How we govern — and how it becomes yours.
A cooperative that hides its governance is a company with odd paperwork. So here is ours, in the open — composed with CommunityRule, the open toolkit from Nathan Schneider's lab at CU Boulder.
Today, we're a Benevolent Dictator. On purpose — and on a promise.
Right now co-op.care runs on the CommunityRule template called the Benevolent Dictator: one founder holds final say, so the thing can be built fast. We don't hide that. But that template carries a promise built into its own words — the founder "holds ultimate decision-making power until the group is ready for a more inclusive structure," and then hands it over.
Guido van Rossum did exactly this with Python: benevolent dictator, then he stepped down to an elected steering council. That's our path too — toward Circles and an elected board. Here is where we are, and where we're going.
The people who do the caring own it
Value flows to the person giving the bath, not to capital above them. Ownership isn't a perk; it's the whole design.
Care is judged by whether it helped
Every visit is verified three ways — who, that it happened, and that it helped. We measure the benefit, never a person's private distress.
No dictators for life
Founder control is a starting condition, not a birthright. Power is meant to leave the founder and reach the members.
Honesty over reach
We would rather say "we don't do that yet" than overclaim. One inflated promise costs more trust than it ever buys.
Multi-stakeholder
Caregivers as owner-members, plus the families and neighbors they serve. The people affected by the work have a seat in governing it.
Open to join, fair to leave
You join through a local circle, per its own policies. If membership ever ends, it ends by a clear, graduated process — never a quiet exile.
Benevolent Dictator
The founder stewards and holds final say, so co-op.care can be built quickly — and invites members in to help manage as it grows. A starting condition, held only until the next stage.
Circles + an elected board
A federation of self-governing local circles, coordinated by a council, with a member-elected board holding the founder's former power. Each circle governs its own domain; the whole holds only what circles can't hold alone.
Three entities, one firewall
The cooperative holds the mission; a management company acts only as fiscal and employer agent (payroll, compliance); a physician entity holds clinical judgment. Any transaction between them needs independent approval or member ratification — no self-dealing.
The handover has a trigger, not a "someday"
As the co-op reaches a defined base of active member-owners, the elected board forms and the founder's final say converts to one vote, like everyone else's. Written down before it's convenient.
Circles decide by consent
A decision passes when no member has a serious objection — not when a bare majority steamrolls the rest. Model choices, schedules and norms are set by the people living them.
The board: one member, one vote
Co-op-wide matters are decided by an elected board, one member one vote — not one share, one vote. Power follows the person, not the size of the stake.
Repair before punishment
Monitoring is mutual and light; when something breaks, the first response is a conversation and a graduated one — not a zero-tolerance axe. Conflict resolution stays close, cheap, and human.
How this Rule changes
A Rule that can't change becomes a cage; one that changes too easily becomes noise. This one is amended by a member vote, in the open, with notice — and every version is kept.
Composed with CommunityRule.
We didn't invent a governance system — we used the open one built for exactly this. This Rule is composed with CommunityRule (Cassandra Dana, Drew Hornbein, Vincent Russell & Nathan Schneider · Media Enterprise Design Lab, CU Boulder · CC BY-SA), and grounded in Elinor Ostrom's principles for the commons. As far as we know, it's one of the first Rules written for a care cooperative — and it belongs back in the shared library for the next one.
See CommunityRuleThe best way to hold us to this Rule is to become part of it.