Loomio
Thu 13 Nov 2014 5:35AM

Anybody got a Loomio friendly constitution for their org?

MT Miles Thompson Public Seen by 292

Hi all,

Our local timebank is registered as an official, non profit, 'incorporated society' with some semi-government thing or other. As part of this process we ended up adopting a full fledged constitution and Robert's rules and stuff.

Anyway we've got an AGM coming up this weekend and would be a great opportunity to adopt a much simpler consitution that said something like all members of the timebank are entitled to join our loomio group and that decisions made on the loomio group are as binding (or even more binding) as decisions made by consensus in actual meetings?

Anybody got a starting document we could work with on this ? Any tips? Would be much appreciated.

Thanks

DS

Danyl Strype Fri 18 Mar 2016 6:09AM

Not sure how I missed this discussion a year ago, because I think it's critically important. The rules that govern Incorporated Societies have not kept up with the rapid changes in communications technology over the last century or so, let along the last 30 years. Perhaps we need to lobby for the legal definition of a whole new kind of not-for-profit society, and for-profit cooperative company. governed by an online general meeting, rather than elected representatives?

MT

Miles Thompson Fri 18 Mar 2016 8:54AM

@strypey time to revisit this? Sadly Timebank Kapiti is more in need of an undertaker and a priest than a constitution just now but that said I do find myself in the situation of contemplating two other organisations which could benefit from some kind of formal link to LoomIO voting just now.

Would love to hear of any other legal texts (as well as teh freerange one) that mention LoomIO (and I'll try to do the same).

That said, I think the most practical solution in both these other cases is just to say that the actual organisation itself has it's own method for binding votes and LoomIO voting or consensus is strictly advisory. Not perfect but good enough to 'contain' the actual conversation and decision making somewhere inside of LoomIO and then have the queen ratify it later sort of thing. Workable and practical (unless your Gough Whitlam I guess).

DS

Danyl Strype Fri 18 Mar 2016 5:45PM

Sad to hear about TB Kapiti. Dunedin is sadly in the same boat. Maybe we could start a discussion on the TBANZ Loomio about why some TBs are falling over while others are doing well (Lyttleton, Wellington etc).

Sure would be good to get some clarification from someone with the legal chops on exactly what the minimum requirements for an incorporated society are (@rochellefurneaux ?). The NZ Pirates are experimenting with an IMC style hetarchy of working groups, with decision make (currently) through Loomio, so would be good to know that the bottom lines are when we come to incorporate. I know for sure there's no requirement to use Robert's Rules. Permaculture in NZ use consensus process, and it says so in our constitution (with supermajority as a backup), and the Greens do to (I presume they are an inc soc).

GC

Greg Cassel Sat 19 Mar 2016 3:46AM

Legally recognized organizations need to deeply consider laws which they will be held accountable to, of course. (And everyone needs to consider laws which may affect them )

I have 'independently' (with many deep influences from Loomio, Enspiral and other groups) derived a minimal developmental framework for Agreement-Based Organization , which I recently published under a Creative Commons license. This framework depends fundamentally on Loomio-style process. Feel free of course to check it out, and feedback is highly valued!

MT

Miles Thompson Sat 19 Mar 2016 7:36AM

@gregorycassel that is awesome thanks so much look forward to digging into it. Strypey now I'm sad thinking about Dunedin TB and yes it would be good to talk about it some time. On the TBANZ LoomIO - sure, why not, though I guess symptomatic of the problem there may not be much response but sure. To jump the gun a bit Lyttleton in particular is very much part of wider group. Wellington is doing very well though by itself. Critical mass, good group of people etc. hmmm

DS

Danyl Strype Thu 24 Mar 2016 3:03AM

Seems that this a relevant time to be reigniting this discussion. I just learned that in 2013 the Law Commission published a review of the Incorporated Societies Act 1908, and in January 2015 the NZ Law Society published an article about the need for lawyers to prepare to advise incorporated societies on constitutional changes that might needed by ammendments to the 1908 Act. I've heard disturbing rumours that the government's response to this review is a plan to abolish incorporated societies and force them all to become trusts, or possibly to abolish charitable status for incorporated societies. If anyone (@rochellefurneaux ?) can find any information about the proposed law changes that would be much appreciated.

RF

Rochelle Furneaux Mon 28 Mar 2016 10:01PM

I had a look at this Review about Inc Socs a LONG time ago and my recollection is that rumour is not remotely true.

There has however been a law change in Companies Law allowing for a Loomio type decision (ie, not requiring all to be present at a "meeting" at the same time period, necessarily) and have drafted some constitutions taking this into account. If you remind me in a week or two when some current projects are finished - I will dig them out.