause and "yay!". It sets a great tone when you start a meeting by appreciating each other.

What if a Task didn’t get done? Obviously there will be some Tasks left on the ‘To Do’ list because they need more than one meeting cycle to complete. But as with the Known Voids, if there are Tasks which seem to linger around this list longer than expected, consider raising it as an Awareness. Do you want to Test out a different approach to this Task? How’s the person responsible for the Task doing? Do they need some help? Analyse the system before blaming the individual!

*Now let’s look at how to run your meetings…*

**Meeting Rhythm**

Going through the board together with everyone on a regular weekly or monthly basis is recommendable for a number of reasons:

* Short iterative learning and reflection cycles reduce the likelihood of a build up of large tensions.
* People are more open to trying out new ways of doing things if they know that there will be a dedicated moment in the near future to reflect, adjust or stop doing it altogether if it’s not working.
* Learning from regular smaller interventions which are either reversible, or have manageable levels of negative impact if they don’t work out, makes the need for larger riskier interventions less frequent and necessary.
* Addressing small tensions regularly together builds your collective capacity and courage to address larger ones when/if they arise. You’ll learn that tensions are opportunities for learning and exploring new possibilities for being together, not a sign that you’re failing or, at worst, "this is the end!"

So consider how often and for how long you want to meet each time. Your answer will probably depend on your group’s capacity and context. In urban co-living houses, we’ve often run 30-minute Community Mastery meetings on a weekly or biweekly cycle, usually after a communal dinner on a day we’re most likely to be home. In a 2-week co-living retreat we met after dinner 3 times a week as we wanted to build up a shared culture of trust and tension-transformation quickly within a short period of time.

**Facilitating the Meeting**

It’s helpful to have someone to facilitate the group through the meeting. Rotating the facilitator gives everyone a chance to practice hosting a short group process. Going through the board in the same way every time means people who are less familiar with facilitating will find it easier to emulate and step in. I’d suggest going through the meeting in this order:

1. Celebrate the ‘Done’ list!
2. Review Tests from the last cycle
   * Not working? -> Come up with a different Test to try out for the upcoming cycle
   * Working well? -> Keep testing it until it feels fully integrated
   * Has it become fully integrated? -> Move it to the Mastery list!
3. Invite new Awarenesses
   * Encourage the person bringing the Awareness to suggest a Test. If they don’t have one, it’s not a problem - they can ask the group for ideas.
   * Some groups like to invite people to populate this column before the meeting if they think it will save time and help people think of appropriate Tests.
   * Include any Tasks which have repeatedly ended up in the Known Voids box or repeatedly haven’t been done
4. For each new Awareness, come up with a Test for the upcoming cycle
   * Remember: you’re not looking for the perfect test, just one that’s good enough for now and safe enough to try
   * If there are objections to the Test, aim to clarify the concern, and ask the objector (or secondarily, the group) to suggest a new Test that addresses their concern(s)
   * Note: if a Test is difficult to agree upon, it may need more asynchronous reflection and dialogue between people who are particularly concerned by it. Don’t hesitate to ‘take the process offline’ if it doesn’t seem the right space for it or it’s going on too long.
5. Go through the Tasks for the upcoming cycle and allocate them to Homies in the To Do list
6. Put any of this cycle’s unclaimed Tasks in the Known Void box

* Jocelyn Endres


# EU Summer Camp 2024

**1.5h north-west of Vienna, Austria, August 29th - September 4th**

*Microsolidarity is a community-building practice and a network of people weaving social fabric, creating spaces for belonging and purpose. Come practice with us!*

![The opening circle of last years summer camp](https://github.com/microsolidarity/handbook/assets/71654862/ea203ac1-75d6-4191-89e6-b175fd32bdfe)

It is time for our annual microsolidarity summer camp! We will come together for a week of community-building geekery, relaxation, peer learning, meeting old and new friends, and other kinds of meaningful fun between August 29th and September 4th.

The purpose of these events is for the network and our friends and families to come together, cultivate relationships of trust and cross-pollinate across different communities.

In the spirit of microsolidarity, we aim to find belonging while allowing for and celebrating our differences. So whether you are a seasoned microsolidarity veteran or just becoming familiar with what we’re up to— we’d love to have you!

### [👉 Register here](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/events/microsolidarity-summer-camp-2024-eu-7457d633)

## Venue & Vibe

![One of the sculptures that can be found in the forest around Kunst in der Natur](https://github.com/microsolidarity/handbook/assets/71654862/ebe77471-51e2-4d77-8f4d-0b5ede04ffca)

We often end up in new places—we need to get used to new surroundings and make a home in a new space. How can we feel at home? How do we feel as if we belong somewhere?

Aren't we a part of the world around us already? We want to explore how that recognition can help with finding belonging. What roles do human-made constructs like art and buildings play? How do local communities contribute? How is belonging furthered and affected by “embeddedness”? We will dive into what it means to be embedded; in nature, in places, in community.

This year we want to invite you to experience belonging through embeddedness. We want to tune into the spirit of co-creation by letting our creative juices flow, making art and contributing to the place where we are staying: [Kunst in der Natur](https://www.kunstindernatur.at/) (“Art in Nature”).

Kunst in der Natur is inviting us to experience their unique project: a historical farm with a camp ground and a 10km long nature art trail in the Austrian forest. The art is made of natural materials like wood and clay and thus gradually becomes part of the environment again. The owners have been running it for decades, now in the second generation.

Summer camp opens up a space to try new things. We want to encourage an attitude of playful intimacy that gives us space to practice connection and belonging, as well as new ways of enriching our souls.

## What to expect

* Hands-on experience of the principles, practices, and vibe of microsolidarity
* Enough time and opportunities to enjoy, relax and have fun together (There will be a party on Saturday — woohoo!)
* An empowering environment to exercise your agency for the common good: Co-creation of everything from group meals to facilitated activities
* Lots of opportunities to learn from peers and contribute your own wisdom

The hosting team (Sarah, Mirjam, Alex, Martin, Grace, Jesse) is taking care of logistics and will set up some minimum-viable structures, like a collective opening and closing. The rest of our time will be powered by the contributions from all of us, through the magic of a co-created [open-space agenda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology).

Kunst in der Natur is a great place to tune into co-creation and bringing things into being. We are aiming to make a meaningful contribution to the place by crafting a pizza oven, an art installation or something totally different. It is up to us to bring it into being in August.

We want to integrate diverse perspectives and find belonging across differences. As such we welcome you no matter what your religious and spiritual beliefs, gender, income, nationality or ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, physical ability etc. We want to learn and grow together in community building, so whatever interest you have is enough, and we will welcome any amount of experience you have (even if it is zero).

### What not to expect

This is not going to be a training, nor a curated experience. There will probably be some skill-share sessions or workshops on microsolidarity or related frameworks on the open-space agenda. This depends entirely on who shows up and what they want to offer.

If you are just getting familiar with microsolidarity, we recommend you sign up to the [next practice program](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/practice-programs/vibes-program) and take a look at the materials from [previous practice programs](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/practice-programs) that we’ve run. You can find plenty of additional reading material on this website.

![Impressions from the Winter Retreat](https://github.com/microsolidarity/handbook/assets/71654862/89f07765-e607-4838-a556-14dce66e15ca)

## Logistics

### How to get there

The address of Kunst in der Natur is: Am Wachtberg 78, 3571 Thunau am Kamp, Austria. It is 1.5h north-west of Vienna, Austria.

**Arriving by train from Vienna (“Wien” in German)** Trains leave hourly from Vienna and it takes a little over 1.5 hours to travel from Vienna to Kunst in der Nature. The best train connections are:

* Wien Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof to Krems/Donau (train REX4)
* Krems/Donau to Buchberg/Kamp (train R4, direction Horn NÖ) From Buchberg/Kamp, it's a few minutes walk to the venue.

Helpful websites, if you are planning to arrive by train:

* Austrian Federal Railway (ÖBB): <https://www.oebb.at/en/>
* German National Railway (Deutsche Bahn, DB): <https://int.bahn.de/en>
* General website to check ticket prices and book trains throughout Europe: <https://www.thetrainline.com/>

**Arriving by car** The best route can be easily found by putting the following location in [Google Maps: Art in Nature](https://maps.app.goo.gl/D7Am9zoQWQSAobzw8)

**Getting to Vienna** Vienna is well-served by rail and an international airport, located 20 km outside the city centre.

**A note on ride-sharing and traveling together**: We will set up a logistics doc for you to coordinate ride-sharing and traveling together.

### Accomodation

Besides art installations and a huge wooden sculpture usable as a ceremonial ground, Kunst in der Natur has space for lots of tents and camper vans. So the amenities are:

* Compost toilets & outdoor showers as well as an indoor bathroom with 3 showers
* Small indoor room for exhibition space, yoga, and meditation
* Reading area and sofas
* Coffee machine
* Foosball and ping pong
* 4 glamping tents with beds \~4 people capacity each, prioritized for those with physical accessibility requirements, young families and the hosting team.

### Food

We will make an effort to keep costs low, so we’ll likely be cooking for ourselves. This means we’ll need a handful of volunteers to help out for a few hours in the kitchen every day. The hosting team will take care of shopping and coming up with a menu plan, as well as coordinating the actual cooking. The property has its own veggie gardens, so we will be sourcing seasonal and regional veggies directly from the fields. Food will be vegan friendly. There is also a pizza oven, so having an artisan pizza night is very tempting.

### Children

We welcome families with kids! We haven’t yet planned out a childcare system, but we trust that together we can get creative with ways to ensure that parents can take part in sessions and their kids are happily well cared for in the meantime. Young people are welcome as full participants.

## Tickets

It is our goal to make this event as accessible as possible while also covering expenses for food and renting the venue. So we have made the following “small, medium and large” price tiers available:

* **Regular**: Full week €400 / Weekend €200 — This tier covers the cost of your participation in the event. Please choose this tier as the default.
* **Supporter**: €500 / €300, or more — if you are financially flourishing, you have the opportunity to contribute to our scholarship fund and enable people with fewer resources to also attend
* **Subsidized**: €300 / €150— If it’s a stretch for you to be investing in this event at the moment, please choose this tier

### Financial Transparency

Income from ticket sales will be used to cover venue rental, food and several scholarships to increase event accessibility. The amount of scholarships we can offer depends on donations to the scholarship fund. The hosting team is donating their time, so we’ll also use ticket income to cover their expenses. Any surplus that is left after the event will go towards the microsolidarity commons fund on [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity), building a pool of funds to develop the network and organize future events like this one.

### Scholarships

We provide scholarships to support people who couldn't otherwise afford to join the gathering because we recognize that many of us are working on social impact rather than financial income and we want to “pay it forward” to those contributing their time and hearts to impact projects.. If you would like to apply for a partial or full scholarship, fill in [this form](https://forms.gle/HzMxbhi552Q9Yf257). The amount of scholarships we can offer depends on the donations to our scholarship fund.

