Our co op group has experienced tremendous growth in a short period of time. We are experiencing some growing pains, such as differences in policies and leadership decisions and we are at maximum capacity for our facility. Is there a happy, healthy way for a group to split into amicable, cooperative sister groups? Should we cap our membership instead?
Communicate With Members
As you explore your options, make sure to include your members. Making changes to groups is challenging, regardless of the type of group. If your co op has been successful in creating a sense of community and leadership orchestrates the split, there may be hard feelings among the members. Make sure to let members know as early as possible that your campus is approaching being at capacity and that you’re exploring options, such as capping membership or splitting your group. As you ask for their feedback, you may be surprised to find members who are interested in a different co op location or meeting on a different day or time. Keeping them involved and informed will help ease your transition.
Capping Membership
Capping membership by limiting the number of members that can enroll in your co op may be the easiest thing to do when you have reached capacity, but it may involve managing a balancing act to manage the number of students you have within a particular age range, as families join and leave your co op.
Splitting Groups
There are three critical elements to consider as you evaluate whether splitting your group is possible.
- What kind of space is available? Same location, different day? Different location, different day?
- Do you have leadership who can run either a separate campus or another day at the same campus?
- Do you have members who would be interested in moving to the newly created co op or will you be starting a second location from scratch.
If you have space and leadership, the next component you’ll need to consider is how to begin enrolling families for your new space. I’d present it as being full in this space/time so you need to expand and explain your options. Talk to your members. Ask if any of them would be interested in helping a small fledgling venture get started because your only other alternative is to cap. Then let them help you create the expansion. If that comes together, you can present it as an option to your current families. They get first pick of signing up for the new venture and then you’ll open it to new members. The ideas are self-selection and co-creation, no one has to move.
A Third Alternative
Sometimes leaders will be aware of members who are talking about starting their own co op. If that’s the case, see if you can embrace and support these folks to do just that as a way to solve the problem.
The Bottom Line
If at any point, you don’t have sufficient interest, then you cap. The result is that it was not simply a decision by leadership. Everyone can see that leadership did their best to avoid capping, but it couldn’t be helped.
