Governing Derute: How We Work in Nodes

It’s 1:04pm CST on a Friday…

Finance and Compliance Node Members, in our weekly Node meeting. From top left: Liz Drame, Dominque Duval-Diop, Cindy Clough, Emery Petchauer, Decoteau Irby, and Jeff Roman.

Six Derute members in four cities are on a video conference for our weekly 2-hour meeting to talk finances and compliance. After our Habari Gani check in, we start working on the agenda for today’s meeting. Some of the items we discuss include purchasing requests like an upgrade on our Survey Monkey subscription, debriefing the recent business meeting we led, and starting our 2021 cooperative budgeting process. We call this group of members and the governance activities they work on together a leadership-learning node. Our cooperative leadership is organized into five nodes: Communications, Membership, Continuous Improvement, Imagining and Visioning (a.k.a Do Fly Shit) and Finance and Compliance (see graphic below).

This Black Paper breaks down the structure of our cooperative leadership learning node structure and how it works for us.

HOW WE GOT TO NODES

When we established Derute Consulting Cooperative in 2014, we began with a hierarchical leadership structure with an executive board. This board set agendas for meetings and made day-to-day decisions. We created a business manager position that handled all of our operations, so members didn’t have to worry about the logistical details that kept our cooperative afloat -- or not. Though we made decisions by consensus, this structure created an inequitable distribution of labor and compromised our values of being people-centered, equity-focused, and intentionally affirming and supportive for Black and all people of color. After four years in this executive model, we came to understand the ways it was holding us back from who we wanted to be as a cooperative. We were nervous about a change, but we jumped into a leadership-learning node structure. 

The Derute Leadership Node visual model.

WHAT IS A NODE AND WHAT DOES IT DO?

A leadership-learning node is an interdependent group of 3 or more members who manage a collectively determined set of business operations on behalf of our full membership.

Rather than packing nodes with expertise, members with varying levels of experience in a particular area make up a node. This mix of expertise grows capacity for learning and creates continuity of knowledge across the cooperative. To ensure stewardship, openness, and transparency, any cooperative member can attend any node meeting whether they are a member of the node or not. They can review meeting notes, offer comments, and communicate in nodes’ digital channels. 

All members participate in at least two nodes. On an annual basis, typically during our annual meeting/retreat, we consider the function of each node, individual member interests and goals, and cooperative-wide goals. We then make changes to node membership based upon these deliberations. 

Nodes lead particular areas of governance work through structure, routines, and independent practices. In addition, nodes take responsibility for leading cooperative-wide monthly meetings. This is the work our executive committee used to do. By leading monthly meetings around their focus, nodes facilitate learning, decision making, and idea generation for the whole cooperative membership. 

HOW DO NODES WORK AS A SYSTEM?

Derute leadership node network system.

Our five nodes interact and influence one another in different ways. Because members are on at least two nodes, ideas and information flow between nodes. For example, the Membership node has an inroad to Communications because they share members. The same goes for all nodes. When we make decisions, we try to bring in the concerns and priorities of other nodes. Relational ties among members are also in play. Some of us have been in community with one another long before Derute. For others, Derute initiated our relationship. Working together in nodes strengthens relational ties across the cooperative, and relational ties support cooperation on our consulting projects. 

TENSIONS WITH NODE SYSTEM

Though our node routines aspire toward equity and cooperative values, we still exist within a broader capitalistic and hierarchical society. These intersecting systems of oppression challenge our node system and create tensions we find ourselves living through together. 

One of these tensions is around how the non-hierarchical openness of nodes creates the possibility for uneven levels of knowledge among cooperative members. As we said above, the doors to nodes remain open. But systems of oppression rob women and people of color of their time. As a result, white and male-identified members of the cooperative (who are in the minority) may have more time to stay abreast of the inner workings of nodes they are not members of. Uneven knowledge means the potential for uneven decision-making power even while working in a consensus-based system.  

Another tension within our node system is how essential some nodes are to Derute’s basic existence. This tension happens most often with our Finance & Compliance node. There are business certification, tax, and other legal requirements we must meet across multiple states in order to exist as a business. If the money doesn’t move, bills don’t get paid — and neither do we. This creates the potential perception that Finance and Compliance members have an oversized influence on the direction of the cooperative — or the potential that they actually might. 

A final tension comes from the uneven levels of work across nodes, how this work happens, and the impact on member wellness. Some nodes meet weekly with all node members in a collaborative session to keep essential work moving forward. Other nodes check-in biweekly with node members working more independently between. These different ways that nodes look and operate are a response to the unequal distribution of responsibilities in a one-size-fits all model. 

“As a whole, our node structure and routines force us to experience conflicts. These conflicts are a product of the ways we aspire for a cooperative, racially equitable system that opposes the systems of oppression we live through. ”

By integrating continuous improvement approaches in all we do, our governance approach is one that requires remix in order to live out our cooperative values and broader aspiration toward freedom.

Rethink Your Resources: The Origin Story of Derute

“Derute emerged from our attempt to forge a community of abundance and affirmation, and remains ongoing. We are still creating our Black space, grounding in our values, ideas, language, beliefs and dreams.”

I climbed the scuffed stairs to the second floor of Trails Café, heading into my weekly writing session with Decoteau. He arrived early and nabbed the corner. He pulled two small tables together to make a bigger one. And he saved me a chair with four stable legs. We were there again, spending our Black dollars in an establishment that wasn’t our own. Our candid conversations about race and racism depended on who sat at the table next to us. This day we were in our corner. We checked in with each other as usual. But, for some reason, we started griping about how frustrating it was to spend $4.50 each for Moroccan Mint teas to send a white family’s white children to college. Tea, sandwich, soups. Tuition. All the while, we were in the corner to escape white ears. We needed our own space. We had discussed Decoteau’s experiences starting a consulting business before, but not in detail. “Think about the books we all have. What if we had our own cafe and reading room. Such and such makes tea blends. Such and such could provide and sell art in the space. Such and such could set up the space. Such and such could curate performances.” The more I listened, the more I was convinced. So I said “Let’s do it.”

