wiki_ghostguild/content/curriculum/PS Guides/5-coop-structures-governance.md

5: Coop Structures and Governance

Pre-session

If you are the presenting PS for this session, prep a 15–20 minute case study from your studio covering:

• How your studio makes decisions now
• What you tried that didn't work
• One example of governance helping resolve a real issue

What happens in session

Studios learn about legal structures (sole prop, partnership, corporation, worker coop), governance models (collective governance, advice process, sociocratic circles, board + membership, DisCOs), and member management (adding, departing, removing members). A PS presenter shares a 15-20 minute case study on their studio's governance journey. The session introduces Community Rule as a tool for documenting governance in plain language. Key themes: making governance visible, designing structures from the patterns noticed in Session 4, and distinguishing between governance practice and legal incorporation.

:::info If you are the presenting PS for this session, prepare a 15-20 minute case study covering: how your studio makes decisions now, what you tried that didn't work, and one example of governance helping resolve a real issue. Be honest about the messy parts.

:::

👀 Your role during session

• If presenting: deliver your case study
• Observe how your studio responds to the governance models — what resonates? What causes confusion or resistance?
• Listen for whether they connect their Session 4 Informal Hierarchy Check-In observations to governance design choices
• Note how they react to the member removal discussion — this is often where discomfort shows up

👆 Your role after session

• Make sure your studio has access to Community Rule
• Confirm they understand the homework: start a Community Rule draft with you, discuss financial sustainability, and do a personal reflection on financial access
• Note which governance model(s) they're gravitating toward

This week's Studio Support Meeting: Community Rule Drafting

📚 Materials

• Community Rule tool (open in browser)
• Studio's Informal Hierarchy Check-In observations from Session 4
• Notes on which governance model(s) interested them

🗺️ Context

This is a working session. You're helping the studio start documenting their governance in plain language using Community Rule. They don't need to finish — the goal is to surface where they already have answers vs. where they need more conversation. This draft will evolve.

👆 Before the session

• Familiarize yourself with the Community Rule interface and fields
• Review the studio's Informal Hierarchy Check-In observations
• Have the governance models overview handy (collective governance, advice process, circles, board + membership) in case they need a refresher

🌊 Session flow

Check-in (5 min)

"What governance model stuck with you from the session? Did anything click — or feel wrong?"

Community Rule walkthrough (10 min)

Open the tool together. Walk through the fields it asks for:

• What is this community?
• Who are the members? What qualifies someone for membership?
• How are decisions made?
• What roles exist?
• How do you change these rules?

Don't try to fill everything in right away. Start by identifying which fields the studio can answer easily vs. which ones need more discussion.

Prompts:

• "Where do you already have a clear answer?"
• "Where is there genuine disagreement or uncertainty?"
• "Which of these have you been doing by default without naming it?"

Draft together (20-25 min)

Start filling in what you can. Focus on the fields where there's energy or alignment. When you hit a field where there's disagreement, note it and move on — don't try to resolve everything today.

Key fields to prioritize:

Decision-making: "Based on what you practiced in Session 4, what framework are you leaning toward for different types of decisions?"

• Major decisions (new members, large spending, creative direction shifts)
• Day-to-day decisions (task assignment, meeting scheduling)
• Emergency/time-sensitive decisions

Roles: "What roles do you actually need right now? Who's doing them? Was that decided or default?"

Connect back to their role distribution mapping from last week.

Membership: "This is the hard one. What happens when someone wants to join? When someone wants to leave? When someone needs to leave?"

• You don't need to resolve this today. Just surface where assumptions differ.
• If they resist discussing removal: "I know this is uncomfortable. But having a process before you need it is a form of care."

Close and gaps list (5 min)

• Make a list of fields that still need discussion
• "What's the most important unresolved question?"
• "Who's going to take a first pass at writing up what we decided today?"

👉 Also this week

Financial sustainability conversation

Session 5 homework asks each person to reflect: What does financial sustainability look like for you personally? What would you need from this project?

This is prep for Session 6 (Equitable Economics). Check in during the week:

• "Has everyone spent some time thinking about the financial sustainability question?"
• "And the personal reflection: what financial information have you never been allowed to see at work?"

These don't need to be discussed as a studio yet — just make sure individuals are reflecting.

⭐ Tips

If they want to pick a governance model immediately:

• "You don't have to commit today. Start with collective governance or advice process — you can add complexity as you learn what you actually need."

If Community Rule feels bureaucratic:

• "Think of it as making the invisible visible. You're already doing governance — this just names it."

If they skip over membership/removal:

• "This is the part that matters most when things get hard. Even a rough sketch now saves a lot of pain later."

If one person is doing all the talking about governance:

• "Governance designed by one person is just management with extra steps. Everyone needs to shape this."

If time runs short:

• Prioritize decision-making and roles. Membership can be returned to next week.

🏁 After the session

• Note where the studio has clear alignment vs. where they got stuck
• Note any tension around membership/removal — these conversations will deepen
• Remind them about the financial sustainability reflection for Session 6 prep
• Bring the draft status to your PS check-in

🚩 Red flags to watch for

• A studio that resists documenting anything — "we just know how we work" (that's exactly the problem)
• Governance designed around one person's strengths or preferences
• Avoiding the membership/removal conversation entirely
• Confusing governance with incorporation — "we're not a real coop yet so we don't need this"
• A draft that looks perfect on paper but doesn't match how the studio actually operates