Purpose Charter
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Primary Purpose
Why does this community exist — in one sentence that will still be true in ten years?
RCOS clauses 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.5
- 2.1.1 A community MUST define exactly one primary purpose.
- 2.1.2 The primary purpose MUST describe the enduring reason for the community’s existence and MUST NOT be a short-term goal, project, or strategy.
- 2.1.5 No action, decision, or allocation of resources MAY materially contradict the stated primary purpose.
Why a single enduring purpose?
Every decision, role, and allocation of resources downstream has to stay consistent with one thing — the community's primary purpose. If it drifts, shifts with trends, or gets rewritten to justify the latest project, there is nothing left to anchor governance to. A single, stable primary purpose is the constitutional north star: strategies change, the purpose does not.
How to fill this in
State exactly one primary purpose. It must describe the enduring reason your community exists — not a project, strategy, or short-term goal. One or two sentences.
<Your community's primary purpose, in one or two sentences.>
What to cover
- If we could keep only one reason for existing, what would it be?
- Would it still be true in ten years, after our current projects are finished or dropped?
- Is it a lasting reason — not a project, a strategy or a goal we could one day tick off?
- Is it clear enough that we could tell when a decision, or a way of spending our time or money, goes against it?
Examples
We exist so that the people who live here can share land, homes and daily work in a way that leaves the soil, the water and our neighbours better off than we found them.
Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.
Secondary Purposes
What secondary purposes do we pursue — without competing with why we exist?
RCOS clauses 2.1.4
- 2.1.4 Secondary purposes MAY be defined, but MUST NOT conflict with or override the primary purpose.
Why allow secondary purposes?
A community rarely does only one thing. Secondary purposes make space for the other concrete outcomes the community pursues — but they are subordinate. If a secondary purpose ever conflicts with the primary, the primary wins. Declaring them explicitly prevents scope creep from masquerading as core work.
How to fill this in
List concrete secondary outcomes the community pursues. They must not conflict with or override the primary purpose. Remove the section entirely if you have none.
- <Secondary purpose 1.>
- <Secondary purpose 2.>
- <Secondary purpose 3.>
What to cover
- Besides our primary purpose, what other concrete outcomes do we work towards — if any?
- For each one: could it ever pull time, money or people away from our primary purpose — and if it could, is it really secondary?
- Do we say plainly that when a secondary purpose clashes with our primary purpose, the primary purpose wins?
Examples
Alongside our primary purpose we pursue three secondary purposes: keeping homes affordable for members on modest incomes, running an open tool library for the neighbourhood, and sharing what we learn about living cooperatively at two open days a year. None of these may override our primary purpose; if one conflicts with it, the primary purpose takes precedence and the secondary purpose is scaled back or dropped.
Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.
Non-Goals and Exclusions
What are we deliberately not, however tempting it becomes?
RCOS clauses 2.1.5
- 2.1.5 No action, decision, or allocation of resources MAY materially contradict the stated primary purpose.
Why state what the community is not?
Communities drift by accretion — one uncontested assumption at a time. Naming what the community is explicitly not makes boundary violations visible early, and gives anyone a clear basis to object before an activity becomes normalized. Silence here gets read as consent.
How to fill this in
Name the things your community is explicitly NOT, especially identities or roles others might assume by default (political party, investment vehicle, religious group, etc.).
- <Non-goal 1.>
- <Non-goal 2.>
- <Non-goal 3.>
What to cover
- What might outsiders or new members assume we are, that we are not — a political party, a business, a religious group, a charity?
- Which tempting directions have come up before, or are likely to, that we want to rule out now?
- For each one: is it worded clearly enough that anyone could point to an activity and say it crosses the line?
Examples
We are not a political party, and we do not endorse candidates or campaigns as a community. We are not an investment vehicle: no one joins to earn a return, and shared assets are never managed to make a profit for members. We are not a religious or spiritual group, and no belief or practice is expected of anyone who takes part.
Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.
Conditions for Purpose Change
What would it take to change why we exist — and who would have to agree?
RCOS clauses 2.1.3
- 2.1.3 The primary purpose MUST be stable across time and MUST only be changed through a constitutional decision as defined in Layer 2 and executed via the change process defined in Layer 6.
Why make changing the purpose hard?
Purpose is the one thing everything else depends on. If it were easy to change, nothing above it in the stack — membership, governance, invariants — could be trusted to mean the same thing from one year to the next. Constitutional-level thresholds and a ratification delay force a deliberate, visible act, not a quiet drift.
How to fill this in
Describe the change procedure. At minimum: the decision type required for the primary purpose (Constitutional, per Layer 2), the threshold, the ratification delay, and where the change is recorded (Layer 6 version history). Secondary purposes typically need a lower bar.
The primary purpose may only be changed through a Constitutional decision as defined in the Decision Matrix (Layer 2), requiring <threshold, e.g. supermajority of Full Members ≥⅔ of votes cast>, followed by a ratification period of no less than <duration, e.g. 30 days>. Secondary purposes may be changed through a Strategic decision. Any change must be recorded in the Version History (Layer 6).
What to cover
- Do we treat changing our primary purpose as one of our highest-level (constitutional) decisions, rather than an ordinary one?
- How many people have to agree, and who counts — all members, full members only, or those who vote?
- How long must we wait between the decision and the change taking effect?
- Where is the change recorded, so that the old and the new wording both stay visible?
- Do our secondary purposes need the same bar to change, or a lower one?
Examples
Changing the primary purpose is a constitutional decision. The proposal must be shared 30 days before the vote, and it passes only with at least two thirds of the votes cast by full members, with at least half of all full members voting. The change takes effect after a further 30 days and is recorded, together with the previous wording, in our version history. Secondary purposes can be changed by an ordinary community decision.
Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.
Ratification Record
Who adopted this charter, when, and how was it decided?
- Adopted: <YYYY-MM-DD>
- Decision type: Constitutional
- Version: <version>
- Decision record: <link to decision record>