Present: Rob, Simon, Sarah, Wade, Maggie, Jade.

At Assemble, Stubbs St & online.

• Maggie – cross fertilisation, enthusiasm for sharing information
• Simon - Visibility of MBT is surprising – not labouring in obscurity
• Sarah – we’re keeping up regular meetings
• Rob – good energy around the meetups – last one not dependent on us – coming from group itself.
• Wade – generally (beyond MBT) interest globally to do things aligned with what we’re trying to do – and that creates an environment to create the momentum we need.
• Jade – Energy in Coop Cloud
• Simon – getting enquiries asking for collaboration
• Sarah – in touch with Catalyst – could link up with their Federation
• Jade – good number onto Raspberry Pis
• Sarah – referees easy to get for grant – supporters in community

• Simon – frustrating not having more time to contribute (for a few of us)
• Jade – process of setting up nodes following instructions is not working – no one has completed yet
• Sarah – difficult not having visibility – where are they at, how are they feeling, broader visibility question. Brings up issue of continued connection and community of those who want to be involved
• Wade – scope to better harness that energy and identify what needs to be done, direct the energy
• Jade – don’t have a venue that has everything we need – missed out on this with Balam Balam
• Rob – not enough time personally to set up Meet-ups – need a better process to set up, organise talks (or not – seemed to be good energy for working). How to gather ideas.

• Sarah – Digital Justice Lounge is something we could pick up and run, start to deliver, inform people how to get off big tech.
• Jade – Would like to get off big tech faster – but all groups are still in this bind.
• Sarah - Finding a way to interact, involve people who are keen but not into building nodes
• Wade – need for other decentralised infrastructure apart from nodes. Eg countering age verification by creating parallel networks – but not sure if this scope matches MBT
• Jade – more useful connections with other resilience groups; conflict resolution; working with Wurundjeri – digital sovereignty; MBT mural; office in a Fawkner Resilience Hub

• Some action needed on node stewards, in terms of structural changes – how to harness vollies so as not to create bottlenecks for us – at scale
• Maybe buddy-up node stewards – perhaps get first few done, then get them to buddy up with others – more support
• Get off big tech – documentation, tested solutions, say 45 min running parallel with node steward work. Bring in your stuff, cup of tea, documentation.
• Linus Users Victoria guys facilitate workshops – getting off Google to something more aligned with our ethos.
• Is there someone close to getting across the line for flow-on effect of buddies (while bearing in mind that we need stewards more than nodes).
• Bringing in new people to committee
• Resources may already be there for getting off big tech. Could run event, then check in every couple of months.
• Working group to keep checking in on node stewards
• Need group organiser to check in and support – maybe Millie?
• Need set of activities to maintain relationship and connection with community activists/members
• Difficulty with working groups – finite opt-in commitment can work. Eg sign up to say 3 months’ work – maybe a call out message – for Lores tech and digital justice
• Short term for vollies takeover could be problematic and end up creating more work.
• Need to discuss tools for recording what we do – check out more options.
• How much should we define the direction when we invoke participation?
• Unless we have an organiser in each group we could be creating more work for us.
• Maybe alternate working groups with Committee meetings?
• Where will we (or MBT) be in a couple of years’ time when nodes are humming away – perhaps finetuning conflict resolution or data security issues
• Are there two levels of organisation: Strategy, oversight, finance at one level, then node stewards, getting off big tech at another more doing level
• Could be self-sustaining projects, maybe fairly independent of MBT, but delegates making high level decisions

Actions

• What’s the best way to go forward with node stewards, as low-hanging fruit?:
  • maybe time just for them; drop in call for an hour for a chat, find out what the blocks are, maybe set up a buddy (or is this happening at meetings anyway).
• What is overlap between solarpunk meetups and node stewards? – do we need a s.p. meeting or a specific, more intentional n. s. meeting to be buddied up?
• Maybe ask the questions of the n.s.? – through comms channels and next meetup EG:
  • How are you going with node set up?
  • What are the blocks?
  • How are you feeling about it?
  • Would you like a buddy to work with?
• Maybe also ask if there’s impetus for digital justice in the s.p. group once we’ve checked the resources.
• 1.5 hours to check getting off big tech resource and write proposal to S.P. folk
• Also need to define what a working group is – 20min Rob and Sarah!!!
• Coop cloud can help us link our Lores stuff to other stuff.
• Check in on what happens when people get to the end of their instructions.
• Get a solid idea of what Linux Users have on offer (Wade)