r/cooperatives

Nura governance/structure
▲ 79 r/cooperatives+2 crossposts

Nura governance/structure

How Nura Works, and Why It Works Differently

There is no shortage of communities built on beautiful ideas that collapsed the moment real humans showed up with real needs, real egos, and real bad days.

Nura is not naive about this.

What follows is not a utopian promise. It is a practical framework built from decades of watching what fails, what fractures, and what quietly, stubbornly holds.

The work nobody sees

Every community needs someone willing to do the work that nobody else wants to do.

Not the glamorous work. Not the visible work. The other kind, the government forms, the banking, the insurance, the outside world that doesn't speak our language and doesn't particularly want to learn it. The budgeting. The PR. The phone calls. The paperwork that arrives on the worst possible day.

At Nura, that work belongs to the Founder. Not because one person knows best but because someone has to carry it, and with that responsibility comes a voice in how things unfold.

Not a throne. A desk. A very full inbox. And a vote, one voice among several, not above them.

Three generations, one table

Nura is built around a simple observation: no single generation has everything a community needs.

The 20 to 40 year olds bring physical energy, fresh eyes, technological fluency, and an idealism that hasn't yet been ground down. 

The 40 to 60 year olds bring experience, established skills, and the practical knowledge of what actually works versus what merely sounds good. 

The 60 and older bring wisdom, patience, perspective accumulated over decades, and the long view that younger generations are still earning.

Each needs what the others have. None can fully thrive without the others.

So Nura's governing structure reflects this. Three demographic representatives, nominated or elected by their peers, who meet regularly with the Founder to bring forward the community's needs, concerns, and ideas. Daily when necessary. Weekly at minimum.

Everyone has a vote. Including the Founder. 

How decisions actually get made

Nura does not govern by majority vote.

Majority voting sounds democratic. In practice it produces winners and losers, factions and resentments, and the slow erosion of the WE into competing MEs.

Instead, Nura uses a simpler and more honest question:

"Can you live with this?"

Not "do you agree." Not "is this your first choice." Simply, can you live with this decision, knowing it serves the whole even if it isn't exactly what you wanted?

A decision moves forward unless someone has a principled objection. Meaning it genuinely violates a core Nura value, not simply a personal preference. That distinction matters enormously and filters out most conflicts before they begin.

Joining takes time, on purpose

Nura asks for one year before full membership is confirmed.

Not because we are suspicious. Because we are honest.

A year allows the community to know you. Not the version of yourself you present on the best day of your life, but the version that shows up tired, frustrated, and tested by a hard winter. And it allows you to know us, the climate, the rhythm, the work, the people, and whether all of it genuinely fits who you are and who you want to become.

Both parties are evaluating. Both parties have the right to say this is not the right fit  without judgment and without shame.

That said, Nura is a living system, not a rigid one. Exceptional circumstances exist. When they do, and when the community largely agrees, exceptions can be made. Life does not always wait for proper timing.

What is non-negotiable: anyone who builds on Nura land before full membership is confirmed does so with the understanding that should they choose to leave, their equity remains within the community, either absorbed or sold back at the community's terms. The land and what sits on it serves the whole. Always.

Knowing how Nura works is only half the picture.

The other half is who Nura is actually for  and how we find each other.

That's next.

Good Thought. Good Words. Good Deeds.

u/Acrobatic_Fly_7513 — 22 hours ago
▲ 64 r/cooperatives+5 crossposts

“If you were designing a new experimental community from scratch, what planning mistakes would you expect us to make?”

All thoughts welcome.

reddit.com
u/learnie121 — 2 days ago

Would being part of a coop reduce stress levels of workers?

A few years back myself and several of my colleagues lost our long-term jobs suddenly due to budget cut backs at the organisation we were working at.

Fast forward to now and several of the folks are struggling to find stable work.

I seemed to have lucked out and have been able to be gainfully employed since then but it hasn’t been without its ups and downs.