## Not in the EU?

There will be a gathering happening in the US 17-21 July with a similar concept. You can check out details: <https://dandelion.events/e/p65nr>

## FAQ

<details>

<summary>What exactly is included in the price?</summary>

* All programming
* Camping spot
* Three meals per day (likely cooked by our group)
* Kunst in der Natur amenities

</details>

<details>

<summary>Deposit system</summary>

For 50€ you can reserve your spot. Deposits are non-refundable. If you have put down a deposit, please pay the rest of your ticket by August 8th. You can pay through the “Flexible Contribution” button on [Open Collective ](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/events/microsolidarity-summer-camp-2024-eu-7457d633). If you have not confirmed by August 8th, your ticket may be sold to someone else.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Deadline for applications?</summary>

Ticket sales will close on August 15th, or sooner if we run out of space to host you all. So tell your friends to book soon! :)

</details>

<details>

<summary>Times to arrive and depart</summary>

The event will officially begin with an opening circle around \*\*18:30 on Thursday August 29th\*\* . A light dinner will be available beforehand. Please join us in time for the opening. You are welcome to arrive from early afternoon on the 29th. \*\*Weekend ticket\*\* : On \*\*Sunday September 1st\*\* , we'll have a closing session for the weekend just before noon, so if you need to leave early, aim to depart a bit after noon.

**Full week ticket** : On **Wednesday September 4th** , we'll have a closing session in the morning, then we ask you to depart by noon.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Is this going to be a Microsolidarity training?</summary>

Nope, the gathering is not organized like a traditional training. Whoever shows up will bring discussion topics, workshop ideas, and whatever activities they want to contribute. If you're new to Microsolidarity and you want an intro to the theories and practices, read the material on this website or see the videos from this short online course: [Microsolidarity Vibe Program](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/practice-programs/vibes-program).

</details>

<details>

<summary>Can I bring my dog?</summary>

Not a no, but we try to keep the number of dogs as low as possible. Dogs can affect group dynamics, especially when there are several. So, ideally, don’t bring your dog. If you have to do so, please contact us to discuss.

</details>

<details>

<summary>What is the alcohol/substance policy?</summary>

There will be a basic stock of wine and beer provided by the venue. Austria has great beer and wine, e.g. there is a local brewery in the area. The venue asks us not to bring our own but consume from their stock. It will be sold at a very low price.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Will there be places to hang camping hammocks?</summary>

Yes, we can bring hammocks and hang them on the property, just not too far into the woods.

</details>

## More Questions?

Contact <microsolidarity@gmail.com> and we will be happy to help :)


# EU Summer Camp 2023

Just outside Berlin, July 18-23

*Microsolidarity is a community-building practice. We're weaving the social fabric that underpins shared infrastructure. Come practice with us!*

It’s been a year since the microsolidarity network had an [in-person gathering in Europe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-mgfPm6hsg). Time to have another one! Between 18 - 23 July, we will come together for a week of community-building geekery, relaxation, peer learning, meeting old and new friends, and other kinds of meaningful fun.

In the spirit of microsolidarity, the purpose of this event is for the network to come together, cultivate relationships of trust, cross-pollinate across different communities and practice meaningful co-creation. So whether you are a seasoned microsolidaritarian or just becoming familiar with what we’re up to - we’d love to have you!

### 👉 [Register here](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/events/microsolidarity-summer-camp-eu-74950d99)

## What to expect

* Hands-on experience of the principles, practices and vibe of microsolidarity
* Lots of opportunities to learn from peers and contribute your own wisdom
* An empowering environment to exercise your agency for the common good

\
The hosting team (Jocelyn Ames, Uta Sievers, Richard D. Bartlett, Jonas Gröner, and Dan Lewis) are taking care of logistics and will set up some minimum-viable structures, like a collective opening and closing. The rest of our time will be powered by the contributions from all of us, through the magic of a co-created [open-space agenda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology).

To facilitate all of this juicy goodness in the most accessible way possible there will be two entry points to the gathering:\\

* If you want the full blast of microsolidarity vibes, you can join us for the whole week, starting on Tuesday, July 18th until Sunday. The week will be hosted open-space-style with more of a relaxed summer camp vibe. In a way, this will be a lab for what real life in a microsolidarity community can be like.
* If you are short on time or are not quite sure if you want to commit to spending a whole week with a big group of people, you can join us just for the weekend, starting in the evening of Friday, July 21st.

**What not to expect**

This is not going to be a training, nor a curated experience. There will probably be some skill-share sessions or workshops on microsolidarity or related frameworks on the open-space agenda. This depends entirely on who shows up and what they want to offer.

If you are just getting familiar with microsolidarity, we recommend you take a look at the course materials from the [Microsolidarity practice program](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/practice-program) that we ran in June. You can also find a lot of additional reading material on this website.

## Venue & Accommodation

We will be staying at [Coconat](https://coconat-space.com/), a creative community and retreat venue just outside Berlin. True to the name of this gathering, please bring a tent or a camper van. There will be a freshly mowed paddock made ready for us to build our camp. The ticket price includes camping accommodation (i.e. in your own tent or van) and campers can book their entire stay through us.

If you want to rent camping equipment, or you want to stay in a bed, you can book that through the [Coconat website](https://coconat-space.com/inquiry/), which will incur extra costs on top of your entry ticket (paid directly to Coconat: please mention Microsolidarity in the text field).

## Food

In an effort to keep costs low, we’ll be cooking for ourselves. This means we’ll need a handful of volunteers to help out for a few hours in the kitchen every day. The hosting team will take care of shopping and coming up with a menu plan. Huge thanks to Dan Lewis who has volunteered to coordinate the kitchen!

\\

## Children

We welcome families with kids! We haven’t yet planned out a childcare system, but we trust that together we can get creative with ways to ensure that parents can take part in sessions and their kids are happily well cared for in the meantime. Young people are welcome as full participants.

## Tickets

It is our goal to make this event as accessible as possible while also covering expenses for food and renting the venue. So we have made the following “small, medium and large” price tiers available: \\

* S: 300 € (whole week) / 150 € (weekend) - if it’s a stretch for you to be investing in this event at the moment, please choose this tier
* M: 400 € / 200 € - if you are financially stable and don’t have to think too much about whether you can afford this event, please choose this tier
* L: 500 € / 300 € - if you are financially flourishing, you have the opportunity to contribute to our scholarship fund and enable people with fewer resources to also attend

### 👉 [Register here](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/events/microsolidarity-summer-camp-eu-74950d99)

#### Kids

0-6-year-olds can attend for free, under 14 years kids are priced at 50% off the lowest tier, i.e. €150 for the week, €75 for the weekend.

### Financial transparency

Income from ticket sales will be used to cover venue rental and food. The hosting team is donating their time, so we’ll also use ticket income to cover their expenses. Any surplus that is left after the event will go towards the microsolidarity commons fund on [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity), building a pool of funds to develop the network and organise future events like this one.

### 👉 [Register here](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/events/microsolidarity-summer-camp-eu-74950d99)

###

## Not in the EU?

There will be a gathering happening in the US July 15th - 21st with a similar concept. You can check out details [here](https://dandelion.earth/events/6441dc5e443b170002452172).

## FAQ

<details>

<summary>Does the price include food, or is it just for programming?</summary>

The price includes:

* all programming
* camping or campervan site
* three meals per day (cooked by our group)
* Coconat kitchen fee per person
* reduced Coconat coworking fee per person with unlimited coffee, tea, and snacks

</details>

<details>

<summary>How do deposits work?</summary>

Deposits are non-refundable.

If you have put down a deposit, please pay the rest of your ticket by June 27th. You can pay through the ["Flexible Contribution" button](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/events/microsolidarity-summer-camp-eu-74950d99) on Open Collective.

If you have not confirmed by June 27th, your ticket may be sold to someone else.\\

</details>

<details>

<summary>Is there a deadline for applications?</summary>

Ticket sales will close on July 6th, or sooner if we run out of space to host you all. So tell your friends to book soon! :)

</details>

<details>

<summary>What's your refund policy?</summary>

Deposits are non-refundable. Tickets are 100% refundable until June 27th, and 50% refunds are offered until July 5th. No refunds will be given after July 5th, except in emergencies, at our discretion.

</details>

<details>

<summary>What time should I arrive &#x26; depart?</summary>

If you're coming for the week, you're welcome to join us anytime after 10am on Tuesday. Please be there by 3pm so you have time to setup camp before the orientation tours will run at 4pm and 5pm, then we have dinner at 6pm, and opening circle at 7.30pm.

If you're coming for the weekend, join us anytime on Friday. Ideally you can join us for dinner (6pm) and we'll have a welcome session for weekend joiners around 8pm.

On Sunday, we'll have a closing session from 10.30-12.00, so if you need to leave early, aim to depart at noon. But if you can stay, join us for lunch at 1pm. Sessions will continue until 4pm.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Is this going to be a Microsolidarity training?</summary>

Nope, the gathering is not organised like a traditional training. Whoever shows up will bring discussion topics, workshop ideas, and whatever activities they want to contribute.

If you're new to Microsolidarity and you want an intro to the theories and practices, read the material on this website or see the videos from this short online course: [Microsolidarity Practice Program](https://github.com/microsolidarity/handbook/blob/master/archive/practice-program/README.md).

</details>

<details>

<summary>Will we have access to all the amenities at Coconat like the coworking space, or are there any restrictions?</summary>

As far as we know now, there are no restrictions to the use of the entire space. Please keep in mind that we are aiming for a relaxed Summer Camp vibe and not a workation :)

</details>

<details>

<summary>What about Coconat facilities like sauna etc.?</summary>

Wellness offers at COCONAT for small groups:\
(please find other people and request in advance)

COCONAT-YOGA

Together with our yoga teacher, activate your body and mind in the morning or relax in the evening. Group lesson: 95,20 EUR

COCONAT-MASSAGE\
(for group bookings of at least 90 minutes total)

Price example: Wellness oil massage\
½ hour 33 Euro\
1 hour 66 Euro\
1 ½ hour 90 Euro\
2 hours 120 Euro

COCONAT-SAUNA\
for groups

2 hours: €15 + €5 per person\
Extra towel €5

</details>

<details>

<summary>Do I have to stay in a tent?</summary>

We certainly encourage you to come camping with us! But if you want to stay in a bed, you can book that through the [Coconat website](https://coconat-space.com/inquiry/). This will incur extra costs on top of your entry ticket (paid directly to Coconat: please mention Microsolidarity in the text field). To guarantee a spot in one of the rooms you'll need to book by June 21st.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Can I bring my dog?</summary>

Yes! Dogs are welcome :)

</details>

<details>

<summary>What's your alcohol policy?</summary>

The venue requires that all soft drinks and alcohol are to be bought from them. So you're welcome to have a drink, but you can't bring your own. Please enjoy yourself in moderation :)

</details>

## More Questions?

Contact <utasievers@gmail.com> and she'll be happy to help :)

\\

\
\\


# #1: Proposal

Here's the original #microsolidarity proposal, published by Richard D. Bartlett on December 2, 2018.

## Courage Before Hope: A Proposal to Weave Emotional and Economic Microsolidarity

### Or: What To Do in the Last Decade of the Anthropocene

![Anatomical heart drawing](/files/-LU3UK-wMJGZACylTZI-)

I’ve spent most of the past 2 years travelling with my partner Nati, trying to discover what is the most strategic & wise action to take in a world that seems to be accelerating towards collapse. After an enormous amount of consideration, I have a strategy that feels good enough to engage my will and commitment. This document is a statement of intention. All going well, it’s where I want to invest my productive energy for the next 7 years or so.

