Our Mission

is to democratize art through worker owned systems.

Our Vision

neuro.studio is seeking to create a global worker-cooperative conglomerate. We exist to grow profitable, useful, and impactful businesses that serve our members, customers, and communities. We acknowledge existing structures of inequity and embrace the necessary struggles to overcome them, one workplace at a time.

Our Values

While we are proud of our ability to operate dynamically with an ever evolving strategy, we believe in a core set of guiding values that drive everything we do at neuro.studio.

Welcome to our member's guidebook!

This is a tool to help you understand and navigate the neuro.studio. Democracy and participatory management is at the core of what we do, and an engaged and informed membership makes for a strong and healthy cooperative! The guidebook is segmented into three parts:

Your Partnership

Here you will find FAQ's and How To's for navigating your new rights and privileges that come with Cooperative Partnership.

Your Member Handbook

Here you will find the core policies and procedures that all Cooperative Partners and Members need to be aware of and follow.

Cooperative Resources

Here you will find handy information for cooperative-wide resources and platforms for things like communications, employment, and membership.

neuro.studio Member Guide

a guide for all accepted members interested in becoming a neuro.studio cooperative partner

Your Partnership

Becoming a Partner

Understanding Partnership

Becoming a neuro.studio partner is a fairly straightforward process! In order to join the cooperative as a shareholding partner, you must:

  • Sign your partnership agreement
  • Buy a $100 partnership share (payable over time)
  • Complete the neuro.studio Onboarding Curriculum

That's it! If you are ready to take the first steps in becoming a member, check out the partnership agreement and feel free to read through the cooperative's bylaws. These are the two most important documents you will need to understand before joining.

Understanding Your Internal Capital Account

Your Partnership Share

ICA's are special accounts that every neuro.studio partner receives when they join the cooperative.

When you first sign up to become a neuro.studio partner, you will either make a one-time payment of a Patron Partner Share or decide to take deductions from your pay to finance the purchase. In either case, your Partnership Agreement will spell out the terms you choose. You will receive a partner share, which is your proof of ownership. You will use your share to cast your vote in cooperative elections, among other uses.


Your Share's Value


Unlike stocks you might buy at a traditional public company, neuro.studio's Partner Shares are fixed (i.e. never change) in value. This means that all shares are worth $100 when they are purchased, and will always be worth $100. Each partner can only purchase one share. These funds are accounted for and viewable in the Members Portal and within the cooperative's balance sheet, which is distributed to every partner at least once per quarter.

The Retained Earnings Account

Just like any healthy and growing business, we need to make sure we invest some of our surplus profits into growth. This is both to fuel our core value of innovation but also to make sure we are in a strong economic position in case of a bad year or economic crisis. We call these funds our "Retained Earnings." Every year the Board of Directors comes together to set a target for how much the cooperative will need to contribute to build or maintain its undivided reserve. The board also sets a target for how much it will distribute to members as Patronage Dividends or member profit share.

Understanding Your Internal Capital Account

You can think of your member internal capital account like a credit union savings account with superpowers. These powers all you to credit and debit your account, as well as participate in sharing the profits and losses of the cooperative. Any money in your internal capital account is considered partner equity. Account balances are accounted for and viewable on the cooperative's budget sheet.

Withdrawal of Capital

In all cases, to stay in good standing with the cooperative, your internal capital account cannot dip below $100. This minimum balance is only accessible to you if you wish to leave membership.

Otherwise, while the funds in your capital account, pooled with those of the other members, provide meaningful and flexible operating cash to the cooperative, they belong to you, and you may request a withdrawal of any amount of the surplus balance above $100 at any time by contacting the Finance Committee or it's director. The cooperative reserves up to six (6) months to fulfill this request in order to navigate any temporary cash constraints. However, generally the cooperative makes best efforts to distribute these funds in as timely a manner as possible. The cooperative maintains a reserve of capital account funds at all times to support the timely fulfillment of these and other capital account transaction needs.


Cooperative Contributions | Patronage Rebates

As a conglomerated corporation, the cooperative operates a diversified portfolio of businesses. At the end of the year, we account for all profits or losses within the cooperative's businessses and share them across all partner's internal capital accounts based on their portion of the total hours worked.


