Governance & Decision Logic

• Operational Day-to-day decisions; reversible; low risk.
• Strategic Medium-term direction; resource allocation; partially reversible.
• Constitutional Changes to core rules, purpose, or invariants; high threshold.

How a decision is made. Purpose: match decision risk to decision method.

• Consent (no reasoned objection)
• Vote (majority / supermajority)
• Delegation (role-based authority)
• Proposal + review + adoption

Who can decide. Purpose: avoid decision paralysis and power leakage.

• Individual – autonomy within role
• Role – defined responsibilities
• Circle / Domain – scoped authority
• Whole community – constitutional matters

• Decision Matrix
  • Prevents arguments about how to decide
  • Makes authority explicit
  • Reduces emotional escalation
• Governance Protocol (short law document)
  • Decision types & thresholds
  • Roles and domains
  • Proposal lifecycle
  • Escalation and appeal paths
  • Emergency powers (if any)

• INV-2.1 · Decision type precedes decision content How a decision is made must be agreed before what is decided.
• INV-2.2 · Authority must be explicit No one may exercise decision power without a defined role, mandate, or consent.
• INV-2.3 · Constitutional rules outrank all others Operational or strategic decisions cannot override constitutional agreements.
• INV-2.4 · Decisions are reviewable All decisions must be traceable to their authority, method, and record.

MUST be explicit

• Decision types (operational / strategic / constitutional)
• Who decides what (authority boundaries)
• Decision mechanisms and thresholds
• Escalation paths

Why: governance ambiguity equals informal hierarchy.

MAY be explicit

• Meeting facilitation style
• Proposal templates
• Emergency procedures

MUST remain optional

• Governance philosophy (consensus vs sociocracy, etc.)
• Emotional tone of meetings