I’m developing this plan in three phases:

* Phase 1 is a lot of conversation and contemplation.
* Phase 2 is this writing and re-writing process. Writing in public forces me to fill in the gaps in the argument, and to make my assumptions explicit.
* Phase 3 is where you come in as a reader and collaborator. If you feel struck by this proposal, I’d love for you to improve my thinking with your feedback. The best possible response will be for other people to run related experiments in parallel.

The proposal is very simple. But this is, I hope, the simplicity on [the far side of complexity](http://www.jonkolko.com/writingSimplicityComplexity.php). The design elements come from 7 years of thinking & doing in the [Loomio Cooperative](http://loomio.coop) and [Enspiral Network](http://whatis.enspiral.com).

I intend to start a new community as a sibling or cousin of Enspiral: about 30 to 200 **people supporting each other to do more meaningful work**. Our method will focus on getting people into “crews”, small groups of 3-8 people that start with emotional intimacy and get to economic intimacy. There’s a sequence from psychological safety to shared ownership of productive assets. The larger community functions mostly as a dating pool for people to find their crew-mates. The crews support the personal development of their members while doing useful things like providing housing, establishing circular-economy startups, growing food, making revolutionary art, or whatever activity seems meaningful to their members.

That’s the short version: form small groups, share feelings, then share money. In the following few thousand words I spell out the long version. I think modular and open source strategy is much more valuable than charismatic leadership, so I’m documenting my strategy as thoroughly and accessibly as I can. Because it is open source, you can copy it, modify it, and help me to spot bugs.

This article is long, so let’s start with a map:

* Part 1. I start by briefly setting context, giving a name to the metacrisis I believe is threatening society as we know it.
* Part 2. Then there’s a chunky piece of theory to explain how I think about groups, and groups of groups.
* Part 3. With that background established, I can spell out my “microsolidarity” proposal in more detail.
* Part 4. Then we get to the counter-intuitive part. I’m intentionally contradicting a lot of received wisdom from progressive and radical politics, so I want to do that explicitly, in the hopes that we can learn from each other.

Okay, let’s go!

## Part 1. Collapse

I won’t spend a lot of time on this point because it is a downer, but it deserves a mention: we are well into a major collapse of our biological life support systems. Oops!

Just one data point: the population of wild animals on Earth has halved in my lifetime ([source](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/30/humanity-wiped-out-animals-since-1970-major-report-finds)). This is not new information, but we are mostly in denial. [Extinction Rebellion](https://rebellion.earth), a new climate action movement from the UK, remind us that we’ve known this [at least since 2006](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/mar/21/conservationandendangeredspecies.internationalnews) when the United Nations (UN) warned us that “humans have provoked the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago”. Yet our response is still piecemeal, uncoordinated and counter-productive.

While the biological substrate for life is disintegrating, so is our social fabric. Democratic populations are electing dictators and buffoons. Fascism is resurgent. Our ability to make meaning is dissolving. Across the political spectrum, people respond to this existential dread by retreating into anxious certainties. Political conversations feel brittle and explosive, one wrong word can trigger an artillery of shaming tactics to shut down the heresy.

This is how I set the design criteria: assuming we are in a major collapse, what is an appropriate action to take? How do we repair our damaged biological and social ecosystems? How do we plan for a future with much less peace, much less food, much less stable governance? What kind of action plan is fit for purpose in the last decade of the Anthropocene?

*See, I told you this section would be a downer. But I promise from this point on it’s all optimistic and constructive.* 👍

### Design criteria for action amid collapse

First criteria: **we need enormous courage to persist without a guarantee of a positive outcome.** Because I’m plugged into a renewable source of courage, I am a very hopeful optimistic confident person. *So where does courage come from?*

Second criteria: **we need resilient methods for** ***making meaning*** **in the midst of chaos**. The shortcomings of the old institutional media and the new networked media are collaborating to produce a freak wave of collective insanity. The popular votes for Brexit, Trump, Boaty McBoatface and Bolsonaro all illustrate the magnificent failures of our sense-making apparatus.

Third criteria: **people with life-supporting values need to grow our power to influence the distribution of resources.** Just 100 individual CEO’s are responsible for 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions ([source](https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change)). The oligarchs are killing us. We need to get our hands on power of that magnitude, but it needs to be much more widely distributed and much more accountable.

So my humble proposal needs to produce limitless courage, make meaning from chaos, and grow enough power to counterbalance the suicidal oligarchs currently in charge. No big deal 😅

Finally, I believe that the core of this bio/socio/psycho/spiritual collapse is a metacrisis of **relationship**, it’s about *how I relate to* the different parts of myself, to other people, and to all the other creatures, life, spirit, etc on this planet. If that’s true, then **my response must be relational first**. This article is written in the first person singular: it’s all I, I, I. That’s a stylistic choice for creative freedom. However, that language obscures the reality that all of this action is conducted in the first person *plural*: there is always a “we” acting together, me and others.

So that brings us to my theory of groups, which you can read in Microsolidarity Part 2: a Theory of Groups and Groups of Groups. //

## Microsolidarity Part 2: a Theory of Groups and Groups of Groups

![A fractal map of belonging](/files/-LU3UZENfl3PUpJf4bFG)

### Definition of terms

For me to explain my theory, I need to invent some language. Unfortunately in English, we are missing words for different kinds of group. When I say “group of people” I could mean 3 people, or 300, or 3 million. These missing words are symptomatic of missing ideas.

So I’m going to propose some new words, to access new ideas. I’m not attached to the specific terms, and this is not a comprehensive map of all the different kinds of group, it’s just a subset of terms that will be useful for this argument.

#### 1: the Self

The first group has only one person, it’s Me (or You). In this article, when I say “Self” I’m thinking of a tight network of overlapping identities who share custody of this body we call Me. Viewing my Self this way invites me to treat all my parts as worthy of respect and compassion. We’re all lifetime members of the consciousness called Richard D. Bartlett, even the ones I try to disown and shut down.

*For more on this,* [*Emmi’s article on consent and autonomy*](http://emotionalanarchism.com/widening-the-bridges-beyond-consent-and-autonomy-emmi/) *is a good introduction to the idea of a “networked self” and it’s implication for your relationships.*

#### 2: the Dyad

A Dyad is a relationship of two. If you can forgive the tremendous oversimplification: let’s imagine society is an enormous Lego structure, but the only building blocks we have are Dyads. And now let’s say a Dyad can only be in one of two states: Domination or Partnership. Domination is imbalance, coercion, abuse, colonialism, the most controlling parent of the most acquiescent child. Partnership is like the balanced and consenting intimacy of two interdependent adults. Could also be a best friend, sibling, therapist, mentor, imaginary friend, spirit guide, etc. Because we learn so much through mimicry, an intentional Partnership Dyad is the best method I know for growth, healing, and development of the Self.

*If you want to follow this logic that **domination relationships are the root of all injustice, and partnership relationships are the root of all freedom**, here are some juicy links: check out ‘NO! Against Adult Supremacy’, an anthology of zines available* [*online*](https://issuu.com/dogsectionpress/docs/no) *&* [*in print*](https://dogsection.bigcartel.com/product/no-against-adult-supremacy)*;* [*Transactional Analysis*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis) *is a therapeutic method for understanding interpersonal behaviour as parent-, child- or adult-like; and* [*Aphro-ism*](http://aphro-ism.com) *is a Black vegan feminist argument that all oppression can be understood through the human-subhuman divide.*

I reckon if the old domination society is finally disintegrating, let’s grow the next one around partnerships. I’m talking adult-to-adult, not parent-child relationships, from home to school to work to community to government. Are! 👏🏽 You! 👏🏽 With! 👏🏽 Me! 👏🏽

#### 3: the Crew

A Crew is a group that is small enough to fit around a single dinner table, around 3-8 people. This is about the same size as a nuclear family, but without the parent-child power dynamics. This is a long-term set of relationships with singular purpose, like a co-op, shared house, or affinity group. The size is important, because it is small enough to stay highly coordinated with minimal explicit rules & roles, and large enough that your enhanced impact is worth the cost of collaborating. If you observe many interactions in a Crew, you get many opportunities to learn about different ways of being a Self and being in a Partnership.

#### 4: the Congregation

There’s another crucial size somewhere between 30 and 200 people: small enough that most of the members can know each other’s name, big enough to support many Crews to coalesce. Coordinated impact at this scale requires some formal rules & roles, but mostly you can hold coherence just by putting a bit of extra effort into the relationships. In my experience the best way to find your Crew is to spend some time in a Congregation. Coordination gets a lot more complicated beyond this point.

If you use my language for a second, you can think of Enspiral as a Congregation of Crews. We fluctuate around 200 people, all supporting each other to do more meaningful work. We have a big annual gathering, a coworking space, a participatory budget, and many experiments in developing systems for mutual aid. Loomio is one of about 10 or 20 stable Crews in the network, each one focussed on a specific purpose, like [fixing the diversity problem in the tech sector](http://devacademy.co.nz), or [providing accounting services to social enterprises](https://fairground.co.nz/about-us/), or [building an intergalactic communications network](https://protozoa.nz/).

The Crews and Congregation are in reciprocal co-development. I can absolutely say Loomio wouldn’t exist without Enspiral, *and* Loomio’s success has made major contributions to the development of other Crews. So my proposal is to work at both of these scales simultaneously.

#### 5: the Crowd

There’s probably a couple more useful distinctions beyond 200 people, but for the purpose of this map, all human groups bigger than [Dunbar’s Number](http://www.theagileelephant.com/dunbars-numbers-and-organising-for-social-business/) get lumped into this one category: the Crowd. This includes corporations, neighbourhoods, regions, nations, multitudes, swarms, and many different kinds of networks, conferences, festivals, etc. All of these groups share some important characteristics. Only a minority of people can expect to be recognised in a Crowd. To develop and maintain trust, peace, coordination & coherence over time requires a lot of infrastructure: formal articulation of rules and roles, enforcement of norms, and checks and balances to ensure the just application of that enforcement.

### There’s an empty space between Self and Crowd

From where I’m standing, it looks like contemporary neoliberal urban westernised society is mostly designed for Selves and Crowds. There’s a little space for Dyads, and almost no room for Crews and Congregations.

Anywhere you look: government policy, media narratives, conferences, employee performance management, UX design, the healthcare system… in all these different fields you will usually hear people being treated as either **individuals** or **anonymous mass populations**. Check any story in today’s newspaper and you’ll see what I mean. Climate change will be fixed by “you recycling” or “government policy” or “a social movement”.

That’s what individualism looks like: the vast majority of our conversations are about individual people (you, me, a public figure, your boss or lover), or about very large groups (Americans, progressives, women, programmers), which are so populous that the individuals have lost their distinct identity. Individualism is a metaphysical virus that allows us to only see trees, never the forest. This virus leaves us poorly equipped to work in groups.

Over the past 7 years of working with people who are trying to make the world a safer, fairer, healthier place, I’ve concluded that membership in a good Crew is a critical success factor. People enmeshed in really great Crews are most resilient to the psychological cost of doing social change work, and therefore the most able to think and act strategically. It’s at this small scale that we decontaminate each other, recover from the individualist virus, and start to learn a new way of being together.

