Contributing to Samara and Becoming a Member
Samara is an open and decentralized member organization. There are no bosses and no hierarchies (in a traditional sense), Samara evolves on an evolutionary scale —when the time is right, new people and new ideas will appear. You can step into Samara, join a quest, hold onto a role, adjust your commitmentcommitment, and step out at any time.
TheTraditional journeyworkplaces withonly Samara begins asoffer a Guest,binary followed"in-out" bydistinction between members and non-members. Either you're an Apprenticeship, then a Fellowship and cumulatesemployee with the Samarapay, Council.perks, and information access, or you're locked out. What's more, this critical decision of who's in and who's out is often made just from looking at a piece of paper, a couple interviews, and asking someone to commit long-term to a role and workplace that they've never actually tried.
In Samara, we believe there's a more effective approach for discovering if your purpose, interests, and skills are a good fit for our organization and our people. That's why we have multiple stages of membership and multiple contribution types designed to support you in exploring your fit and commitment to Samara. Each of these stages is rewarded with a "badge" (link) that members can apply to when the time has come and the criteria have been fulfilled.
The opening flower symbolises the journey of unfolding and contributing to Samara's purpose.
Even before getting to know Samara and becoming a member, youYou are automatically considered a Guest.Guest the first time you show up - invited or not! Samara welcomes, hosts and honours all Guests. You may decide to only stay for a little while, but we want to embrace you with the resources, conversations and tools you need to sense whether you would like to make a home here. Guests are welcomed, hosted, and honoured. While they may decide to only stay for a little, we want to embrace them with the resources, conversations, and tools they need to sense whether they would like Samara to become their home too. You may also sense a mutually beneficial collaboration which you could frame as a quest once you understand the values and principles of what is expected and celebrated in Samara. TheyGuests are not official members with the ability to vote in DHO decisions or receive compensation, but they are listened to in open forums and have access to our conversation spaces (Discord, Loomio) and knowledge gardens (Miro, Google Docs, Wiki, etc.).
We suggest reading this book and joining a Trunk call as the best first steps when learning about Samara. The Roots and Branches calls can be more demanding and will make more sense when you have learnt more about what we do here. An outsiders perspective once you understand enough of what we're doing is highly valued. If you'd like to explore Samara further through actively contributing, we welcome you to schedule an onboarding call (link) and apply for your Apprentice Badge.
Apprentices are official Samara Members, with access to the DHO and the ability to votepropose your own quest to Samara, request to join existing Samara quests, or apply for a role.
A Quest is a specific objective or set of objectives, paired with measurable Key Results (OKRs) and proposea compensation request. Quests are generally time-bound, and can have one or participatemultiple participants. If you sense a key need in quests.Samara, you're welcome to propose a quest to serve it! If Samara votes to accept your participation in a Quest, it's up to you to execute and return for an completion vote, at which point you can receive your compensation, if accepted. Like traditional jobs, a Role is a commitment to a set of activities, with regular compensation for executing those activities. Roles can be time-bound, but are generally longer-term. If you can't take on a role at 100% of your capacity - that's OK! Roles can be designed to accommodate various commitment levels. Unlike quests that
As an apprenticeapprentice, youyou'll are an official Samara Member, withhave access to The DHO (what we call the DHO.blockchain-based Youtool we use conduct our governance and accounting/payroll), where you can voteofficially propose quests, request to join quests, and proposevote oron participatethese insorts quests.of Asdecisions newcomers,along theywith other members. For voting, you will receive theiryour first Samara Voice tokens along(SVOICE) withwhen theiryou receive your Apprentice Badge after completing the onboarding process.Badge. Relative to longstanding members, theyyou will have little Voice, however theyyour can quickly earn compensation and more voice tokens by participating in trainingsTrainings (e.g. Scribe Training: taking notes on calls, disseminating notes and content after calls, and tending our knowledge gardens). These trainings are designed to provide themyou the skills and organizational norms that can help themyou steward Samara as theyyou consider whether applying for a quest or role is the bestright waynext step.
