General Company Governance Meeting Minutes

When announcing spending intentions under the Spending Authorization policy, you must post to Slack in a channel specifically created for that purpose (i.e. it must be in the explicit purpose field for the channel), and you must tag the whole channel. You must also stay within any limits documented in the channel's purpose. If you create a new channel for announcing spending intentions, or modify any documented limits on an existing channel, you must promptly announce the new or modified channel in the #general channel, with everyone tagged.

Additionally, the following rules apply based upon the amount of the expense (or, for recurring expenses, upon the total expected amount until you plan to revisit the spending decision):

For expenses <$20:
• You do not need to post to Slack or wait for authorization; just spend it.

For expenses of $20 - $100:
• You may post to Slack simultaneous with or promptly after the spending; you do not need to wait for questions, reactions, or escalations.

For expenses of $100+:
• Your "reasonable timeframe" for allowing questions, reactions, and escalations must be at least 72 hours after your original intent is stated or 48 hours after you answer the last clarifying question (whichever is later). However, for urgent spending needs, you may skip that delay period and immediately spend the funds by tagging the spending intent as "urgent", but you must still proceed with the normal process as if you hadn't used this urgent spending rule. You lose the ability to use this urgent spending rule in the future if: (a) you would have failed to get your spending authorized under the normal non-urgent process, or (b) you decide you wouldn't have spent the funds anyway after considering reactions, or (c) any partner thinks you're misusing the urgent spending rule and says so. Your urgent spending privilege may be reinstated by any two @Spending_Guardians deciding to do so.

For expenses of $2000+, in addition to the above:
• After the required delay, if any critical or skeptical reactions were shared, you must consider them and re-state your intent to spend the funds if that still makes sense to you (this re-statement may include modifications if desired).
• You must get at least two other partners to attest that they would also make that spending decision were they in the relevant role. Partners may attest to this by adding a money-related icon to the intent-to-spend Slack post via a Slack "reaction", and no one may add such a reaction unless they are making this attestation. If you had to re-state your intent per above, this attestation must happen after your restatement, on that post. However, this step can be bypassed entirely for an expense of roughly the same general amount for the same purpose as any prior spending authorization within the past three months.

For any recurring expenses, in addition to the above:

• You must decide when you will revisit and reassess the spending decision, and share that when announcing your intent to spend. The spending authorization will automatically expire at that point, unless you get the expense re-authorized for another period beforehand.
• If the recurring expense is authorized, you must promptly document the reason, amount, and expiration of the authorization via a role note in GlassFrog (or in a file linked from a role-note). You must also add a trigger to your individual organizational system to revisit the expense at or before the expiration date.

All Partners of the organization are authorized to spend company funds or dispose of company inventory (e.g. books) using their reasonable judgment, in support of the Organization's purpose, within the following constraints:As a Partner, you may spend money or other fungible resources controlled by a Circle as follows:

• The spending must clearly support the purpose or accountabilities of a role you fill, without any reasonable inference that boundaries have been blurred in making the spending decision, either between different roles or between personal and role interests. For example, a reasonable inference might exist if funding a project you're really personally inspired to work on, but where the link to the explicit purpose/accountabilities of one of your roles would look more like a forced fit or a "nice story" vs. a natural way to express the role (to an objective third party). However, you may still spend even with a reasonable inference of blurred boundaries, if you have called out the potential boundary question in your Slack post, thoughtfully considered it, and genuinely believe it is not a case of blurred boundaries.Before you commit to the expense, you must explicitly announce your intent to spend by stating "As [Role], I intend to spend [amount] on [good/service/purpose]". You must post this in written form to a standard communication channel accessible by all Circle Members of the Circle and any Sub-Circles. You must then allow a reasonable timeframe for others to consider the potential expense before proceeding. During that time, you must answer any clarifying questions and consider any reactions shared about the potential expense, and any Partner may block your ability to proceed with the spending by escalating the expense for additional consideration. Once escalated, you may get spending authorization directly from the Circle's Lead Link, or via any process defined by the Circle for assessing escalated spending intents.

• You must submit a bill to @Bookkeeper promptly after authorizing the purchase, or pay the bill personally and submit for reimbursement via an expense report within the expense reimbursement process and rules published by @Finance.To use this process, the spending must clearly support the Purpose or Accountabilities of a Role you fill in the Circle, or in any of its Sub-Circles. You must also make the spending decision without interference from a personal conflict of interest or a blurred boundary between the Role you name and other Roles you fill. If another Partner might have reasonable doubt about whether such a conflict is present, then you must call out that possibility when announcing your intent to spend, and explain why you believe it's not the case.

• You must post your Slack message in a channel specifically created for the purpose of announcing spending intentions (i.e. this purpose must be in the explicit purpose field for the channel), and you must stay within any limits documented in the channel's purpose. If you create a new channel for announcing spending intentions, or modify any documented limits on an existing channel, you must promptly announce the new or modified channel in the #general channel, with everyone tagged.In addition to authorizing specific expenses, you may also use this process to authorize another Circle or Role to control some of this Circle's resources, thus granting it a budget. It may then control that budget without further authorization from the original Circle, as long as any spending is aligned with the purpose specified in the original authorization. Any budget so delegated may later be reduced or eliminated entirely using this process in the original Circle, or by a decision of that Circle's Lead Link.

For expenses of $20+:
• You must post to Slack before or simultaneous with the spending, sharing the amount they are spending and the purpose (very rough/brief is fine).Another Policy in this Circle may further constrain or expand upon the process defined herein, and any conflicts will overrule this Policy. A Sub-Circle may also constrain or expand upon this process, however any additional spending powers or relaxed constraints only apply for spending resources controlled by that Sub-Circle and its own Sub-Circles.