{ "_comment": "Create flow – communication step: page, cards, and add-platform modals", "page": { "compactTitle": "How does your group talk, meet and keep its records?", "compactDescriptionBefore": "Pick a card for each part of how your group communicates, from chat and meetings to who holds the keys. Combine them or ", "compactDescriptionLinkLabel": "add", "compactDescriptionAfter": " your own.", "expandedTitle": "How does your group talk, meet and keep its records?", "expandedDescriptionBefore": "Pick a card for each part of how your group communicates, from chat and meetings to who holds the keys. Combine them or ", "expandedDescriptionAfter": " your own.", "seeAllLink": "See all communication cards" }, "confirmModal": { "title": "Confirm selection", "description": "Confirm to select this option.", "nextButtonText": "Confirm" }, "addPlatform": { "nextButtonText": "Add card" }, "removePlatform": { "nextButtonText": "Remove" }, "sectionHeadings": { "corePrinciple": "Core principle and scope", "logisticsAdmin": "How it works", "codeOfConduct": "Norms" }, "methods": [ { "id": "how-we-run-meetings", "label": "How we run meetings", "supportText": "Every meeting has a facilitator, a note taker and an agenda of proposals, ends on time and plans for childcare and interpretation.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "A method is only as good as the meeting it lives in. Meetings are where we decide what needs all of us, so we run them so everyone can take part, not only the loudest or those with the most free time. Roles hold the process so that nobody holds the room. This covers every meeting of the whole group or a working group, in person or on a call. It pulls against spontaneity, and it breaks when the same few people always hold the roles.", "logisticsAdmin": "The whole group meets at least monthly, and a tenth of active members can call an extra meeting. Each meeting has a facilitator, a note taker and a timekeeper, rotating every three months. The agenda goes where every member will see it three days ahead, and each item is a proposal or a report, never just a topic. For each proposal we take clarifying questions, then reactions, then concerns and what would resolve them, then decide by the method our Rule names. People who have spoken less speak first. The note taker writes decisions, not debate, into our records within two days. We end on time, and unfinished items go to a thread with a deadline or the next meeting.", "codeOfConduct": "The facilitator keeps us on the question and off the loudest voice, and decides nothing. One person speaks at a time, and the timekeeper is allowed to be annoying. We ask each new member about access needs and plan for them, such as childcare, interpretation, captions, a call-in line or a step-free room, and meetings that run past a mealtime have food. Anyone can ask for a pause or a break without explaining why." } }, { "id": "announcements-channel", "label": "Announcements channel", "supportText": "We keep one channel every member joins and only a few post in, for decisions, meetings and urgent news.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Important news drowns in a busy chat, and a member who misses a proposal cannot object to it. So we keep one channel that every member joins and can read without following anything else. This is where every member will see it, the place this Rule sends proposals, decisions, meeting times and urgent news. In a group small enough for one chat, that chat is the channel and everyone posts in it. It breaks when it fills with chatter or leaves out members who are not on the app.", "logisticsAdmin": "Only two to four posters the group names for a year can write here, and members can react but not reply. Posters put up any member’s proposal or objection within a day, as written, unless it shares private details. Each post covers one thing, in every language our members read, says what was decided or proposed, any deadline and where to discuss it, and links to our records. A deadline counts from when every member has been sent the news. Members not on the app get the same news by email, text or phone within a day. It doubles as our records only in an app where new members can read every past post, and then it has no disappearing timer.", "codeOfConduct": "Posters share decisions, proposals and objections as written, never their own opinions, the roster, addresses or where members meet. Discussion happens where the post says, not here. Members keep notifications on for this channel even if they mute the rest. Any member can ask a poster to correct a post, and the correction goes up as a new post. If no poster can be reached when news is urgent, any member posts it in our main chat marked as an announcement, and a poster repeats it here." } }, { "id": "discourse-forum", "label": "Discourse (forum)", "supportText": "We hold long discussions and shape proposals on a Discourse forum, where threads stay organized and searchable for years.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Chat moves too fast for decisions that need thought, and a busy chat buries proposals. A forum keeps each topic in its own thread that anyone can read later, so members in any time zone can take part and newcomers can see how we got here. We use it to discuss and shape proposals before they are decided and to answer common questions once for everyone. It pulls against speed, and it breaks when the real discussion happens somewhere else.", "logisticsAdmin": "Our forum runs on Discourse, open source software that we pay a host to run. At least two admins hold admin rights and the domain. Categories follow our working groups, with one for proposals, where each post states the proposal, its deadline and how it will be decided. Trust levels let active members do more over time, and moderators close a thread when it has done its job. Each decision is summed up at the end of its thread and logged in our records.", "codeOfConduct": "Search before starting a topic, and give it a title that says what it is about. Stay on the thread’s topic. Moderators move off-topic replies rather than delete them, and say why. Posts about hard subjects can sit behind a hidden details block, so readers choose when to open them. Admins and our host can read every post, private messages included, so nothing about one person’s situation goes on the forum." } }, { "id": "signal", "label": "Signal", "supportText": "We coordinate in encrypted Signal groups, with usernames instead of phone numbers and messages that disappear on a timer.