Collective Council Framework

Collective Council Framework

Councils are unique and important structures within the Collective. They are comprised of elected representatives that manage Collective resources or make decisions on behalf of tokenholders or Citizens. They fulfill roles otherwise filled by the Foundation and therefore play a critical role in the decentralization of the Collective.

The Foundation may authorize Councils aligned with a specific Collective Intent. Councils must be accompanied by a Council Charter clearly outlining the responsibilities of the Council, the parameters around membership, and any associated budget. Any changes to the Charter must follow the same process for change that governs the Operating Manual. To facilitate a constrained testing environment, members of the initial iteration of a Council may be appointed by the Foundation, subject to ratification by Governance. After that Council’s initial term has ended, membership should be renewed via a standard, open election process occurring on a regular basis as reasonably calibrated to the given role.

If a Council Lead wishes to resign before the end of their term, they must appoint a replacement and communicate this change on the forum at least 7 days prior to this change taking effect. If member resignations cause membership on a Council to fall below a pre-determined threshold, or to half of the original membership, Council operations will temporarily cease, or be transferred to the Foundation. In this case, the Foundation will facilitate a process with the community to assess the best way to proceed.

Councils will be authorized by the Foundation for an initial pilot period (at least one Season.) After this pilot, Councils must be renewed by governance for a subsequent Season. After one Season of successful renewal, Councils will become persistent structures in the Collective. Persistence is important as mature Councils may require non-trivial support, such as legal entities and multi-sig operations, as they mature into more autonomous structures in the Collective.

While persistent Councils will be assumed to be renewed each Season, delegates may submit Council Dissolution proposals if they believe a persistent Council is no longer fulfilling its mandate.

The current list of Councils in the Collective is detailed below, by type:

Persistent Councils

  • Grants Council

Proof of Concept Councils

  • Code of Conduct Council
  • Security Council

All Council members are subject to the Code of Conduct. If there is a Code of Conduct Violation vote involving an elected Council member, a contingent vote for their replacement on the Council will run alongside the Code of Conduct Violation vote in the nearest Voting Cycle. Council members may choose to step away from their role on the Council during the period between notice of a Code of Conduct violation and any enforcement action taken by the Code of Conduct Council. If a Council Lead is suspended, the same procedure applies. Unless otherwise specified in a Council Charter, in the event Code of Conduct violations result in a decision threshold below 60%, any non-voting Council Leads may temporarily fill the Council member’s role. If multiple members of a Council are involved in Code of Conduct violations in the same Voting Cycle, or the decision threshold falls below 60%, the Council may chose to temporarily cease operations, so long as it would not pose a security risk to do so.

Commissions and Advisory Boards do not fall under the Collective Council Framework.

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The Collective Council Framework has been updated to:

  • Clarify the Foundation may appoint the initial membership of a Council but continued membership will be subject to election
  • Add the concept of persistent Councils
  • Update Code of Conduct procedures to include the Code of Conduct Council(s)
  • Clarify that Commissions and Advisory Boards do not fall under this Framework
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The Collective Council Framework has been updated to specify a policy for Lead resignation and a procedure in the event membership falls below a threshold.

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