We have discussed this internally in Team OG and we are not united as to whether seed-runs should be supported officially or not.
I’ve came with what I see as reasonable compromise (based on opt-in principle - support offered by volunteers not by Team OG as an official body):
I’d hate to see seed-runs go away. I think it is great example of what community is about and what can cooperation achieve. I believe it helps our mission.
There will always be some friction, some failed shipping and failed trust. We can’t do anything about it. And I feel we have succeeded to establish very high standard in mutual trust. There were no major frauds in OG history.
We should more communicate that Team OG hasn’t got any supervision over seed-runs, because they are driven by members, particularly breeders and distributors.
We should emphasize that there are risks associated with participation in seed runs.
It is not mandatory for anyone in Team or Staff to seek solutions for any friction in seed-runs. If you want to help it is fine, but nobody will force you to do it. Seed-runs are member-driven activity.
@MomOnTheRun has done great work and I hope she is ok, maybe she didn’t expect member interest in co-ops to grow to current level, or maybe real life got priority. I’m sure that there are members that would like to help here with this burden and do something about US seed-run distribution. It is just matter of finding them and give them some trust (that is up to community - bottom up approach).
I don’t even want to consider that anyone participating in seed runs is not in legal state. I’m pretty confident that at least 90% of participants live in states where seeds are legal. I urge everyone to be responsible for his actions.
Currently MOTR is absent and I don’t have any other contact channel (She receives PM notifications to her e-mail). So I’d recommend organizing a vote for new distributor (or two) based in US and concurrently wait until she logs again. I’m not sure if there is anything more I can offer, but I’m open to your suggestions.
Quite frankly @nube I feel like you are gaslighting and I’m getting frustrated. What part of member Cooperative don’t you understand? You seem to think that there is some behind the scenes at OG that is pulling the strings of this co-op. This is not and never has been the case. You are barking up the wrong tree. We have all repeatedly told you what we know, which isn’t much. The members coop was started and coordinated by members. OG has never had anything to do with it, aside from generously allowing a spot on the site for members to have their co-op.
My question to you is… have you reached out to the Co-op members? Because, I am a leader and I am not one of them, I simply put my name on the list and pay my postage. All of the logistics, ideas, distribution etc… etc… etc… was done and set-up and through mostly private messages between, again, the BREEDERS and the DISTRIBUTORS. Please go through the seed run threads and message the co-op members in the top of the posts to find resolution. Again this was set-up by members, for the members, by the members. If you are so concerned why don’t you step up and join the co-op and coordinate the distribution. If most of the co-op has bailed then oh well, that’s life. Either a member from the co-op steps up and solves the distribution issue and leads the co-op or they don’t, that’s on them. OG can’t make them do something about their own co-op. You are making way too much of an issue over free seeds.
I contacted @nube in a group message with each of the distributors.
He does not want to send them out to them directly, so I offered to send em out. He wants to “wait for the dust to settle”, and will get back to us when he decides how he wants to proceed.
Hey friend, I don’t even know what gaslighting means. Could you explain in more direct terms?
It was openly supported and encouraged by the site admins and leaders. Functionality was built into the site to accommodate it. Breeders were reached out to by admins and/or leaders of the site. That doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
And yes, I’ve reached out to MOTR, tagged multiple coop members and leaders multiple times, and spoken to several in PM and in email. Also, Joe PM’d me and said there are multiple internal discussions going on within TeamOG about this, so there is more info and discussion that is not being made public.
Please refrain from the use of such inflammatory and accusatory language. We’re all here to work together, but that type of aggressive response doesn’t really accomplish anything productive.
This is where we show that a group of stoners who all love a certain plant can make it happen. Lets just focus on eliminating whatever issue it is that is making the current situation come to fruition.
There is no need for fancy terms and back and forth unless it involves solving this issue.
Again, the leaders of this site are not all co-op members. If some leaders are part of the co-op it has nothing to do with OG the site itself. The co-op was given a place to post just as any other member of this site is. I am privy to all Team OG discussions and believe me when I say there is nothing invisible or any behind the scenes messages that involve solving the co-ops problem. There is nothing that is not being made public. We have told you absolutely everything we know about the Co-op. Which is, that it is and always has been member driven and OG has nothing to do with it. I just don’t understand how many leaders, admins or mods need to say that until you understand.
It’s just life. People have kids, and work, and as if that wasn’t enough then 2020 comes along and kicks you while you’re down.
We got so complacent with everything running on autopilot that we didn’t check in with all of our running parts to see if everything was well-oiled — and things got backed up. It’s nothing for anyone to get excited over
This is pretty much all I am trying to point out. I absolutely can understand both sides here around this issue and so it is up to us to figure it out.
Figure it out without mud slinging or the usual non sense one finds on weed forums. @nube has brought up very valid concerns around this as for many who are producing the seeds it is about more then just free seeds. There is a lot of time and effort , and love that goes into producing the seeds before they even get to a distributor. Some have sent over 200+ packs and it has been verified that they arrived back in June.
