General Company Proposal

As a Partner, you may spend money or other fungible resources controlled by a Circle as follows:

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.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. Your intended expense must clearly support the Role you name, and that Role must be within the Circle or one of its Sub-Circles. If there isn't a Role that the spending clearly supports, you may instead state your intent to spend as a Partner, in which case the spending must clearly support the overall Circle. You may not use this process to spend in a way that benefits you personally, unless you believe the spending still makes sense with regard only for the benefit to the Role or Circle involved. If another Partner might have a reasonable doubt about whether a personal conflict of interest influenced the spending, then you must call out that possibility when announcing your intent to spend, and explain why you believe it's not the case.

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.After stating your intent, 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.

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.

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.