# Collective charter, original annotated drafting template

**DRAFT / NOT EXECUTED · NONBINDING · version 0.1**

No signatures are requested. This is not a sufficient legal instrument, incorporation document, or claim of endorsement. Every clause below is a proposal requiring local validation. `[REQUIRED: ...]` is an unresolved field, not authority.

## Required cover record

| Field | Required entry |
| --- | --- |
| Local name, sector, upstream/version | [REQUIRED: distinct name; one or more justified sectors; revision and changes] |
| Jurisdiction and proposed legal form | [REQUIRED: place of establishment, operating/participant jurisdictions, legal-form advice] |
| Accountable drafting body | [REQUIRED: convenor, contact, authority and appointment evidence] |
| Founding institutions and operating proposition | [REQUIRED: prospective founders/hosts, customer, service, payer, recurring funding and sustainability evidence] |
| Constituency and authority evidence | [REQUIRED: represented groups, excluded groups, legal/community delegation, evidence custodian] |
| Rights assessment | [REQUIRED: license, privacy, labor, community, equality, accessibility and safeguarding review] |
| Appeal and complaint route | [REQUIRED: independent body, accessible channels, response times, budget, emergency route] |
| Exit and succession owner | [REQUIRED: withdrawal, operator replacement, liabilities, data custody and wind-down plan] |
| Approvals | **not-reviewed**, [REQUIRED: complete the register below before proposing operation] |
| Source and decision record | [REQUIRED: source IDs, checked dates, versioned minutes and protected evidence references] |

## 1. Necessity and institutional decision matrix

**Proposed clause.** The collective shall meet the following evidenced gap: [REQUIRED: missing service or representation]. It shall not duplicate an effective existing commons institution without an explicit, reviewed justification.

| Option | Evidence to collect | Choose only if | Local finding |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Fork documents | Distinct needs and license/provenance review | Existing text needs independent adaptation; no new organization follows automatically | [REQUIRED] |
| Adapt an existing body | Mandate, resources, inclusion audit and willingness | Body can cover the gap with legitimate governance changes | [REQUIRED] |
| Federate autonomous bodies | Cross-body service need, interoperability costs and delegation limits | Shared protocol or scoped purchase improves on separate operation | [REQUIRED] |
| Create new | Failed alternatives, constituency authorization, startup/runway/exit budgets | No adequate accountable host or federation exists and local approvals support a new body | [REQUIRED] |
| Stop or defer | Missing authority, unlawful coordination, unsafe records or unfunded exit | Any prerequisite cannot be remedied before launch | [REQUIRED] |

**Annotation:** Record who participated, dissent, duplication risks, and appeal outcomes. A vote by founders does not establish the authority of a community they claim to serve.

## 2. Purpose and six accountable functions

**Proposed clause.** The collective shall preserve public access to open knowledge while undertaking only its approved service and representation scope: [REQUIRED]. It shall allocate functions as follows, without presuming a three-entity structure.

| Function | Accountable home and evidence | Independent control or replacement |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Scoped member procurement | [REQUIRED: purchaser, specification and purchasing delegation] | [REQUIRED: bid-conflict separation and member approval] |
| Contributor agency | [REQUIRED: verified principal, rights and mandate registry] | [REQUIRED: withdrawal and appeal administrator] |
| Independent commons stewardship | [REQUIRED: steward and public-benefit remit] | [REQUIRED: appointment/removal outside buyer control] |
| Professional operator | [REQUIRED: staffing, service obligations, budget and insurance review] | [REQUIRED: performance review and succession] |
| Independent assurance | [REQUIRED: competent reviewer and restricted access protocol] | [REQUIRED: funding/removal protections and publication rights] |
| Regulated payments | [REQUIRED: provider, jurisdiction, regulatory-perimeter and safeguarding review] | [REQUIRED: reconciliation and incident escalation] |

**Annotation:** Separate accounts, decisions and access permissions even where one lawful body hosts several functions. Document why conflicts can be managed; separate entities only when necessary and justified.

