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To determine how or if a money should be used on behalf of yunity, we have a protocol. To try and clarify what 'reasonable' expenditure is, we have a record of any explicit decisions that have been made. For most cases we have a set of guidelines which give a general idea of what is acceptable, unacceptable or undecided. In the sections below, expenditure proceeds income to reflect that securing resources are the primary objective, not prospectively storing money.

Herein,

  • 'money' refers to any currency, whether bank notes, coins or an electronic balance.
  • 'resource' applies to anything that is not money.

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Protocol


This is a set of instructions that should be followed from top to bottom to decide if and how money should be used on behalf of yunity.

Expenditure

1. Avoidance

If we can avoid spending money as an organization or by proxy, we should. Not using money is the most coherent option with our mission and vision and avoids us spending time and energy documenting and dealing with money. Avoidance of expenditure should be the starting consideration.

  1. Do we need it? Take a moment to consider whether we need this resource to achieve our goals.
  2. Can we get it without any financial transaction?
    1. Construct: Make the thing from existing resources.
    2. Reclaim: Many resources are abandoned, discarded or unused.
    3. Borrow: Many of the resources we need, others have.
    4. Gift: Some people have things they don't use. (this is different to someone purchasing a resource explicitly to donate it, see below)

2. Proxy donation

No one is expected to spend money in, or on behalf of the yunity organization. If a contributor or interested individual wishes to purchase a resource to achieve the goals of yunity with their own money, they can. For anything explicitly purchased for yunity it is recommended to properly record: name, date, and copy of receipt. Recording is optional and not aimed to glorify donors, however, recording this information is very useful to indicate where yunity is still reliant on money and will help us achieve even lower running costs in the future.

3. Proxy transaction

No one is expected to spend money in, or on behalf of the yunity organization. If a contributor or interested individual wishes to purchase a resource to achieve the goals of yunity with their own money, they can. If they wish to have this expenditure refunded, they must properly record: name, date and have copy of the receipt. No purchase is guaranteed to be refunded, though considering the following will indicate whether refunding is likely;

  1. Consult explicit decisions. If the resource has been explicitly agreed upon as being an acceptable or unacceptable purchase in the past, this will provide the most reliable indication of whether the purchase is eligible for reimbursement.
  2. Consult guidelines. The guidelines should provide some indication of whether the purchase is eligible for reimbursement.

If it is decided that refunding is appropriate, only the value that was spent at the time will be refunded (i.e. not adjusted for inflation). It should also be noted that there is no indication or guarantee of when the purchase will be refunded (i.e. might never happen).

Warning

The rest of this policy would only come into action if the following conditions were met;

  •  

    yunity legally registered as an organization and

  •  

    yunity had an organizational bank account, BitCoin wallet or similar and

  •  yunity had one or more treasurers

As such, the following material is not applicable as of 2016-04-08

4. Organizational transaction

Refunding of contributor or proxy purchases: Transactions which have previously been explicitly accepted or lie within the 'acceptable' section of the 'Guidelines' can be reimbursed if a Treasurer and two others consent. If there is doubt or disagreement the purchaser should be contacted with the relevant reasons why refunding was not consented upon and asked whether they want to pursue the refunding or if the purchase is now a donation. If reimbursement is still sought, the decision goes to full online systemic consensus and the result is recorded in 'Explicit decisions'.

Active organizational purchases: Transactions of less than EUR 100.00 for resources which have previously been explicitly accepted or lie within the 'acceptable' section of the 'Guidelines' can be made if a treasurer and two others consent. If there is doubt or disagreement, or if the transaction exceeds EUR 100.00, the decision goes to full online systemic consensus and the result is recorded in 'Explicit decisions'.

Income

If the yunity organization was to receive income we would need;

1. Unconditional acceptance

Truly anonymous donations are automatically accepted. This is only really achievable through the use of BitCoin or anonymous donation boxes.

2. Conditional acceptance

(Work in progress: Donations from individuals: name, amount and date recorded. Donations from companies, organizations, collectives, charities and institutions identified and brought forward for systemic consensus on a case-by-case basis according to the with decisions being appended to these guidelines.)

Explicit decisions

This is a record of previous decisions made by Systemic consensus which

 

Expenditure

AcceptableDecided onUnacceptableDecided on
Tofu2016-02-29[Link]Vodka2017-01-12[Link]
    

Income

AcceptableDecided onUnacceptableDecided on
Donation from OuiShare2016-05-07[Link]Sponsorship from BP2016-03-12[Link]
    

Guidelines

It should be repeated that these are guidelines and as such there could still be significant subjectivity on where an individual case lies. This is deliberate as outlining every single scenario is potentially impossible, many scenarios might never arise and we might suffocate in over-bureaucratization.

Expenditure

Items and services that directly facilitate the achievement of goals may have to be purchased if they cannot be gotten reasonably in any other way (i.e. donation, fabrication and necessity have been duly considered). All expenditure is for the project as a whole.

Section Column

Acceptable

  • Vegan food.Accommodation
  • Outright purchase or rental of a property Associated bills (i.e. water, rates, electricity, gas, internet, fuel

    )

  •  Repair costs
  •  Legal
    • Registration costs
    • Obligatory running costs
  •  Miscellaneous
  • e

    .

    g. toilet-paper, light-bulbs, lost keys, etc.
    Column

    Unacceptable

    • Food
      • Non-vegan food (e.g. meat, dairy, eggs, etc)
      • 'Extravagant' vegan food (e.g. matcha, spirulina, amaranth, quinoa, etc)
      • Alcohol
    • Tobacco
    • Wages for individuals
    Column

    Undecided

    • Personal medical insurance

    Income

    It is important that in receiving money we do not compromise our values or the achievement of our goals. No donations or sponsorship should alter how we work or what we do, nor should they originate from sources that directly or explicitly go against our Mission and Vision. All income is for the project as a whole.

    Section
    Column

    Acceptable 

    • Individuals
      • Donations from yunity contributors
      • Donations from any person just by providing bank details in the "support" button (i.e. anonymous)
    • Crowd-funding campaign (e.g. advertised through facebook, footer, newsletter, yunity.org, etc)
    • Donation button in the footer of yunity.org  
    • Organizations
      • Companies
      • Charities
      • Political institutions (regional, national, international)
    Column

    Unnaceptable

    • Individuals 
    • Widely recognized as being in opposition to the goals of yunity.  
    • Organizations
      • Weapons manufacture
      • Animal-products-for-food industries
      • Reckless and irresponsible extraction industries (e.g. tar sands, conflict minerals, timber from ancient forest, etc)
    Column

    Undecided

    Bodhi's pocket