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Member Resources

How to fire leadership

In our cooperative, leadership works in service of its members. This page describes how that accountability is structured and what to do if members believe leadership should change.

What we mean by "leadership"

Leadership at Subvert refers to the Director and any other executives the board has appointed (the Treasurer, Secretary, and Chief Governance Officer per Bylaws Article VI). It does not refer to Worker Members generally. Workers are the people who build and run Subvert day to day; leadership is the small subset of workers in executive roles who set operational direction.

How leadership accountability works

The Subvert Co-op Board hires and can remove the Director and other executives. Members do not have the power to remove an executive directly. If members want to change leadership at the cooperative, the path is to elect a board that will make that change.

The chain of accountability runs upward:

  • Members elect the board. Each membership class elects its own directors.
  • The board hires, evaluates, and can fire leadership. This includes the Director and other appointed executives.
  • The board is accountable to members through elections and recall. If the board does not act in line with the membership's interests, members can recall directors and elect new ones.

In a traditional company, executives ultimately answer to shareholders looking for financial return. At Subvert, executives answer to a board of elected member-representatives. The chain ends with the people who use and depend on the platform, not with investors.

What to do if you believe leadership should change

The path is governance.

  • Discuss it in the Subvert Forum where workers, board members, and other members can engage with the concern directly. Most issues get worked out at this level.
  • Submit a proposal if a structural or policy change should be on the AGM ballot.
  • Run for the board on a platform of changing leadership.
  • Recall a board member if a director is acting against the membership's clearly-expressed interests.

This is the way members are ultimately in charge: not through direct command of every operational decision, but through the people they elect to oversee leadership on their behalf.

→ How to nominate or run for the board → How to recall a board member → Governance & Decision-Making