Principles for Membership CooperativesEvery MC formulates a set of principles to guide how it achieves its purpose. Hock defines a principle as follows: "By principle I mean a behavioural aspiration of the community: a clear, unambiguous statement of a fundamental belief about how the whole and all its parts intend to conduct themselves in pursuit of the purpose. A principle is a rule against which all structures, decisions, actions, and results will be judged."Here are five examples of principles the former VISA had in place [documented as goals in this StratML rendition]Joost MinnaarJM_db170e08-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea00Co-founder Corporate Rebels. My daily focus is on research, writing and anything else related to making work more fun.Membership Cooperatives (MC)In MCs ownership and participation of members are forever linked with the goal to focus thinking and actions of different members on the performance of the whole organization—not just their individual performance.In MCs, clear membership qualifications are set by a Board, but after that any organization meeting those criteria has to be allowed membership. Clear rules of membership fees and voting rights are needed. These are often related to the amount of added value a member generates for the MC.Moreover, members are not required, nor are they be forced, to purchase services from the MC. As such, the MC is motivated to innovate and stay relevant to earn services fees. Simply, the MC is forced to be supportive of members, and not the other way around.There are some interesting concepts that make an MC work:* Set of principles* Collection of meta-rules* Fractal organizational structure* Fractal governance process* Cooperative competition* Dispute resolution processDee HockHock was the founding force, and CEO Emeritus, of VISA – the worldwide credit card company millions of people rely on daily. Membership Cooperatives that work_db170ff2-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea00To state how the whole and all its parts intend to conduct themselves in pursuit of their purposes._db1710e2-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea00PrinciplesRules against which structures, decisions, actions, and results will be judged.FractalismFractal organizational structure -- The organizational structure of MCs is not based on a traditional hierarchy, but is inspired by fractal structures found in nature. These structures follow self-similar, fractal patterns and are seen in flowers, trees, plants—even droplets, streams, rivers, waterfalls, mountains, and coastlines. In nature, fractals repeat a pattern at different scales.OwnershipShare ownership of the organization equitably among all participants._db17131c-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea001OwnersThe organization must be equitably owned by all participants.This means that ownership of the organization should be in the form of irrevocable rights of participation. This also means there will be no stock. The rights of participation should not be raided, traded or sold. They should only be acquired by application and acceptance by means of membership._db171402-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea00Power & FunctionsDistribute power and function._db1714d4-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea002Power and function must be distributive to the maximum degree.This means that there should be no power vested in, or function performed by, any part of the organization that could reasonably be exercised by any more peripheral part._db17159c-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea00AuthorityDistribute authority within each governing entity._db1787de-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea003Governing EntitiesAuthority must be distributed within each governing entity.This means that governance should be distributed, with no individual institution, particularly management, able to dominate deliberations or control decisions at any scale._db1788ce-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea00OrganizationSelf organize._db1789aa-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea004The organization must be self-organizing.This means that participants should have the right to self-organize at any time, for any reason, and at any scale with irrevocable rights of participation in governance at any greater scale._db178a72-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea00Cooperation & CompetitionBlend cooperation and competition._db178b44-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea005The organization must seamlessly blend cooperation and competition.This means all parts of the organization should be free to compete in unique, independent ways, yet able to yield self-interest and co-operate when necessary for the good of the whole._db178c8e-e0a2-11ea-af7c-a4b12f83ea002020-08-152020-08-17https://corporate-rebels.com/atlas-visa/OwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net