August 2021 Co-op Update

Hey! 

It’s been awhile since we’ve updated you all on what we’ve been up to. “Economics” is an apt theme for us to be relaunching with because in many ways, our decision to pause our editorial output last November was to study and subvert our own little economy in an attempt to try and make a change, however small, in The Big One. 

We wanted to prioritize paying writers equitably and competitively while remaining independent, community-oriented, and collectively owned. We wanted our editorial practices to reflect this goal. We needed to focus our energy on developing our cooperative from the ground up. 

And focus we did! Our Organization working group collaborated with our Steering Committee to establish a membership structure and corresponding Bylaws. The Budget working group established a financial plan to grow the cooperative sustainably. The Equity/Care working group authored a Code of Conduct to ensure that New Feeling is a safe, constructive and trauma-informed organization. 

Today, we are launching not only our new issue, but New Feeling’s two new membership classes for community stakeholders. By subscribing to New Feeling, you can join the cooperative as a Community Member or as an Advisory Member. These members become co-owners in the cooperative along with our founding Organizing members, and gain voting rights at member meetings, helping to set the direction of New Feeling going forward. This is an important step toward our goal of incorporation, and also financial sustainability. You can learn more about joining here.

Though we’re introducing the word “subscription,” we have no intention of paywalling our bimonthly issues. It’s important to us that our writing remains accessible to everyone. Subscriptions are an integral part of New Feeling’s compensation model. New Feeling’s members can find satisfaction in knowing that their dues are first and foremost dedicated to paying writers equitably. 

This relaunch only partially captures what we’d like to see from our cooperative arm and membership structure in the future. We want to grow as a community organization and intend to launch a members Discord for people to chat about local music and share their favourite writing. We will also launch a Writer Membership class which will provide access to workshops, peer mentorship, writing opportunities, and more. More information on the Writer Membership will be released in the coming months (note that Community Members will be able to switch their membership classification to Writer Member when this feature launches). 

NEW FEELING