Agora and Agora Marketplace › Roles & Responsibilities · 3 min read
The basic cost contribution in the TEIKEI Agora arises the moment you commit to a harvest share.
A single order does not automatically make you a member. What matters is the binding commitment through a harvest share.
Being a member at TEIKEI does not describe a classic association membership. Rather, it refers to your binding participation in a community-supported supply structure.
Those who commit to a harvest share become part of TEIKEI’s solidarity-based food network and help sustain this structure. Here, the basic cost contribution is not primarily a formal category, but a concrete involvement in supply, responsibility, and relationships.
A member is someone who commits to a harvest share.
Committing to a harvest share creates a binding form of participation in the Agora and the community-supported supply system.
Someone who merely places a single order without committing to a harvest share uses an offer from the Agora but does not automatically become a member in the sense described here.
This distinction is important to ensure that the role of member remains clearly tied to the binding commitment through a harvest share.
Members are not simply users of an ordinary shop. They are part of a network built on relationships, reliability, transparency, and community-supported supply.
The role of member therefore does not simply describe a purchasing process but a binding form of integration into the Agora.
Currently, there is already a voluntary contribution to the basic cost contribution. With it, members and supporters can sustain TEIKEI and the work behind the Agora. This voluntary contribution is not yet linked to specific benefits but primarily serves to support development and ongoing work.
At the same time, it is planned to introduce a paid basic cost contribution with a monthly fee in the future. This model is intended to enable the Agora’s basic costs to be shared collectively.
Once this model is implemented, the pricing structure will also change. Different conditions are planned for paying members. TEIKEI intends to waive the previous 10 percent share in this case.
This makes it clear: The basic cost contribution itself arises through the harvest share. However, the financial design around voluntary contributions and a later paid basic cost contribution may continue to evolve.
Members can, for example:
The role of member is usually concretely anchored. It typically relates to:
Member is a basic role in the system. It describes participation in the Agora through a committed harvest share, not automatically an organizational responsibility in the background.
Equally important is the distinction between basic cost contribution and financial support: Those who commit to a harvest share become members. Beyond that, TEIKEI can already be supported voluntarily today. In the future, a paid basic cost contribution may be added, through which the Agora’s basic costs can be shared collectively.
Members are particularly connected to:
As the TEIKEI Agora expands, the role of member can be described in even more detail, for example with regard to participation, communication, transparency, rights, and the future design of the paid basic cost contribution.
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By Felix Schröder, with support from AI (ChatGPT)
Created on March 25, 2026 · Last updated on March 25, 2026
Questions or feedback? support@teikei.us