“We were there again, spending our Black dollars in an establishment that wasn’t our own....We needed our own space.”

Three months later, we were in my Milwaukee home. We invited 15 really dope Black families to a vision session. While invited guests feasted on a potluck style dinner laid out on our dining room table, we described a district, North of Downtown Milwaukee, where we would cluster Black cooperative owned businesses of all types. Artists cooperatives, professional services cooperatives, food cooperatives, would all be located in a well-defined geographic region of the city. “Nodomi will be a space for Black economic and social development that leverages the every-day assets we know are in our communities,” we said. “We have to start with one space and build from there. We think the people who can build that space are in this room.” We painted broad strokes and then asked people for feedback: “What do you think? Are we crazy?” If we were, the people we invited were crazy right alongside us. 

“We said yes to everything. Wellness and retreat center. Yeeesss. Micro-hotel. Yeeesss. Farm and food-to-table restaurant. Yeeesss.”

For the next two hours, we imagined. We shared. And we affirmed one another. We sat in a circle imagining and stretching the Nodomi idea into a more expansive yet refined possibility that would benefit the children who bounced between the living room and basement. Nodomi would serve the community where we gathered that evening. We said yes to everything. Wellness and retreat center. Yeeesss. Micro-hotel. Yeeesss. Farm and food-to-table restaurant. Yeeesss. Where the news media saw high unemployment, high crime statistics, high poverty rates, large food deserts and abandoned buildings, we saw potential. When we drove down streets in the north side of Milwaukee like North Avenue or Lisbon Avenue or MLK Drive, Decoteau said things like, “That building is perfect. Look at the cream brick! This whole block is great.”

In my home, we all named buildings, described land, and imagined ourselves cultivating, thriving, building, and connecting within these imagined places. Decades of disinvestment and neglect dimmed our imaginations. The available resources were hard to see. We needed to make them visible. And we needed to document all these dope dreams. We needed the resistance in our circle of people to persist. So after the potluck meeting, we invited everyone who attended to participate in a “Commitment Query” meeting.

We are thankful to have your interest in Nodomi Cooperative for Creative Exchange. We are currently scheduling meetings for our "Commitment Query." These one-on-one meetings are a critical next step that will help us determine what we collectively have at our disposal to make Nodomi a reality as well as help us get an accurate sense of what needs remain. The conversation will focus on three questions: What can you offer the coop? How do you wish to personally benefit from joining? What concerns do you have about moving forward?

We visited each person who agreed. The conversations allowed us to see how each individual's aspirations, ideas, and dreams fit into a larger whole. We listened and probed: Say more about that idea? Talk us through what that would look like? What would you need, concretely, to make your Wellness Spa work? How big do you imagine the performance space would be? Now, what do you need? A space. Marketing. Digital design support. A stronger sense of community. What are you willing to share or pool within the collective in exchange for having those needs met?

• “I am finishing my training to become a Yoga instructor.”

• “I can contribute $50 per week.”

• “I used to live in a housing cooperative. So I understand consensus-based decision making.”

• “I have experience in natural healing and herbal medicines.”

• “I have three laptops that I don’t use much …  oh and a printer too.”

• “I paint.”

• “I make music.”

• “I knit.”

• “I sit on the board of my neighborhood business association and they know how to identify resources to purchase city land and buildings with delinquent taxes.”

Decoteau and I feverishly took notes as each family described their dreams, discussed their needs, and committed their vast resources. By the third conversation, we started calling them dream aloud sessions.

“There were so many ideas. So many dreams. So many needs that could be met. The collective was far better resourced than any one individual. ”

We pooled the ideas, resources, and needs and presented them back to the collective. There were so many ideas. So many dreams. So many needs that could be met. The collective was far better resourced than any one individual. Whereas, one person could contribute $50 per week to start, collectively, we could contribute $11,000. Definitely more than a bank would loan a startup Black business! Collectively, we possessed resources in many areas including, marketing, copy editing, research, website design, fundraising, event planning, e-commerce, equipment and time. We collectively agreed to make our first priority a multi-purpose space that would include an African restaurant, a retail space to sell products from the African Diaspora, a health and wellness center, and an education consulting hub focused on racial justice oriented workshops. To start-up, we formed exploration committees that allowed each person to contribute their knowledge and skills to the collective. We went to work. But soon after, our dream of North of Downtown Milwaukee Cooperative for Creative Exchange dissipated. What we envisioned never materialized. But within Nodomi, a small group never lost sight of the experience and the lessons we could learn from them. We wanted a better table.

Derute Consulting Cooperative is the educational consulting group we identified through the dream aloud inventory process. Derute emerged from our attempt to forge a community of abundance and affirmation, and remains ongoing. We are still creating our Black space, grounding in our values, ideas, language, beliefs and dreams. Decoteau and I continue to write together. But our table is no longer tucked away in a coffee shop or cafe. My table is in our Derute Milwaukee headquarters. Decoteau’s is at the Derute Chicago Creator’s Lab. Our tables are bigger. Big enough for Dominique, Laura, Cindy, and other Derute members to sit and write with us. Big enough for all of us to dream aloud. If we didn’t have our different tables, we wouldn’t have shouted and laughed aloud when it dawned on us, “We ain’t trying to do no White papers. A white paper?? Nah, we need to write Black papers!” The journey hasn’t been without its challenges. There is no day spa. There is no farm. We don’t own the buildings where our offices are housed.

But we ain’t at Trails Café.