OFN global community agreement / community pledge

Continuing the discussion from How we accept new OFN "partners"?

Hi everyone!
@serenity and I drafted a first version of the community agreement we could all sign to commit with one another and agree on our shared responsibility of the Open Food Network Commons.
'https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M_toocvIKXJvq38FFX0RtKg3Tc_5vrPdL-C3lGIn-lE/edit?usp=sharing

I am still not sure, despite the discussion we had at the last community hangout, whether we should have a document only signed by partners (who share the use of the brand, and deploy local chapters of the OFN as Commons for the local communities) or if the document should be potentially signed by hub managers using the OFN and committed to the OFN project, service providers making money using the Commons (like white label users), etc.

I didn’t yet narrow down the perimeter of the document to only partners, so before moving forward I just wanted to share the first draft with you all so that you can have a more precise reading and share feedbacks.

A community agreement for me is a document explaining the responsibilities and rights of every group within the community, so that makes sens having one single document that anyone in the community can sign. But the document is much more about the commitment of the partners (which by definition are probably more committed that other members of the community, so maybe that’s normal! We don’t really ask a huge commitment to contributors…) so I’m not sure how to handle that… do you think a committed user could be willing to sign such a document?

Please comment directly on the document (use suggesting mode and comments) and let’s iterate on this first draft!

Ping @NickWeir @lin_d_hop @CynthiaReynolds @sreeharsha @Kirsten @danielle @tschumilas

Hei everyone! Any feedback / comments on the document?
I would like to make this project move forward and publish a first version that we all agree with and that we can all sign :slight_smile:
Please comment on the document and here!
@CynthiaReynolds @sreeharsha @NickWeir @tschumilas @JozeHladnik @janina @serenity (you already commented ;-))

I really like the document. thanks Myriam for all your work on it

Thanks for your comments and modifications @Kirsten, I just have one suggestion. I think like for co-budget, we will need a “steward” making sure that the new partners-to-be follow the different steps, like for example the steward can check if there are new signatures and if a new org has firmed the document and make sure the other steps have been followed.
Also I think we need to have one contact email for each signatories, so I suggest to attach to this document a contact form and say that when you sign the document you have to put your contact in the contact form (we can use a google form). So that if we want to modify the document, we can notify all the signatories about the relevant thread, so that everyone can participate in the discussion before we update the document.

About how to go next, I would suggest that after discussions the steward resolves all the comments, etc. And style a bit the document so that it looks nice :slight_smile: + create the google form for the contacts.
Then I suggest we create a new sub-menu on the global website and put it there with a short intro text, and also a link to a thread on discourse where people can find it from there, and also ask clarification questions about the document, react, suggest modifications, etc.

What do you think @Kirsten and @serenity ?

Exciting news everyone - I think we’re really close with this! I have just reviewed this again to take account of

  • comments and discussions in last community hangout
    • @MyriamBoure - can you confirm whether you see Service Provider as subset of Contributor? or separate as per the categories in Section 13?
  • contact in the last few weeks from a number of organisations interested in running ‘white-label’ OFN (to ensure the Contributor - Service Provider category encompasses and makes sense) e.g. @Brad
  • the potential case of a ‘non-OFN-branded’ Partner @enricostn please check this text

There are a couple of changes / comments that I just need @MyriamBoure and @serenity to confirm they’re happy with how it has landed, then I’ll close those off as well and we’re done for Version 1.

Anyone is welcome to make final comments - but I’m aiming to ‘move and accept’ this at Hangout next week so make them NOW! :slight_smile:

Then for super low-overhead and maintenance management of this, I’m proposing that:

  1. I make it a pinned post on Discourse/Governance
  2. Signatories ‘sign’ by replying to that post including
  • Who: individual, organisation etc
  • Type of Membership (as in Section 13)
  • Official contact email (if different from the community User who is posting)
  • pinging all other users who would be ‘part’ of this signatory
  1. I can also tidy it up, PDF it and put it on global site, with a link to this page to sign
  2. Somebody then volunteers to summarise everyone who has ‘signed’ in the last month for tick-off at the hangout, and updates the post to include those signatories in the actual text [need a volunteer for this very exciting job . . ]

Only possible downside is that it requires a discourse login to become a signatory, but I think that’s actually probably a good thing

How does that sound?