I’m wondering, do folks that work in coops feel less concern about losing their job? Assuming we’re taking about honest hard workers that turn up regularly and always put in their best effort.

I’m thinking that if this is the case, coops might contribute to lower stress levels in society simply due to the fact that people would feel more like they are part of a supportive work-focussed community rather than a disposable cog in someone else’s machine.

I suppose however there is also the economic reality that if the coop has a lean period or experiences a downturn then everyone’s income might need to reduce for a while. I guess that would contribute to increased stress levels in some cases?

Would love to hear about the experiences and feelings of people working in coops themselves…

reddit.com
u/dannydb — 2 days ago
▲ 26 r/cooperatives+2 crossposts

TX Electric Co OPs back to the future

Texas electric co-ops have been around since the 1930s and started with loans provided from the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 that started the project up. These co-ops are still functioning here in TX and operate in 241 of the 254 TX counties. These co-ops own and maintain 340,000 miles of electric wire in the state compared to Centerpoint's 60,000 miles. It is easy to see that the TX co-ops know what needs to be done to keep electricity flowing to homes all through out all 268,000+ sq miles of Texas.

Time to break up privately owned utility business model and bring the 7 cooperative principles to all areas of Texas. These co-ops are a proven business model and these 7 cooperative principles should be available to all Texans here in 2026. In 1935 when the first electric wires were being strung for the folks that lived in rural areas, the power companies in Houston, San Antonio and Austin all proclaimed that communism will be spread down the electric lines along with the electricity. Profiteers have been around way before that Judas guy ever appeared on the scene.

Voluntary and Open Membership

Democratic Member Control

Members' Economic Participation

Autonomy and Independence

Education, Training and Information

Cooperation Among Cooperatives

Concern for Community

https://texas-ec.org/about/history/

u/Brnhtwn — 6 days ago

EMMA Technology Cooperative

Ramsey Nassar, Gwen Pasquarello, and Andy Wallace at EMMA Technology Cooperative have spent five years as a worker-owned co-op building software and hardware for video games, theater, public installation, and media arts. And theme parks. And custom programming languages. And a nonprofit arcade collective. They're thriving. 

youtube.com
u/coopnewsguy — 6 days ago

Cooperatives and Social Transformation

Usually, cooperatives are created by people as a reaction to specific, most often local, conditions. Through their joint action individuals show collective or social agency and the conviction that they must work together to pursue their shared interests. In this way, each new cooperative is an experiment and an attempt to change and innovate.

geo.coop
u/coopnewsguy — 9 days ago
▲ 18 r/cooperatives+1 crossposts

How Journalists and Readers Started a Media Co-op in Pittsburgh

This week, workers and community supporters launched the Pittsburgh Progress, “a cooperative news organization, owned and democratically run by its workers and members… dedicated to looking out for, and telling the stories of, the working-class people who form the heart and soul of our diverse communities.” 

youtube.com
u/coopnewsguy — 9 days ago

Can worker control guide the world past a neoliberal crisis?

Workers’ self-management is on the rise, as a response to recurring neoliberal crises: this is the central argument in a new book co-authored by Professor Dario Azzellini, senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology, University of Duisburg-Essen...

thenews.coop
u/coopnewsguy — 13 days ago

How Do Yall Feel About Housing Cooperatives?

Hey yall, just wanted to see if anyone knows a good r/ for housing cooperatives, specifically group equity

Would love to chat about the concept with anyone down to talk - I lived in one for the past 4 years, and want to start a new one in the city I'm now living

reddit.com
u/Significant-Leg-9099 — 14 days ago
▲ 60 r/cooperatives+1 crossposts

Charles River Food Co-op surpasses 1,000 member-owners, earns national award

I'm excited about this! Their business plan requires 2,000 regular shoppers (i.e. coop members) and they are more than half way there.

figcitynews.com
u/Inevitable-Method610 — 14 days ago