So this brings is the core of my experiment: **can we create the conditions for many excellent Crews to coalesce?**

Read all about it in Microsolidarity Part 3: The Reciprocity Game…

## Microsolidarity Part 3: The Reciprocity Game

![Cartoon characters from "Captain Planet & The Planeteers"](/files/-LU3UdFVQNEHGVXVlfT-)

*This is part 3 of a 4 part series about ‘microsolidarity’: a plan for people supporting each other to do more meaningful work. The other parts are here: 1, 2, 4*

### Crews: when they’re good they’re really very good

Around \~5-8 people is a sweet spot of high impact and low coordination cost. Our little Loomio co-op is one example: we've raised more than $1M in ethical financing and supported 1000s of groups to be more inclusive and more effective in their governance. This is a scale of impact that I cannot possibly have on my own.

A good Crew is not only super efficient. It can also be a potent site for personal development. In a Crew you can experience human difference as a resource, which is our best antidote to bigoted tribalism. It’s a place to practice multiple Partnerships simultaneously, a rich source of belonging, acceptance, recognition, and accountability, a place to start coming out of my traumatised patterns of behaviour. My Crew is where my values gain nuance and complexity. One example: I only learned the crucial distinction between *fairness* and *sameness* by practicing a tonne of collective decision making around money.

In my original design criteria I said I want to work in a way that produces **courage** and **meaning**. You begin to see how Crews play such an important role when you view courage and meaning as social phenomena.

Simply, I believe courage is developed when we \_en\_courage each other, with our enthusiastic listening, praising, challenging, cuddling, gazing, regarding, acknowledging and reminding. It’s a fucking \_dis\_couraging world out there! I need almost constant deposits of encouragement to maintain a positive balance in the courage account.

Meaning, too. I make sense of a phenomenon by considering how my peers respond to it. If I know them very well, and I know myself well, I can interpolate the meaning of an event from the scattered data of my peers’ reactions. My stable membership in a few Crews gives me great confidence in my ability to make sense of this chaotic world.

### Unfortunately, Crews are often dysfunctional

Because we’re infected with individualism, we lack the techniques, behaviours, language, beliefs, ideas, tools, and nuanced values required to thrive in multiplicity. As a result, many small groups suffer common ailments: mini dictatorship, hidden hierarchy, too much consensus, not enough consensus, toxic culture, unresolved conflict, repetitive trauma, equal power dogma… We can easily get stuck in the triangular domination patterns, or the circular design-by-committee patterns.

Nati and I have spent the past 2 years helping groups to recover from some of these dysfunctions. [I’m writing a book](https://leanpub.com/patterns-for-decentralised-organising/) of practical solutions for the common failure patterns of collaborative groups. Hopefully these **ideas** can help a little, but what’s needed most of all is **practice**.

I’m curious what happens when we start new groups, already inoculated against the most common strains of the individualism virus. So in 2019 I plan to start a bunch more Crews so I can learn how to start them well. Here’s the first draft of the experiment I intend to run. I’m already looking forward to coming back here in a year to discover which ideas were totally misguided. Yay, **practice**! 🏋🏾‍♀️

### A Sequence to Crystallise new Crews

The first step is to start a Congregation localised to one geographic region (I’m starting in Western Europe). Nati and I will invite about 20 or 30 trusted people to a first gathering where we can co-design the minimum viable structure to govern our community.

As a starting point I suggest our purpose could be something like “people supporting each other to do more meaningful work”. That is, peers mobilising our diverse strengths to look after our peers, not institutional, paternalistic, or condescending support. “Meaningful work” is intentionally subjective, inviting a complicated amalgam of different purposes: planting trees, raising kids, writing software; if it is truly meaningful to you, it’s probably worth doing. And “more” is ambiguous in a good way: maybe you need *more meaning* in your work, or you’ve already found your meaningful work but you want *to do more of it*, or maybe you want to shift the whole global system of work to be more meaningful. All the options are good!

If the 20-30 people subsequently invite 1 or 2 more, we’ll have a first cohort of up to 90 people, which should be a big enough dating pool for complementary Crew-mates to find each other. Hopefully we can immediately launch a handful of new Crews and run many micro-experiments in parallel.

I suspect the first thing to do within a Crew is to establish [psychological safety](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html), a space where all the parts of your networked Self are welcome to show up. From there, the job is just to respond to the needs in the group.

Most of the people we plan to invite have already got a sense of what work is most meaningful to them, but almost all of us are financially precarious. So I’m interested in moving quite rapidly from emotional intimacy to economics. An easy place to start would be to disrupt the money taboo and expose our financial parts to each other: how much income do you earn? Where does it come from? What lifestyle would support you to be at your best? How much does that cost? If you need to earn more, are there some creative new tactics you can try? If you already earn enough, are there opportunities for you to get the same money with less compromise in your values, or more freedom in your time, or with more social impact? If you have a surplus, what needs to be true for you to want to share it with your crewmates?

Personally I’m interested in building economic solidarity, because I think we can do more good when we’re in a position to be generous. But maybe the rest of the Congregation will have different priorities. Mostly I’m interested in experiments that produce deep deep trust.

### The Reciprocity Game

Building trust is not rocket science. It’s mostly about reciprocity i.e. building a track record of doing each other favours. Here are some versions of the reciprocity game I’ve tried. If you know some more, please share ‘em!

#### Level 1: Listening

Sit in a circle. One at a time, someone says something that is true for them right now, e.g. “I’m excited about x” or “I feel sad because Y”. All you have to do is pay attention, listen to each person in turn, then eventually you say something that is true for you. If everyone listens to everyone, congratulations, you all just earned 1 reciprocity point.

#### Level 2: Money

One person talks about (A) the work they do for money, and (B) the work that is most meaningful to them. Discuss together how they might bring A and B into closer alignment. Now, anyone can make a small gesture to help make this happen, e.g. share a new perspective, offer a design process or productivity improvement, make an introduction, encourage them to keep trying even though it is hard. If you offer something: hooray, 5 points for you. If you asked for something you need, hey! 5 points for you too! And BONUS! you both get an extra point for talking and listening with mutual respect and positive regard.

#### Level 3: Consistency

It’s pretty easy to do something nice one time and have a momentary surge of good feelings. If you really want to excel at the reciprocity game though, focus on consistency.

Either in a Partnership (2 people) or in a Crew (up to 8), practice meeting once a month (virtually or in person). **Reflect** on where you’ve been and **envision** where you might go next. (You can do this during or before the meeting.) Take turns to share your reflections.

Everyone gets 1 point for the first meeting, 3 for the second, and 5 points for every meeting after that. 5 points deducted for missing a meeting.

If you want a little more structure, here are some documented processes you can try:

* [Feelz Circle](http://emotionalanarchism.com/how-to-form-a-radical-feelz-circle/) (3 processes for sharing emotional care between friends/ comrades/ lovers)
* [Care Pod](https://microsolidarity.cc/crewing) (personal-and-professional development in small groups, a new practice in development at Enspiral, based on Intentional Change Theory)
* [Stewardship](https://loomio.coop/stewarding.html) (peer support system for Partnerships)
* [The Elephants](https://medium.com/things-ive-written/the-elephants-182870501589) (long term personal development for Crews)

#### Level 4: Conflict

Now we’re getting into the harder levels. Conflict is a great way to strengthen ties. It goes like this: you do something thoughtless, or miscommunicate in a way that upsets somebody you care about. They get hurt. Then you apologise, take responsibility, and attempt to make amends. They listen and forgive. Woohoo! You transformed your conflict into greater connection: 10 reciprocity points each! Careful with this one though, because you lose 20 points each if you don’t find a mutually agreeable resolution.

#### Level 5: Co-owners

After you’ve played a few rounds of the earlier levels, you might be ready to play Co-owners. Start with an idea, maybe it’s a new tech platform or a community project or a commune. Maybe it’s a [savings pool](https://livingeconomies.nz/solutions/savings-pools) or [lending circle](https://missionassetfund.org/lending-circles/) or [livelihood pod](http://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Livelihood_Pods) for sharing credit, income or savings with your trusted peers. Whatever the idea, find some people who want to work on it with you. Now, when you formally incorporate as a company or an association or co-op, whatever, **share the legal ownership with a few people**. Congratulations, 100 reciprocity points! Whatever happens, this relationship is going to form a part of your life story.

Okay that is all fun and cool and optimistic, but if you’re reading with a critical eye you’ll notice that there are some parts of this proposal that run against the grain of a lot of progressive and radical thinking about social change. In the next part of this article, I’ll name some of the ways this recipe is unorthodox. Then y’all can help me discover if I’m the good kind of heretic, or the very very bad kind. 👹

On to Part 4. An Unorthodox Recipe For Social Change…

## Microsolidarity Part 4. An Unorthodox Recipe For Social Change

![Burning of a Heretic by Sassetta](/files/-LU3UrJ6yvxWha1GRAcA)

There are many components of the microsolidarity proposal that are out of step with the prevailing currents of progressive and radical thought. I’ll name five of those attributes here. I intend to acknowledge the risk of travelling *off piste*, and start the process of building accountability. This is a very exposing piece of writing, so please assume positive intent and check in with me if something triggers you.

### 1. Exclusivity

One of the most striking counter-intuitive parts about the microsolidarity proposal is that, if you’re reading this and we don’t know each other personally, *you’re not invited*. I invite you to start your own Congregation, but you’re not invited to join mine. That’s a bit shocking, eh! 😨

Most progressive social change actions start with inclusion as one of the top priorities. For this action though, we’re prioritising trust far ahead of inclusion. Actually there could be two barriers to inclusion: first to join the Congregation, then an even higher threshold to join a Crew.

I want to look around the circle at our first gathering and see 20 or 30 people with a specific set of traits. I’m thinking of people *I can count on* to contribute to the psychological safety of others, people with high emotional intelligence and good boundaries. We’re going into experimental and challenging territory, so folks need to be extra-tolerant, open to different ways of knowing, being and doing. My people know how to DIY (Do It Yourself) and DIWO ([Do It With Others](http://archive.furtherfield.org/projects/diwo-do-it-others-resource)). We call each other to develop the highest parts of our Selves and to embrace our incomplete parts.

All of this exclusion is necessarily going to select for people with specific privileges, so it’s not a comprehensive plan to erase oppression and injustice in the world. Our collective has many responsibilities to the commons, beyond our own artificial borders. It’s critical that we use our increased resilience, resources, and opportunities to serve the needs of people outside of our tight circle. As a minimal gesture, I commit to continue doing the work of documentation, translating everything I learn into terms that make sense for people outside of my context.

But I’ve learned from long exhausting experience that there is no such thing as complete inclusion: the more permissive your entry criteria, the more you include people whose behaviour excludes others. So the question is not “should we exclude people?” but “which people should we exclude?”

### 2. Not for profit but with profit

Here’s another zinger: we’re going to deal with money, so that means we’re going to have to deal with people’s money traumas. I’m hoping Tom Nixon can join us at least in the early days, to help us [renegotiate our relationships with money](https://medium.com/the-happy-startup-school/millionaires-and-the-surprising-truth-about-their-money-worries-29ba02fafc85).

Most of us are *clenched* when it comes to money, because of the stories and experiences attached to it. This seems to be especially true of people who are committed to making positive social impact with their work (*me, for instance*). We see the harm done by wealth inequality and corruption, so we conflate the wealth with the inequality. Anticapitalists conflate the marketplace with capitalism. We treat money as if it were dirty: I handle cash with my left hand while my right hand pinches my nose shut against the dreadful smell. It’s as if money is a pernicious acid that is just waiting to dissolve my values. Taboos prevent us talking about it, asking for what we need, and offering to help when we can.