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Signal encrypts every message and call end to end, is run by a nonprofit and is built to keep as little as it can about who talks to whom. We use it for day-to-day coordination and for anything we would not want read aloud at a public meeting. Signal protects a message on its way, not an unlocked phone, a screenshot or a member who forwards things. A big group anyone can join is public whatever the app says, so sensitive work stays in small groups of named members.", "logisticsAdmin": "As of 2026 Signal still needs a phone number to sign up, but members can hide it and join with a username. Our groups require admin approval for anyone joining by link. Two to four admins approve and remove members and change settings only when the group agrees or our conflict process pauses someone. To stop harm any admin can remove someone for up to 24 hours and tells the other admins the same day. Disappearing messages are on, four weeks for most groups, one week for shift channels and one day for small groups that discuss a particular person. Timers are turned off in any chat under a legal hold. Our announcements channel is never our records, since members who join later cannot see what was sent before. Pinned messages disappear on the same timer as the rest, so decisions go to our records before they vanish.", "codeOfConduct": "Share your username, not your number, and check that your number is hidden from people who do not have it. Before a sensitive one-to-one chat, compare safety numbers with the other member in person. Keep a screen lock on and message previews off your lock screen, and never link Signal to a computer others use. Admins remove members who have left the group within a week." } }, { "id": "slack", "label": "Slack", "supportText": "We coordinate our work in Slack channels, and move decisions to our records because the free plan hides and deletes old messages.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Slack suits work that runs on channels, threads and shared files, and many members already know it from their jobs. It is a workplace tool, not a private one. Slack is not end-to-end encrypted, so the company holds everything we post and can be made to hand it over. We use it to coordinate the work, never for anything about one person or that could put a member at risk. It breaks when it becomes our only record or when members are expected to answer at all hours.", "logisticsAdmin": "As of 2026 a free Slack workspace shows only the last 90 days of messages and files, and since August 2024 Slack has deleted anything older than a year from free workspaces. So decisions and how-tos go to our records the week they are made. Under a legal hold, an admin exports the channels it covers before Slack deletes anything. The workspace is owned by a group account with at least two admins. Partners get only the channels we share with them, as guests where our plan allows. Channels are open to every member by default so knowledge is shared, and private channels hold only what needs them.", "codeOfConduct": "Reply in threads so channels stay readable. Use scheduled sending instead of messaging people late, and nobody is expected to answer outside their working hours or agreed shifts. Direct messages follow the same norms as channels. Nobody pastes passwords, personal details or anything about one person’s pay or health into Slack. Apps and bots are added only by admins after a second member agrees." } }, { "id": "matrix-element", "label": "Matrix / Element", "supportText": "We chat on Matrix through the Element app, on a server we choose, so no single company owns our conversations.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Matrix is an open protocol, like email, so we can change servers, talk with groups on other servers and leave without losing each other. We use it for day-to-day chat and for rooms shared with other groups. Running a server is labor, so we pay a host or use one run by a group we trust. Encryption hides what we write, not who is in a room, when they post or the room’s name, which every server in the room can see. It breaks when members lose their recovery key.", "logisticsAdmin": "As of 2026 the matrix.org server limits uploads for free accounts, so our server comes from a host on the list at matrix.org or from a group we trust. Our rooms sit in one space with at least two administrators. Private rooms have encryption on and join by invitation only. Members save their recovery key in a password manager the day they join. Bridges to other apps stay out of private rooms, because a bridge must decrypt messages to pass them on, so whoever runs it can read them.", "codeOfConduct": "Use threads and mention people only when you need them, since members on other servers may see notifications late. Never invite a bridge or a bot into a private room. Before trusting a member’s new device in a sensitive room, confirm it with them in person or on a call. Anything said in a public room can be copied by every server that joins it, so treat it as public." } }, { "id": "discord", "label": "Discord", "supportText": "We run a Discord server for open chat, voice rooms and working groups, and keep anything sensitive off it.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Discord gives a spread-out group a living room, with channels, threads, drop-in voice rooms and roles that help newcomers find their way. It is good for presence and open work. As of 2026 Discord encrypts voice and video calls end to end but not text, so the company holds everything we write. We use it for open work and social time, never for anything about one person or that could put a member at risk. It breaks when one person owns the server and walks away.", "logisticsAdmin": "The server is owned by a group account, never a member’s personal account, and at least two members hold administrator rights with two-factor authentication on. New accounts start in a welcome channel that explains how to join until a member gives them a role. Roles open the channels each member works in. No channel is marked age-restricted and we meet in voice channels, not stage channels, so nobody must show Discord a face scan or ID. Bots are added only when two admins agree, with the fewest permissions they need. Decisions made on Discord are copied to our records, because one hacked admin account can wipe a server.", "codeOfConduct": "Check pinned messages and the channel topic before asking, and use threads for long discussions. Moderators use a timeout before anything stronger and log each action with its reason in the moderators’ channel. Never click a link in a direct message that asks you to log in or claims to come from Discord or an admin, since our admins never message first." } }, { "id": "shared-records", "label": "Shared records", "supportText": "We keep our Rule, decisions, minutes and how-tos in one place every member can find, with a steward who keeps it current.