Organizing Circle policy

This is the policy and documentation for the Organizing Circle.

A policy is a general rule designed to establish common procedures. The expectation is that policies will reduce the need for groups to make one-of decisions, increase transparency of group operations, and be iterative for organizational evolution.

References on policy development:

• This is loosely modeled on https://www.sociocracyforall.org/policy-and-operations/

Documenting a proposal

Context: We need to clearly record decisions made for future reference and track when these decisions come up for review in order to keep the documentation fresh.

Proposal:

• The wiki will be updated when a policy decision is made inside organizing circle. A policy decision is a group agreement that is expected to guide repeated future actions.
• Policies will have terms for review as well as metrics for success of the policy. The dates of these terms will be added chronologically to the back log and the construction of the agenda will take these dates into consideration.

Metrics: There are no stale policy decisions that have not been reviewed in a timely manner within one month of review date

Status: Accepted 6 months term - revisit February 2025

Expectation of 1yrs terms there after

How to make a proposal

Context: We need to decide how decisions are formulated, consented to, documented, and reviewed in Organizing Circle. We need this process to be transparent, participatory, and nimble enough to respond to changing needs.

Lookio discussion threads:

• https://www.loomio.com/d/ZDEcAJma/decision-making-organizing-circle

Proposal: Proposals undergo four basic phases:

1. Scoped - proposals will be scoped (identifying the problem) on Organizing Circle calls with possible feedback from Loomio threads. Loomio threads may include the General Recap thread, topical subcircle or topical general threads. The group should strive to collect feedback from everyone affected by the issue. The result of this should be a clear problem statement to provide context for the decision.
2. Formulation - Possible solutions for the scoped problem will primarily be discussed on Organizing Circle calls with possible additional ideas on Loomio thread. Loomio threads may include the General Recap thread, topical subcircle or topical general threads. The group should strive to collect feedback from everyone affected by the issue and possible solutions. The result of this should be a broad list of possible solutions from which a specific proposal can be crafted.
3. Proposal - From the formulation discussion the facilitator (or circle appointed proxy) will craft a proposal Loomio thread that will be posted to the Organizing Circle subgroup for consent. This should provide context, specific text for the proposal, and a term for review; it may also include a metric to measure success of the proposal. Organizing Circle members will be asked to consent to the proposal and the period of consent will include one meeting so that folks can be reminded of open proposals.
4. Documentation - Proposals will be documented on the Organizing Circle Log page on the wiki sorted by review date and linked to their Loomio threads. Where possible reviews will happen on the original Loomio thread. Reviews will go through the same process of the original proposal to ensure the policy is still relevant (scoping - formulation - proposal - documentation).

Description of social.coop member types

Context: In order to move forward with an engagement plan for the community we need to identify and define where we are right now. This will be used to develop introduction material and orientations as well as look to build out our governance model by defining the aspects of membership or ways we connect as members.

Loomio discussion threads:

• https://www.loomio.com/d/7fdFsRj2/social-coop-governance-scoping

Proposal: We identified the following types of involvement with social.coop (all engagement is voluntary and at choice):

Contribution	Platform	Subclasses	Prior conditions
Microblogging	Mastodon server	Members may be inactive (account abandoned), invisible (no content generation but reading and possibly sharing via other avenues), and visible (content generation).	Required OpenCollective account, no mandate on monetary contributing (https://wiki.social.coop/wiki/Bylaws)
Financial	OpenCollective	Members may be non-contributing and contributing.	None
Strategic	Loomio	Members may be inactive, invisible, and visible.	Required OpenCollective account, no mandate on contributing. Required social.coop Mastodon account, no mandate on activity status.
Operational	Working groups	Members may be key role holders or general participants of working groups.	Invitation via social connections or sortition process.
Social	Matrix, regional meetings, reading groups	General catch all that comes and goes based on interest.	Invitation via social connections or announcements on platforms.