The Kola Nut Collaborative

08/17/2026

⏰ STARTING TOMORROW — 20 SEATS REMAIN!

What does it take to share power without getting stuck?

Tomorrow, Governance for Liberation: Holding Decisions, Power, and Agreement Online begins—a six-session, 12-hour exploration of Sociocracy and democratic governance with Mike Strode and Alex Rodríguez.

📅 August 18 & 21, 25 & 28; September 1 & 4
⏰ 12–2 PM CT
💻 Online
🪑 20 seats remain

We’ll explore consent-based decision-making, circles and roles, distributed authority, feedback, meeting practices, and the deeper questions of power and participation underneath the tools.

This is for cooperatives, nonprofits, grassroots groups, mutual aid networks, collaborative teams—and anyone asking:

How do we organize ourselves today in ways that reflect the world we’re trying to build?

No prior Sociocracy experience required.

➡️ Registration closes soon: https://bit.ly/sociocracy-online

08/01/2026

How do we build organizations that share power without getting stuck?

Many of us are building cooperatives, nonprofits, mutual aid networks, movement organizations, community projects, and online communities rooted in democratic values. But eventually every group encounters the same questions:

• How do we actually make decisions together?
• What happens when people disagree?
• How do we distribute authority without creating confusion?
• How can we collaborate effectively across Zoom, email, chat, and online platforms?

This fall, Alex Rodríguez and Mike Tekh Strode are excited to offer a new 12-hour virtual learning intensive exploring these questions together.

Governance for Liberation: Making Decisions, Sharing Power & Agreeing Online

📅 August 18, 21, 25, 28 & September 1, 4
🕛 12:00–2:00 PM Central (2 hours each session)

Together we’ll explore practical approaches to democratic governance informed by sociocracy, consent decision-making, cooperative practice, facilitation, and years of experience supporting organizations working toward more participatory ways of collaborating.

This isn’t simply a workshop about meetings.

It’s about building organizations that can learn together, navigate disagreement, distribute leadership, and make decisions that move meaningful work forward.

Whether you’re part of a cooperative, nonprofit, mutual aid network, grassroots organization, online community, or simply curious about more democratic ways of working together, we’d love to have you join us.

Sliding-scale registration is available so that cost is not the primary barrier to participation.

We hope you’ll join us—and please share with someone who’s trying to build healthier, more democratic organizations.

Register here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/governance-for-liberation-holding-decisions-power-and-agreement-online

07/14/2026

🌱 How does your group make decisions?

Most of us have experienced it.

Meetings that run too long.
The same few people carrying most of the responsibility.
Important decisions getting revisited.
Unclear roles.
Consensus that feels impossible.
Voting that leaves people feeling unheard.

What if there were practical ways to make collective work more effective—without sacrificing participation?

Join us for The Power of the Circle: Dynamic Governance for Groups, a three-hour interactive workshop exploring practical tools for shared leadership, democratic decision-making, and collaborative governance.

Together we’ll explore:
✨ Consent-based decision making
✨ Shared power and distributed leadership
✨ Clearer roles and responsibilities
✨ Better meetings and healthier collaboration
✨ Small governance practices you can begin using right away

Whether you’re part of a nonprofit, cooperative, neighborhood group, mutual aid project, grassroots organization, faith community, board, or an emerging initiative, this workshop is designed to meet you where you are.

📅 Sunday, August 16, 2026
🕛 12:00–3:00 PM
📍 Joy Bomb Social Center (Northwest Indiana)

Presented by The Kola Nut Collaborative and Joy Bomb Social Center
Facilitated by Mike Strode

🔗 Register: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/power-of-the-circle-practicing-shared-power-in-groups

A sliding-scale registration is available, including a hybrid option combining financial contribution with local Northwest Indiana timebank credits.

Come with your team, bring your governance questions, and leave with practical ideas you can begin experimenting with immediately.

07/14/2026

🌿 What if your community’s greatest resource isn’t money—but the people already around you?

