AORTA Office Hours

AORTA Office Hours are free, 30 minute appointments with an AORTA member who will offer thought partnership and one-on-one consultation.

Office Hours are designed for individuals who are a part of or starting groups working towards racial, economic, and gender justice and are committed to power sharing and deep democracy. Our office doors will be open until August 2025!

AORTA Office Hours are inspired by our comrades at Interrupting Criminalization’s Transformative Justice Help Desk. 

Schedule your free appointment at the bottom of this page!

What types of challenges can I bring to Office Hours?

As a worker-owned cooperative of facilitators and consultants, we collaborate with groups to create new structures and cultivate practices that support collective governance, power sharing, and deep democratization. Here are some examples of challenges we welcome in Office Hours:

  • I’m trying to start a collective, and I’m not sure how to set up our decision making structure.

  • My organization is realizing we don’t have the political alignment we thought we had. What should we do?

  • I need support to help my group with prioritizing tactics for an upcoming campaign.

  • We have many organizational transitions coming up. Where should we start? 

  • My group doesn’t have a set of values. How do we go about developing them?

  • I have a coalition strategy retreat coming up, and I need guidance in how to approach facilitating it. 

  • How do I approach my HR role with integrity, especially when it comes to compensation and benefits?

  • What are some options out there for shared leadership models?

FAQs

  • To sign up for an Office Hours session, please use the scheduling tool linked below. Each month, a limited number of sessions will be available with different AORTA members. Before booking, check out our bios to learn more about each of our areas of expertise!

  • While Office Hours are designed to be one-time sessions, we know that many challenges are complex and will take more than 30 minutes to untangle! Start by booking one appointment. If, after the appointment, you’re interested in more support from AORTA, we can chat about whether it would make sense to set up a longer consulting contract with us.

    If you would like to return to Office Hours, know that each worker-owner has limited availability and you might not be able to meet with the same person you were initially paired with.

  • Yes, you can! While Office Hours are intended to be a short, one time engagement, AORTA also builds intentional collaborations with groups who want to engage us as partners in a longer project. Please fill out AORTA’s intake form at aorta.coop/for-groups. We’ll reach out to you to schedule an intake conversation to learn more about what you’re looking for. 

  • Item descriptionBefore the session, take some time to identify the key question that you’re seeking thought partnership on. When you come to your appointment, share that at the beginning to support a clear focus in the conversation! We have found that "getting to the heat" quickly in our sessions together allows us to be most helpful in a short period of time. 

  • You can invite up to 2 others to the session, for a maximum of 3 people. If you plan to do so, please indicate this on your intake form. If more than 1 of you will be attending, discuss how to share the space ahead of time.

Why Office Hours?

Hospitable.

Our client collaborations tend to be longer, more resource heavy projects. We hope this lowers the financial and operational barrier for AORTA to provide critical support where needed.

Agile.

Sometimes, a timely short conversation can provide the support needed to move something forward. We hope this helps us provide the right medicine at the right time.

Precise.

What is the most potent choice point that impacts resources, strategy, and culture? By being open to individuals instead of only to whole groups, we are able to zero in on someone’s sphere of influence.

To sign up for an Office Hours session, please use the scheduling tool below. Each month, a limited number of sessions will be available with different AORTA members. Before booking, check out our bios to learn more about each of our areas of expertise!