Alternative Option 1 by Matt

Summary:

Articles of Association

(equivalent in name to a Constitution or By-Laws)

Organizational purpose

• Sudo Room is an association of individuals established to open and collectively support a hacker space under the definition here and with values articulated here, i.e.:
  • Sudo Room is an open, non-hierarchical, collaborative community of humans, including tech developers, citizen scientists, activists, artists--and all combinations in between and beyond!--who are interested in and working towards social change. Our goal is to create the first inclusive, dedicated hackerspace in downtown Oakland, to share ideas and projects in citizen science, digital citizenship and literacy, environmental sustainability, community engagement, and self-government.
  • Sudo Room is committed to access, empowerment, transparency, and public/social good. Sudoers have a great diversity of interests and we emphasize respect and solidarity among ourselves and with others.
  • Sudo Room has the flexible agility to never wholly exclude possibilities, but instead, to give clear visions of some values over other values:
    1. Value open, public discourses over closed, proprietary processes.
    2. Value access and transparency over exclusivity.
    3. Value present concerns over hypotheticals, but respect visions of the future.
    4. Value community and interconnectivity over seclusion and territoriality.
    5. Value do-ocracy over bureaucracy

Organizational structure

• Sudo Room is a collective, meaning there is horizontal democratic control and 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.

Qualifications for membership

• Membership is defined by fulfilling the following requirements:
  1. Contributing monthly dues or equivalent.
     • Membership disqualificiations are necessary, but TBD.
     • 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.
     • Non-good standing includes any unresolved debts or substantial lapses in respecting the values of the organization and its members, up to the discretion of the collective.

Procedures

• Group meetings occur weekly.
• Decisions fall into three categories and subsequent procedures for resolution.
  • Major Governance Decisions: any decision that substantially changes governance, in particular affecting the articles of association.
    • Requires online vote and two consecutive meetings to decide.
  • Major Financial Decisions: any decision that impacts the organization over a trivial amount, to be determined by the group.
    • Requires online vote and, when possible, two consecutive meetings to decide (not mandatory).
  • Major Liability Decisions: any decision that addresses serious liabilities to the group.
    • Requires online vote.
  • Other decisions need not necessarily be handled by the group.

Tax status

• TBD