As an example of how this works:

If the cooperative made $1000 in profit and during that year had 5 members who each worked the same amount, each member would receive the same contribution to their internal capital account.

  • Member 1 worked 2000 hours = $200 or 20% of Profits
  • Member 2 worked 2000 hours = $200 or 20% of Profits
  • Member 3 worked 2000 hours = $200 or 20% of Profits
  • Member 4 worked 2000 hours = $200 or 20% of Profits
  • Member 5 worked 2000 hours = $200 or 20% of Profits

If the cooperative made $1000 in profit and during that year had 5 members who worked different amounts, they would each get their fair portion of the profits contributed to their internal capital accounts:

  • Member 1 worked 1000 hours = $213 or 21.3% of Profits
  • Member 2 worked 700 hours = $148 or 14.8% of Profits
  • Member 3 worked 1500 hours = $319 or 31.9% of Profits
  • Member 4 worked 500 hours = $107 or 10.7% of Profits
  • Member 5 worked 1000 hours = $213 or 21.3% of Profits

Written Notices of Allocation

Every year the cooperative accounts for its income and expenses and allocates a percentage of the net income to our partnership in the form of patronage dividends. The cooperative also has the ability to pay those rebates in the form of Written Notices of Allocation.

Because of the proferential tax treatment cooperatives have under subchapter T, we are able to change our corporate tax rate to reduce the cost of business reinvestment and growth. While we are taxed in the same way as a traditional corporation on earnings we retain collectively (our retained earnings account), earnings allocated as partner patronage through written notices of allocation (and not as cash) are effectively reinvested in the business tax-free on a temporary basis.

Through paying lower taxes, we are able to put more of our earnings back in the business, which creates an opportunity to fuel growth in the short run to a greater extent than would be possible for a traditional corporation. Of course, allocating earnings as patronage, and not collectively, also creates a future refund obligation that is important to manage.

For more in-depth information, click here!



Putting Your Capital to Work

Internal capital accounts are one of the primary ways the cooperative shares financial value back to our members. This benefit is meant to help us live out our values of balance and solidarity! Annually the cooperative's Board of Directors sets a minimum target amount of cash reserves that the cooperative must maintain in the case of emergencies and to fund any payout requests from members.

Understanding Our Corporate Structure

neuro.studio Structure Chart

Understanding Our Elections Process

Every year the cooperative's Partners get together virtually to participate in the democratic process of electing our Board of Directors.

What is the Board and What Does it Do?

Who can run for the board?



All partners are eligible to run for the Board of Directors of the cooperative. In order to run, they must first join a worker committee. The committee will then vote on nominated members, electing their own committee director. Each committee has only 1 director, and the Board is composed of the total sum of each committees' directors.



How Do I Nominate Someone For the Board?

At the beginning of the 4th quarter of every year (beginning in October) the committees will solicit nominations from all Partners for candidates for open Board positions. The nomination process will go on for 2 months until the final ballot is confirmed in December.




How Long are you Expected to Stay on the Board?

Board terms are generally set for 2 years, but all Board members can be recalled by the committee by a majority vote of no confidence.





Are Board Members Paid?




Currently all board positions are voluntary, but as the cooperative grows we aim to secure all administrative roles and beyond as paid positions.

Understanding Partner Committees

Committees are empowered by the Cooperative's Board of Directors to set strategy, make critical decisions, and suggest policy changes on behalf of the cooperative.

Partner Committees are working groups of our partners approved to do work (and in some cases make decisions) on behalf of the cooperative's partnership. These groups are a great way for you to get plugged in to what the cooperative is doing and learn valuable skills along the way.

Committees are approved by the Board of Directors and "chaired" or led by a member of the Board of Directors. They generally have a rotating set of members. Below are the current list of Partner Committees:



The Ouroboros Committee

The Ouroboros Committee's work is all about fostering solidarity within the cooperative by assessing, reflecting, and facilitating our member's development through the cooperative. This group is tasked with holding all members (especially the cooperative's leadership and member-owners) accountable for our shared values.


