Payment of the CPO Staff

Middle- and Long-Term Payment

The companies which are part or fully owned by the CPO are expected to make a profit, which in part or full will be available to meet the costs incurred running the CPO, including salaries of staff, which can be employed on a normal basis (i.e. according to local law and custom).

Managing the Start-Up Phase

Due to its effective nature – in classical business terminology – as a holding or investment company, the CPO side of a ReeComm will only have appreciable funds to cover its running costs as time progresses and the profits of companies in which a ReeComm has invested become available.

Whereas a limited amount of voluntary, unpaid work is required on all topics needed to get a whole ReeComm up and running, it would be neither realistic nor fair to expect anyone to perform unpaid work for perhaps two to three years, performing the many daily tasks needed to run a ReeComm. The CPO may have limited revenues such as initial and yearly ReeComm-Membership fees (if the ReeComm is founded as a cooperative), but initial fees, if not trivial, should be used for investment purposes.

Note that this situation does not directly apply to the market community, which has its own fees, potentially available to cover costs as soon as it is up and running. However, it would not be fair to pay those working for the market community while those who work for the CPO receive nothing; obviously, an equitable solution must be found.

So what does this leaves us with which could be used to "pay" those who do the work?

1. Annual ReeComm-Membership fees (normally in national currency);
2. The fees collected running the market community,
   some of which may be in national currency, but most of which will be in Groks;
3. Claims on future profits of the CPO – conditional on there being such a profit which could be distributed.

1) Annual membership fees will normally hardly even cover the real running costs of the CPO, even if the ReeComm finds a cost-free initial solution for office space; costs like stationary, telephone, DSL, PCs, internet-hosting, travel costs etc. must still be met.

2) If we assume that the market community can afford its own material costs via its own fees, still only (some of the) fees charged in Groks would realistically remain available for distribution, and would not be adequate to fairly remunerate all work put in to running a ReeComm – or if the fees were set so high as to suffice, this would represent a cross-financing of the CPO from the market community.

3) This leaves only the idea of claims on future yield – obviously, only redeemable to the extent to which a profit is actually made. We have envisaged the idea of gathering points for work performed, which could have more uses than simply being claims on possible future profit, and thus become quite attractive:

Activity Point System

By mutual agreement of all those active in the budding ReeComm, work performed will be noted by the worker (e.g. in hours) and submitted to the organisation team for (optional vetting and) entry into a points accounting system. The value of an activity point should be par with the value of the Grok, to simplify accounting. Activity points could then be used in a number of ways:

• As direct payment (instead of Groks) for certain approved offers in the market community. These could typically be courses for personal growth and the promotion of interpersonal skills. We have mentioned these aspects as central to this concept, both ethically and in respect of social sustainability; this option allows us to promote them explicitly.
• As a means for a Grok credit facility: The points would be deposited (transferred to a reserved personal account) and the persons Grok credit limit increased by the same amount (or e.g. by 50% or 80% of that amount). This is conform with the Groks construction as a trustworthy currency, because the work performed adds to the value of the ReeComm.
• When a surplus is available for distribution, (part of) it can be offered for optional payout of activity points in national currency and/or Groks.
• At a later stage, when the ReeComm is larger, as a way to prioritise allocation of resources such as rented apartments belonging to the ReeComm.
• At an even later stage, as a claim for provision of ones needs in old age.

No doubt other creative ideas for the use of activity points can be found and put into practice as time goes on. Obviously some relationships in the above suggestions, in particular how many points to allocate per hour worked, would require the approval of a General Meeting of the CPO.

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