If you're approved to contribute. Really love this way of introducing and framing the training and purposes of it. - BWDon't have time to do it myself now, but reading thisparticipate in firsta personQuest directedor at reader and editing for plain english and shorter sentences makes the content even more powerful. Could get round to it later in the week ifRole, you wantedautomatically me to, but obviously better from you if it makes sense and you like the idea. Have addedbecome a coupleFellow, ofreceiving examples ;) - BW
Apprentices can propose quests/roles for acceptance by Samara, or they can apply to join existing quests/roles. Once their commitment is approved by Samara, Apprentices receive theiryour Fellow Badge,Badge along withand a Voice bonus.
Neware concept added here ^. Seems Samara DHO would want to vote to approvemembers that an Apprentice can join a Quest, right? Wouldn't want someone being able to sign up for any quest/role just because they're an apprentice. - Tyler Agree with suggested concept 1 could lead to disappointment or assumption otherwise - BW
New concept #2 - Does Fellow Badge come with a Voice Bonus too? Or does voice just come from Apprentice Badge (compensation for Onboarding Call), Council Badge, and then voice earned through contributions? I'd like the former (can be small - but symbolically important) - Tyler In truth, while voice is numbered the significance is in how this changes proportions, just like Samara tokens (until the point where they can be traded with a fixed rate currency/much wider distribution of spendable tokens). With this in mind I also prefer the former suggestion of Fellow Badge coming with voice bonus as suggested below with a trial to see effect and a plan to change on review based on observations of what is best for the org - Bongi
Fellows are actively participating in quest(s) or holding role(s), and will often be seen Lamplighting"Lamplighting" pods/pods and circles, facilitating, and working on immediate deliverables while envisioning future quests and strategic directions for Samara. Fellows may be committed to Samara for just a month or indefinitely.
If you wind up demonstrating excellence through contributions to Samara, you may be invited to join the Samara Council. Council Members are celebrated by Samara for their wisdom, and thus offered additional voice and recognition after an official acceptance vote in the DHO. TheyIn mayaddition haveto beenfellows, long-termtrusted fellows who demonstrated their excellence through previous contributions, or theynewcomers may be trusted newcomers cominginvited to join the Samara Council to play a strategic advising role for a limited time. Council status and its associated Voice bonus can be granted indefinitely or for a specific period of time, subject to renewal. Council Members may or may not hold an active quest commitment or role.
Alumni areFinally, membersif whoyou havedecide steppedto step away from actively contributing to Samara.Samara, you'll become an Alumni member. In gratitude for theiryour service, and in open invitation to return if theyyou ever desire, theyyou'll arebe kept connected to Samara through regular updates, requests for strategic input, and events.
If we are awarding Voice Bonus for each Badge, need governance to have that factored in. Seems it would always be a relative value - eg.
Apprentice Voice Bonus = (Median Samara Member Voice) * 1%
Fellow Voice Bonus = (Median Samara Member Voice) * 5%
Council Voice Bonus = (Median Samara Member Voice) *25%
(Haven't thought too hard about these formulas, just a structural suggestion) -TylerI would propose a series of tests where bonus % are changed within a suggested range and all members observe at the end how the numbers changed relative to the commitment and agreed contributions. Would also suggest a limit on the proportion of the total voice any one member can hold at any one time. Seeds and Hypha have this (0-100) although I don't know exactly how it works yet. As more people join these numbers could do funny things and while value in, value out should be the main principle however welcoming we are if only a small handfull or one person in particular end up having a severely disproportionate chunk of the total voice I see this as a risk which would discourage new members and make Samara suffer disillusionment/apathy due to structure. Added changes above - BW
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Copied from the previous Contributions to Samara page
How people contribute to Samara seems to be missing. There is a connection to be made with the membership part, maybe add this piece there or keep it separate and reference the membership and the Archetypes. (irina)
Agree - JS
For Tyler: Any thoughts on how to connect this with membership? - irina
Suggested Member Journey
Everyone starts with a Quest before going into a long term typical Contribution!
Apply for /design a quest to add value to Samaraand execute it.
Samara designs these quests. An individual can also come up with a quest to meet a perceived need and propose it. On application create some Objectives and Key Results (OKR’s) for the quest about what you expect to do.
Claim reward
When the quest is over and you’re seeking compensation, report on the previous OKR’s and what was actually accomplished and claim your reward.