The Finance Committee


The Finance Committee is charged with assisting the Board in growing and safeguarding our members' assets, while delivering on the Cooperative's mission. This committee helps the cooperative leadership set financial goals and holds them accountable to budgets the committee maintains.



The Legal Committee

The legal committee is responsible for reviewing and strengthening our governing procedures. They oversee and provide direction and advice to management with respect to potential mergers, acquisitions, business structuring, and other related strategic decision making.



The Marketing Committee

The Marketing committee works to help build our cooperative and subsidiaries' brand identity, as well as establishing effective marketing campaigns. They oversee our web presence as well as help maintain effective on-the-ground promotion networks in our regional markets of operation.


The Tech Committee

The Tech committee works to help build our cooperative and subsidiaries' networks, websites, and operating software. They oversee our discord server, as well as help manage our digital assets.



Subsidiary Advisory Committees

Each subsidiary business (or intermediate holding in some instances) creates an Advisory Committee composed of internal experts and advisors. These bodies help the leadership team of each neuro.studio subsidiary make strategic decisions grounded in their deep industry knowledge and expertise.

These committees include Liaisons, Live, Merch, Movement, Ops, Press, Production, Sound, & Visual.

Our Bylaws

Our bylaws can be found here.

Partner Agreements

Code of Conduct
Partner Agreements

Leaving Partnership

Deciding to Leave




You may leave partnership at any time while working at the cooperative, and you are required to end your patron partnership if you stop working at the cooperative. You are entitled to the balance of your internal capital account if/when you decide to leave the cooperative's Patron (worker-owner) partnership.





Cashing Out

You can decide to cash out the balance of your internal capital account and the Cooperative must refund your entire balance within 6 months of your last day of work with neuro.studio or our subsidiaries. You will receive a Notice of Patron Member Departure and will be sent a check or electronic payment.

Your Member Handbook

About Your Member Handbook

The neuro.studio Member Handbook is a living set of documents to help all members understand how to live our cooperative mission of putting the engines of business to work for humanity.

Each year, the cooperative works together to co-create a set of policies that we believe reflects the best practices we have learned to date. This document is a living example of cooperation in action and as a Member, you should feel empowered to suggest changes and edits to any and all policies in this handbook.

Harrassment Policy

Summary

The neuro.studio Cooperative is committed to an office and jobsite work environment free from sexual harassment and discrimination.

Employees who feel victimized by harassment or sexual harassment should immediately report the alleged harassment to their supervisor or manager. If the supervisor or manager is the source of the alleged harassment, employees should report the problem to the supervisor or manager’s superior.

Objective

The objective of this policy is to define workplace harassment and to outline procedures for filing complaints, investigating harassment claims and issuing appropriate disciplinary measures in the case of violations.

Scope

This policy applies to all employees of neuro.studio at all locations. All workers, at every level, will be subject to discipline, up to and including discharge, for any violation of this policy. Employees are prohibited from harassing others both on and off the employer premises and during or outside of work hours.

Definitions

Harassment involves verbal or physical conduct that harms or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual because of his or her race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, marital or familial status, physical or mental disability, or that of his or her relatives, friends, or associates and that:

• Has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.

• Has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance.

• Otherwise adversely affects an individual’s employment opportunities.

Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that is persistent or offensive and interferes with an employee's job performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. It involves:

• Making unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature a condition of employment.

• Making submission to such conduct either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment.

• Making submission to or rejection of such conduct the basis for employment decisions.

• Creating an intimidating, offensive, or hostile working environment by such conduct.

Sexual harassment can be physical and/or psychological in nature. An aggregation of incidents can constitute sexual harassment even if one of the incidents considered on its own would not be harassing.

