Being both far away from the rest of the yunity people, but together in one spot as two at the time, Tilmann and Janina Abels decided to hold a Wh-y-unity meeting in the form of alternating voice messages. This took approx. 75 minutes and is recorded here completely.

Meeting log

whyyTJV01.ogg

00:29, both
random intro (in German)

whyyTJV02J.ogg

01:34, Janina
Try to pinpoint the main questions touched by asking wh-y-unity:
Why are we participating in yunity?
What are we hoping to achieve by being with yunity?
What does yunity signify for us?
What is the scope of the name 'yunity'?
Selina's quote on radicality in #barcelona
"I'd rather make the world a bit better but be successful, than try to change it completely and fail."

whyyTJV03T.ogg

03:12, Tilmann
Big discussion about words, words stay vague and unclear, let's talk about actions instead.
"If you don't do the things you're talking about you can never be sure of what you actually mean."
Different aspects of yunity: project, network, community. what are these to us? We don't mention them explicitly, that leads to loads of confusion.

whyyTJV04J.ogg

04:04, Janina
Definitions of words are hard, words are always ambiguous.
Dougs efforts of defining terms a year ago
What is yunity about? Only sharing? But then all the time?
Joachim's comic
The proposed syscon on acquiring resources holds many difficulties:
Who is part of yunity? For whom would such a decision be binding? How to enforce it?
"In my perception of yunity there's no way to go through with something like this, because there shouldn't be an authority defining who/what is yunity"
Chandi's statement comparing yunity to transition town in #barcelona.
"Don't we wanna be a movement and connect to looots and lots of people? [...] The more people you have in your movement, the more likely it is that somebody does something you don't agree with."

whyyTJV05T.ogg

05:29, Tilmann
Different concepts of yunity
yunity can do things. we know that people do things, but other people perceive actions as actions by yunity.
What is a yunity action? What is an individual action? Should we even distinguish like this?
"I think people can never fully exist inside yunity, if they will always be able to still do non-yunity actions."
Then yunity wouldn't be a group of people (project/network/community) but an abstract level of behavior.
"We can define yunity as a state, as something we can reach."
The vision is a state, the mission the way to reach the state.
"I would consider myself part of yunity but I can't even cite the vision and mission. And I guess there are others like me."
"Should we swear an oath to our V&M so that we always remember it and always act accordingly? "
Or should we come up with (a) new V&M(s) to better reflect what people are actually working on in a more concrete way?

whyyTJV06J.ogg

02:46, Janina
Vagueness of V&M is not a bad thing as it allows for multiple interpretations.
The greatest things about yunity are its openness, acceptance and trust.
Trust should also imply a trust that people are good, even if they're not 100% in line with V&M or each other.
"It would be a shame to lose so many people who already are part of yunity or would like to be, just because they use money once in a while."

whyyTJV07T.ogg

03:16, Tilmann
There is a morale inside yunity, we need to watch out not to take people's freedom away by propagating/enforcing it too much.
There are so many variables, so we should always be open to varying explanations and contexts.
"Things are not simple in reality, there are always reasons and since we don't know what's gonna happen in the future we can never know which action is actually better without trying it out."
We should try to evaluate our past actions to then make our future actions better on that basis.
Thinking radical is good, but it needs to be thorough thinking, without taking the shortcut of simplifying complex issues.

whyyTJV08J.ogg

04:27, Janina
Yep, everything is complex... but where do we go from here?
"We didn't even answer the initial question so far, which is 'Why yunity?'."
Why am I in yunity?
to do something significant
to learn a lot
to make the world a better place
to stay in contact with the wonderful people I met here
to support the amazing projects other people in yunity drive
to activate and empower people through spreading foodsaving and -sharing

whyyTJV09T.ogg

08:00, Tilmann
Retrospective is always easier, but is it even so useful?
"We should always try to think about the question 'What is the best thing to do right now?'."
"The best thing to do right now is to find ways to be happy, that are not wasteful and that don't harm the environment that we humans need."
Concepts of happiness are diverse and dynamic and need more thought as well; also our happiness shouldn't diminish the happiness of others.
Sharing is just one small step towards this big goal of everybody being happy.
I was not born with this goal, certain events triggered it: e.g. getting to know foodsharing, but also being occupied with computers/electronics and thus developing precise thinking.
"Many people just act in a stupid way because thinking seems too hard."
People acting without having their actions really thought through leads to them being unhappy because the outcome of their actions doesn't meet their expectations.
Foodsharing is thought through and also includes direct action, that's why it's so great.
"For me yunity began as the idea to increase foodsharing; to make it better; to make it easier."
Foodsaving frees up resources, so that people can use their time for other, more meaningful things, while not having to worry about hunger anymore.

