Cooperative Principles
Centralized Autonomous Organization (”CAO”)
🤝 Open and Voluntary Membership
Who Is Eligible to Join the CAO?
Membership is available to people of all national origin, race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, or citizenship status.
Accessibility for Leaders
The organization will be built to be as accessible as possible to accomodate many different kinds of leaders.
Membership in a cooperative is open to all people who can reasonably use its services and stand willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, regardless of race, religion, gender, or economic circumstances.
✅ Democratic Member Control
- The CAO is governed by an elected board of directors.
- Since February 2022, the current Chairman and sole member of the board is the President.
- The board will select rotating leaders of the CAO for separate 1-day to 1-week terms.
Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting policies and making decisions. Representatives (directors/trustees) are elected among the membership and are accountable to them. In primary cooperatives, members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote); cooperatives at other levels are organized in a democratic manner.
📊 Members’ Economic Participation
- All members receive an equal share of the CAO, regardless of age of membership, economic contribution, viewership participation, or any other factor.
- Surpluses will be allocated to developing the cooperative; setting up reserves; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.
Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. At least part of that capital remains the common property of the cooperative. Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing the cooperative; setting up reserves; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.
🔔 Autonomy and Independence
- The CAO can accept changes from anybody in the world.
- The property of the CAO can be copied by anyone for nearly any purpose. People can even use it to build other things.
- Property will be licensed under the open source MIT License.
- Anyone can inspect an the CAO for errors, inconsistencies, or improvements.
Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control as well as their unique identity.
🌎 Cooperation Among Cooperative
- The organization can be distributed across local, national, regional, and international chapters.
- Anyone can copy the CAO for their own locales and across platforms and technologies.
By working together through local, national, regional and international structures, cooperatives improve services, bolster local economies, and deal more effectively with social and community needs.