I’ve tried being broke, and I’ve tried having enough to be generous, and I know which one is better for the planet.

When I was 21, after reading *Small Is Beautiful*, E.F. Schumacher’s powerful short book on meaningful work, I immediately wrote a blog post [publicly declaring my rejection of bullshit jobs](https://hayray.blogspot.com/2005/08/following-is-work-in-progress.html) (*if you follow that link, pls don’t read anything else on that blog because it’s super embarrassing* 😅). I didn’t grow up with easy access to capital, so it took another 7 or 8 years before I started to earn a minimal wage on my own terms. (*Note: this is not a “bootstraps” story though, as I certainly did enjoy the privilege of New Zealand’s social welfare system to pay my rent when I couldn’t.*) Now I’ve co-founded two small worker-owned businesses which pay me to do my most meaningful work ([Loomio](http://loomio.org) & [The Hum](http://thehum.org)), and pay to taxes so the state can do things like running the social welfare system.

These companies are not built *for profit*, but *with profit*. Generating our own income means we have the freedom to chart our own course. I think it takes money to do something ambitious, and it takes freedom to do something radical. So I want to be in community with people who are growing their financial resilience and co-investing in each others’ commons-building companies. I know the marketplace can be distasteful, but the situation is urgent, we need to be super effective.

### 3. Do Better Than Good

A lot of political strategy aims to change people’s behaviour because it is the right thing to do. If you want to be a “good” person, you’ll recycle, give to charity, and stop saying sexist things.

I’m more interested in strategies that can outcompete the “bad” option. I’m a feminist not because it’s the “good” thing to do, but because my quality of life improves as my relationships come out of patriarchal patterns. I absolutely believe we’ll all be better off without patriarchy, it’s not a tradeoff between winners and losers.

So I propose to outcompete individualistic consumerism with microsolidarity. I mean, how hard can it be to do a better job of meeting people’s psychological and material needs than this shitty 21st century gig economy? How many people have I met in the past few years who lack meaning and stability in their work, or who lack a sense of belonging? That’s our opportunity! Belonging is not a binary, like “yes” you’re connected or “no” you’re isolated. Belonging is a fractal: I have distinct needs for connection at each scale, from my Self, to my Partnerships, up to my Crew, Congregation and beyond. So do like the [Emotional Anarchists](http://emotionalanarchism.com/) do, and find freedom in the interpersonal.

### 4. Decentralised governance with not a blockchain in sight.

['Nuff said.](https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/blockchain-doesnt-decentralise-power-5918c168e6f6)

### 5. Design for smallness.

In a world obsessed with big and fast, I’m designing for **small** and **slow**.

If our Congregation gets much bigger than 100 people, it’ll be time to start thinking about how to split in two. I’m starting “an independent sibling” of Enspiral rather than growing Enspiral to include more people, because I think the size is a critical success factor. I expect to be in this project for years before we see great returns.

In the past few years I’ve learned another important reason why “small is beautiful”, beyond what Schumacher wrote: our intimate peer-to-peer relationships have an extraordinary capacity for ambiguity and complexity. A high trust group can be very coherent and effective even with very low levels of **explicit** agreement about our state, direction and norms. It’s impossible to maintain this level of trust and connection beyond one or two hundred people. As organisations grow in size, they are governed less by interpersonal relationships and more by formal written policies, procedures, and explicit agreements. The written word is intolerant of ambiguity, and can only ever capture a tiny subset of reality, so groups that are governed by text are much less able to cope with complexity.

If you want to be agile and adaptive in a complex and rapidly changing environment, you **must** move as much decision-making power as possible into groups that are small enough to be governed by spoken dialogue, not written policy.

(For more on this theme, see my article [The Vibes Theory of Organisational Design](https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/the-vibes-theory-of-organisational-design-937a73f791cd). If you want to go deep into the difference between written and spoken records see also Walter Ong’s *Orality and Literacy*. For case studies demonstrating the relationship between performance and small-scale autonomy across many different industries, see *Reinventing Organisations* by Frederic Laloux and *Team of Teams* by General Stanley McChrystal.)

Ok, there are a bunch of other reasons why the microsolidarity proposal could cause alarm, but I’m feeling sufficiently exposed now so I’m ready to see what I learn from pressing “publish”. One last thought before I do:

### The Assembly of Congregations: A Decentralised Autonomous U.N.?

For now I’m going to stay focussed on starting this 2nd Congregation, but it’s fun to imagine what might happen at the next order of magnitude. Here’s a fun metaphor, which I gratefully borrow from my Enspiral-mate Ants Cabraal, after he shared it on [Douglas Rushkoff’s Team Human podcast](https://teamhuman.fm/episodes/ep-110-enspiral-better-work-together/):

The United Nations (U.N.) is currently our best effort at global governance. There’s 190-something nation states chipping in to fund a staff of about 40,000 people trying to make the world safer and fairer. Imagine if we mobilised another 40,000 people to work on global challenges, but instead of the traditional centralised organisational structure of the U.N., with its hierarchies, department and managers, imagine if we were organised in small, decentralised, self-managing, commons-oriented, future-proof, complexity-capable networks. After all, 40,000 people is just 200 Congregations of 200…

Are! 👏🏽 You! 👏🏽 With! 👏🏽 Me! 👏🏽

### Postscript

It’s been a couple days since I finished this major writing effort. For a moment I felt ecstatic: one part of my Self enthusiastically congratulating the other parts of my Self for being so confident, articulate and clever. But before I got a chance to publish, some of my other parts started speaking up. My confidence disintegrated as I listened to the voices of my uncertain, disoriented and timid Selves. They’re quick to point out that this essay is far too *X* or it’s not nearly *Y* enough. I think I’ve reached the limit of how long I can hold a monologue before I reconnect with my crewmates, check in, and add their sensemaking to mine. So I’m looking forward to improving this proposal with the thoughtful consideration and spirited dissent of my peers. Time to leap and trust the net will appear.

I’ll keep documenting what I learn along the way. Follow the #microsolidarity hashtag if you want to stay up to date, and [support my Patreon](http://patreon.com/richdecibels) if you want to free up more of my time for writing like this.

*This story is published by Richard D. Bartlett with no rights reserved: do what you like with the text. You can find it in many file formats* [*on my website*](http://richdecibels.com/stories/courage-before-hope/)*.*


# #2: Update 2020

A year into the project, Rich published a substantial update explaining how the methodology is evolving. There's clearer guidance on where to start a new Congregation. Published Jan 21, 2020.

## How To Weave Social Fabric

### 3 Essential Pillars For a New Mutual Aid Community

![Weaving image by Wei Cheng Wu on Unsplash](/files/-LzaH6etQAlguAUrYZvA)

I published [the Microsolidarity proposal](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/articles/proposal) a year ago and really struck a chord with people. I’m overdue to give folks an update, and there’s really a lot of exciting news. So first I’ll give a quick recap, then I’ll share what’s happening in 2020.

The essence of the original proposal was to start a small exclusive community, oriented towards a deep kind of mutual aid: where we support each other in our personal growth, generating health and prosperity for our collective, while producing significant benefits that ripple out into wider society. I explained that I have experienced this kind of community once before at [Enspiral](http://enspiral.com), and now I want to learn how to start more of them. I introduced some specific words, like “**congregation**” for a community like this (<200 people) , and “**crew**” for a small densely connected group (<8 people). The purpose of the crew to provide reciprocal peer-to-peer support for its members, who could be engaged in any kind of meaningful work: e.g. freelancer co-op, a learning club, activist collective. The purpose of the congregation is to make it easy for new crews to form and to support each other’s development.

The raw numbers tell some of the story: [the Medium post](https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/courage-before-hope-a-proposal-to-weave-emotional-and-economic-microsolidarity-87bc81372a09) was read about 10,000 times, [the website](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/) has been viewed by people in 71 countries, it spawned a handful of [podcast interviews and articles](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/discussing), and about 100 people have joined the [Loomio discussion group](http://microsolidarity.loomio.org/).

I’ve written popular stories before, but there was something qualitatively different about the response I got to this one, something deeper than the numbers show. The response was so significant, it actually changed my sense of myself.

When I wrote the original story, I thought my role was to start a new community. But the response that I got, in addition to being really warm and encouraging, was also a bunch of people essentially saying, “*Rich, we're already doing this. It's really great that you've articulated it in a precise and new way. That’s very helpful. But you don't need to do **everything**.*”

So now my role has clarified: I can just focus on the part that I can make a unique contribution to. Now I think my job is not so much about starting a community, it’s more like a librarian or a curator: giving names to things, putting in the distinctions and categories that help people navigate, and telling stories.

So in this post, I’ll tell you my plan for 2020, and then I’ll articulate my best guess of what is needed to initiate a new mutual aid community.

## Microsolidarity 2020

These are the “congregations” I’m directly involved with this year:

* I’ve joined the Board at **Enspiral**, my home congregation. A small group of us are going to plant a seed for a new local Enspiral community in Europe, probably with a first gathering in August ([join the newsletter](http://enspiral.com) if you want updates).
* My company [**The Hum**](http://thehum.org) has partnered with [**AlterEgo**](http://alterego.network) to produce 3 gatherings for people at the intersection of politics and developmental culture. If that’s you, [apply here](http://alterego.network/apply). We’re able to do this with the generous support of [Guerrilla Foundation](https://guerrillafoundation.org/) & [Lunt Foundation](https://luntfoundation.org/).
* I’m contributing to the **Totnes Convergence** in the UK in June (you can [apply to join](https://autopia.co/a/totnes-convergence/apply) us). One interesting aspect of this event is that it’s coordinated through [**Autopia**](http://autopia.co) a new social network developed by Enspiral contributor Stephen Reid, which may prove to be very useful for other congregations.
* I’m a contributing member of the **Community Weavers Guild**, a private network of about 50 people supporting each other to develop our facilitation and community-weaving skills. This is where I practice contributing without being in the centre of the action!

So as you can see I'm involved in many community experiments in parallel. I’m looking for patterns that match across different contexts. I’ll keep prototyping methods and language, and reporting what I learn on the [Microsolidarity website](http://microsolidarity.cc).

## 3 Pillars for a New Mutual Aid Community

As I’m in “starting out” mode with all of these groups, my current focus is **how to start well**. I’m going to use the rest of this post to document my current thinking, the minimum set of scaffolding required to start a new mutual aid community. At the moment, I think you need **precisely three pillars** to start a new mutual aid community, no more and no less. This is a snapshot of my current thinking, I expect it all to change, but I think it is useful to capture this version as an unvarnished stack of opinions.

### 1. Initiators

Number one. Who is initiating this new congregation?

People in the [Art of Hosting](https://www.artofhosting.org/) network talk about a “caller”, someone who senses some great potential and calls out to others: *Will you join me? Can we do something together?* In the g0v community [they call them “diggers”](https://blog.loomio.org/2015/04/13/g0v-summit-2014-taiwan-and-the-future-of-democracy/), people who create a hole for other people to “fill up”. If you’re familiar with Peter Koenig’s work, you might call them the “[source](https://workwithsource.com/what-is-source/)”. I haven’t settled on a name, but I instinctively reach for “host” because I think “hospitality” is their main job.

Whatever you call them, a new community starts with one or a few people. There are some initiators, who form the first seed for the community to crystallise around.

