The Table, No. 1: Seven calls, one shared starting point

From the Secretariat

Reseated began this week with a simple task: make room for small-business owners to describe the practices affecting their work, and build a careful process for deciding what those accounts show. The Founders Assembly launched on Tuesday, 10 February. In the days since, all seven councils have issued calls for evidence, and the Platform Council has held its first session.

This is the first weekly digest. We will use it to record what has happened, distinguish evidence from decisions, and make clear what members and the public can do next. At this early stage, reports are not findings and a call for evidence is not a proposed standard. The work starts by listening.

The week at the table

The week’s central development was the opening of Reseated’s first evidence-gathering cycle. On 10 February, each council published a call for evidence for its first agenda item: Platform (PL-001), Cashflow (CF-001), Fair Play (FP-001), Trade (TR-001), Resilience (RS-001), Red Tape (RT-001), and Team (TM-001). The documents are numbered RC/PL/2026/1, RC/CF/2026/1, RC/FP/2026/1, RC/TR/2026/1, RC/RS/2026/1, RC/RT/2026/1, and RC/TM/2026/1.

These seven calls give members a shared route to bring forward experiences from different parts of running a business. The councils cover distinct areas, but they use the same starting point: gather accounts before deciding whether a recurring problem is present. Evidence can help establish what happened, how often, whether accounts are consistent, how widely a practice reaches, and whether it is corroborated. Those are the five parts of Reseated’s pattern test: Volume, Frequency, Consistency, Spread, and Corroboration.

On 12 February, the Platform Council held its first session. Its summary record, RC/PL/2026/SR.1, is now part of this week’s published record. The record matters because institutional work should be traceable: members and readers should be able to distinguish what a council discussed from what it has decided. No council standard has been adopted this week. The calls for evidence open the work; they do not settle its conclusions.

For a new assembly, publishing all seven calls together also sets an expectation about the process. Reports are considered through a pattern test, then a draft fix may be prepared for public consultation. A proposal proceeds to an Assembly ballot only after that consultation. If adopted, letters go to the chief executives able to take up the relevant change, and the status of each seat is tracked. The sequence is deliberate: collect, test, consult, vote, then ask for adoption.

By the numbers

As of 13 February 2026, Reseated has 35 seated members in 25 countries. Members have filed 32 reports from 17 countries. Of those reports, 23 concern the Platform Council and nine concern Cashflow.

These figures describe an opening snapshot, not a representative measure of all small businesses or all markets. The number of reports is not the same as the number of businesses affected, and reports filed do not by themselves establish that a pattern has passed the five-part test. The council totals tell us where the evidence submitted so far has been directed: Platform and Cashflow. They do not indicate that the other five topics are less important or that no one has experiences to report.

The spread across 17 countries is useful context for a body that is intended to work across borders. It also makes careful handling essential. A practice may operate differently in different places, and a similar account in two countries does not automatically mean the underlying circumstances are identical. The councils’ task is to look for repetition and consistency while preserving enough context to understand what members are describing.

We will publish updated figures in future digests, keeping the date attached to each snapshot. That allows members to see how the evidence base develops without confusing an early count with a final conclusion.

From the table

It is included to show the kind of practical detail that can make evidence useful.

A small seller lists goods through a large marketplace. One day, the seller finds that an important listing is no longer visible to customers. The notice gives a broad reason, but not enough detail to identify what needs correcting. The seller checks the account, reviews the notice, and contacts support. The first response does not resolve the question. More time passes while the seller tries again to learn whether the listing can be restored, whether additional information is needed, or whether the decision is final.

For a small operation, the immediate issue is not an abstract debate about a platform’s rules. It is the working day spent trying to understand what happened, the uncertainty over future orders, and the difficulty of planning while the next step is unclear. A useful report would record the sequence: what the notice said, what the seller did, how long each step took, and what outcome followed. It would avoid naming the seller’s business and would not assume that one account establishes a general pattern.

That distinction is important. A report is strongest when it separates what the member directly experienced from what they infer, and when it includes dates or documents where available. Over time, multiple accounts with comparable detail may help a council test whether similar problems recur, how they differ, and how broadly they appear. This composite is not evidence in that process; members’ actual accounts are.

Coming up

The seven calls for evidence are the immediate route into the work. Members can submit experiences under the relevant agenda item and should include concrete details where they can: the steps taken, the response received, the time involved, and any documents that help establish the sequence. Reports should not include a member’s business name unless that member has chosen to make a public contribution.

The first Open Table is planned in two sittings: one for Asia-Pacific, and one for Europe, Africa, and the Americas. These monthly gatherings are intended to give members a place to compare experiences and raise questions across the Assembly. Dates and practical joining details should be checked in Reseated’s current notices; this digest does not assign dates that have not been announced here.

No adoption ballot is listed for this opening week. The process requires evidence to be reviewed against the five-part pattern test before a draft fix is prepared. If a topic advances to consultation or ballot, members will be able to follow that stage through the relevant council documents and Assembly notices. For now, the priority is to gather clear reports across all seven agenda items.

One thing you can do

If you are a member, submit one report about a specific event you experienced, rather than trying to summarize an entire relationship or sector. Note what happened, when it happened, what you did next, and what response or outcome followed. If you are unsure which council fits, choose the closest agenda item and explain the connection; the Secretariat can help direct questions about the process.

If you are not a member, you can help by sharing the calls for evidence with small-business owners who may have relevant experience. Please do not promise that any report will lead to a particular outcome. The first responsibility is to listen accurately and protect members’ choice about whether their experience is public.

Seven calls are open. The work now is to make the evidence clear enough to be tested.