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 a role, adjust your commitment, and step out at any time. 

Traditional workplaces only offer a binary "in-out" distinction between members and non-members. Either you're an employee with the pay, 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.

You are automatically considered a 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 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 aour Trunkopen callcalls (link) 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 the ability to propose 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 a compensation request. Quests are generally time-bound, and can have one or multiple participants. If you sense a key need in 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 apprentice, you'll have access to The DHO (what we call the blockchain-based tool we use conduct our governance and accounting/payroll), where you can officially propose quests, request to join quests, and vote on these sorts of decisions along with other members. For voting, you will receive your first Samara Voice tokens (SVOICE) when you receive your Apprentice Badge. Relative to longstanding members, you will have little Voice, however your can quickly earn compensation and more voice tokens by participating in Trainings (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 you the skills and organizational norms that can help you steward Samara as you consider whether applying for a quest or role is the right next step. 

If you're approved to participate in a Quest or Role, you automatically become a Fellow, receiving your Fellow Badge and a Voice bonus. Fellows are members that are actively participating in quest(s) or holding role(s), and will often be seen "Lamplighting" 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. In addition to fellows, trusted newcomers may be invited 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. 

Finally, if you decide to step away from actively contributing to Samara, you'll become an Alumni member. In gratitude for your service, and in open invitation to return if you ever desire, you'll be kept connected to Samara through regular updates, requests for strategic input, and events.