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Knowledge that lives in one person’s head leaves with them, and whoever remembers holds power over everyone who has to ask. So we write down how things work and why we decided what we did, and keep it in one place the group controls. These are our records, the place this Rule means whenever it says so. They hold the how and the why, never details about people. This breaks when the group chat becomes the archive or nobody keeps the records current.", "logisticsAdmin": "Our records are one shared folder or wiki with an index on its first page, and, where we share a space, a printed copy in a binder there. They hold this Rule, a decision log with one dated line for each decision that is hard to undo or touches others, minutes, notes for each role and how-tos for the work. The group names a steward for one year to keep them tidy and current. At least two members can open and change every part. Twice a year the steward prints what changed for the binder. Once a year we check that the rest of us could open everything if the steward disappeared tomorrow.", "codeOfConduct": "Our records never hold addresses, phone numbers, the roster or anyone’s private situation, which stay with the few members who need them. Members fix what is wrong in the records rather than working around it, and do not copy records into chats or personal accounts. Any member can ask the steward to correct or add something, and disputes about what was decided go to the next meeting. If the steward falls behind two months running, the members name another. A copy stored with a company is never our only copy." } }, { "id": "code-of-conduct", "label": "Code of conduct", "supportText": "One code covers how we treat each other in every channel, meeting and space, with a clear way to report problems.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "We can disagree hard and still work together, so long as we treat each other with care. One code applies everywhere we meet, in person, on calls and in every app, so nobody has to learn different rules for each tool. Rules for a particular tool add to this code and never replace it. It protects members and the people we serve, says what we expect, how to raise a problem and what happens next. It breaks when nobody acts on it, or when it is used to silence disagreement.", "logisticsAdmin": "Anyone can raise a problem with a member they trust or with two members named each year to receive reports. Reports stay with the people who need to know. Any admin or moderator can hide a post or pause someone from a channel for up to 24 hours to stop harm, and tells a report receiver the same day. Anything more goes to our conflict process, and a group that employs anyone keeps written harassment and discrimination procedures. Threats, harassment, abuse and discrimination go straight to its formal steps. If anyone is in immediate danger we get help from outside the group. Nobody loses their place, shifts or pay for raising a concern.", "codeOfConduct": "Treat everyone with respect and argue with ideas, not people. We do not tolerate harassment, threats or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexuality, disability, religion, age, class or immigration status. Never share anyone’s name, number, photo, address or story without consent, or post the roster or where members meet in any shared or public channel. Never knowingly spread false information. Anyone can ask to move a heated written conversation to a call or meeting, and it pauses until then. When told you caused harm, listen first." } }, { "id": "records-about-people", "label": "Records about people", "supportText": "We collect only what the work needs about people, keep it locked away and delete it on a set date.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "The safest record about a person is the one we never made. Names, addresses, needs and stories help us do the work, and they can hurt people if they leak, are seized or outlast their use. So we ask only for what the work needs now, keep it with the fewest members who need it and give everything a date to be deleted. This covers aid requests, intake notes, sign-in sheets, delivery lists and staff files. It pulls against convenience, since some things get asked twice. Keeping no records about the people we serve is a choice this card allows. A group that makes it writes We keep no records about the people we serve in place of the steps, and no member keeps lists, notes or photos of them on any device or in any chat.", "logisticsAdmin": "The group names two members to hold these records for one year. A request form asks only for a first name or nickname, one way to reach the person and what they need, and says when it will be deleted. Requests that come in any other way go into one sheet only the holders can open, never shared by link, and the original is deleted. Where we must follow someone over time, each request gets a number and only the two holders can join numbers to names. Paper is shredded on its date and never left in a car overnight. Records the law requires, such as payroll and tax files, stay locked for as long as the law says.", "codeOfConduct": "Nobody asks about immigration status, income or someone’s story unless the work cannot be done without it, even for a funder, and anyone can leave a question blank. Members never photograph, forward or copy records about people into chats or personal accounts. The holders confirm each deletion at the next meeting and pause it for anything under a legal hold. A leak is reported to the holders at once, and the people affected hear about it from us plainly and soon." } }, { "id": "accounts-and-keys", "label": "Accounts and keys", "supportText": "We keep a private list of every account, login, domain and key, who holds each one and when we last checked.