Governance

Governance holds the organization's committees, their meetings and votes, and its policies. Every outcome (a resolved agenda item, a closed vote, an adopted policy) is written to the decision log, so the record of who decided what, and why, is in one place.

Every member can read Governance. Researchers, editors, project leads and finance stewards (and owners) set up meetings, run them and draft policies. Only owners create committees, set their seats and adopt policies.

Committees

A committee has a name, a charter and a quorum. Each seat is a member with a role (Chair, Secretary or Member) and a Voting switch: a secretary can take the minutes without a vote. Open a committee to see its seats, its meetings and the policies it answers for.

Retired committees keep their meetings and votes; they just stop appearing in the lists you choose from.

Meetings

Governance → New meeting schedules a meeting: a committee meeting, or a general one for the whole organization. Rituals run on meetings too; see Rituals.

A meeting moves through Scheduled → In progress → Adjourned (or Cancelled):

Agenda. Add topics while the meeting is scheduled or in progress. Each item is resolved with a short resolution, which writes a decision log entry, or deferred to a later meeting.
Attendees. Record who is present. For a general meeting, attendees are who may vote.
Minutes. The secretary or facilitator writes them as the meeting goes.
Adjourn. Refused while a vote is still open. Items still open are deferred, and the record is frozen: agenda, attendees, minutes and votes can no longer change.

Votes

Open a vote on an agenda item while the meeting is in progress. A vote has a question, a threshold and a quorum:

Who may vote. On a committee meeting, the committee's voting members; on any other meeting, the attendees. A member who has recorded a recusal on the item cannot vote, and anyone not eligible gets "not found" when they try.
Threshold. Majority, Two thirds or Unanimous, of the yes and no votes cast. Abstentions count toward quorum only.
Quorum. The committee's quorum, or a majority of those eligible.
Secret until closed. While the vote is open, everyone sees how many have voted, nobody sees how. Each member votes once.

Closing the vote counts it: Passed, Failed or No quorum. A passed or failed vote writes a decision log entry and resolves its item with the result ("Yes (3–0)"); a vote without quorum defers the item to a later meeting.

Policies

Governance → Policies lists the organization's policies: title, summary, category, owner and, optionally, the committee that answers for it.

Draft. The ritual roles write and edit the draft. Drafts are never visible as policy until adopted.
Adopt. An owner adopts the draft as a new version. A policy that belongs to a committee needs that committee's passed vote on it first: choose the vote when adopting. Adopting the same text twice is refused. Each adoption writes a decision log entry.
Versions. Every adopted version is kept unchanged, with its change note, who adopted it and the vote behind it.
Review. A policy can carry a next review date. Once it passes, the policy shows Review due, and the monthly budget and governance ritual puts it on its agenda.
Retire. An owner retires a policy that no longer applies. Its versions stay readable.

Reminders

Depending on your notification settings, you are told when a vote you may cast opens, and when the organization adopts or revises a policy (in your digest by default).