Money isn't nearly as important issue to me as knowing why a coop is a good idea and how it would be implemented. Based on my current state of ignorance, I probably would start looking for another provider if you made this change.

To be honest, I don't understand this reasoning. A co-operative is just a company, as any other, but with the opportunity to become a member which gives you more control. Would you stop shopping at a local store just because that's a co-op? To the people that aren't interested there isn't a change, to those of us that are we can take an active rôle in shaping the direction of the company.

It seems win-win to me.

There was no reasoning in my comment for you to understand. I merely asked some questions and made a statement.

Your reply assumes I don't like co-ops. Not true. I have happily been a member of a few and I have helped run one.

In this case

ok, here comes a bit of reasoning -- all I see is a request for an infusion of money and, perhaps, some help administering the operation. Methinks, such requests are made to solve some problem. Not having noticed the problem, I find myself wondering what is going on?

Beyond what I am getting, what I want from HighSpeedRails is stability. Unexplained change of this magnitude makes me wonder whether that stability will be there. A switch to coop status without any planning as to how the coop will function merely increases my anxiety.

First off, HSR has no serious problems. A company always has some level of problems (opportunities for improvement), but HSR has none that come close to threatening its viability, IMO. The financial fundamentals are very good. We own all of our servers, which are now in one location with the best provider around. We have a whole bunch of spare machines. Cash flow is excellent. We have 400+ accounts, a lot of whom are customers that I have had the privilege for serving for a long time now.

On a change of this magnitude:

Nothing is changing (yet, at least). This is just a trial balloon to see if people are even interested. Based on the outcome of the poll, in fact, (so far) I don't think there is enough interest to proceed. I was looking for around 100 expressions of interest at least and we're at only 1/3 of that.

I think it goes without saying that, should we proceed, there will be a lot of thinking and planning and lawyers involved before final action occurs.

On the coop concept:

"A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise."

I don't know about you but I like the sound of that. The running of a coop is not much different from the running of a corporation, frankly.

Why:

Generally speaking, I think involving more people in the ownership and running of a business pays large dividends for all involved. The pie gets bigger.

Customers know what they want and need and may very well be best qualified to put it into action, or at least direct that action.

It's more likely the company will survive indefinitely as a useful service if more people are involved.

Some day I will want to exit this business. Rather than selling the business to someone who doesn't know what FOSS is all about or doesn't care about non-profits, I would like to ensure the company is in good hands with its customers. (I am one of those customers.)

I apologize for the delay in responding.

Is this monthly, quarterly, or annually?

Traditionally it's a single payment, lasting for life. I'm a member of the largest coop in the world, and have been for years after paying my £1 subscription. My father is a member of the co-operative wholesale group and has been since before decimal currency. It's more like buying shares than a subscription, except that there's a one-member-one-vote policy.

I could be interested, but cannot assign any value (price) without knowing more - what it is, how users and owners would benefit, etc. If HSR does NOT go coop does this have any implications for ongoing service. etc etc. thanks

I do not know what it is worth to me to pay without knowing the benefits / potential benefits.

Will you please provide a sample of the BENEFITS of being a co-op member that would provide a justification for paying hundreds to thousands of dollars?

Thank you, Robert

It is an interesting concept, but as others have mentioned, it is hard to gauge what level one would be interested in without knowing more. My initial reaction was $500 is too much without knowing some more details. I am familiar with access coops where neighborhoods get together to share high speed access (typically wirelessly). These coops make sense to give users a class of service they can't otherwise get.

In this case, is it getting a level of service we couldn't get elsewhere? The ability to help build it out and eventually/hopefully reap the rewards once users are added? A way to ensure cheaper than market rate service?

I would need more information before being able to say yes/no or how much shares should be valued. Like the others, I'm not clear on what the main reason or benefit would be to going co-op. Then I have questions such as how would governance be structured? Would there be an elected Board of Directors from the owners, or an appointed CEO-type? What are the implications or changes to operations (support, accounts)?

I think co-ops are successful when their members have shared community values. We probably have good agreement on those values, but they still need to be stated up-front along with the goal(s) for becoming co-op to avoid surprises.

I'm looking forward to hearing more, Roland

This is just a trial balloon to see if there is enough interest to start discussing details.

In a coop the owners make decisions about what benefits they receive. I mentioned the following in the latest newsletter:

"Each customer who chooses to become an owner of the coop would be on equal standing with all other owners, including the current ownership, and the cooperative would be run democratically. Members would likely be able to vote an owner discount and/or rebate."

Since the idea is to turn control over to the new owners, all I can do is speculate about the potential benefits.

So far, there are only 32 expressions of interest in the poll. I think we need at least 100 to proceed, so for now at least, the idea does not appear to be viable. Thanks for participating though. I'll keep watching the poll and this thread in case something changes.