Articles of Association/Matt had an idea

Article 0. Name

sudo room

Article 1. Purpose

• sudo room is an association of individuals (called "sudoers") established to collectively support a creative community and hacker space with corresponding values.

Values

sudo room is an open, collaborative community of creators and practitioners working toward positive social change. sudo room chooses to:

1. Value open, public discourses over closed, proprietary processes.
2. Value access and transparency over exclusivity.
3. Value solving real problems over hypotheticals, while respecting visions of the future.
4. Value community and collaboration over isolation and competition.
5. Value human judgment over automation and efficiency.
6. Value do-ocracy over bureaucracy.
7. Value safe space over ideology.

Article 2. Membership

Section 2.0 Definition

sudo room is a deliberative collective, meaning there is horizontal democratic control and participatory management of the organization, which is composed of all individual members. However, the group actively strives to substantially incorporate interested community participants and beneficiaries who are non-members. Members agree to decisions made by sudo room as well the terms of these Articles of Association and all future ammendments.

By using spaces or services operated by sudo room, community participants and beneficiaries are obligated to respect all decisions by sudo room as well as the terms of these articles of association and all future amendments.

Section 2.1 Qualifications for Membership

• Membership is defined by fulfilling the following requirements:
  1. Contributing monthly dues (sliding-scale with respect to operating costs) or equivalent.
     • It is an express purpose of the group to keep membership rates low, and therefore accessible, as well as offer, when possible, alternatives to monetary contribution to suffice for monthly dues.
  2. A status of good standing with the organization.
     • Unresolved debts and/or substantial lapses in respecting the values of the organization and its members may result in suspension of membership, to be determined by fair process respecting individual rights and freedoms and the integrity of community norms.

Section 2.2 Sudo Functionaries

As a collective, functionary positions are voluntary roles taken on by willing members and intended to change regularly. No person may hold more than one position simultaneously, unless permitted by sudo room. The positions and respective duties are listed below:

• Facilitator
  • Facilitate meetings by maintaining the agenda and ensuring topics are dealt with.
  • Can be replaced at any time by some other member through friendly resignation or a simple majority vote. This is a non-confrontational aspect of the role to help facilitation proceed as fluidly as possible.
• Scribe
  • Takes notes during meetings, collaborates with others to include their notes in final meeting minutes.
  • Posts notes publicly after each meeting
  • Can be replaced at any time by some other member through friendly resignation or a simple majority vote. This is a non-confrontational aspect of the role to help note-taking proceed as fluidly as possible.
• Exchequer
  • Presents the budget during meetings, as articulated in the budget process below.
  • Coordinates with Scribe to ensure budget-related information is accurate with respect to the budget process below.
  • Can be replaced at any time by some other member through friendly resignation or a simple majority vote. This is a non-confrontational aspect of the role to help budget-reporting proceed as fluidly as possible.

Section 2.3 Benefits

The following are benefits available to all members:

• Usable assets and resources available within reasonable constraints of time and under the condition of sharing.
  • sudo room strives to make assets and resources available to as many non-member participants and beneficiaries as possible.
  • Note: no personal property should be stored in sudo room unless a system for personal storage can be provided by sudo room.
  • Note: the use of sudo room environments for habitation and/or domestic use is strongly discouraged.
• Approved discounts and services negotiated through the collective purchasing power of sudo room.
  • Items are up to the discretion of sudo room to determine through its budgeting and decision-making processes.
• A safe space, which is defined as:
  • "A place where anyone can relax and be fully self-expressed, without fear of being made to feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or unsafe on account of biological sex, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, cultural background, age, or physical or mental ability; a place where the rules guard each person's self-respect and dignity and strongly encourage everyone to respect others." on Wikipedia.

Article 3. Decision-Making

Section 3.0 Governance

As a collective, sudo room members govern themselves and each retains equal rights and mutual responsibilities.

Sub-Section 3.0.0 Meetings

• Meetings are held regularly, with sufficient notice for interested members to participate.
• A meeting to conduct official business of sudo room must include at least 10 members.

Sub-Section 3.0.1 Agenda

Agendas will be initiated with a default structure left open to addition until the beginning of the next meeting. Additions to the agenda during the meeting require a simple majority to be added, otherwise they are tabled to the next meeting.

Agenda structure:

1. Announcements / Updates
   • Decision Procedure: Not applicable during meetings.
   • Public announcements may be objected to with timely notice and the burden on the objector.
2. Fiscal Solvency (Budget)
   • Decision Procedure: Automatically approve the budget formed using the procedure outlined below. All amendments to the automatic budget must be made using a consensus process.
3. Enforcement / Conflict Resolution
   • Decision Procedure: Fair Process described below.
4. Proposals for Amendment
   • Decision Procedure: Follow "Amendments" Article below.
5. Endorsements
   • Decision Procedure: By consensus.
   • Official sudo room endorsements of other events, activities, groups, or actions.