whyyTJV10J.ogg

05:07, Janina
Spending one's time on meaningful things is a personal reason for being in yunity for me as well, and it's also the thing that would be great if reached for everyone.
"Maybe I lost a little bit of my belief in what's possible over the last decade."
I got rather cautious and practical instead of thinking big and philosophical...
"You can't do everythingright in a world that is as complex as the one we're living in, so I'd rather not claim it in the first place."
I still appreciate the visionary approach! I just can't carry it out myself without feeling unjust...
Let's trust in the validity of different approaches!
"yunity should be an umbrella organization."
"Moral purity is something I try to avoid

whyyTJV11T.ogg

06:37, Tilmann
Inclusion vs. exclusion: Why is not everybody in the world inside yunity? if we're doing the right thing, why is not everybody a part of it?
Maybe we're not doing the right thing after all?
Maybe they haven't heard of us?
Maybe they don't speak our language?
How to communicate what we want/are/do effectively to everyone? Also for acquiring resources...
Why do some things or ideas spread super quick around the globe and others don't?
Money as a means of communication, why did it spread to everywhere? Maybe because as soon as you somehow got it, it's inclusive and lets you do whatever you want with it.
"I think things that are very inclusive are maybe not the best. On the other hand, how can we seek to be the best thing on earth while being exclusive?"

whyyTJV12J.ogg

05:29, Janina
Having everybody in yunity comes with loads of new problems, because big groups always carry the possibility of individuals being anonymous and they tend to split up into smaller groups, which then have the in-group/out-group effect.
A common mindset could be possible, but it's impossible that everybody knows everybody.
A family mindset would be the goal, like how the weird uncle gets always invited to all the family gatherings even though nobody likes him, but in the end you know you can trust him because he's part of the family.
What about toxic people then? They do exist.
Robi issue
"As long as we don't have the capacity to really handle people like him they can't be a part of it, I'd say, especially not online, because that's a not a place where people meet that's just a place where people talk."

whyyTJV13T.ogg

05:22, Tilmann
'Being inside yunity' means sharing the mindset, e.g. following the V&M, not being on Slack...
Implicit exclusion by language, values or skillset, how can we measure it?
Who is active part of yunity? We can not know precisely.
"Maybe everyone of us has a different circle of yunity around them. We can try to describe it and to find the overlaps to then make it as open as possible."
"For me everyone working on the foodsaving tool or actively does foodsharing is part of yunity - even though they maybe don't even know about yunity or I don't know them."
Movement/network mindset vs. project mindset:
Working together on a project implies using the same communication channels.
"yunity as a project is split up into many subprojects, but maybe yunity as a network is still one thing."

whyyTJV14J.ogg

04:56, Janina
Various subprojects definitely exist, nobody ever disagreed, did they?
Personalization of yunity, people can be yunity (used like an adjective now, not only like a noun. Why don't we make it a verb? )
"I think because we are not a project anymore, but many projects - and maybe a movement, and maybe a network, and maybe a tribe, and maybe a family, and maybe a community - it probably doesn't make much sense to have one onboarding process."
What requirements need to be met to talk in the name of yunity? If we can't come up with one answer to this question, nobody should talk in the name of yunity.

whyyTJV15T.ogg

05:40, Tilmann
"Wh-y-unity seems to be mostly about identity."
Seperating the questions is not easy.
Communication in groups and its difficulties.
A plea for online communication or talks in smaller groups for enhanced understanding.
Did we lose our meeting culture? What about decision making?
We need good processes.
"To me this seems even more basic than to figure out if we want to use money or not or what we actually want to do. You first teach a baby how to speak, before you tell them about literature."
Process is also very important for onboarding.

whyyTJV16J.ogg

01:24, Janina
Meeting culture got a bit lost.
Douglas Webb we need you, please come back!"

whyyTJV17.ogg

02:47, both
pretty random end statement