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.
- Do we need it? Take a moment to consider whether we need this resource to achieve our goals.
- Can we get it without any financial transaction?
- Construct: Make the thing from existing resources.
- Reclaim: Many resources are abandoned, discarded or unused.
- Borrow: Many of the resources we need, others have.
- 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;
- 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.
- 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).
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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Acceptable | Decided on | Unacceptable | Decided on |
| Tofu | 2016-02-29[Link] | Vodka | 2017-01-12[Link] |
Income | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Acceptable | Decided on | Unacceptable | Decided on |
| Donation from OuiShare | 2016-05-07[Link] | Sponsorship from BP | 2016-03-12[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.
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
- Registration costs
- Miscellaneous
- e.g. toilet-paper, light-bulbs, lost keys, etc.
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
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.
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)
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)
Undecided
- Bodhi's pocket