Think about what qualities you want to see in your community (generosity, care, courage, wisdom, etc). The people who are going to initiate this community need to **already embody** some of those qualities. So you need to know what attributes you’re looking for. You need some kind of filtering and discernment so you can be confident that you are starting with some of the right ingredients.

When I’m looking for co-hosts, I want people with psychological and emotional depth, people with experience in conflict transformation, people who’ve sat in circle a hundred times before, people who have inherited some of the subtle interpersonal wisdom that comes from any multigenerational lineage of community practice. There are some administrative skills needed in the core too, people who are familiar with the practical work of organising events, pooling money, dealing with taxes, etc.

These qualities are the “starter dough” that you bring to a new batch of sourdough bread. The people who are initiating the community, the original hosts, need to be steeped in a specific culture. You need to be confident in their capacity and commitment to be in community.

Before inviting the community in, the core hosting team also needs to learn how to collaborate. **It’s very hard for a group to harmonise, when the people in the core are not in harmony with each other.**

When the fermentation process is complete, there’s no distinction between the starter dough and the rest of the loaf. So the hosts need to get out of the way as soon as possible, and share the ownership and leadership. Step back too soon, and the group will flounder for lack of direction. Step back too late, and people will leave or initiate conflict as they feel you getting in the way of their growth.

This first pillar, in my view, is the limiting factor to the spread of microsolidarity: I think these “initiator” people are usually full up with their own local work, and don’t instinctively see the bigger picture, the potential we catalyse when we come together well. And then there are the usual challenges with any new initiative, the “teething problems” of forming a new team, and the balancing act of leadership in community.

### 2. Gatherings

The second pillar. You need to host really good gatherings.

I can’t describe it better than what Ria Baeck (contributor to both the [Percolab](http://percolab.com) and Enspiral congregations) wrote [in this blog](https://medium.com/@ria.baeck/pop-up-communities-the-importance-of-retreats-to-build-a-new-and-generative-working-organising-5258a33e8b0f): *“These retreats and gatherings aim to build an experience of community, pay a lot of attention to building relationships, seek the collective intelligence of all present and mostly support the commons in one way or another.”*

I don't know exactly what are the crucial patterns here, but I think the gathering needs to be at least 3 days and nights. The size is important, it has to be big enough to work like a dating pool, but small enough that it's possible for everyone to feel reasonably comfortable with everyone else after a couple of days. I guess it needs to be more than 12 people and less than 40, something like that. I want a circle that's small enough so that I can listen to everyone speaking in turn, without overrunning my attention span. But it needs to be big enough to bring out a lot of archetypes so I can see myself reflected in others, and diverse enough for new collaborations to form from little knots of complementary skills and orientations.

In those gatherings, you can do all kinds of stuff. But the really crucial thing is that you visit four spaces:

1. Self: spend time in private reflection. This could be unstructured, like a solo walk in the forest. Or you could have a journaling session where someone asks good questions and everyone quietly writes their reflections.
2. Pair: spend some time intentionally practicing the basics of 1-to-1 relationship: this could be anything from communication practice (authentic speaking + active listening) to cooking a meal or going for a walk together.
3. Subgroup: spend some time in small groups, probably 4-6 people is best, so it is easy for everyone to speak and listen. You could talk about a shared project, or talk about your experience of the day, or all respond to a provocative question, whatever.
4. Whole: finally, you need to spend time as a whole group, probably in a circle. Don’t talk *about* things, talk *with* each other. The circle I’m thinking of gets progressively deeper and more intimate with each passing day. We’re heading towards shared presence, reverence, limitless acceptance, and extraordinary listening, the kind of listening that incubates a collective identity that is far greater than the sum of its parts.

For more ideas about how to run these gatherings, see the [congregating](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/congregating) section of the Microsolidarity website.

You know it’s working when people say things like *“I’ve known some of you for only 2 days but I feel more connection and acceptance and trust than I have with some of my friends I’ve known for 20 years.”*

I think the important factor is to to make sure that you're doing a good job of those four categories: self, pair, subgroup, whole. Probably what's going to happen is in one of those four spaces, people are going to have major breakthroughs, they might release trauma or pick up new insights into their own limiting beliefs. A lot of people will get really high and excited and energised and be ready to commit to some new action that they didn't have the energy for before they arrived at the gathering, i.e. a peak experience.

**Health & Safety Warning:** *As you can imagine, this can be a vulnerable space. If you access some deep psychological territory without appropriate support, you can get hurt. This is why I emphasise the qualities of the hosts; they have a huge responsibility here, to not invite in more than they can hold. And there’s a further risk, people can be manipulated while they’re “high”. So I’ve added a section to the Microsolidarity site to help people understand* [*how cults work*](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/congregating/cults)*. Perhaps these anti-patterns are at least as important to document as the patterns.*

### 3. Crews

Step three: you need to integrate that peak experience.

It's kinda easy to *initiate* a peak experience: just join a good personal growth workshop, or go to Burning Man, or climb a mountain with your best friend. You know you’re peaking when you feel a cascade of insight, inspiration, affection, curiosity, release, etc.

*Initiating* the peak is easy, the hard bit is *integrating* that temporary highlight into your everyday life. My best guess for how to integrate a peak experience is to do it in a crew, a small peer-coaching circle that meets periodically over a few months.

I recommend starting with four or five people who have shared a peak experience. Agree to meet at the same time every week/ fortnight/ month, for an hour or 90 minutes.

If you’re looking for some guidance for what to do in these meetings, see the [Crewing page](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/crewing) on the Microsolidarity website. You can coach each other through professional challenges, or talk about your goals, or make an open space for people to vent distressing emotions… whatever suits.

The **rhythm** is important, it reduces the coordination overhead, and it elevates the priority that this group takes up in amongst all your other commitments. You could emulate other congregations like [Permalab](https://permalab.eu/en/events/) and [Liminal Village](http://liminalvillage.com/) and sync your rhythm to the moon.

When you start, agree to meet say 5 or 10 times and set a date for a review. Reflect together: *what did we like about that experience? where is there room for improvement in how we meet? do we want to keep going together? should we try some different methods? should we disintegrate this crew and regroup with new members?*

### Weaving Social Fabric

This is my hypothesis: these three pillars are my best guess for how you weave social fabric. The objective is to cultivate a density of relationships, reciprocity, care, attention, and inspiration. We’re weaving a basket, a carpet, a platform for all kinds of other life-giving activities: people will start companies or they’ll build cohousing units or they’ll make babies or they’ll write great books or launch social movements. In my view, all of these activities go better when they are held by a generative community of mutual aid.

Start with a great hosting team, have a first gathering, initiate a bunch of crews, and then come back for a second gathering 6 or 12 months later to celebrate and start the next cycle. If things go well, and you start thinking about what kind of organisational structure could suit your new community, check out the next chapter in this series: [People, Practices & Place](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/articles/3-congregation-scaffolding).

If you’re reading this and you’re feeling inspired to action, here are some things you can do:

* **Contribute to the research**: If you know of more communities that match the patterns I’ve named here, I’d love to add them to [my list of congregations](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/congregating). If you have experience with any small-group modalities that suit crews (e.g. any kind of peer-coaching method like [Case Clinic](https://www.presencing.org/resource/tools/case-clinic-desc)), please let me know so I can add it to [the list](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/crewing). Leave me a comment or ping me [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/RichDecibels).
* If you are involved in, say, a fellowship network, membership organisation, or an amazing conference, and **you want support** to make it more like a congregation, contact us at [**The Hum**](https://www.thehum.org/). We’re happy to help
* If you want to be **notified of updates**, [join my newsletter](https://richdecibels.substack.com/).
* If you want to **discuss Microsolidarity with others**, [join the Loomio group](https://www.loomio.org/d/OUV8X7Hv/).
* If you want to **support my work** as an opinionated librarian/curator, you can [give me money on Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/richdecibels).
* If you want to **contact me**, please see the [guidance on my website](http://richdecibels.com/#contact), as I am frequently overwhelmed by interesting strangers :)

p.s. Grateful thanks to the many friends and Patreon supporters who gave feedback on the draft and greatly improved the story! [Ria Baeck](https://medium.com/@ria.baeck), [Manuel Küblböck](http://twitter.com/manuelkublbock), [Bernhard Resch](https://twitter.com/rebe), [Ronan Harrington](https://twitter.com/RonanHarrington), [Ulrich Schur](https://twitter.com/SchurUlrich), Patrick Campbell, [csageland](https://twitter.com/csageland), Abhayakara, [Pascal Hazeleger](https://twitter.com/PascalHazeleger), [drew hornbein](https://twitter.com/hornbein), [Matthew Bartlett](https://twitter.com/mhjb). These people are all great thinking partners so I recommend following them on Twitter or Medium :)

p.p.s. This story is published by Richard D. Bartlett with no rights reserved. [My website has extra file formats](http://richdecibels.com/stories/microsolidarity-2020) for easy reproduction.


# #3: Congregation Scaffolding

A surprisingly simple sketch of a minimal viable organising structure for a new Congregation. Published Jan 27, 2020.

## People, Practices & Place

### A Simple Structure to Hold a New Microsolidarity Community

![Scaffolding for a new congregation](/files/-LzaHtdDQZX4NGq43w_p)

Last week I published the latest story in my [Microsolidarity](http://microsolidarity.cc) series, explaining [how to start a new mutual aid community](https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/how-to-weave-social-fabric-9385a841559f) (a “Congregation”). That chapter was exclusively focussed on the initiation process: where do you start?

For this chapter, I want to advance the clock a few months. Assume you’ve had one or two amazing gatherings, and there are 20 or 40 people ready to commit to supporting each other. What’s the minimum organisational structure needed to hold them together? I’m going to make a short sketch of a complete structure, as a first guess. The parts are all tried and tested, but I’ve never had a chance to launch a new community with this whole structure, so this is slightly speculative.

I think it is important for a community to be aligned at the abstract level: having shared values, principles and purposes. However, I don’t think it is very interesting to create that alignment *by talking about it*. Instead, the focus is on finding alignment by *doing stuff together*. So the essence of this proposal is to organise primarily around three concrete elements: a small group of **People**, doing periodic **Practices** in a defined **Place**.

For the sake of this article, assume that all the members of the Congregation are working in related fields towards some positive social change, e.g. activists, community organisers, and people working in NGOs and social enterprises. They have shared interest so they’re predisposed to collaborate, and they have enough shared context that they can support each other effectively in their personal and professional development.

### Periodic Practices

These are the rhythms that apply to **everyone**:

* There are **2 Gatherings per year**, coincident with the full moon. They’re the “main event” where we weave our connections, and the place where new potential members get to meet us. See [the previous article](https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/how-to-weave-social-fabric-9385a841559f) for more info about these gatherings.
* On the other **full moons** of the year, there’s a video call for members to connect and support each other in their **outward facing work** , e.g. we can use [Case Clinic](https://www.presencing.org/resource/tools/case-clinic-desc) or other peer-coaching methods where one member is helped by 3 or 4 peers.
* On the **new moons**, there’s a video call for anyone who is working to “hold the container”, i.e., taking responsibility for the organising structure. Sometimes we’d use this space for a deep dialogue, or a participatory process to include people in policy development; sometimes it would be more administrative/operational. This is the regular point of focus for **inward facing work**.
* We prioritise holding a **steady rhythm** to avoid losing energy in scheduling. Other meetings will happen off to the side, but these monthly pulses are the main focal points.
* Everyone is **expected to join** at least one gathering per year and all the calls are optional.
* **Sense-making** and **deliberation** is done on the calls or at the gatherings. Important **decisions** are finalised by consent on [Loomio](http://loomio.org).

