Charter
GeekBeacon -- Charter
1 Executive Committee
Since its inception, GeekBeacon has been structured as outlined below. This structure is subject to change, provided that the correct amendments have been passed.
Positions
Founders - hold the highest officer position. This role represents both an honorific and an executive position. Individuals who go above and beyond the call of duty in service of GeekBeacon are appointed to this position. Founders are permanent members of the Executive Panel, with full voting privileges. If a founder is believed to no longer be acting in the best interest of GeekBeacon, they can be removed by a vote of non-confidence.
Division Leaders - hold the second-highest officer position and report directly to the Founders. Division Leaders oversee the various tracks of development, business growth, content development. Additionally, they also coordinate with Group Leaders regarding the work to be done.
Group Leaders - hold the third-highest officer position and are granted voting privileges. These individuals are responsible for the development of particular tracks. Tracks, in turn, are areas of research or development involving business, engineering and other facets of GeekBeacon. Members are elevated to the position of Group Leaders in order to aid them in various undertakings in support of GeekBeacon.
NonVoting Leadership Positions
GIG Leader - Every Development (Engineering, Business, Marketing, Graphic Designs or otherwise) has a leader which is responsible for the coordinations of volunteers and making sure the required assets are being delivered. Naturally we are all volunteers and none of us are expected to drop everything in favor of the work we volunteered for but communication and redundancy is crucial. Anything with a timeline should always be shared among the group so others can pick up the slack if need be. As such every project has a lead and co-leader.
GIG Co-Leader - Is a fellow individual who leads a particular project. Is a second in command after the GIG Lead and can be consulted for direction when the Project Lead is missing. If dispute occurs between the project leaders, the group leader is responsible for resolving such conflicts.
1.1 Visual Representation of Hierarchy:
1.2 Sub Entity Governance Bodies:
Although GIG Leader and GIG Co-Leaders do not have a voting right in the GeekBeacon track. The vision that is passed on from the group lead can be executed at the discretion of the Project Leaders and volunteers on the project. How decisions are made within the particular project is up to the project lead/co-leader.
It is within the realm of possibilities to have a voting hierarchy within a large enough project to decide on implementation details or direction of said project. As such GeekBeacon non-voting parties can have a say on how the particular track they are involved in further develops and grows.
Example: Discord can have its own hierarchy and system of decision making at the discretion of the project lead. They have full autonomy on how to run his project short of the decisions made that conflict with the decisions of the group lead or GeekBeacon at large.
2. Structure of Government
The Governmental structure is set up into 3 tiers with build in checks and balances for the various groups.
- Executive Branch -- Is held by the Founder and has Veto rights over any decision if the individual who holds the office sees the motion as being against the values of GB. Or will be a deterrent to the organization at large. The decision to veto or not is at the person’s discretion.
- Senators -- Is composed of the Division Leaders. Any motion needs to be ratified by the Senators in order to pass and approved by the Executive Branch. If a stalemate occurs, the Executive Branch can be invoked as a deciding vote.
- House of Commons -- Is composed of Group Leads and other (if any exist or are added) voting members. For motion in specific domains local moderators may cast a vote on the motion. A motion can only be voted on by the Senators if it passes the House of Commons.
Vote of No Confidence:
A vote of no confidence can be called for any position. If the vote passes and is ratified by the Executive Branch the person is removed from office and another person has been nominated to fill the office within 30 days of removal.
Executive Branch Vote Of No Confidence:
If the Executive branch is seen as no longer representing the values of the community at large a vote of no confidence can be called to the floor. It needs to be ratified by a majority in the House of Commons and a ⅔ majority of the Senators.
Limitations:
- The number of positions for the Senators is frozen as it stands. The number cannot grow or decrease without an amendment to the Charter.
- Any person can be removed from said position but the position needs to be filled in within 30 days of removal and the person needs to be approved by the body of governance.
- An amendment to the charter requires a ⅔ majority vote in both houses and approval by the Executive branch.
3. Meritocracy and Promotions
Leadership roles are given to those who have proven themselves as valuable members of our community.
Any voting member can nominate the individual for a position and will hold the position until they choose to step down or are voted out by a vote of no confidence.
If an officer of the House of Commons is out of contact and is unreachable for more than 6 months his position is forfeit.
4. Effective Communication
Be aware that this community is growing rapidly and our leadership will be slowly developing. We are over 5000 members as it stands and we may not be as responsive as you’d like. It is important that you contact the appropriate person whenever possible. Certain people at the top are flooded with communication and if we skip the correct protocols are highly unlikely to be able to respond to 3000 messages waiting for them every morning. In the unlikely event that you need a response and the immediate officer is not available then escalating up the chain is encouraged as long as proper steps have been taken to attempt to get into the contact with the party responsible for overseeing the project in question.
5. Organizational Structure
Divisions
Organizational Units are divisions of GeekBeacon. Everything that GeekBeacon does can be tied to a top level division.
Full list is coming soon, but examples are: Engineering, Creative, Business Development etc.
Each division can have a variety of different sub-projects under its purvue. We'll refer to those projects as GIGs (Geek Interest Groups) sometimes also referred to as User Groups.
Geek Interest Groups (GIGs)
Each GIG has a leader and co-lead that can overseas multiple the activity in the group. A GIG can be responsible for running a game night, working on collaborating and learning a programming class, etc. It really is open to the community what they would like the GIGs to be. The sky is the limit as long as it doesn't break any of the established code of conduct.
The leaders of the GIGs can reach out to the division lead if they need resources, are running into issues, need mediation or simply need help. Every project will have a select set of leaders though ultimately the division leaders are responsible for all the GIGs they oversee.
GeekBeacon will try to provide the resources necessary to facilitate the coordination, development, communication necessary to allow the GIG in to operate within the limits of both budgetary and human resources available.
A core tenant of GB, is that every project needs to have more than one person available to perform any given task. No resource associated with GB should have less than 2 people able that can manage it. We are a volunteer project group and organization as such we expect people's availability to shift over time. That is one of the many reasons why we require backups from both a technical and leadership side. When people get busy and life gets in the way it shouldn't be something that impedes GB from operating normally.
At times a Group Leader may be appointed that overseas multiple GIGs to help ease the burden on the division leader. A group leader is responsible to coordinate with 2 or more GIGs and make sure that they have everything they need.
Any community individual can create a new GIG (Geek Interest Group) as long as there is a group of at least 2 or 3 individuals interested in the project and it has potential beyond a personal project. Please reach out the division lead if you are interested in starting a new GIG.
Generally GIG projects should follow the overall tenets and values established by GeekBeacon and further cement the core of what we are and what we believe in.
Mission Statement:
To create a hub for different types of geeks to share, collaborate and explore their passions in life.
Keep in mind, at the end of the day GeekBeacon is a community that should help you have fun with people of similar interests and values. If you're not having fun, then something is wrong and we need to fix that!
Very rarely should anything require an escalation up the hierarchy but personal argument, grievances and points of contention can be arbitrated by the supervising body.
6. Conflict Of Interest:
We expect leaders to be aware when they are conflicted due to employment or other projects they are involved in, and abstain or delegate decisions that may be seen to be self-interested. We expect that everyone who participates in the project does so with the goal of making life better for its users.
When in doubt, ask for a second opinion. Perceived conflicts of interest are important to address; as a leader, act to ensure that decisions are credible even if they must occasionally be unpopular, difficult or favorable to the interests of one group over another.