THE BETTER COFFEE OFFICE — OPEN CALL

We’re opening The Better Coffee Office to new members.

We’re looking for people who can take responsibility for one part of the work, carry it forward, and understand how it connects to the whole.

There is no fixed number of openings. We’ll build the next version of The Office around the people who apply, the work they can own, and the capacity we can create together.

THE ROLE

Member of The Better Coffee Office — Structural Coordination.

The Better Coffee Office exists to reduce fragmentation across The Better Coffee Endeavour.

The Better Coffee already moves through coffee people, structures, education, evaluation, publishing, communication, projects, commercial work, and relationships across the coffee world.

The Office connects those pieces so they can work as one system.

As a member, you become part of that coordination.

You help make decisions about how The Better Coffee develops. You take responsibility for a defined area of work. You build relationships, projects, tools, documents, infrastructure, revenue, or whatever your area actually requires.

You also see the wider context around your work.

Each member owns part of the work. The system stays shared.

WHAT YOU MIGHT WORK ON

Your area will depend on your skills, experience, capacity, and what you are ready to take responsibility for.

It may involve sales, partnerships, fundraising, communications, research, education, digital infrastructure, project development, production, documentation, or work connected with The Places, The Trainers, The Better Coffee Curriculum, The Ranking Method, Pay-It-Forward, Red Ink Coffee, or public communication.

It may also be something The Office has not built yet.

Responsibilities can evolve as the work develops.

WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR

We’re looking for people who start things and carry them through.

People who can work independently while remaining aware of what their decisions change for other people.

People who can look at one project and see the work, money, relationships, power, risks, and consequences around it.

People who can move between disciplines without losing the larger picture.

People who can disagree without turning disagreement into paralysis.

People who listen.

People who can make decisions when the instructions run out.

People who can build.

We expect:

— real experience in coffee,

— experience working across different fields, people, or organizations,

— responsibility and follow-through,

— agency,

— attentiveness to people,

— comfort with autonomy,

— the ability to cooperate without relying on hierarchy,

— readiness to learn and work with The Better Coffee Standard,

— enough curiosity to question what we are already doing when something deserves questioning.

Alignment with the 20 Core Values matters.

HOW THE OFFICE WORKS

The Office works remote-first and asynchronously by default.

Matrix + Element is our main working space. Operational context stays visible so members can understand what is happening beyond their own tasks.

Responsibilities follow skills, capacity, experience, and current priorities.

Every active task has one person responsible for moving it forward.

Decisions affecting the wider system are shared.

Specific mandates can sit with particular people, while authority remains distributed among members.

The Office plans ahead and adjusts when reality changes.

Members choose their availability and keep it visible to the team. Reliability matters because other people build their work around it.

Our current workload target is a maximum of four working days per member.

Some work also happens wherever coffee people are: cafés, farms, roasteries, events, institutions, meetings, and future projects around the world.

MONEY

The Better Coffee Office is still building its stable economic base.

Revenue can come from licenses, The Ranking Method, The Better Coffee Curriculum, services, commissions, sponsorship, fundraising, publishing, events, projects, donations, and other work developed through The Office.

Members participate in building those mechanisms and can earn through them.

At this stage, compensation depends on the work and the revenue available rather than beginning with a guaranteed fixed salary.

Depending on the situation, compensation may include salary, project fees, commissions, revenue share, or another arrangement agreed before the work begins.

The goal is straightforward: build The Office that can pay people sustainably for the work required to keep The Better Coffee moving.

Capitalism would probably call this a co-founder role.

We call it membership in The Better Coffee Office.

BEFORE YOU APPLY

Get to know The Better Coffee first.

Read The Better Coffee Standard or one of the available Abstracts.

HOW TO APPLY

Send a text-only application in English.

Paste it directly into the email or attach a .txt file.

Tell us:

— Who are you, and what are you doing now?

— What is your experience in coffee?

— What experience do you have with projects involving different fields, people, or organizations?

— What are your strongest skills?

— Which area of The Office would you most naturally take responsibility for?

— How much time can you realistically give to working together?

Then add up to 500 words in your own voice.

Choose whichever of the 20 Core Values help us understand how you think.

Write about work, money, power, cooperation, coffee, or the tensions you see between them.

We’re interested in your position, your questions, and the way you look at the world around coffee.

THE PROCESS

There are five stages.

1. APPLICATIONS

Applications close on October 15, 2026, at 11:59 PM in Pago Pago, American Samoa (UTC−11).

Everyone who applies will receive a reply.

Selected candidates will move on to The Better Coffee Blueprint.

2. THE BETTER COFFEE BLUEPRINT

October 17, 2026, at 12:00 PM BST (Cambridge, UK).

Selected candidates join The Better Coffee Blueprint. Attendance is required to continue in the Open Call.

The session creates a shared starting point: the coffee system we are working inside, The Better Coffee, its values, structures, mechanisms, and the thinking behind them.

Please apply only if you can attend on October 17.

3. ONE-TO-ONE CONVERSATIONS

October 19–23, 2026.

Candidates moving forward meet individually with The Better Coffee Office.

We’ll talk about your experience, how you work, what you want to take responsibility for, your available time, your economic needs, and the areas where your perspective could contribute to The Office.

You will also have time to question us.

4. THE BETTER COFFEE OFFICE ONBOARDING

October 24, 2026, at 12:00 PM BST (Cambridge, UK).

Candidates moving forward join a full onboarding session devoted to The Better Coffee Office.

You’ll see how The Office actually works: decision-making, responsibility, internal organization, money, confidentiality, current projects, working infrastructure, and membership.

We’ll also explain the six-month trial in full.

5. IN OR OUT

After onboarding, you have seven days to decide.

Deadline:

October 31, 2026

By then, you will have seen enough of the system, the work, the people, and the conditions to make your own decision.

If you join, we complete the formalities and begin the six-month trial.

THE FIRST SIX MONTHS

New members begin with a six-month trial.

You work as a member of The Office during that period, with agreed responsibilities, access, and the ability to represent The Office within your area of work.

Before the trial begins, we agree on responsibilities, confidentiality, access, working arrangements, and the membership framework.

Either side can end the trial.

After six months, we review the experience together. The question is simple: can we rely on one another?

Six months gives us enough time to see how someone works when a project becomes difficult, when nobody is checking on them, when people disagree, when priorities change, and when responsibility becomes real.

It also gives you enough time to decide whether The Office deserves your work.

If the answer works in both directions, membership continues.