Mission
IO Coöperative provides its members with technology infrastructure to sustain and enhance their professional, academic, and personal lives. We accomplish this as a member-owned and run California Consumer Coöperative.
Our members do all the work of running the co-op, from the infrastructure to the accounting.
Due to this shared responsibility of administration and operation, the members of the coöperative need to be able to know and trust each other. As a result of this need for mutual understanding and trust, some people and organizations will not be a good fit as members of the coöperative, and as a result will not be able to join.
Given that there are no resources to administer and operate the coöperative other than the members themselves, all members are expected contribute to the administration and operation of the coöperative.
Services we provide
IO Coöperative provides server co-location, network connectivity, virtual hosting, and other technology products and services to its members.
What do we mean by a coöperative?
IO Coöperative exists to offer services to our members. The money collected from members for those services goes to pay for the costs to run the co-op. These costs comprise things like the rent to the datacenters, network transit, insurance premiums, merchant fees, taxes, billing services, network hardware, cabling, etc. As our costs change over time, member pricing changes as well, because our service prices are based on our costs.
There are no paid employees. All the labor to operate the co-op is provided by its members. Crucially, this means that unlike a traditional ISP where you pay money and they provide service, with the coöperative, in addition to paying for services, our members also need to help run the co-op, since they’re the only ones who can. This assistance could be through technical operations, serving on the board of directors, financial bookkeeping, fielding member support requests, helping new members get setup, installing new servers in datacenters and other activities.
When you, as a member, need technical support, those requests may take longer to service than with other ISPs that have employees providing 24/7 support. We’re just a group of people with a common interest and a shared goal.
If you’re a member of the co-op, contact us to find out how you can help. Technical aptitude is not required as many of the tasks to run the co-op aren’t technical in nature.
If you’re not a member, but the co-op sounds like something you’d be interested in, join IO Coöperative here.
Governance
The coöperative is overseen by our five-member board and additional officers, currently:
- Kevin Bullock: CEO, Board member
- Gene Wood: CFO
- Gary Peck: Secretary, Board member
- Phil Johnson: Board member
- Mike Toth: Board member
- Ariel Celeste: Board member
You can read our Bylaws document for details on how we run the coöperative.