Conjured Ink Collective Governance

This document describes the project structure and governance mechanisms for the Conjured Ink Collective.

As of this writing, this is an initial document to establish some ground rules and expectations that the Collective can evolve from, as well as some shared language.

Definitions

• Circle - Groups of people gathered together to work on a specific aspect of the project (e.g. the Marketing/PR Circle).
• Working Group - Specific, sometimes cross-functional groups of people tasked with seeing a specific project of some sort through, after which the working group is intended to be resolved.
• Consent - A decision-making process where a proposal is accepted so long as there are no "paramount objections". That is, it might not be everyone's preferred proposal, but no one has a good, specific reason to definitely block it. The expectation is then that any objectors will work together with others to help the proposal overcome the objection, if it's possible. Collaboration and forward movement are paramount.
• Consensus - A decision-making process where all members of a Circle or Working Group must agree to a proposal in order for it to pass. They do not need a "paramount objection", and they are not expected to do the work to find a compromise or back down.
• Quorum - The minimum number of Circle or Working Group members who must be present in order for any proposal to be passed. Unless a team decides to change their quorum requirement, quorum for each team is defined as a simple majority of full members. Additionally, Members who have not been present for any meetings or proposals in the previous two months do not count towards Quorum. See below for more.
• Candidate - Someone who has applied to join a Circle but has not been accepted yet.
• Inductee - Someone who has been accepted into a Circle but does not yet have full membership. That is, they can join discussions, but they cannot bring forth, vote on, or block proposals.
• Member - Also called a "full member" to distinguish from Inductees. A Member is someone who has full privileges of a Circle member, including bringing forward proposals, voting on them, and blocking them (in either Consent or Consensus models).
• Present - Whether a Member has participated in a meeting or proposal. Members are expected to remain active during their tenure, either synchronously during meetings, or asynchronously in documented proposal discussions.

Joining (and Leaving) a Circle

Anyone may apply to join any Circle directly, at which point they become a Candidate. Upon the Circle reaching Consent to allow the Candidate in, that Candidate becomes an Inductee for a period of one month (which may be adjusted in the future by the Shadow Circle, or even individual Circles), at which point they become a full Member.

During the early days of the Collective, Candidates may be directly accepted as full Members at each Circle's discretion.

Membership applies only to a single Circle, but an individual may be a Member of multiple Circles by applying to each one individually.

A Member may leave any Circle they belong to at any time. The Circle may also use Consent to decide whether to have the Member leave their Circle.

Members who have not reported as Present for meetings or have not participated in proposal decisions for two months become inactive and no longer count towards Quorum. At 3 months, they are removed from the Circle and will need to reapply.

Removal in this matter is not a judgment or punishment: having large amounts of inactive members makes quorum difficult to reach, and Circles harder to manage. Unless the lack of participation has had notable impact on the Circle, it is encouraged to accept the returning Member with open arms and direct them towards things they would enjoy.

Bootstrapping

The Shadow Circle will consist of the following individuals, whose primary role in the Shadow Circle will be to ensure the Collective's initial directionfor the first few months and select initial Members for the other Circles, at which point they will need to be re-elected through standard means. They may also add other Members to the Shadow Circle for that initial period (ending on 2025年12月31日):

• Kat
• Dax
• Artemis
• Ada

Collective Circles

Shadow Circle

A special Circle composed solely of Members from other Circles. These Members are elected by the Members of each other Circle in elections every 6 months, and can only serve two contiguous terms at a time. That is, an individual can only serve for one continuous year in the Shadow Circle, after which they must step down for at least 6 months before they are able to get elected again, regardless of what Circle they are being elected through (that means, you can't bypass term limitations by getting elected through a different Circle).

Shadow Circle Members may be removed at any time by the other Shadow Circle Members through a Consent decision that excludes the party in question. A Shadow Circle Member may also be recalled at any time for any reason by Members of the Circle they represent, at which point they are immediately removed, and the Circle must hold an election to backfill the Shadow Circle Member for the remainder of the term. Depending on the reason for the recall, it is reasonable for anyone, including Members of the recalling Circle, to request that the Shadow Circle revisit a proposal in which the recalled Member was involved, and it is encouraged that the Shadow Circle consider the proposal seriously.

Quorum rules are different for the Shadow Circle than for other Circles: there must be at least one Member from each Circle in order to reach Quorum, on top of the standard "simple majority" Quorum rules.

The Shadow Circle is responsible for decisions that affect the entire Collective, including creating (or spinning down) Circles, any legal/business/financial dealings the Collective might be responsible for (which it may choose to partially move into a dedicated Circle in the future, for example), and anything else that doesn't clearly fall under the umbrella of an existing Circle.

The Shadow Circle is also there to resolve cross-Circle disputes. Representatives from disputing Circles must recuse themselves from decision-making around the dispute, but may take the floor.

Finally, the Shadow Circle decides on the overall organizational direction of the Collective and its products.

Illusionist Circle

Responsible for organizing official, public-facing communications from the Collective. While all Collective members and participants, as individuals, may speak for themselves freely, the Illusionist Circle is charged with crafting communcations that speak with the "voice" of the Collective itself.

The Illusionist Circle, as such, is also responsible for actively coordinating with Members of other Circles (and the Shadow Circle) to make sure that any communications that go out are both accurate and desired.

Sand Witch Circle

Responsible for developing the Collective's official software and protocols, as guided by the organizational direction set by the Shadow Circle. They may also "spike out" organizational experiments to then propose to the Shadow Circle for more official adoption.

Scribe Circle

Responsible for both technical and non-technical documentation across the organization. The Scribes are there to help make things easier to understand, more discoverable, and to help track decisions and why they were made, when possible.

As such, their scope is not just writing docs, but also making decisions about where documentation goes, how information is kept and presented (for example, using a Codeberg Wiki instead of using Discord as an information repository). Scribes also provide process and tooling, and possibly even volunteers, to help other Circles document their own internal decisions.

Salt Circle

Responsible for the general safety of the Collective. The Salt Circle is responsible for drafting and maintaining the Code of Conduct and related documents and proposing it (and any updates) to the Shadow Circle for approval. They are also responsible for enforcing those policies across all official Collective channels.

The Salt Circle, just like all Circles, is accountable to the entire Collective through the Shadow Circle.

Seeing Eye Circle

Responsible for all technical infrastructure for the Collective, including https://conjured.ink, its repositories, continuous integration, releases, deployments, and monitoring.

Creative Circle

Composed of volunteers from the community of creatives who use the Collective's software for their benefit. The Creative Circle is a critical voice in the Collective, holding it accountable to the people it serves, and giving them a first-class seat at the table (through the Shadow Circle).

The Creative Circle also acts as a funnel that the rest of the Collective can channel questions and proposals through, to find beta testers, etc.