We invite you to be as creative as you want in our governance and communication design.  That being said, we’ve found the following “default settings” is a fantastic starting point for houses to be able to get moving with a workable system that they can evolve over time.

Governance: Consensus, Pod-acracy, + Do-acracy Combo

• • By default, we recommend that decisions are made by consensus, meaning everyone has to be bought in —   or at least no one outright rejects any decision.
  • We recommend also having people self-select for the areas of the house they are most interested in, forming a pod, to distribute responsibilities. These pods can then solicit input and make proposals to the broader group to come to final decisions. Key areas include: chore system, shared food system, governance/house agreements, and house fund. It can also include: sustainability, design, gardening, event planning, etc.
  • We recommend carving out space for certain things to be done via do-ocracy, empowering people who are motivated/inspired to take action without always having to get approval from the entire house, especially for simple items that can be reversed (e.g. reorganize the garage, come up with a kitchen labeling system, arrange living room furniture, etc)

Asynchronous Decisions: Slack

• • We recommend driving the vast majority of simple communications and small decisions via Slack. Slack can completely replace email. We promise, you’ll be glad you kept your inbox free of house communications! 
  • Each person can vote with a simple “Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down” reaction to a specific proposal made via Slack. We recommend tagging the entire channel to make sure they know to vote. 
  • If a Slack vote becomes contentious or needs more discussion, it should be flagged and discussed in the next in-person meeting
  • Resource: please read our Slack Protocol Guide for ideas as to how best to use Slack for communications and decisions.
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Meetings Frequency: Twice/Month In-person Meetings

• • Twice per month is pretty doable for most people schedule-wise and with the above asynchronous approaches, many of the smaller decisions can be made fluidly via Slack. We recommend making these meetings social as well (perhaps over a meal), as in-person face-time with the entire community can be a rarity. 
  • Consider alternating between logistical-focused meetings that prioritize reviewing proposal, making decisions, and dealing with points of tension in the community; and community-focused meetings that emphasize relationship building, shared visioning, and having fun together. Logistics have a natural tendency to dominate all meetings, so we recommend intentionally carving out space one way or another for the vital and never-ending work of strengthening your community.
  • Note: the first few months may require more meetings to get the house going.

Get started:

• Use the worksheet below if you are just getting started with creating your governance system.