As Campfire Coop turns 7, we celebrate another milestone in our collective journey… we’ve joined Percolab, a living lab for collaboration and cooperation.
Some of you would be aware of this growing international coop of coops that are every day, together, strengthening collaboration in the face of this socio-economic transition we’re in.
Why have we made this decision? Firstly, relationships and alignment in our work. And, we know what it's like to be experimenting in self organisation and governance that prioritises care for all, alongside impactful work. There is great strength and joy in unity and solidarity, and that is what we’ve found in Percolab. We both share a commitment to the commons, participatory practice and horizontal leadership.
We’ve been in relationship with this sister organisation for some years, and in formal exploration since July 2022. In that time our friends from Percolab Canada, Samantha Slade, Lori Palano and Paul Messer have visited Australia, and Mel Geltch and Jan Elston have spent time in Montreal, Quebec.
We have co-hosted 3 full Going Horizontal trainings in Australia, in Canberra, Sydney and the Eurobodalla coast of NSW, and 3 more one day tasters in NSW and Queensland. We’ve also attended and co-hosted a session at last year’s New Economy Network Australia (NENA) conference, been in an Art of Hosting training team together, and our team has taken on the role of hosting of Peroclab’s regular Listen For.. online community games in the Asia-Pacific. We've co-hosted a Practising for Peace dojo in Canada and Australia too.
We’re delighted to join our colleagues in France, Belgium and Canada, as the first cell in the southern hemisphere in the Percolab archipelago.
While much will stay the same, some things will change over time.
We continue to offer multi-stakeholder co-creation; event planning and facilitation; public consultation; organisational development and training and capacity building. And we have expanded resources, expertise and experience to contribute, and some exciting consolidated and new offerings here in Australia.
Over the next few months we will gradually be moving to the Percolab name, visual identity, website and more. We remain a not-for-profit cooperative registered in Queensland, working in the regions where we live and beyond.
This shift marks not only a geographical expansion, but above all the strengthening of our links, capacity and our impact.
We’ll stay in touch and expect to see some changes soon!