About us

READ-COOP SCE

The READ-COOP SCE with limited liability was established on 1st of July 2019 in order to sustain and further develop the Transkribus platform. We are convinced that the legal model of a European Cooperative Society gives us the opportunity to carry out our work in a highly efficient, open and democratic way.

READ-COOP is based on the EU directive of a European Cooperative Society (SCE) but it is open to members outside of the European Community as well.

About the SCE

An SCE

is a legal entity that allows its members to carry out common activities, while preserving their independence
has the principal objective of satisfying its members’ needs and not the return of capital investment
allows members to benefit proportionally to their profit and not to their capital contribution.

With this governance model we are able to

support humanities scholars, archives, libraries and the general public to transcribe, recognize and search historical documents with cutting edge technology
run a community driven platform for gathering and sharing documents, transcriptions, technology and knowledge among members and the public
constantly improve technology such as text recognition, layout analysis, and table recognition in close relationship with research groups and technology providers

Sharing is caring, or how members will benefit. The coop will

care about the Transkribus platform
offer significant discounts on paid services
enable members to shape the future of Transkribus in a democratic way – each member has one to five votes in the General meeting
provide members free access to the yearly Transkribus User Conference

More than 50 institutions and private persons have already joined the coop.

See full list

Board

READ-COOP is run by the board of directors consisting of

Günter Mühlberger

University of Innsbruck

Chair

Andy Stauder

READ-COOP SCE

Managing director

Melissa Terras

University of Edinburgh

Scholarly director

The board is supervised and elected by the General meeting of all members which will meet at least once a year.

Statutes of READ-COOP

The statutes of READ-COOP SCE are the legal basis for our work. Please read them carefully. They are compliant with the EU directive on European Cooperatives as well as with national Austrian legislation and related laws. They were carefully set up with support from the Raiffeisen Association and approved by the Landesgericht Innsbruck (Court of Tyrol). The official registration number of READ-COOP SCE with limited liability is FN 520187g, our VAT ID is ATU74983823.

Invitation to take part

READ COOP SCE welcomes every new member!

Membership shares are a one-time payment which will be refunded when the member leaves the coop!
Membership share for institutions (legal entities)
- EUR 1000 – 1 vote in the General Meeting (minimum)
- EUR 2000 – 2 votes
- EUR 3000 – 3 votes
- EUR 4000 – 4 votes
- EUR 5000 – 5 votes (maximum)
Membership share for natural persons
- EUR 250 – 1 vote
The yearly membership fee is 25% of the share.

In order to become a member of READ-COOP please fill in the Declaration of membership and send it to the address indicated below:

- Declaration of membership – EN

- READ-COOP SCE
- attn. Andy Stauder
- Technikerstraße 21a
- 6020 Innsbruck
- AUSTRIA
Your request will be dealt with at the monthly meeting of the board of directors.

General meetings

Our 1st General Meeting will take place on Friday, 29th of May 2020 in Innsbruck from 10.00 to 13.00 CET. Due to the fact that many members are located far away from Innsbruck the General meeting will be organized as a video conference. Note: the General Meeting is open only to members and their representatives.

Attention: we changed the video conference system – so please use the following link to join the General Meeting:

https://webconference.uibk.ac.at/b/gue-zjj-7j3

Please find the preliminary agenda v0.3 here. Please also consult the statutes in order to find out about the rules of procedure for the General Meeting.