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Whoever sets up an account usually ends up owning it, so one tired person can lock the rest of us out, by accident or on purpose. Every account, login, domain, door code and physical key belongs to the group, not to the person who holds it. Admin rights are a job the group hands out with a term, not a reward. This covers email, chat, files, our domain, social and payment apps and the keys to our spaces. Bank accounts and wallets follow our rules for shared money.", "logisticsAdmin": "Two members, or a founder and someone they trust, keep an access map, a private list of every account and key that shows which roles hold it, whether two-factor authentication is on, where the recovery codes are and when it was last checked. It names roles, not people, and lives in our password manager or a locked drawer, never in shared text. Group accounts use a group email address, and our domain is registered in the group’s name with privacy on and no member’s home address. Admin rights last one year. Once a year the keepers check the map with the members, close access nobody needs and confirm who could get in if a holder could not.", "codeOfConduct": "Nobody shares a login in a chat, an email or a document, and nobody creates an account for the group with their personal email. Two-factor authentication is on wherever offered, and at least two members can pass it. When anyone leaves a role or the group, the keepers update the map that week, for founders as much as anyone. Any member can ask who holds an account and get an answer. A holder who loses a phone, laptop or key tells the keepers the same day, without blame." } }, { "id": "email-distribution-list", "label": "Email distribution list", "supportText": "We send announcements and formal notices by email, so members who are not on our chat app still hear everything.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Email works on any device and with any provider, and no single company controls it. It is our slowest channel and the one that reaches the most people, including members without smartphones and those who will not join a chat app. Formal notices, such as a call to a general meeting, go here so every member has them in writing. A founder can start the list before anyone else joins. Email is rarely end-to-end encrypted, so it never carries details about one person or where members meet.", "logisticsAdmin": "We keep two lists. The announce list carries every announcement, and if we have no announcements channel it is where every member will see it. Only two members the group names for a year can send to it, and they send any member’s proposal within a day. The discussion list is open to every member for longer conversations. Two list keepers named for a year add members when they join and remove them when they leave. The lists run on a service in the group’s name, never one member’s personal account, and the keepers keep our own copy of the addresses. Until we have a list, one member sends with every address in the blind copy line.", "codeOfConduct": "Subject lines say what a message is about and any deadline, and change when the topic does. Reply to the sender for anything personal and to the whole list only when everyone needs it. Never forward a list message outside the group without asking its author, and never put members’ email addresses in the visible to or copy lines. Messages about one person, money worries or conflicts go to the people concerned, not to the list." } }, { "id": "github-gitlab", "label": "GitHub / GitLab", "supportText": "Our code, this Rule and our decisions live in a repository, where every change has a reason and a reviewer.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "In an open project the repository is where the work and its history already live, so we keep our records there too. Changes to this Rule are reviewed like code, so members can see who changed what and why, and merge only once the method our Rule names for changing it has passed. This Rule and our decision log sit in a public repository only if the group agrees. This covers code, this Rule, proposals and decisions about the project. A repository’s history keeps whatever was ever committed, so it is the wrong place for anything private about people.", "logisticsAdmin": "The repository holds a decision log, a code of conduct and a guide for new contributors, and this Rule if we publish it. A proposal is an issue or pull request, linked where every member will see it, with a deadline in its first lines, and the result is written in the thread before it closes. Once we have two maintainers, every change to the main branch needs a review from someone other than its author, and a request for changes holds it until resolved or the group decides. At least two maintainers hold owner rights on the organization, package registries and domain, and everyone with write access uses two-factor authentication. We keep a full copy outside the platform, since any platform can lock an account.", "codeOfConduct": "Reviews are about the change, never the person who wrote it, and every rejection comes with a reason. Nobody commits names, addresses, keys or passwords, and anything committed by mistake is treated as leaked and changed at once. A thread that turns heated is locked and moved to a call. Reports about behavior go privately to two members named to receive them, never into a public issue. Security problems are reported privately and fixed before they are discussed in the open." } }, { "id": "front-door", "label": "Front door", "supportText": "People who need us or want to join can always find us through one public contact that two members answer.