Join us for the next Time Salon: A Monthly Mixer & Timebank Orientation, where we’ll explore how timebanking, mutual aid, and reciprocity can help us build stronger neighborhoods and more connected communities.

Our last Time Salon sparked so many thoughtful questions and conversations that we’ve expanded this gathering to 90 minutes, giving us more time to connect, explore, and exchange.

📅 Tuesday
🕔 5:00–6:30 PM CT
🔗 Register: https://luma.com/kolanutcollab

During the Time Salon we’ll:
✨ Meet new people and strengthen community connections
✨ Learn the history and values of timebanking
✨ Explore offers and needs through an interactive exchange
✨ Discover how timebanking supports mutual aid, solidarity economy, and community resilience
✨ Learn how to join Chicago’s free community timebank

Whether you’re curious about timebanking, looking to meet like-minded neighbors, or searching for practical ways to strengthen your community, we’d love to have you with us.

Membership in the Kola Nut Collaborative Timebank is free for Chicago-area residents, and everyone is welcome to attend the Time Salon.

A space to socialize, interact, and explore how we spend or share our time. During the Time Salon, we uncover the history of time exchange, bartering and early…

07/14/2026

🌿 A new chapter begins.

The Kola Nut Collaborative is excited to relaunch our monthly gathering as the Southeast Community Peace Circle—a welcoming space for conversation, reflection, and authentic connection.

Each month, we’ll gather in circle to share stories, practice deep listening, grow empathy, and strengthen the relationships that help our neighborhoods thrive. Whether you’re carrying joy, grief, curiosity, uncertainty, or simply a desire to connect, you are welcome here.

No previous circle experience is necessary. Come as you are.

📅 Thursday, July 16, 2026
🕠 5:30–7:30 PM
📍 FEOM Expressions
2650 E. 83rd Street, Chicago

This gathering marks the beginning of a new chapter as we expand our vision from South Shore to the broader Southeast Chicago community. Together, we’ll continue cultivating belonging, trust, and community resilience—one conversation at a time.

Come by yourself or bring a friend. What story do you need to bring to the circle?

Trust that the circle is capable of holding our stories.

🔗 Register through our Luma page - https://luma.com/kolanutcollab

06/18/2026

📚🚨 Fresh Books Have Arrived at The Little Red Book Box! 🚨📚

The Little Red Book Box on 97th Street between Chappel and Merrill, across from Merrill Park, just received a fresh donation of books from a visitor to the neighborhood—and some of these titles have traveled all the way from Evanston before finding a new home here in Jeffery Manor.

This latest collection includes something for readers of all ages:

📖 Children's books like Ruby Bridges Goes to School and Marie Antoinette

🎨 Coloring books including The Night Before Christmas and Santa's Big Surprise

🌿 Wellness and personal growth titles like The Art of Reflexology and Eating Feet

✍🏾 Poetry and literary works, including a recent issue of Poetry Magazine and The Inheritance by Wendell Etherly

💜 Self-help and reflection journals

🎬 Even a few quirky and unexpected finds from decades past!

One of the joys of Little Free Libraries is that books become travelers. A title that begins on a shelf in Evanston can spark curiosity, inspiration, or conversation here in South Deering. Every book has a journey—and now these stories are ready for their next chapter.

Whether you're looking for a summer read, a book for a child, a little inspiration, or simply a reason to take a walk through the neighborhood, stop by and see what's waiting for you.

📍 The Little Red Book Box
97th Street between Chappel & Merrill
Across from Merrill Park

📚 Take a book. Leave a book. Share a story.

05/25/2026

🌿 The Time Salon Returns 🌿

The Kola Nut Collaborative is relaunching the Time Salon — a monthly mixer & timebank orientation designed to help us reconnect through reciprocity, mutual aid, and collective care.

📅 Tuesday, May 26th
🕔 5 PM – 6 PM CT
🔁 Every 4th Tuesday of the month

Register here:
https://luma.com/sycem0xr

You can always find upcoming gatherings on our calendar:
https://kolanutcollab.org/calendar/

What is timebanking?
How did communities exchange support before modern money systems?
What happens when we begin valuing people not by income, but by time, skills, care, and presence?

