InterActive Organizations and legal structure

[Todd Saddler]

Birgitt,

Thank you for your comments.  They caused me to reflect further... at this
point in our endeavor here, nothing is yet given, not even the existance of
an organization.  The givens are not yet given, and fateful choices will have
to be made.  All is pure potential, desire, dream.

Excuse me if I wander; I am thinking this out as I go.

There is interest in sustainable living in our community.  There are people
who have related skills and experience and motivation.  There is a demand
that is not being met by the market.  Money and other resources are floating
around.  We have all the preconditions for the emergence of a complex
adaptive system, although perhaps we are a bit short on chaos.

If, as I intend, this all congeals into a way for a group of us to earn our
living by providing something that the world needs, then some givens will
have to emerge around taxes and liability and contractual obligations.  The
question I am asking myself is: how can we create a legal structure, which
represents a minimum of givens, that best supports, and least impedes, an
Open Space approach to doing business?

If "myth is to an organization what DNA is to an organism", then we are near
a moment of conception, when pieces of DNA are coming together.  Based on my
experience in this community, I suspect that the word "cooperative" will have
to be a part of our myth.  The major categories of legal structures that I am
aware of are; For-profit, Non-profit, and Cooperative.  The Cooperative
priniples seem to have more overlap with Open Space and InterActive
organizations than the other two, and there are several succesful
cooperatives now in Ithaca.

I look forward to reading about your "Story of the Open Space Organization"!


Peace be with you,

Todd

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu
Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

===========================================================
OSLIST at EGROUPS.COM
To subscribe,
1.  Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist
2.  Sign up -- provide an email address,
    and choose a login ID and password
3.  Click on "Subscribe" and follow the instructions

To unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at egroups.com:
1.  Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist
2.  Sign in and Proceed