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Links rot, pages go stale and a founder’s personal number stops working, and people who need us find a dark room. So we keep one front door that does not depend on any one member, a phone number and email address in the group’s name and one public page that says who we are and how to reach us. It keeps members’ own names and numbers off public posts. This breaks when nobody checks it or when messages that come in go unanswered.", "logisticsAdmin": "Our front door is a phone number and an email address in the group’s name, given on one public page or pinned post. Two members, or the founder until a second member joins, answer it for three months at a time and reply within two days. They pass each request to the right working group one to one, never in a group chat, and delete the original message once it is passed on. Legal papers, lawyers’ letters and official demands are kept, never deleted, and go to the members who handle legal matters the same day. Once a month one of them checks that the page is current, every link works and the number rings. When we change tools, the old page stays up with one post that says where we went.", "codeOfConduct": "Whoever answers speaks for the front door, not for themselves, and never gives out a member’s personal number or says where anyone lives or meets. Replies say plainly what we can and cannot do. Messages that threaten or harass are saved, passed to the members who handle safety and never answered alone. The public page never shows where members meet, and it changes only when the two members who answer agree." } }, { "id": "in-person-meetings", "label": "In-person meetings", "supportText": "We meet face to face for our regular meetings, our biggest decisions and hard conversations, in places every member can reach.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "For a group that lives in one area, meeting in person is where trust is built, the biggest decisions are made and hard conversations go best. So we meet face to face whenever we can, not only once a year. This covers our regular meetings and any meeting about a conflict or a big decision. Meeting in person pulls against reach, since some members cannot travel or have no one to watch their children, so members can join by phone or video when they ask.", "logisticsAdmin": "We meet at a set time each month in a place that is step-free, near transit and free or cheap to use. Members learn the place from another member directly, in person, by a call or a one-to-one message, and it never goes into a group channel, a public post, a flyer, a shared document or this Rule, except a notice to members the law requires. Posts for public events give only what newcomers need. The members who hold the space’s keys open and close it. Someone greets newcomers at the door and explains how the meeting works. When the place changes at short notice, the key holders tell each member directly or through calls on our phone tree.", "codeOfConduct": "The meeting starts on time for whoever is there. Phones stay on silent and side conversations move outside. Members who feel unsafe can leave at any time without explaining, and someone checks in with them afterward. Nobody brings a guest to a member meeting without asking first. We stay a while after the meeting when we can, since much of the trust gets built there." } }, { "id": "video-meetings", "label": "Video meetings", "supportText": "When we cannot be in one room, we meet on a call every member can join by link or by phone.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Video calls let members who are spread out, busy or unable to travel meet face to face without the cost of getting there. We use them for regular meetings of a spread-out group and for conversations that would take too long in writing. Calls tire people faster than rooms and leave out members with poor connections, so we keep them short and offer a phone line. Most video services can see who joined and when, and cloud recordings live on their servers.", "logisticsAdmin": "The call link goes out in member channels only, and calls about sensitive matters use a waiting room or a password, with the host admitting only people they recognize. Hosting rotates, and a second member can take over if the host drops. Calls last an hour at most unless the group agrees to more. Members can join by phone where the service allows it, and we turn on captions whenever anyone asks. Anything about one person, or that could put members at risk, goes on an end-to-end encrypted call, such as a Signal call.", "codeOfConduct": "Cameras are optional and nobody is asked why theirs is off. Mute when not speaking and use the raise hand button or the chat to join the queue. The chat follows the same norms as the call and is not saved unless the group agrees. Nobody records the call and no automated note taker joins unless everyone present agrees at the start, and any recording is deleted once the notes are in our records." } }, { "id": "phone-and-text-tree", "label": "Phone and text tree", "supportText": "When news is urgent, a chain of members calls or texts everyone, including members without smartphones or data.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Not everyone is on the same app or has data every day, and urgent news cannot wait for someone to check a chat. A phone tree passes news by call or text from member to member until everyone has it, and confirms that they did. We use it only for urgent news, such as a canceled shift, a change of place or a safety warning. It breaks when the list goes stale or a caller is away and nobody notices.", "logisticsAdmin": "Two members keep the tree for one year. It holds only a first name or nickname and one number for each member, and lives on paper and in an encrypted note, never in a shared document or chat. Each caller has three to five people to reach and a backup caller. Anyone with urgent news tells a keeper, who starts the tree. Each caller reaches their people within an hour, leaves a short message when there is no answer and tells the keeper who was not reached. The keepers test the tree every three months and update it after each test.", "codeOfConduct": "Messages are short, say what happened and what to do, and never name anyone’s situation or say where anyone lives. Text messages may not be encrypted, so a new meeting place or anything sensitive goes by call or a one-to-one encrypted message instead. Nobody uses the tree’s numbers for anything else. A member can leave the tree or change their number at any time by telling a keeper." } }, { "id": "deciding-in-threads", "label": "Deciding in threads", "supportText": "Between meetings we post proposals in writing with a deadline, show consent with a reaction and move long threads to a meeting.