## 3. Membership and anti-capture

**Proposed clause.** Eligibility shall be [REQUIRED: accessible, nondiscriminatory rules and lawful exclusions]. Natural-person members shall have equal voting weight under a locally valid model. Purchasing volume, data contribution and financial donations shall not buy votes. Any legally required capital shall be stated, with lawful subsidy or solidarity arrangements and disclosed member liabilities; no disguised pay-to-vote system is permitted.

Members elect [REQUIRED: member chamber]. Suppliers select [REQUIRED: supplier voice mechanism] without receiving rival bids or deciding their own complaints. A funded affected-nonmember council selected through [REQUIRED: legitimate inclusive process] may initiate reviews and appeal harms. Independent stewards protect the rights floor. Specify quorum, protected decisions, staggered terms, recall, spending limits and conflict recusals: [REQUIRED].

**Annotation:** Paid participation covers time/access costs, not vote buying. Representation must include people who refuse contribution. Give reasons when recommendations are rejected.

## 4. Rights floor and bounded mandates

**Proposed clause.** No majority can waive nonmembers' rights, source confidentiality, minors' safeguards, valid community authority, or existing open permissions. Membership alone grants no rights over content or personal data. All negotiation authority must identify a principal, an authorized purpose, exclusions, expiry and withdrawal rules using the [mandate](bargaining-mandate.md).

Paid services, authorized new permissions, and voluntary commons covenants shall use separate schedules. Already open knowledge and the public domain shall not be enclosed or retrospectively charged royalties. Mandate withdrawal is not revocation of a Creative Commons license.

**Annotation:** Community protocols, public-domain status, copyright, custody, privacy and contractual authority are different questions; resolve each rather than declaring one universal owner.

## 5. Optional federation compact

**Proposed clause.** Joining the proposed Commons Collective Federation (CCF), if later constituted, shall be nonexclusive and separately approved. The proposed Commons Collective Framework Agreement shall preserve these limits. Each collective retains autonomous governance, treasury and legal responsibility. Shared protocols shall cover [REQUIRED: versioned mandate, evidence, service and assurance interfaces]. No federation body may bind a collective without a scoped delegation.

Mandates shall be portable only with the principal's authorization and a verified successor's capacity. No mandatory exclusivity, federation-wide price floor, market allocation, or automatic boycott shall be adopted. Counsel must review information exchange, aggregation and any competitive coordination before negotiation. A federation label confers no competition-law immunity.

**Annotation:** Publish compatibility/version changes and reasonable migration periods. Protocol forks need not request a franchisor's permission; names and trademarks remain separate.

## 6. Funds, accountability, and continuity

**Proposed clause.** Adopt the [governance and benefits schedule](governance-and-benefits.md), with earmarked accounts, documented liabilities, independent reconciliation, a funded complaint process, operator replacement and orderly wind-down. Commons funding does not imply charity or tax-exempt status. Public methods and aggregate finances shall be open; private records and sensitive community evidence shall be access-controlled.

Members may exit under [REQUIRED: notice, effective timestamp and continuing obligations]. Publicly licensed outputs remain available. Successors assume only lawfully transferable duties and authorized records. Restricted balances follow applicable law and funding terms, not a founders' discretionary distribution.

## 7. Approval register, no implied clearance

All essential statuses begin **not-reviewed**:

| Review | Status | Required reviewer/evidence/date/conditions/expiry |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Jurisdiction, legal form and member liabilities | not-reviewed | [REQUIRED] |
| Competition and purchasing authority | not-reviewed | [REQUIRED] |
| Rights and licensing authority | not-reviewed | [REQUIRED] |
| Privacy and security | not-reviewed | [REQUIRED] |
| Member governance and accessibility | not-reviewed | [REQUIRED] |
| Affected-community authority | not-reviewed | [REQUIRED] |
| Safeguarding and minors | not-reviewed | [REQUIRED] |
| Payments, accounting and tax | not-reviewed | [REQUIRED] |
| Independent assurance and funded appeal/exit | not-reviewed | [REQUIRED] |

An inapplicability finding needs documented reasons and competent review. Do not convert “not-reviewed” to approval by a checkbox alone. Complete [pilot preflight](pilot-and-evaluation.md) before real transactions. This template itself never becomes execution evidence.

Original template: CC BY 4.0; see [pack license and instructions](README.md).