[disasterradio] Governance Docs & Possible Org Structure

[Jenny Ryan]

Reposted from #disasterradio on Patchwork, originally published on Sep 28th:

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\o/ back on patchwork, and very happy to be here!

I said I would share some of sudoroom / sudomesh's governance docs, so
here's a breakdown of the basic agreements / governance structure we could
adopt. Based on feedback to this post, I can turn these into some draft
documents up for consensus.

Here's a current draft of Sudo Mesh's bylaws, based on bylaws of the Omni
Commons: ​

 Sudo Mesh Bylaws
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g1aK1S301NBtbGVIQn-zY-fLPWw8pyHNHvaBTVbzEds/edit?usp=drive_web>

I'm thinking that formally, Disaster Radio would be a fiscally-sponsored
project of the Sudo Mesh 501c3 with a designated committee of all those who
participated in our first call. I can draft a fiscal sponsorship agreement
based on those we've written for Omni's fiscally-sponsored projects [1].

That committee would have full control of any funds designated as "Disaster
Radio, a Project of Sudo Mesh" in a subaccount of Sudo Mesh's bank account.
Initially transferring funds into a subaccount of Sudo Mesh's bank account
is necessary if we're using Sudo Mesh's 501c3 org status, because those
funds need to be allocated and tracked by the 501c3 and documented in the
annual 990 federal tax forms. Typically, a sponsoring nonprofit charges
5-15% of money raised by the project because of the administrative overhead
necessary (tracking expenses, writing receipts, annual accounting & taxes).
I would suggest the minimum 5%, which will in all likelihood end up going
to recurring server / bandwidth costs anyway [2], or perhaps that reserve
could go toward paying an accountant or lawyer.

New potential members of the project would be agreed upon by consensus of
the full committee, so long as a quorum of members (2/3?) are able to weigh
in. Decisions can be made electronically (see Sec. 16: Action by Unanimous
Written Consent Without Meeting) - perhaps we could implement a Loom.io
instance or some such for consensus proposals?

Financial decisions could be made by consensus of the whole committee -
however, it may be prudent to designate a sub-committee that focuses on
budgeting, accounting, and handling financial proposals / budget requests.
To that end, other subcommittees / working groups might include hardware
design, software development, community outreach, etc - with each working
group empowered to make certain kinds of decisions, rather than requiring
full committee consensus at each step, twist and turn :). Working Groups
would be required to be fully transparent and open to any committee members
to join [3]

The following is probably more proposals for Sudo Mesh the umbrella org,
which informs the overarching values and policies of its projects:

   - For resolving conflicts, I'd like to propose we adopt sudo/omni's
   Conflict Resolution Policy [4, 5] or some variant.
   - In terms of values, I'd like to propose adopting a Statement of
   Solidarity to articulate a commitment to prioritizing the needs of the
   marginalized and oppressed [6], as well as a Safer Space Policy to
   articulate commitment to a nurturing, harassment-free space (online and in
   meatspace) [7].

This is probably enough for one post... thoughts / feedback welcome!!

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*REFERENCES:*

[1] Sudo Room's Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement w/ Omni Commons (set
$2000/month contribution toward rent/mortgage):​

 Sudo_FS_Agreement_2017.pdf
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4_Q7DQvNFT-N3BKaDAzb0t0akU/view?usp=drive_web>

[2] Real Vegan Cheese's Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement w/ Omni Commons
(similar model Disaster Radio would have, 5% of income paid out to sponsor):
​

 RVS_FS_Agreement_2017.pdf
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4_Q7DQvNFT-R2lUaXkwRVNXRUE/view?usp=drive_web>

[3] Omni's Protocols re: Working Groups:
https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Working_Groups

[4] Conflict Resolution Process for Omni, adopted from Sudo Room's:
https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Conflict_Resolution_Policy

[5] A visual schematic of decision-making processes:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/File:SudoRoom.png

[6] Omni's Statement of Solidarity:
https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Founding_Document#Statement_of_Solidarity

[7] Omni's Safer Space Policy:
https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Safer_Space_Policy

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Jenny

Help open a people-powered common space in Oakland, California!
https://omnicommons.org/donate

`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
"Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories."
-Laurie Anderson

"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
 -Hannah Arendt

"To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
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