Above Photo: Flickr: Tim Green/ cooperative 1936
Great news, birdies:
Thanks to you, Twitter has a chance to become a user-owned co-op. Imagine if the “people’s news network” was democratically owned!
In April and May, Twitter shareholders will be voting on our resolution: to study the advantages of converting to democratic ownership. They’ll call the vote at the annual meeting at Twitter HQ, on May 24th or 25th. Most votes will made via proxy, especially for shareholders that have a large amount of stock in Twitter. Ideally, we win with 51% or more of the vote – and if we want to learn from this process and make a stronger proposal for 2018, we need at least 3%!
If we win this vote, Twitter will commission a report to consider a transition to a more equitable kind of shared ownership, something like the models that have made the Green Bay Packers, REI, and the Associated Press so popular, profitable, and trustworthy. Better information means better business decisions for shareholders.
Our small group of volunteer organizers has come a long way to get here. Our strategy for winning this vote is to run an awareness campaign. We’ll focus on a few big shareholders like the California pension fund, which value democratic ownership.
Want to help us win? Here’s how to get involved:
1) Follow https://twitter.com/BuyThisPlatform
2) Tweet your vision for a user-owned Twitter using #WeAreTwitter #BuyTwitter
2) Become a shareholder! You can attend the annual meeting at Twitter HQ, and vote! Buy a share of Twitter stock from a stockbroker, or take 5 minutes on https://robinhood.com or https://loyal3.com. Note: the deadline to buy stock and be counted as a shareholder is March 30th.
Want to get more involved? That’s great! This campaign goes live on Monday, April 10th. We need help building a new website, writing fresh analysis supporting our proposal, and getting featured in press and media. Please join our organizing group for a call on Wednesday, March 29th at 10am Pacific Time – RSVP at https://goo.gl/forms/36Bewf2Y64Wm2Wux2.
Excited? Have questions? Comment below, or email info@wearetwitter.global.
This small group of volunteer organizers has come a long way to get here. Thank you again for helping us get this far.
Onward!
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If you’ve been waiting to get involved in #BuyTwitter, no time like the present. I’m writing to share propose everyone does something you love that helps bring #BuyTwitter to life.
Want the short version? Here you go:
Read about how you get collaborate in this form https://goo.gl/TOjzA8, fill in your info, and Agree, Disagree, or Abstain… or block. This is less than perfect, I know, but hopefully it inspires a few of the 181 organizers here (maybe, you?)!
Want more details? Read on:
1) Notes from our call
We proposed that Twitter explore how it might convert into a user-owned co-op. Voting begins in April and end at the end of May, during the general meeting at Twitter HQ. We need at least 3% of Twitter shareholders to vote Yes. During our call, we reviewed this basic info, the Twitter shareholders we’ll target, and the strategies we’ll use to reach them. We talked about what could go wrong, and how to overcome those risks. We also shared what we feel is most important for each of us to do, outlined five areas for collaboration, and followed each other on Twitter.
2) What comes next
We’re launching our new campaign on April 10! We could really use your help with writing, web design, social media, or anything else you do well and enjoy doing.
Take 2 minutes to see what we’re working on and sign up in this form: https://goo.gl/TOjzA8
We’ll start making things happen over the weekend, and we’ll have another call next Wednesday to support each other. And please share this invite and tweet with people you believe should be included or represented in this campaign, too.
Thank you again for helping bring #BuyTwitter to life. Comment below if you have any questions!