### People

* We need at least **two categories of membership**, let’s call them Friends and Partners. (This is a constructive way to deal with the [participation inequality](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/participation-inequality/) which affects all groups.)
* **Partners** are members with more commitment and capacity for co-leadership, who are trusted and able to tend to the needs of the whole. We probably don’t need many Partners for the Congregation to function well, but there needs to be some longterm consistency.
* **Friends** get to participate as individuals and don’t have to think too much about the big picture unless they want to.
* Partners decide **who to invite** as Friends and who to invite as new Partners.
* The only way to join as a Friend is by **coming to a Gathering**. This ensures a critical mass of relationships as soon as they arrive. After the gathering they join our digital spaces and can participate as much or as little as they like.
* Friends **may be invited** to become a Partner at their second Gathering (or later), if they’re trusted and ready to take more responsibility for the whole. There’s no shame in being a Friend forever.
* Everyone should be in a **Home Group** (aka [Pod](http://handbook.enspiral.com/guides/pods.html) or [Crew](https://www.microsolidarity.cc/crewing)), 3-6 people meeting on a weekly/fortnightly or monthly pulse. You choose your own frequency and focus, usually some kind of peer-support in the professional or personal domain. Home Groups usually form during or shortly after Gatherings.
* Everyone may receive **support for their work**, e.g. in the Full Moon calls.
* Everyone is encouraged to share leads and **opportunities for working together**.
* Anyone can be in a temporary **Working Group** for doing internal work, e.g. hosting a gathering, developing a new policy.
* Everyone should make a **regular financial contribution** (eg €10-50/mo) so we can pay for internal work, e.g. writing the newsletter, hosting the calls and gatherings. Details here are very context-dependent. For many new collectives, it makes sense to start with [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/) so you don’t need to invent a legal structure or deal with admin overhead.

### Place

The Congregation is designed for strong ties, so it is constrained to one Place. A Place might be as small as a village or as big as a continent. In my view, starting in too many Places is an anti-pattern: requires carbon-intensive travel; it’s hard to weave a density of relationship; and money/legal stuff gets complicated, etc.

In addition to the physical Place, we have virtual Places. These virtual places are a platform for self-organising, e.g. to coordinate work opportunities, learning, socialising, making offers and requests:

* An **instant messaging platform** (e.g. Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp) for **informal** chat, reminders, announcements, invitations etc. People are **not expected to keep up** with everything here.
* An **asynchronous discussion platform** (e.g Loomio, Discourse) for **long-lasting information**, e.g. collating shared resources, or finalising decisions.
* A **regular newsletter**: summarises activity and highlights any important calls to action. This is the only virtual place **everyone is expected to pay attention** to.

That’s it! That’s the whole structure. In 2020 I expect to implement something like these ideas in two of the Congregations I’m in, so this speculative sketch will be tested and refined then. I’ll keep updating the [microsolidarity website](http://microsolidarity.cc) as R\&D progresses.

If you’re reading this and you’re feeling inspired to action, here are some things you can do:

* If you want to be **notified of updates**, [join my newsletter](https://richdecibels.substack.com/).
* If you want to **discuss Microsolidarity with others**, [join the Loomio group](https://www.loomio.org/d/xtAj8C6R/people-practices-place).
* If you want to **support my work** curating patterns of organisation that work across different contexts, you can [give me money on Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/richdecibels).
* If you want to **contact me**, please see the [guidance on my website](http://richdecibels.com/#contact), as I am frequently overwhelmed by interesting strangers :)

p.s. This story is published by Richard D. Bartlett with no rights reserved. [My website has extra file formats](http://richdecibels.com/stories/people-practices-place) for easy reproduction.


# Discussing

If you want to join the #microsolidarity conversation, the central location is this discussion group: [microsolidarity.loomio.org](http://microsolidarity.loomio.org).

This page is regularly updates with links to recordings, articles and discussions from different parts of the web:

* 🔈[Interview with Jim Rutt & Rich Bartlett](http://jimruttshow.com/rich-bartlett) about microsolidarity, especially focussed on the economic side.
* 🔈[Discussion with Nati and john about pods at Enspiral](https://anchor.fm/Microsolidarity/episodes/Nati-and-john-talking-about-pods-at-Enspiral-e9giqj), sharing what they've learned about how to run a good crew, and how to support crews to form within an existing community.
* 📄Teddy Taptiklis writes [Microattunement](https://medium.com/between-us/a-unity-of-unmerged-voices-a-proposal-to-synchronise-our-efforts-through-microattunement-870922e7082f): a pattern language for developing the art of belonging.
* 🔈Jamie King interviewed Rich about the role of [his religious past](http://makeworld.io/episode/s01e04/) in his current community building efforts
* 🔈Discussion at Enspiral Summer Retreat Feb 2019, focussed on [practical methods for new crews](/articles/discussing/enspiral-summer-retreat-2019)
* 🔈Conversation with Theodore Taptiklis and Bernhard Resch at the University of Sydney, about some of the [research questions invited by microsolidarity](/articles/discussing/research-questions)
* 🔈Peter Limberg interviews Rich about [some of the subtle interactions in groups](https://anchor.fm/intellectualexplorersclub/episodes/Richard-D--Bartlett---Hosting-True-Belonging-e2v2r3): power, status, inclusion, hidden hierarchies, etc. (Part of the Intellectual Explorers Club podcast.)
* 🔈Ronan Harrington interviews Rich & Nati in this episode of the Alter Ego podcast [How #microsolidarity can build small groups that change the world](https://anchor.fm/alterego/episodes/How-microsolidarity-can-build-small-groups-that-change-the-world---Interview-with-Rich-and-Nati-e2q85f)
* 📄Simon Grant [wrote a thorough response to the proposal](http://www.simongrant.org/pubs/web/2018/12/Rich-microsolidarity.html)
* 🎥A small group of mostly Enspiral people discussed this proposal in a 90 minute online meeting: [Video](https://youtu.be/_ShH3x1hgY0) | [Rough transcript](https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Ded5lXwlHjH1ILULHg5ZZek0iu9kOPhLXPKHefq-Ss/edit#)
* 📄Hugi [started a discussion](https://edgeryders.eu/t/a-template-for-microsolidarity/9277) with EdgeRyders, about starting a Congregation in their new Stockholm venue, [Blivande House](https://edgeryders.eu/t/blivande-house-and-studio-beta-sneak-peek/9123)
* 🎥Dean Walker interviewed Rich about [organising in the context of collapse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4edrvlVPFA)
* 📄There are interesting comment threads on each of the 4 Microsolidarity posts on Medium: [1](https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/courage-before-hope-a-proposal-to-weave-emotional-and-economic-microsolidarity-87bc81372a09) [2](https://medium.com/p/7c6e7ce63eda) [3](https://medium.com/p/4109e702a07d) [4](https://medium.com/p/a947d881f4b8)
* 🦜See also: #microsolidarity on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets\&vertical=default\&q=%23microsolidarity\&src=typd) and [Scuttlebutt](http://scuttlebutt.nz)


# Enspiral Summer Retreat 2019

A discussion at the February 2019 gathering of the Enspiral congregation, focussed on the practical side of starting and maintaining a crew.

{% embed url="<https://anchor.fm/Microsolidarity/episodes/Discussion-about-Crews-at-Enspiral-Summer-Retreat-2019-e3ae9r/a-aaumv9>" %}

Here are links to many of the things we mentioned:

* 2019 Enspiral Summer Retreat - <http://festival.enspiral.com​>
* Charles Eisenstein story of Separation & Interbeing <https://charleseisenstein.org/books/the-more-beautiful-world-our-hearts-know-is-possible/eng/separation/​>
* livelihood pod - <http://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Livelihood_Pods​>
* Peer incubator - <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eBd_Ho8Zx2v-2MDHUX-MJ7yZ4LkOOlI5_1j6toC6znk/edit​>
* Project Kitchen - <https://handbook.enspiral.com/guides/project_kitchen.html​>
* Care pod - <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pFPbxmzf41zsHS0pMExvPqz9Pi6SMFXeFHJ8_Eb96EI/edit?ts=5bdf0475​>
* Psychological safety - <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html​>
* Reinventing Organizations - Frederic Laloux - <http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/​>
* Emergent Strategy - adrienne marie brown - <https://www.akpress.org/emergentstrategy.html​>
* 12 Principles for Feminist Business - Jenn Armbrust - <https://sister.is/12-principles​>
* The Elephants - <https://medium.com/things-ive-written/the-elephants-182870501589​>
* Intentional Change Theory - <https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/intentional-change-theory.htm​>
* Enspiral Working Groups - <https://handbook.enspiral.com/working-groups/​>
* Stewardship - <http://loomio.coop/stewarding.html​>
* Action Learning - <https://managementhelp.org/training/methods/action-learning.htm​>
* Theory U Case Clinic (coaching circles) - <https://www.presencing.org/resource/tools/case-clinic-desc​>
* Retrospective meeting - <https://retromat.org/​>
* "Continuous participatory change" - Aaron Dignan - <https://www.bravenewwork.com/​>
* Protozoa - <https://protozoa.nz​>
* Bachelor of Leadership for Change - <https://www.op.ac.nz/study/capable-nz/bachelor-of-leadership-for-change​>
* Ako groups - <https://www.microsolidarity.cc/crewing/ako-group-guidelines>
* Mankind Project - <https://mankindproject.org/​>
* CrossFit - <https://www.crossfit.com/​>
* David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD/ GSD) - <https://www.gsdfaster.com/blog/gtd-method-getting-things-done/​>
* EHF - <http://ehf.co.nz​>
* Conscious Consumers - <https://nz.cogo.co/​>


# Research Questions

🔈[Here's a recorded conversation](https://anchor.fm/Microsolidarity/episodes/Research-questions-e37i90) between Teddy Taptiklis, Bernhard Resch, and Richard Bartlett exploring some microsolidarity research questions.

{% embed url="<https://anchor.fm/Microsolidarity/episodes/Research-questions-e37i90>" %}

Background: Teddy and Rich first met Bernhard when he joined Enspiral as a participant-researcher. This conversation was recorded at the end of a week where we worked together, hosting a collaboration training course at the University of Sydney, where Bernhard works.