Examples of prohibited conduct

Though sexual harassment encompasses a wide range of conduct, some examples of specifically prohibited conduct include the following:

  • Physical assaults of a sexual nature, such as rape, sexual battery, molestation or attempts to commit these assaults, and intentional physical conduct that is sexual in nature, such as touching, pinching, patting, grabbing, brushing against another employee's body, or poking another employee's body.
  • Unwelcome sexual advances, propositions or other sexual comments, such as sexually oriented gestures, noises, remarks, jokes, or comments about a person's sexuality or sexual experience.
  • Preferential treatment or promises of preferential treatment to an employee for submitting to sexual conduct, including soliciting or attempting to solicit any employee to engage in sexual activity for compensation or reward.
  • Subjecting, or threats of subjecting, an employee to unwelcome sexual attention or conduct or intentionally making performance of the employee's job more difficult because of that employee's sex.
  • Sexual or discriminatory displays or publications anywhere in Obran Cooperative's workplace by Obran Cooperative employees.
  • Retaliation for sexual harassment complaints.

Responding to Conduct in Violation of Policy

Employees

If an employee feels that he or she is being subjected to harassment of any kind, he or she may immediately inform the harasser that the conduct is unwelcome and needs to stop. If the inappropriate conduct does not cease, or if the employee is unable to, or uncomfortable with, addressing the alleged harasser directly, he or she should report the incident to the human resource (HR) director through our HR submission form. It is helpful, but not required, to provide a written record of the date, time and nature of the incident(s) and the names of any witnesses.

It is important to report all concerns of harassment or inappropriate sexual conduct as soon as possible. Management must be made aware of the situation so that it can conduct an immediate and impartial investigation and take appropriate action to remediate or prevent the prohibited conduct from continuing.

Managers and supervisors

Managers and supervisors must deal expeditiously and fairly when they have any knowledge of sexual harassment within their departments, whether or not there has been a written or formal complaint. They must:

  • Take all complaints or concerns of alleged or possible harassment seriously no matter how minor or who is involved.
  • Report all incidents to supervisor, manager or HR immediately so that a prompt investigation can occur.
  • Take any appropriate action to prevent retaliation or prohibited conduct from recurring during and after any investigations or complaints.

Managers and supervisors who knowingly allow or tolerate harassment or retaliation, including the failure to immediately report such misconduct to the Ouroboros Committee, are in violation of this policy and subject to discipline.

Ouroboros Committee

The Director of the Ouroboros Committee is responsible for:

  1. Ensuring that both the individual filing the complaint (complainant) and the accused individual (respondent) are aware of the seriousness of a harassment complaint.
  2. Explaining neuro.studio’s harassment policy and investigation procedures to all parties involved.
  3. Exploring informal means of resolving harassment complaints.
  4. Notifying the police if criminal activities are alleged.
  5. Arranging for an investigation of the alleged harassment and the preparation of a written report.
  6. Submitting a written report summarizing the results of the investigation and making recommendations to designated company officials.
  7. Notifying the complainant and the respondent of the corrective actions to be taken, if any, and administering those actions.

The Director of the Ouroboros Committee will determine if an in-house investigation will be conducted or if a third party will be contracted to complete the investigation. All complaints involving senior management at the vice-president level or above will be handled by an external third party.

Complaint Resolution Procedures

Complaints should be submitted as soon as possible after an incident has occurred, preferably in writing. The Director of the Ouroboros Committee may assist the complainant in completing a written statement or, in the event an employee refuses to provide information in writing, the Director of The Ouroboros Committee will dictate the verbal complaint.

To ensure the prompt and thorough investigation of a sexual harassment complaint, the complainant should provide as much of the following information as is possible:

  1. The name, department and position of the person or persons allegedly committing harassment.
  2. A description of the incident(s), including the date(s), location(s) and the presence of any witnesses.
  3. The effect of the incident(s) on the complainant's ability to perform his or her job, or on other terms or conditions of his or her employment.
  4. The names of other individuals who might have been subject to the same or similar harassment.
  5. What, if any, steps the complainant has taken to try to stop the harassment.
  6. Any other information the complainant believes to be relevant to the harassment complaint.

Discipline

Employees who violate this policy are subject to appropriate discipline. If an investigation results in a finding that this policy has been violated, the mandatory minimum discipline is a written reprimand. The discipline for very serious or repeat violations is termination of employment. Persons who violate this policy may also be subject to civil damages or criminal penalties.