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Most decisions are too small to wait for a meeting, but a chat thread makes a poor meeting. So when we decide in writing, we post a clear proposal with a deadline, make it easy to agree or object and record the result where we can find it. This covers proposals in any chat, email list or forum between meetings. It pulls against quick replies, and it breaks when a thread runs on without a proposal or a proposal never reaches members who are not on that app.", "logisticsAdmin": "A proposal starts with the word Proposal and says what we would do, who does it, the deadline and which method our Rule uses to decide it. It is announced where every member will see it, with a link to the thread for replies, or posted in a working group’s channel for that group’s own work. Members who agree can say so with one agreed reaction, and concerns go in replies. When the deadline passes, the proposer posts the result, pins it and adds a line to our records. A thread that passes thirty messages without a decision is a meeting trying to happen, so the proposer schedules a call or takes it to the next meeting.", "codeOfConduct": "Keep replies about the proposal and take side talk elsewhere. Say what you would change, not only that you disagree. Nobody is pressed to react before the deadline, and silence counts as agreement only where the method our Rule names says so. Do not edit a proposal after people have reacted. Post a new version and restart the deadline." } }, { "id": "loomio", "label": "Loomio", "supportText": "We discuss and decide proposals in Loomio between meetings, so members who cannot attend still have their say.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Not every member can come to every meeting, and a decision made by whoever showed up shuts the rest out. Loomio, built by a worker cooperative, keeps a discussion and its proposal together, shows who has responded and closes on a set date. We use it for proposals that need every member’s view, between meetings or instead of them, and it keeps each decision with its reasons. It pulls against speed, and it breaks when members stop checking it and a few voices decide.", "logisticsAdmin": "As of 2026 Loomio offers a 14-day free trial for up to 10 people and paid plans after that, with a discount for nonprofits, and its open source code can be self-hosted. Our group is invite-only and two admins add and remove members. Each proposal names the method our Rule uses for that kind of decision, its deadline and who will act on it. We set it to email every member when a proposal opens and a day before it closes. The outcome is posted where every member will see it and logged in our records.", "codeOfConduct": "Read the proposal and the discussion before you respond. If you object, say what harm you see and what would resolve it. Choose abstain when you have no view, so others can see you read it. Keep the discussion in the thread rather than in side chats. Loomio keeps what we post on its servers, like most web tools, so a proposal never names a person’s aid, health or pay, which go to the smallest circle that can decide them." } }, { "id": "whatsapp", "label": "WhatsApp", "supportText": "Where WhatsApp is the app everyone already has, we coordinate there with numbers kept private and sensitive work kept elsewhere.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "WhatsApp is on almost every phone, so it reaches members who will never install another app. It encrypts what we write end to end, but Meta, the company that runs it, still keeps who is in each group and who talks to whom and when. So we use it for everyday coordination and news, and we keep anything about one person, money worries or plans that could put members at risk in Signal or on a call. It breaks when the group chat turns into our roster.", "logisticsAdmin": "We link our groups under one parent group with an announcement group that only admins post in, and a small group for each working group or area. Two to four admins approve everyone who joins and remove members who leave. Invite links are shared one to one, never posted in public, and reset if they spread. Members turn on encrypted backups. As of 2026 WhatsApp is still rolling out usernames, and members of an ordinary group can see each other’s phone numbers, so we tell new members that before we add them.", "codeOfConduct": "Keep the announcement group for news and the small groups for the work. Never add someone to a group without asking them first, since adding them shows their number to everyone in it. In any group that discusses plans or people, turn on disappearing messages and Advanced Chat Privacy, and turn off sharing recent messages with new members. Turn disappearing messages off in any chat under a legal hold. Never post the roster, addresses, where members meet or anyone’s situation in a group, whatever its size." } }, { "id": "chat-channels", "label": "Chat channels", "supportText": "Whatever app we use, we keep a few named channels, keep shift channels clear for the work and set quiet hours.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "A chat that does everything buries the message that matters. So whatever app we use, we split our chat into a few channels with clear purposes and agree how to use them. Clear channels let someone on a shift find what they need at a glance, and let members take part without reading everything. This covers every group chat and channel we run. It breaks when channels multiply faster than anyone can follow, or when the real conversation moves to private messages.", "logisticsAdmin": "Official channels share a prefix, such as one emoji, so members can tell them from side chats. We keep one channel for announcements, one for general chat, one for each working group, one for each shift or action and one for social chat. A shift or action channel carries only what people need to do the work and is closed when the work ends. Any working group can open a channel and names a member to look after it. Twice a year we close the channels nobody uses.", "codeOfConduct": "Post in the channel that fits and take off-topic talk to the social channel. Acknowledge a message with a reaction instead of a reply that pings everyone. Join announcements and the channels where you work. Ask the sender before forwarding a message outside its channel, unless you are reporting harm. During quiet hours, from ten at night to seven in the morning, nobody expects a reply and only urgent safety news goes out, except on shifts. Decisions made in chat go to our records, since chat is where memory starts." } }, { "id": "field-communication", "label": "Field communication", "supportText": "During shifts and actions we use one clear channel, set check-in times and an off-site contact, so nobody goes missing unnoticed.