All the names we referenced are listed here, as a starting point for anyone wanting to pick up this research work:

* Microsolidarity -- <http://microsolidarity.cc>
* Metamodernism -- <http://metamoderna.org/>
* Enspiral -- <https://enspiral.com>
* The Hum -- Nati Lombardo -- <http://thehum.org>
* Heart Politics -- <http://heartpolitics.org.nz/> (Billy Matheson, Vivien Maidaborn, vivian Hutchison)
* Regen - <http://www.regeneration.org.nz/about-us>
* Art of Hosting -- Toke Møller -- <https://vimeo.com/36755022>
* Mankind Project -- Bill Kauth -- <https://mankindproject.org/>
* AA -- Alcoholics Anonymous -- <https://aaoregon-district21.org/aa_information/structure.php>
* Authentic Relating: <https://www.authrev.com/ar_resources/>
* Emerge Podcast, Daniel Thorson, Robert Macnaughton, Integral Center -- <https://anchor.fm/emerge/episodes/Robert-MacNaughton---Learnings-from-the-Life-and-Death-of-the-Integral-Center-e31val>
* Mindfulness for Change -- <https://www.mindfulnessforchange.co.nz/>
* Scuttlebutt -- <http://scuttlebutt.nz>
* Luke Maguire, NSW Treasury
* Toi Whakaari -- <https://toiwhakaari.ac.nz/>
* Hugi Ásgeirsson -- <http://hugi.se>
* The Borderland -- <http://theborderland.se/>
* Edgeryders -- <http://edgeryders.ey>
* Blivande House -- <https://edgeryders.eu/t/blivande-house-and-studio-beta-sneak-peek/9123>
* Syntheist Node -- <https://www.noden.community/>
* Religion 2.0 (see Jamie Wheal at The Assemblage: <https://www.facebook.com/Flowgenome/posts/jamie-wheal-live-at-the-assemblage-designing-church-20-decentralized-spiritualit/2050237378352605/>)
* unMonastery -- <http://unmonastery.org/>
* NZ Treasury Wharenui (meeting house) -- <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noFbK2OHp1Y>
* Peter Sloterdijk's Spheres trilogy: <https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/bubbles>
* Professional family (livelihood pod) -- <http://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Livelihood_Pods>
* Enspiral Retreat -- <https://www.festival.enspiral.com>
* Root Systems -- <https://www.rootsystems.nz/>
* Care Pod -- <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pFPbxmzf41zsHS0pMExvPqz9Pi6SMFXeFHJ8_Eb96EI/edit?ts=5bdf0475>
* Enspiral Ventures -- <https://handbook.enspiral.com/ventures.html>
* Ackama (Rabid Tech) -- Josh Forde -- <https://www.ackama.com/>
* Faerie Ring -- <https://viewer.scuttlebot.io/%YrKbs%2Bz2CmLt2%2BVtaEvUCDY%2BDUQAqQgB7vuUh3kNsdk%3D.sha256>
* Scuttlebutt Grants history -- <https://github.com/ssbc/grants-process/blob/master/grants.md>
* Mix Irving -- <https://twitter.com/whimful> and Mikey Williams -- <https://dinosaur.is/>
* Protozoa -- <https://protozoa.nz>
* Verse -- <https://verse.app/media.pdf>
* Scuttle Camp -- <https://one.camp.scuttlebutt.nz>


# Todo

Interviews:

* create a web page for each interview, add transcriptions, categories, keywords and link to audio and video feed
* markup chapter sections on YouTube videos
* edit interviews to make them more accessible (e.g. find quotes from 3 different communities talking about money)
* interview more people

Other:

* produce short handbooks / zines to summarise Microsolidarity and make it easy for anyone to start
* document more practices
* set up an economic vehicle to get funding (e.g. Panvala League, Patreon, donations)


# Unsorted

An unfiltered list of interesting things

* Insight Dialogue: a technique for interpersonal meditation, with speaking and listening. [Introduction podcast](https://anchor.fm/intellectualexplorersclub/episodes/Gregory-Kramer---Insight-Dialogue-and-the-Absence-of-Barriers-e2ov20), [website](https://metta.org/).
* Authentic Relating [article](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/11/the-club-where-you-bare-your-soul-to-strangers/545786/), [website](https://www.authrev.com/), [manual](https://www.authrev.com/ar_resources/)
* [Non Violent Communication](http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Nonviolent-Communication)
* [Resources for Decentralised Organising](https://hackmd.io/s/Skh_dXNbE)
* [Peer Incubator](http://tiny.cc/PeerIncubator)
* "[Dens](https://vimeo.com/146532294)" at Etsy
* [Wise Democracy patterns list](https://www.wd-pl.com/pattern-list-v2/)
* [Empathy circles](https://thelisteningarts.org/2019/03/09/empathy-circles-as-imaginal-cells-for-a-future-thats-just-and-sustainable/)
* [XR Future Democracy hub](https://www.xrdemocracy.uk/)
* [Conversational modalities for memetic mediation](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wGR8FWoOz4QUslRhzGn9HwBMVRmWdHRuq3LxNerSpgk/edit)


# Ako group guidelines

*Ness Radich from the* [*Leadership for Change program at Otago University*](https://www.op.ac.nz/study/capable-nz/bachelor-of-leadership-for-change) *wrote these guidelines for "ako groups": a crew for peer-supported learning:*

**What is an ako group:** A collection of people who have a juicy, edgy topic of interest which they wish to explore more in a safe, open space with no hierarchy, but welcomed curiosity.

**Why create an ako group:** This is a community, leaders are learners, and we want to support each other on this learning path, challenge ourselves and our ideas, and lift each other up in the process.

**How to create an ako group**: Here are some basic guidelines/ principles for creating a LfC ako group based on experience.

1. **Scope** : Define the scope of your question / idea / topic. Think about what success in this group might look like.
2. **Diversity** : Aim to have diversity in the group members or gather different opinions online - this encourages juicy discussions to emerge and learning too.
3. **Inclusion** : decide at the start whether you can invite others to join the session or not (perhaps guest speakers or elders or just a new member) and the process you wish to follow in doing so if any
4. **Commitment** : As much as possible show commitment to the group so everyone is accountable for each other. This supports group dynamics and the safe space. eg. let the group know 1 day in advance whether you can attend or not (for number purposes)
5. **Lead Facilitator** : Assign a group member to facilitate each week: to guide the session, host the zoom room (if they can) and remind people of the topic (doesn’t need to be their topic / question that is being posted) e.g. send out an email /facebook reminder at the end of previous or start of following week.
6. **Communication:** decide from the outset which means of communication work best for everybody (email, facebook messenger, facebook group…). *Suggestion: having a google doc to note key insights/discussions from the meeting and write up the next topic and facilitator for people who couldn’t make it.*
7. **Topic:** Your group might want to suggest a topic or an article to read up on/research for the upcoming week to keep the juiciness rolling; also group members may wish to present/share some of their own work
8. **Review / Iteration** : Allow it to be an iterative process and lock in a time when you will review the topic and if it is meeting the needs of the group. A general check-in with the group on how the experience has been for everyone to date helps shaping the path forward.

**Additional Support:** For good practice and group safety, assign a LfC staff facilitator as Kaitiakitanga for your group. They can play the role as: Guardian, mediation, and will check in every now and then to support the group and help identify any issues ideally before they occur.


# Cults

How to protect yourself from starting or joining a cult.

One of the biggest risks of microsolidarity is that some of the methods described in this website can be misused by cults to do horrible things to people. One of the best ways to immunise against the risk of cults is to understand how they work. Here are some starting points:

* 📄 Read Karl Steyaert's short article about [characteristics of a community that is cult-resistant](https://docs.google.com/document/d/19iCtIdhXkwZ6Ujko1ceNoKTIAsHNksg7fTtn6d4JA9c/edit).
* 🎥 Watch this [40 minute interview with Jamie Wheal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9_FcnECNS8)
* 📄 Read Emil Ejner Friis's article about a recent case: [How a Psychedelic Sex Cult Infiltrated a German Ecovillage](https://metamoderna.org/how-a-psychedelic-sex-cult-infiltrated-a-german-ecovillage/)
* 📄 Read Aella's essay about "[Frame Control](https://knowingless.com/2021/11/27/frame-control/)"
* 📄 Read [The Toxic Power Dynamics of Oneness](https://meaningness.com/metablog/guru-papers-monism-control), David Chapman's review of Diana Alstad & Joel Kramer's book [The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007WL0JHE/?tag=meaningness-20)
* 📖 Read Alexandra Amor's book [Cult, A Love Story: Ten Years Inside a Canadian Cult and the Subsequent Long Road of Recovery](https://www.amazon.com/Cult-Love-Story-Canadian-Subsequent/dp/0995200653)
* 🎥 Watch cult-exposing documentaries like [Wild Wild Country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Wild_Country), [Holy Hell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Hell_\(film\)), [The Source Family](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Source_Family), [The Family](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_\(miniseries\)), [Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Robbins:_I_Am_Not_Your_Guru).
* 🎧 Listen to [Power Trip](https://www.psymposia.com/powertrip/), an investigative podcast about abuse of power in the underground psychedelic therapy community.


# Gathering Invite

This is an example of what an invitation might look like for a new congregation.

**What**\
We’re inviting about 30 people from across Europe to join us for a 6-month experiment. The main commitment we’re asking is for you to join two 4-day gatherings, one to start us off in November and the closing one in May. Between the gatherings you’ll stay in touch with a small crew of 4-6 people (e.g. about two 90min calls per month).

**Why**\
Over the past couple years we’ve met brilliant lovely people like you who want more connection, belonging, and mutual aid. We’re bringing you all together to see if we can intentionally create a small, geographically-distributed community of care, learning, and action.

In addition to cultivating community for ourselves, we’re also researching and documenting the process as a public resource to help other folks learn from our experiences.

**How much**\
We’re happy to organise and host both gatherings, and do any coordination and administration throughout the 6-month period. We’ll ask you to cover your food and accomodation for the gatherings (expect about \~€300-500 per gathering), plus a one-off contribution (\~€200-400) so we can pay ourselves a wage for our time through the period. Let us know if money is a barrier to your participation, we can work something out.

**What next**\
Our intention is to start with a simple design, with a clearly delimited start and end. We’ll design and host the gatherings, with lots of space for contributions from you all. If we get the sense that the experiment is a “success”, then we may collectively decide to continue. At that stage, we can open up the community structure to be more co-designed, with a wider invitation to include more people.


# Summer Intensive 2026 Ticketing Page

The ticket price range depends on the type of room you select and on the amount you chose to contribute towards the training itself.

Select **Abundant** if money is not an issue for you and select a **Supported** ticket if money is tighter these days. Alternatively, select **Standard** for the in-between option.

**Note**: when you select a ticket, Open Collective automatically will automatically add a 15% tip onto the transaction. This is *optional* and can be disabled.

To secure your place at the Intensive, choose **one** of the following options:

**Dorm Room Options: you will share with 2-3 people, food included.**

[Abundant €730](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/projects/microsolidarity-summer-intenst/contribute/hosting-ticket-l-101800/checkout?interval=oneTime\&amount=730\&contributeAs=me)

[Standard €605](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/projects/microsolidarity-summer-intenst/contribute/dorm-m-ticket-101934/checkout?interval=oneTime\&amount=605\&contributeAs=me)

[Supported €480](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/projects/microsolidarity-summer-intenst/contribute/dorm-s-ticket-101935/checkout?interval=oneTime\&amount=480\&contributeAs=me)

**Twin Room Options: you will share with 1 other person, food included.**

[Abundant €800](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/projects/microsolidarity-summer-intenst/contribute/twin-room-l-ticket-101936/checkout?interval=oneTime\&amount=800\&contributeAs=me)

[Standard €675](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/projects/microsolidarity-summer-intenst/contribute/twin-room-m-ticket-101937/checkout?interval=oneTime\&amount=675\&contributeAs=me)

[Supported €550](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity/projects/microsolidarity-summer-intenst/contribute/twin-room-s-ticket-101938/checkout?interval=oneTime\&amount=550\&contributeAs=me)