Let It Ferment

Give it time. Let it self-organise. Care for contradictions. Encourage others to get involved in organisation and content.

After the initial excitement, the real work is in staying with it — through quiet weeks, shifting roles, and uncertainty. Fermentation takes time: structure can emerge naturally but requires care and trust.

You will also notice when the time comes to write down tasks, divide work and allocate efforts. This doesn’t mean creating top down structures. A healthy collective can survive the absence of its initiators.

Suggestions

  • Accept uneven growth — some sessions will be full, others nearly empty.
  • Let ownership of tasks circulate: invite others to host, teach and decide. Many tasks are not fun but essential: facilitating, maintenance, coordination, cleaning. These needs to circulate. Don’t wait to be asked to do the dishes.
  • Build small structures and simple systems that can survive if you step back.
  • Allow for experimentation — don’t be afraid to test new forms of governance or tools.
  • Contradictions and differences in pace and opinions will happen; not everyone moves toward degrowth the same way. When interacting with each other, learn to distinguish generative disagreement from toxic behaviour. Enforce your Code of Conduct.
  • Not everything needs facilitation. Leave space and opportunities for people to contribute in their own way.

Quotes

At first I did everything — website, announcements, logistics — but over time others started hosting workshops. When I went on holiday, the group continued without me. That was a good sign. Overall I would say; start small, be okay with leading at first, and then let it grow away from you. — Ana, London

It’s about seeding the ground, so others can pick it up and spread it. The infrastructure needs to be set up to be able to hold the space, for new people to come so they understand what's going on. — Nancy, Lutruwtia

The work, that is primarily centered around the Netherlands, that's been going on for years, has had a local ripple effect and there are a lot of people active on this topic. We're not that well organized at the moment but there is a lot of diversity in what's going on. — crunk and d1, Rotterdam

It can be a bit challenging to bring some impulses into the conversation but not take over or steer it too much. — Simon, Vienna

What makes me proud is seeing people who first came to listen — then came back to present their own projects. — Brendan, Berlin

Some people decided to meet in person, we are all far away from each other in Ireland, even though I, as the initiator of the group, couldn’t make it. Just seeing photos from this meet up was rewarding. — Colm, County Mayo

I feel we are proud of our consistency over time, seeing how this idea has been transformed into something concrete that has endured. We will soon celebrate 4 years of presence (in 2026), advancing at a snail's pace. Sometimes the most important thing is to hold the space. — Archipiélago I

There's a kind of a fantasy that you can get something set up and then it'll just keep going on its own. And it just never works that way. You have to put in some effort. Just keep putting up flyers every month. — Steve, Philadelphia

I'm doing that with a few, like three or four people. We are doing things very slowly so that we can have everything set up well. So when we start expanding or bringing in people, they don't go ”Oh, so let's look at their website. Oh, it's not on a green server”. I know it's a silly way to do it really, but trying to have some basics in place.[..] I say it really is like compost. If you are going to follow these principles, it will be slow computing. — Nancy, Lutruwtia