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "In the field, a message lost in chatter can be a call for help that nobody sees. During shifts, distributions and actions we keep one channel for the work, check in at set times and keep one member off site who acts if someone goes quiet. This covers any time members work apart from each other or in risky places, and it works alongside any on-site lead our Rule names. It breaks when the channel fills with chatter or nobody notices a missed check-in.", "logisticsAdmin": "Before each shift, the member leading it opens a channel or radio channel for it and shares the check-in times. Everyone on shift has a buddy. One member stays off site as the contact and holds an emergency contact for each person on shift, given only if they choose. If a check-in is fifteen minutes late, the contact calls the person, then their buddy, then the member leading the shift, and gets help from outside the group if anyone may be in danger. Only members who have practiced with radios use them. The channel is cleared or closed when the shift ends.", "codeOfConduct": "The shift channel carries only what people need to act, such as where, when, who and what is needed. Social chat and debates wait until after the shift. Nobody posts photos, faces, plates or anyone’s home address, and where the shift works goes only to the people on it. Legal names and health details go only face to face, by phone or to the off-site contact, never over radio, which scanners can hear. Members on shift keep their phones charged, locked and on." } }, { "id": "password-manager", "label": "Password manager", "supportText": "Every group login lives in a shared password vault with long random passwords, two-factor codes and two vault admins.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Passwords kept in someone’s head, a browser or a sticky note leave with that person or leak with their laptop. A shared password manager keeps every group login in one encrypted vault, so the people who need a login can use it without anyone having to remember it. It also refuses to fill a password into a fake site, which stops many scams. The vault is the one small hierarchy worth keeping, because we can check it. It breaks when the only vault admin disappears.", "logisticsAdmin": "We use a password manager that encrypts the vault end to end, such as Bitwarden, which as of 2026 offers a free organization for two people and paid plans for more. Every group login moves into it with a long random password, two-factor authentication on and its recovery codes stored beside it. Two members are vault owners with full rights, and each keeps the recovery code for their own vault login on paper, outside the vault. Members see only the logins their roles need. When someone leaves a role, their vault access is removed and the passwords they could see are changed that week.", "codeOfConduct": "Nobody copies a group password out of the vault into a chat, a document or a browser. Members lock the vault when they step away and use a strong master password they use nowhere else. A member who thinks a password has leaked tells a vault admin at once, and it is changed without blame. Vault admins open only what their own work needs." } }, { "id": "security-plan", "label": "Security plan", "supportText": "Once a year we ask what we hold and who might want it, and we plan for a bad day.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Every group has a security policy, written or not, and the unwritten one is usually whatever the person who set things up did. So once a year we decide together what to protect and from whom, before a crisis decides for us. Most trouble is ordinary, such as a lost phone, a scam, a former member with a password or harassment, and some groups also face searches or subpoenas. This covers our devices, accounts and records. It pulls against ease, and a practice nobody follows protects nobody.", "logisticsAdmin": "Once a year, for about 45 minutes, we answer four questions and date the answers in our records. What do we hold? Who might want it? What would it cost the people involved if they got it? What will we actually keep doing? Every member’s phone has a passcode of at least six digits and current updates, and members at actions know how to turn off face and fingerprint unlock quickly. We check any request for money or passwords by calling the person on a different channel. We write down who we call on a bad day, such as a lawyer and a digital security helpline.", "codeOfConduct": "When something goes wrong we contain it, tell people and learn. We change passwords, sign out of every device and remove the lost device or account. The people whose information was touched hear it from us plainly and soon. We change the practice rather than blame the person, and a member who reports a mistake within the hour has helped us. Nobody hands over records or devices voluntarily before a lawyer has read the paperwork, since a request is not an order, and anything it touches goes on a legal hold." } }, { "id": "speaking-for-the-group", "label": "Speaking for the group", "supportText": "Named members speak for the group to the press and online, and nobody shares photos or details of people without consent.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "What one member says in public can be taken as our position, and one photo can put a member or a neighbor at risk. So a few members we name speak for the group, and everyone else speaks only for themselves. This covers the press, our social media accounts, public statements and filming at our events. Harassment usually starts with a name or a face, so we keep members’ legal names, faces and home areas out of what we publish. It breaks when anyone answers for the group.", "logisticsAdmin": "The group names two spokespeople for one year and lists the accounts that post for us. A statement that takes a new position is a decision of the whole group, and routine posts such as event times need no approval. Photos at our events are taken with consent, from behind or with faces covered by a solid block and location data removed, and never of people receiving aid. When a reporter or someone filming arrives, members say they do not speak for the group and point to a spokesperson. Our posts never say where an action or a meeting is until it is safe.", "codeOfConduct": "Speak for yourself, not for the group, unless you are a named spokesperson. Never tag, name or post a photo of a member or anyone we serve without their consent. Do not share where members live, work or meet. If asked about a conflict inside the group, say only that we have a process for it. A member harassed because of our work gets the group’s support, and we document the harassment together." } }, { "id": "newsletter", "label": "Newsletter", "supportText": "We send a regular newsletter to supporters and neighbors who asked for it, with no tracking and an easy way out.