Confidentiality

All complaints and investigations are treated confidentially to the extent possible and information is disclosed strictly on a need-to-know basis. The identity of the complainant is usually revealed to the parties involved during the investigation and the Ouroboros director takes adequate steps to ensure that the complainant is protected from retaliation during and after the investigation. All information pertaining to a sexual harassment complaint or investigation is maintained in secure files within the Ouroboros Committee.

Other Available Procedures

The procedures available under this policy do not preempt or supersede any legal procedures or remedies otherwise available to a victim of harassment under local, state or federal law.

Roles

This policy will be administered through neuro.studio's Director of Ouroboros.

At Will Employment

Summary

This policy describes and defines At-Will Employment.

Purpose

To provide clarity on the duration of an employment relationship with the cooperative.

Scope

This applies to all neuro.studio Cooperative workers, whether member or partner.

Description

Your employment with the neuro.studio Cooperative or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates is at will. This means your employment is for an indefinite period of time and it is subject to termination by you or the neuro.studio Cooperative or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates, with or without cause, with or without notice, and at any time. Nothing in this policy or any other policy of Cooperative or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates shall be interpreted to be in conflict with or to eliminate or modify in any way, the at will employment status of neuro.studio Cooperative or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates employees.

You acknowledge your understanding that your employment with the neuro.studio Cooperative or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates is at will, and that nothing in this handbook is intended to constitute a contract of employment, express or implied.

Roles

This policy is administered by the management of the neuro.studio Cooperative or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates

Resources

Onboarding Materials

The onboarding slideshow can be found here.

Ouroboros Resources

The Ouroboros Committee is our HR department, responsible for conflict resolution, onboarding, and outboarding.

Click here to submit an HR complaint.

Liaison Resources

Our excellent liaisons work with our artists to make sure they are represented professionally and act as a team to push for their continued success.

Click here to apply for Liaison representation.

Merch Resources

Our merch committee works with our partners to develop their artwork and ideas into physical goods and merchandise to be listed on the website.

Click here to submit artwork to be listed on our website as a print.

Press Resources

The Press Committee is responsible for maintaining both The Synapse Online and The Synapse Zine!

Production Resources

Our Production Efforts are broken up into various regional chapters!

Go to the company discord server and join your regional production chapter in the "#production-sign-up" channel.

After you've joined a regional production chapter, reach out to the regional chapter channel to schedule a meeting with the production director to discuss your role within the production chapter.

Sound Resources

Submit music to be released on our cooperative label!

submissions are always open at submissions@neuro.studio

by helping the label grow, our jointly owned brand grows in tandem.

FAQ

1. WHERE TO PAY YOUR PARTNER FEE

To pay your partner fee, please send $100 as goods and services with a note that has "partner fee" and your name to our paypal: www.paypal.me/neurostudiollc

2. HOW TO JOIN A COMMITTEE

Go to the committee ⁠sign-up channel on our company discord to join a committee focused on your area of expertise! Check in with your committee members/director to see what's happening in your committee.

3. HOW TO UPDATE YOUR PARTNER SECTION ON THE WEBSITE

Check the partner section of our website for your partner tile and click it! Make sure you're listed on the website and that your bio/contact information is correct. Afterwards, if you'd like to customize your page or embed any work, please contact the ⁠tech director or committee!

https://neuro.studio/pages/partners

Meet the Board of Directors

  • Christopher Bourland - Press Director
  • Colt Cupit - Marketing Director
  • Karl Niiranin - Production Director
  • Xzeenyn Gomez - Live Director
  • Noah LaHaise - Finance Director
  • Ryan Dasilva - Tech Director
  • Jake Clayborne - Merch Director
  • Sterling Martin - Liaison Director
  • Tyler Salas - Sound Director

Glossary

Solidarity - Unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group

Patron/Patronize - In the case of a cooperative, Parton Partners are those who work for hte cooperative, thereby "using" the cooperative for professional and financial benefit.

Financial Equity - The economic value of or "right to economic value" usually represented in the form of a share.