During the Time Salon, we explore:
✨ timebanking & solidarity economy
✨ communal asset mapping
✨ offers & needs exchange
✨ mutual aid & social connection
✨ relationship-centered alternatives to isolation and scarcity

This is not just a lecture — it’s a facilitated social experience where participants interact, reflect, and begin weaving stronger community safety nets together.

Whether you’re new to timebanking, active in organizing, or simply looking for meaningful community, you are welcome here.

Hosted by The Kola Nut Collaborative
Chicago’s community timebank

05/17/2026

Something meaningful happened at Governance for Liberation.

Over the course of the gathering, we explored governance not simply as structure or procedure, but as culture, relationship, responsibility, and practice. We wrestled with the tensions between participation and effectiveness, autonomy and accountability, clarity and emergence. We spoke honestly about power — both the ways it concentrates and the ways it can be redistributed through intentional design.

What stood out most was the willingness of people to bring their lived organizational realities into the room:
✨ burnout and over-functioning
✨ unclear authority and invisible labor
✨ the challenge of feedback and accountability
✨ longing for structures that feel more human, adaptive, and liberatory

There was deep curiosity around consent decision-making, circles, feedback loops, role clarity, and the cultural shifts required to move from “power-over” toward “power-with.” We also named an important truth: governance change is not just structural — it is personal, relational, and developmental work.

A few reflections that landed with the room:
• “Good enough for now, safe enough to try.”
• Feedback as a form of collective care.
• Governance as something living and continually evolving.
• The reminder that we don’t need perfection to begin experimenting together.

Grateful to everyone who showed up with honesty, questions, skepticism, courage, and imagination.

We harnessed the challenge at the outset, which naturally softened as we opened ourselves up to it, to build towards change in real time.

This gathering was not meant to be the end of the conversation. More follow-up opportunities will be coming soon for those who expressed interest in:
🌱 1:1 support
🌱 a community of practice
🌱 additional integration and implementation spaces

We’re just getting started.

And so much gratitude to our values-aligned space host, FEOM Expressions, who helped us to set the culture before our practice event began. Get yourself over to this gem on the southeast side and take in the experience. You will probably decide to buy something, but it won't even be the most interesting part of your journey.

04/26/2026

We’re still feeling the energy from the Shaping Change Facilitator Festival.

What happened wasn’t just a well-run event.

It was something else.

A space where:

* People stepped into facilitation—even if they weren’t sure they were “ready”
* Conversations prioritized listening over performance
* Connection felt real, not transactional

In reflection, people were willing to be in an experiment together.

And that’s what made it work.

The Offers & Needs space flowed.
The keynote conversation felt alive.
And the room held something that’s hard to manufacture—trust, curiosity, and presence.

We’re realizing this is no longer just an event.

It’s an evolving practice.
A format that can travel.
A seed that can spread.

And we’re just getting started 🌱

If you were there, thank you for co-creating it.

If you missed it, there will be another.

Stay tuned to Kola Nut Collaborative for what’s next.

04/17/2026

We’re down to 7 seats left for Saturday.

And I’m really excited about where we’ll be gathering:

FEOM Expressions

A space rooted in culture, creativity, and community—honestly the kind of place that feels aligned with the work we’re doing around governance and collective leadership.

If you’ve been seeing my posts or videos and thinking about it… this is the moment.

🌿 Governance for Liberation: Between Solidarity & Sociocracy
🗓 April 18 | 10am–4pm | Chicago

This training isn’t just about structure.

It’s about:
• how we make decisions without getting stuck
• how we share power without burning out
• how we actually listen to each other in moments of tension

I’ll be bringing tools like:
• consent-based decision making
• roles + circle structures
• generative listening
• feelings + needs work (yes, that’s governance too)

Because when someone says “I object” or “this doesn’t feel right”…
there’s always something underneath.

And if we can’t hear it, we can’t move forward.

7 seats left.

🎟 Register:
https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/dynamic-governance-through-sociocracy

Sliding scale + timebank options still available.

Would love to have you in the room.