Section 3.4 Enforcement

Sub-Section 3.4.0 Process

The resolution of disputes and disagreements within sudo room is encouraged through informal process and the spirit of a collaborative environment. There is a process, however, by which issues that are not resolved informally and that arise within the scope of these articles of association, should be considered:

1. Conflict resolution is attempted through the facilitation of a consenting, neutral, mutually agreed-upon third-party.
2. The issue is added to the official sudo room wiki to be added to the agenda of the next official meeting, save any issues with significant privacy concerns.
3. At the beginning of each meeting's agenda item on Enforcement and Conflict Resolution, all unresolved issues on the wiki will be categorized into one of several types. They will be categorized using consensus and reflecting sudo room's above values. The categories are (in order of decreasing severity):
   1. Membership suspension or termination.
      • Decision Procedure: 2/3 vote
   2. Safe space.
      • Decision Procedure: 2/3 vote
   3. Purely fiscal.
      • Decision Procedure: 1/2 vote
   4. Default.
      • Decision Procedure: Consensus
   5. Positive feedback.
      • Decision Procedure: Auto-approval
4. The opportunity to represent their perspective is granted to each relevant person, and general discussion may be held about the issue.
5. A decision is made by sudo room to resolve the issue as best as possible, according to the values constituting these articles of association.

Sub-Section 3.4.1 Fairness

Due process in the resolution of conflicts must include:

1. the right to an appeal and a fair tribunal
2. the presumption of innocence and the respect for privacy; and
3. proportionality and effective remedies.

Section 3.5 Corporate and Tax Status

The diversity of organizational structures shall be preserved, in order to maintain the opportunity for the most effective means of instituting incentives for creativity and innovation.

Section 3.6 Fiscal Solvency

FYI, here are the fiscal solvency sheets ya'll

Sub-Section 3.6.0 Assets

• sudo room assets are managed through member benefits above and the budgeting process below.

Sub-Section 3.6.1 Budgeting

sudo room employs a transparent, and collaborative budgeting process that attempts to reflect the shared values of all members as articulated by the group's purpose. The budget is located (insert link here). It is managed through the following procedure each month:

1. Determine if membership dues can be reduced
2. Transparently prioritize budget allocations. (In no particular order) allocate income to match expenditures, contribute to standing funds, and determine remaining surplus
3. Any surpluses that remains will be divided based on member contribution and treated as internal credits (or a soft dividend) available for members to:
   1. Leave to the discretion of sudo room to allocate
   2. Allocate in the budget, at the member's discretion, to various available internal projects as defined below.
   3. Provide as future contributions to membership dues.

• Note: there is a substantial distinction for external projects as defined below.

• To ensure stability, sudo room must maintain several standing funds:
  • 3 months worth of rent + utilities
  • Rainy Day fund (for emergency expenditures)
  • Maintenance fund (for necessary infrastructure replacements)
  • Operations fund (for necessary, small operational expenditures)

Sub-Section 3.6.2 Income

sudo room accrues income through several sources, including events, crowd-funding initiatives, and membership dues.

Sub-Section 3.6.3 Dues

The recommended monthly dues for members is calculated as follows:

• dues = average over all members of ( 1 month's overhead + a % of any defecit in each standing fund + a risk premium (min. 5% of all other dues components)
  • For instance, early on, overhead could be (rent + utilities + services), in which case dues = (500 + 100 + 20 + (10 + 5 + 0 + 10) + 64) / 23 = $30.83 per member

Sub-Section 3.6.4 Expenditures

• Internal Projects
  • Infrastructure, maintenance and improvements.
  • Capital Projects
• External Projects
  • Not funded this way. Use alternative methods, such as through discounts or crowd-funding opportunities offered as Benefits above.

Sub-Section 3.6.5 Surplus

sudo room strives to maintain a zero-sum budget, in which there is no surplus.

• Definition: surplus = income - expenditures - standing funds

Article 4. Amendments

Section 4.1 Process

The process to ammend these articles of association entails:

1. Announcing the proposed amendment, posted:
   • On the official sudo room wiki.
   • On the sudo room discussion email list
   • At least 1 week before the meeting at which a vote on the amendment will be held
2. Recieving feedback and commentary posted:
   • On the official sudo room wiki.
   • On the official sudo room anonymous etherpad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/sudoroom
   • On any sudo room email list.
3. Adding an agenda item to an official meeting's agenda.
   • The agenda item includes time to review the feedback, recieve in-person feedback, and discuss.
   • Decision procedure: Consensus

Section 4.2 Dissolution / Termination of Association

Dissolution must be proposed in the same manner as all other amendments to these articles. For clarity, the decision procedure will use consensus.