Community Company Charter — Template
The founding document of a LIØNSBERG Community Company. Fill it in together. It is a living document — date every version and revise it as you grow.
How to use this. Copy this page. Replace everything in
‹angle brackets›. Work through it as a Steering Committee (see Step 1 — Forming a Steering Committee); you will not have every answer at first, and that is correct — mark unfinished sections‹TBD — revisit by ‹date››rather than leaving them blank. A Charter with honest gaps beats a polished fiction. When the wider body ratifies it (Steps 3–6), it becomes your Company's living constitution.This Charter is the concrete instance of the four things that emerge whenever sovereigns associate: a Domain, a Membrane, a Field of Agreements, and a Commons. Each section below tends one of them.
0. Identity
- Name of the Company: The ‹Place› Community Company
- Place it serves: ‹the bounded community — name the town/district/region and roughly its size›
- Founded: ‹date the Steering Committee first agreed to associate›
- This version: v‹0.1› — ‹date›
- Stewards of this document: ‹who keeps and updates it›
1. Purpose — the heart
One sentence. The throughput of The Goal for your place.
The ‹Place› Community Company exists for the total integrated wellbeing, development, right relationship, and flourishing of all generations of life in ‹Place›.
(Adapt the wording to your community's own voice — but keep it about the whole of life in your place*, not a single issue. Single-issue groups are valuable, but they are not Community Companies.)*
What this looks like in five years, if we succeed: ‹2–4 sentences. Concrete. What a visitor would see, hear, feel.›
2. Principles and Values — what we embody
The values you commit to embody in how you work, not only what you achieve. Draw from the LIØNSBERG System of Values and from your own community's deepest traditions.
- ‹Principle 1 — e.g. Unity among ØNE and All: we reach across what divides us.›
- ‹Principle 2›
- ‹Principle 3 …›
3. Domain of Responsibility and Authority — what we hold
What is this Company responsible for? What does it have authority over? Name it plainly — clarity here prevents conflict later.
- We are responsible for: ‹…›
- We have authority over: ‹…›
- We explicitly do NOT claim authority over: ‹…› (naming this protects the sovereignty of individuals, families, and other bodies in your community)
4. Membership and the Membrane — who is in, and how life crosses the boundary
- Who is a member? ‹Definition. Residency? Consent to the Field of Agreements? A practice?›
- How does someone join? ‹The path in — the Selectively Permeable Membrane governs this.›
- How does someone leave, or get asked to leave? ‹Exit must always be free. Removal must be rare, named, and fair.›
- Tiers of belonging, if any: ‹e.g. friend / member / steward / elder — optional›
- Seats at the table: ‹Beyond human members, name who holds the seats for Living Systems (the land/watershed/non-human kin) and Future Generations, and how this Company relates to the Whole. See Seats at the Table.›
- Stake and voice in the Whole: ‹Affirm that each member, from the day they join, holds a voice in this Company and a stake and voice in LIØNSBERG as a whole — free to enter, free to leave.›
5. Governance — how we decide together
- Decision method: ‹Default to consent — a decision proceeds when no member holds a reasoned, paramount objection. See Consent Governance One-Pager. Note where you use other methods and why.›
- Roles and who holds them now: ‹convener, keeper/secretary, treasurer, elders…›
- How often the whole body meets: ‹…›
- How conflict is resolved: ‹the agreed path when members disagree or are harmed›
- How Elders are recognized: ‹wisdom-based, not age-based; one member, one voice; the agreements govern›
- How this Charter is amended: ‹the threshold and process to change this document›
One member, one voice. The agreements govern. Elders are respected.
6. The Commons — what we share and steward
- What we pool and share: ‹money, tools, land, knowledge, space, time, skills…›
- How the Commons is resourced: ‹voluntary contributions flowing inward — dues, tithes, gifts, labor. Name it.›
- How shared resources are accessed and stewarded: ‹who can use what, how decisions about the Commons are made, how it is kept transparent›
- Transparency commitment: ‹how members can always see the state of the Commons›
7. Legal Form — the body the outside world can recognize
Pick up only as much structure as your work requires. See Step 2 — Establishing Legal Agency and Personhood and the Tiers in Properly Structure Your Circles.
- Current tier: ‹Tier 0 (no formal structure) … Tier 5 (federated stewardship)›
- Legal entity, if any: ‹none yet / voluntary association / fiscal sponsorship / LLC / non-profit / ecclesiastical association / cooperative …›
- Relationship to LIØNSBERG shared infrastructure: ‹none yet / fiscally sponsored / federated by agreement — see Corporate Structure›
- Review trigger: ‹what event will make us revisit our legal form — e.g. "when we first need to hold more than $X" or "when we sign our first lease"›
- Asset Lock / Purpose Lock: ‹State it plainly: no member, founder, or funder may extract more than the return of what they put in plus honest compensation for honest work; this Company cannot be bought, sold, or cashed out; on dissolution its assets pass only to a body that shares this Driver. Capital is capped and subordinate — see Where Value Flows.›
8. Federation — how we connect to the Whole
No Company stands alone. Unity, not isolation.
- Neighboring Companies / Circles we are in relationship with: ‹…›
- What we commit to share upward to the Commons: ‹our learnings, solutions, surplus — see Step 6 — Collective Governance of the Cosmic Superorganism›
- What we draw down from the Commons: ‹patterns, tools, support we adopt and localize›
9. Ratification — the moment a draft becomes a covenant
This Charter was drafted by the Steering Committee and ratified by the founding body of the ‹Place› Community Company on ‹date›.
We, the undersigned, freely consent to this Field of Agreements, and commit to embody it, to hold one another to it in love, and to continuously improve it.
| Name | Role | Signature / mark | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ‹ › | ‹ › | ||
| ‹ › | ‹ › | ||
| ‹ › | ‹ › |
Free to enter. Free to leave. Bound only by what we have freely agreed.
Companion Tools
- Steering Committee Starter Kit — for drafting Sections 0–6 in your first meetings
- Template For Field of Agreements — the canonical pattern Sections 1–6 instantiate
- Consent Governance One-Pager — for Section 5
- First Three Percent Engagement Worksheet — when you reach Section 9 and need a body to ratify