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Social media rents us our reach and can take it away, so we keep our own list of people who want to hear from us. A newsletter tells supporters, neighbors and partners what we are doing and how to help, in our own words and on our own schedule. It is for people outside the group as well as members, and it never replaces our member announcements. A list of supporters can be leaked or seized, so it holds only email addresses.", "logisticsAdmin": "Two members edit the newsletter and send it on a set schedule, such as monthly. People join only by signing up themselves, and every issue has a one-click way to leave. The list lives on a service in the group’s name, and the editors export our own copy each quarter. We turn off open and click tracking where the service allows it. The list is never shared, sold or used for anything else. The postal address email services require in each issue is a post office box or our fiscal sponsor’s, never a member’s home.", "codeOfConduct": "Write about what we do, not about the people we serve, and never include anyone’s name, photo or story without their consent. Asks for money say plainly what the money is for. Each issue says who we are and how to reach our front door. Mistakes are corrected in the next issue." } }, { "id": "facebook-and-instagram", "label": "Facebook and Instagram", "supportText": "We keep a Facebook group or page that points people to us, and organize somewhere we control.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Many neighbors look for local groups on Facebook and Instagram, so a page or group there helps people who need us find us. But Meta can read everything posted and decides who sees each post, and it can close a group without warning. So we treat it as a way in, not a home. It points people to our front door and public events, while our organizing, our list of members and our records live elsewhere. It breaks when the group lives only on Facebook or Instagram.", "logisticsAdmin": "At least two members are admins, each with two-factor authentication on, so the group never depends on one person’s account. One pinned post says who we are, what we do and how to reach our front door, and an admin checks it each month. We point people to our page, which they can message without joining anything. Any group we keep is private, and its questions ask only what keeps out spam, never anyone’s status or situation. Requests for help that arrive as comments or messages, on Facebook or Instagram, are moved to our front door and then deleted. Legal papers and official demands are kept and go to the members who handle legal matters the same day. People who want news from us are pointed to our newsletter, never added to member channels.", "codeOfConduct": "Never post where members meet, live or work, or anyone’s name, photo or situation without their consent. Do not argue with trolls. Hide or delete their posts and tell the other admins. Comments asking for help get a reply pointing to our front door, never a public discussion of the need. When the group is large or under attack, admins approve posts before they appear." } }, { "id": "telegram", "label": "Telegram", "supportText": "Where members already use Telegram, we use it only for announcements and open discussion, because group chats there are not end-to-end encrypted.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "Telegram is popular for large groups and broadcast channels, and many members outside the United States already use it every day. It is not a private tool. As of 2026 Telegram stores ordinary chats and every group chat on its servers without end-to-end encryption, and only secret chats between two people are end-to-end encrypted. So we treat everything posted in a Telegram group as readable by the company and by anyone who can make it hand records over. We use it for announcements and open discussion only.", "logisticsAdmin": "Our Telegram presence is a broadcast channel for announcements and, if we need one, a discussion group linked to it. The channel is owned by an account registered to the group’s own phone number, and two to four admins hold admin rights with two-step verification on. Members set their phone number to be seen by nobody and join with a username. Coordination about people, money or plans that could put members at risk happens in Signal or on a call.", "codeOfConduct": "Post nothing in Telegram that names, shows or locates a member or anyone we serve. Do not move a conversation into a secret chat to make it private, since secret chats cover only two people. Move it to Signal instead. Admins remove spam and impersonators quickly and pin a note naming the real admins, who never message first." } }, { "id": "zulip", "label": "Zulip", "supportText": "We discuss in Zulip, where every message has a topic, so long conversations stay easy to follow and find later.", "sections": { "corePrinciple": "In most chat apps a busy channel becomes one long stream, and anyone who was away cannot catch up. Zulip gives every message a topic inside its channel, so members can read one conversation at a time and return to it months later. It is open source and exports in full, so we can leave with our history. Like most workplace chat it is not end-to-end encrypted, so it never carries anything about one person or that could put members at risk.", "logisticsAdmin": "As of 2026 Zulip Cloud’s free plan searches only the last 10,000 messages, and Zulip gives its Standard plan free to open source projects and most small nonprofits that apply. We apply before we outgrow the free plan, or we pay. The organization has at least two owners and is registered to a group email address. Each working group gets a channel, and each question or proposal gets its own topic. When a topic is settled it is marked resolved and the decision goes to our records.", "codeOfConduct": "Start a new topic for each new question, with a name that says what it is about. Reply in the topic you are answering, and move stray messages to the right topic. Mention people only when you need them. Nobody is expected to read every topic, so anything every member must know goes where every member will see it." } } ] }