@NickWeir @lin_d_hop @CynthiaReynolds @sreeharsha @Kirsten @danielle @tschumilas @Sara please ping others who need to see this

I think this actually sounds like something a non-tech like me can actually manage :slight_smile: - to summarize new signatories monthly and update the post to include the newbies. (Although the first month will tell us if this is indeed more complicated than it sounds :slight_smile: But I’d be happy to contribute to our community in this way if I can manage it.

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Thanks @tschumilas - that’s awesome!!

Awesome @Kirsten ! I made some comments and suggest a last modification to clarify the distinction between Service Providers and Contributors (because in contributors you also have volunteer developer working on some bits of code, etc.) Tell me if that sounds ok and I can modify the drawing accordingly before Tuesday :slight_smile:
Apart from that all good :slight_smile:

Having just read this, I think it’s fine as a “pledge” but would need work if you intend it to be an enforceable legal document. I think it needs more clarity in the roles and responsibilities of “Service Providers”, which I assume we would fall under. And if Service Providers are expected to contribute financially, (which I have no problem with), they might also want to negotiate the rates for which they pay for other services.

However, in the spirit of supporting the effort - which I certainly want to do - I’m fine with signing this “as is”, so if this is the post on which we’re to sign, consider this our signature.

From a legal perspective, the entity is called MobileAppCorp LLC (soon to be changed), operating under the brandname: FarmFreshWeb.com. We’re incorporated under the laws of North Carolina in the US and intend to market throughout the US, focusing specifically on farmers markets, rather than hubs, which have multiple other commercial options in the US.

Did you have a specific financial contribution level in mind with regard to Service Providers? My inclination is the pledge as a percent of net profit, rather than revenue, but since I anticipate running at a loss in year 1, I’m certainly willing to do a percentage of revenue in year 1. Or we can simply pledge a fixed amount for the coming year, paid in monthly or quarterly intervals.

I would also note that we’re going to invest in the software and contribute that code back to the community, and would simply ask that those contributions be counted in some way toward our fair share. And that there be some equity in the contributions expected of other Service Providers.

Thanks.

Pledge is updated. Hurrah! in line with comments / discussion at [white label service providers](White-label OFN Service Providers working with OFN Community

Any last comments by midnight THURSDAY 18 MAY (EU time) please, and I will finish this off and open it up!!

@MyriamBoure @serenity @NickWeir @CynthiaReynolds @tschumilas @jveilleux etc etc

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I didn’t give this a thorough read, but did scan the whole thing and made one suggestion. I’m fine with it.

Thanks Kirsten - it looks great. I have made a few very minor suggestions but I am happy to go with it.

Thanks @Kirsten I made just a little comment about the users, I’m not sure they fit in the Associates section, for me they were in the contributors already (see the bottom part as well) but happy to discuss that of course :slight_smile: No strong opinion, but I explain in the comments my point.

OK. I am excited to announce that Pledge v1.0 is READY!! I am closing this post and starting a new thread for signatures. I have also shut access to the google doc right down so it is now view only except for @serenity (who created it), Myriam, myself and hello@openfoodnetwork.org. We can copy / re-open when 3 Affiliates agree that there is a need to revise. Open to suggestions on whether we need a couple more people with access just for resilience purposes!

OK. I am excited to announce that Pledge v1.0 is READY!! I am closing this post and starting a new thread for signatures. I have also shut access to the google doc right down so it is now view only except for @serenity (who created it), Myriam, myself and hello@openfoodnetwork.org. We can copy / re-open when 3 Affiliates agree that there is a need to revise. Open to suggestions on whether we need a couple more people with access just for resilience purposes!

Please go here now and sign up! OFN Community Pledge - v1.0 - 1 June 2017