I can understand the stress this has caused given that they have not even had the slightest confirmation other then the tracking that they have arrived.
I can’t speak for @nube , obviously , but I feel that the only goal here was to at least find out if seeds are getting where they are suppose to.
It does non of us any good to get nasty with one another as we are all here for the same reason. Lets just all take a breath before hitting enter and try to figure this out.
As I said a while back shit/life happens so lets just try to figure out what has happened and work past it.
I don’t feel that my responses are nasty in anyway. I am giving Nube the “transparency” that he is demanding from OG and the answer remains the same. Seek out answers from the actual Co-op members. Simple as that. None of us has contact with MOTR in any other form than we all do. I personally sent her an email on all of “your” behalf and have not gotten a reply. She is not the only member of the co-op, they will need to decide if they want to continue and restructure with possibly new co-op members or fold. I’m not sure how anyone is supposed to know the state of seeds that were privately shipped to a member who is not responding. It’s a risk we all take when trading etc… There is really nothing more transparent than what is written here.
If the co-op wants to continue, the only suggestion I have is to move forward with whatever seeds they have that have not been sent to @MomOnTheRun in the time being.
Again I can’t speak for him. I just feel you could of said what you did in a much more civil way. Some of us are not in the know on exactly how things work.
I agree with what you said , it has certainly given me a much better idea of how things work. I just didn’t agree with how you said it.
I don’t see any trouble on what’s been said or how it has been said. There were no distribution problems in Canada, EU and “rest of the world”, only in the U.S.A. and due to personal problems, not bad organization.
IMHO, we should wait until MOTR gives us an answer about how she is, what she thinks and iwhat is she planning to do
Any other option would be disrespectful with her. Meanwhile breeders can keep seeds in their fridge, directly distribute them or send them to a trustable person to do so.
I am sorry if there’s people that haven’t got yet their seeds, but we are speaking about free seeds, so nothing much to lose.
Please be patient with this and don’t bring nothing that could vanish the OG spirit, we are a community and should give support and confidence to everyone when rough times are coming.
After a storm there always comes the sun, it’s just a question of time …
Keep in mind there is a big difference between members of the site using it as a platform to organize a free giveaway, versus administrators who represent the site sending seeds to members.
One of the most important aspects of keeping the co-op fully functional is to keep it safely legal, for both the site and its members.
It goes without saying that site administrators would love to see this project go well, and have provided some assistance in making the platform more suited for this use.
This is the extent of o.g. dot com’s involvement. Much like the pay it forward group that existed on breedbay before the shutdown, this is organized by members who use the site as a platform to organize seed donations and giveaways.
There is no reason that we should not organize more US distributors to keep the preservation co-op project on track and on mission, making open pollination f2’s to preserve lines, and giving them away freely.
After all, this is a co-op, which is inherently not dependent on any one individual.
@MidwestMover and @Sebring both have my vote.
I’m a big fan of division of labor, I think the co-op could benefit greatly from having multiple trusted distributors in the US due to the high number of sign ups. Would you guys be interested in sharing distribution duties, and if so, does anybody have any thoughts on how we might set this up logistically?
edit- If splitting distribution duties would be too complicated, I am sure sebring would be quite capable of handling it solo, with all the experience he has facilitating giveaways on his own.
I would also consider Midwestmover a trusted member in this regard, as he has also gone out of his way to freely distribute gifts to members and made very consistent contributions and grow logs.
The way I see it, redundancy would be beneficial, and our country is large so it might reduce overall shipping costs. It also decreases risk of loss of the breeder’s stock, because the stock will be divided between 2 shipments, and will be backed up with storage in 2 locations instead of just one.
I think what will eventually need to be done is have multiple distributors and do more than 2 shipments a year.
If we had 3 distributors that did 2 shipments, one every 6 months and properly spaced then seeds would be able to get out every 2 months in some capacity and if this same situation would ever arise then members wouldn’t get overly antsy as it would only be 4 months between possible shipments.
It would also put less work on each distributor. Communication would also be key with the growers as they would need to set deadlines that would give them time for prep and packaging and if the grower won’t have the seeds by then, then the grower would need to contact the next distributor.
Didn’t someone already mention that MOTR said she would likely be away from the internet for a while? And, who said seeds were not in a fridge? Please try and read the posts from the people who have talked to her and don’t invent new details.
From all that I’ve seen from her already, I will give her the benefit of the doubt. She understands her responsibilities and she understands how to care for seeds. All leaders have replied with all they know atm. This is a forum of people on the internet, all over the world, and not run by an organization, lol.
Stay positive and don’t make short term plans when it comes to the seed runs. It’s how it’s always been since I was here. I was always just tickled to get them whenever they showed.
She’ll likely pop back in soon as fall/winter comes early there. I don’t think the tree destroyed the whole house. Seems like it was a bedroom but I can’t say for sure.
