Exit & Separation Protocol

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Voluntary Exit

How can someone leave whenever they choose — without being punished for it, or losing more than their membership?

RCOS clauses 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.6.4

3.6.1 Voluntary exit MUST be possible at all times.
3.6.2 Exit procedures MUST be explicit, documented, and non-punitive.
3.6.4 Exit MUST NOT result in loss of rights beyond those explicitly tied to membership.

Why make leaving frictionless?

A community that is hard to leave is not a community — it is a trap. Voluntary exit must be available at all times, without interrogation, notice periods, or punishment, because the right to withdraw consent is what makes every other act of consent real. Retaining contribution history separately ensures that leaving does not erase the work the person did.

How to fill this in

Describe the channel for submitting exit, time-to-revocation of access, what records are retained, and the resulting state transition.

<How a member submits a voluntary exit; reasons optional.>
<Notice period or handover expectation, if any.>
<Time-to-revocation of access (e.g. within 24 hours of confirmation).>
<What is retained — contribution history, recognition records — and what is removed.>
<Resulting state transition (e.g. to Exited Member).>
<Where and how the exit is recorded with timestamp.>

What to cover

How does someone tell us they are leaving — and do they owe anyone a reason or a vote?
When does their access end, and where is the exit recorded?
Which rights end with membership, and which do they keep because they never depended on it?

Examples

Any member can leave the community at any time by informing the community in writing. They do not need permission or a vote to leave. The community records the exit date and follows the agreed process for returning personal belongings, settling outstanding payments, and ending membership-related responsibilities. Leaving means giving up rights that exist only because of membership, such as access to shared facilities or participation in governance. It does not remove any rights the person has independently of membership, such as ownership of their personal belongings or money the community owes them.

Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.

Forced Exit

What has to be true before the community can ask someone to leave?

RCOS clauses 3.6.3, 3.6.4

3.6.3 Forced exit MUST follow due process and be handled through Layer 4 mechanisms.
3.6.4 Exit MUST NOT result in loss of rights beyond those explicitly tied to membership.

Why gate removal behind Layer 4?

Removal is the sharpest power the community holds over a person. If it can be exercised by anyone with enough social pull, membership is worthless. Requiring a concluded Layer 4 accountability decision — with written reasons, a notification, and a minimum re-application window — turns removal from an act of power into an act of governance that can be reviewed and contested.

How to fill this in

State that forced exit can only follow a concluded Layer 4 accountability process. Define notification, access revocation, retained records, re-application block, and decision-record privacy.

<Forced exit may only result from a concluded Layer 4 accountability process with a documented decision.>
<Affected member must be notified in writing with reason and decision-record reference before access is revoked.>
<Time-to-revocation of access (e.g. within 24 hours of decision).>
<What is retained, what is removed.>
<Re-application block (minimum duration, set by accountability decision; reference Layer 4).>
<Privacy of the decision record (reference Conflict Resolution Ladder privacy rules).>

What to cover

What must have happened before anyone can be removed — which accountability process must have concluded, and what written decision must it have produced?
How is the person told — in writing, with the reasons and the decision reference — and how long after that does their access end?
What do we keep about the removal, and what do we delete?
How long must someone wait before they may apply again, and who sets that wait?
Who may read the decision record, and what stays private?

Examples

Nobody can be removed except as the outcome of a concluded accountability process under our Conflict Resolution Ladder, ending in a written decision. The person receives that decision in writing, with the reasons and its reference, at least 48 hours before their access ends. We keep the decision record and remove them from member lists and channels. The decision sets a re-application block of at least 12 months. Only the parties and the stewards who handled the case may read the record.

Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.

Suspension

Can someone be paused rather than removed — for how long, reviewed by whom, and never as a punishment in disguise?

RCOS clauses 3.7.1, 3.7.2, 3.7.3

3.7.1 The community MAY define temporary suspension states.
3.7.2 Suspension conditions MUST be explicit, time-bounded, and reviewable.
3.7.3 Suspension MUST NOT be used as an indefinite or punitive substitute for exit.

Why design suspension carefully or not at all?

A poorly-designed suspension state is worse than none — it becomes a soft exit with no due process, or an indefinite limbo used to punish without the accountability of a full removal. If the community cannot commit to explicit conditions, time bounds, and review mechanisms, it is safer to have no formal suspension than a loose one.

How to fill this in

Either define suspension explicitly (entry conditions, time limits, rights during suspension, review mechanism, exit) or state that no formal suspension exists. Do not leave this section ambiguous.

<Either: define suspension state with entry conditions, maximum duration, rights during suspension, mandatory review mechanism, and exit; or: state that formal suspension is not currently defined.>

What to cover

Do we want a formal suspension at all — or do we state plainly that we have none?
If we have one, what exactly can put someone into suspension, and who decides it?
What is the longest a suspension can last, and who reviews it, and when?
What may a suspended member still do, and what is paused?
How does a suspension end — and what stops it from becoming a punishment, or a removal by another name?

Examples

We do not have a formal suspension state. If someone's behaviour is serious enough to restrict their membership, it goes through our accountability process, which ends in a decision and never in an open-ended pause.

A member may be suspended only while an accountability process about them is open, by decision of the two stewards handling it, for at most 30 days. During suspension they keep their home, access to community records and the right to respond, but cannot vote or hold roles. The members' circle reviews every suspension on day 14. It ends on day 30 or when the process concludes, whichever comes first, and cannot be renewed for the same matter.

Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.

Asset, Role, and Responsibility Separation

When someone leaves, what happens to their roles, tasks, access and anything they hold for us — agreed before anyone leaves?

RCOS clauses 3.6.5

3.6.5 Asset, role, and responsibility separation MUST be defined prior to exit.

Why enumerate separation steps?

When someone leaves, every unclosed thread — a role nobody vacated, a wallet key still active, a task still assigned — becomes a live attack surface or an operational gap. A checklist forces these threads to be closed deliberately, not discovered months later when something breaks or someone abuses access they no longer should have.

How to fill this in

Provide a checklist applied to both voluntary and forced exits. Include role vacation, task release, financial-instrument access removal, platform admin revocation, and resolution of outstanding obligations.

The following separation steps apply to both voluntary and forced exits:

<Roles held must be vacated and documented in the Role Registry.>
<Ongoing tasks must be released or handed over.>
<Treasury / wallet / signing access must be removed.>
<All administrative access to platforms must be revoked.>
<Outstanding obligations resolved or transferred before exit is finalised where possible.>

What to cover

Does one checklist apply to every exit, whether someone leaves by choice or is removed — and who runs it?
For each role someone holds: who marks it vacant in the Role Registry, and who covers it until it is filled?
How are their ongoing tasks released or handed over, and to whom?
Who removes their access to money — bank accounts, wallets, signing rights — and by when?
Who revokes their admin access to our platforms and shared accounts, and how do we confirm it is done?
How are obligations in either direction settled or transferred before the exit is finalised?

Examples

The same checklist runs for every exit, voluntary or not, led by the membership steward. Within 24 hours the platform admin revokes all admin and shared-account access, and the treasurer removes the person as a signatory on the bank account. Within 7 days their roles are marked vacant in the Role Registry and their open tasks are handed over on the task board. Money owed in either direction is settled, or written into a repayment agreement, before the exit is marked complete.

Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.

Ratification Record

Who adopted this exit protocol, when, and how was it decided?

Adopted: <YYYY-MM-DD>
Decision type: Strategic
Version: <version>
Decision record: <link to decision record>