Responsibilities and Expectations

This document forms part of our set of emerging Participation Agreements, and outlines how we currently understand our:

• Minimum responsibilities as participants in the collective
• Processes for opting-in to additional responsibilities within the collective
• Expectations from each other as participants in the collective

Participant Responsibilities

Minimum Responsibilities

As a participant in the collective, my minimum responsibilities are:

1. Monitoring my capacity for participating in the collective in different ways, and notifying the collective when my capacity to participate changes

2. Acting in alignment with our current collective agreements

3. Participating in co-creating collective agreements, including:

   1. Proposing amendments to existing agreements or proposals that emerge as barriers to my participation
   2. Contributing to discussions about proposed agreements and amendments, by:
      1. attending Assemblies when at all possible, and
      2. commenting on discussion-threads in our online forums when relevant
   3. Contributing to agreed processes for making collective-wide decisions, by:
      1. reliably responding to calls for consent or consensus in our online forums, and
      2. offering amendments to proposals that I’m not satisfied with

4. Respecting those decisions made within the scope of delegated-decisions when I have chosen not to take on working-group responsibilities.

Additional Responsibilities

Project Responsibilities

For the collective to move our RAD housing project forward, additional responsibilities will need to be distributed amongst ourselves as we each have capacity.

When I opt-in to additional responsibilities within the collective, I understand that:

1. I am taking on additional responsibilities without expecting any additional benefits from the collective
2. I am contributing to co-creating emerging collaborative processes
3. I am accountable to the broader collective when contributing to delegated decisions (I should be able to justify how delegated decisions were made while considering the perspectives of the broader collective)

Site-specific Responsibilities

If I intend to live on collectively stewarded housing sites:

1. I anticipate having another layer of responsibilities to, and expectations of, both those I live with and the broader collective (described by site-specific agreements that have not yet been formed).
2. I can contribute to the process of forming site-specific agreements by opting-in to additional responsibilities within the collective.

Participant Expectations

Minimum expectations

Participants can expect each other to:

1. Meet their minimum responsibilities as participants (or opt-out of participation via agreed processes)
2. Opt-in to additional responsibilities as capacity allows

Housing security expectations

Housing security can only be provided within the constraints of:

1. The number of housing-sites for which the collective has taken responsibility;
2. The degree to which we have transitioned all of our housing-sites from bank-mortgage to collective stewardship across all sites; and Site-specific agreements

Acknowledging that the collective does not yet have any site-specific agreements (having not yet acquired any housing-sites), my expectations of housing security are limited to:

1. Access to my transitional equity when I need it to pay for housing not stewarded by the collective;
2. The possibility of living in a housing-site stewarded by the collective when spaces become available and I meet the collectively-decided prioritisation criteria for those spaces; and
3. The assurance that, once residing in an established house stewarded by the collective, I can stay as long as I meet all relevant responsibilities as a resident of that house and to the broader collective

Review Conditions

This agreement (Version: 4.1) will be reviewed in any of the following conditions:

1. Whenever a participant proposes an amendment to this agreement
2. When any agreement in the set of Participation Agreements is amended
3. Prior to the first participants living in a collectively stewarded site
4. Every two years (if not otherwise reviewed in that time frame)

Context & Assumptions

Terminology

Where can I find more information about the jargon terms and associated assumptions in this agreement?

• This agreement assumes familiarity with our broader set of Participation Agreements, and any ambiguities in this agreement should be interpreted in that context. In this context:
• Any reference to ‘we’ includes all current participants in the Brassica Collective.
• A ‘participant’ in the collective refers to everyone who has been invited into the collective and has not since opted-out of the minimum responsibilities for participants defined above.

Intentions

Why do we need a responsibilities and expectations agreement?

• This agreement emerged as a way to help us balance our responsibilities to each other with our varying capacity to consistently participate.
• This agreement is intended to help us build a culture of encouraging participation; not punishing lack of participation
• We assume that those who are not currently able to participate yet want to stay informed (for future participation possibilities and/or ad-hoc contributions to the project, such as attending working-bees) can continue to stay engaged in a ‘supporter’ role.

Site considerations

Why doesn’t this agreement include details about collectively stewarded housing-sites?

• The current version of this agreement is for our collective practice prior to acquiring any housing-sites; the many additional responsibilities and expectations associated with collectively stewarding high-value resources or living together are beyond the present scope.
• We expect to update this agreement and/or clarify site-specific agreements about our responsibilities and expectations within each housing site and within the broader collective.

What about…?

Why doesn’t this agreement consider all possible scenarios we might face as a collective?

• We expect this agreement to be updated as we try, fail, learn, and review our shared expectations of how to navigate the ever-changing dynamics of our collective.