Interim Onboarding Process
This document describes the ways in which new participants are ‘on-boarded’ into the Brassica Collective during this interim stage where we have not established our participation agreements. .
Context:
The following notes function as our interim guideline for orienting and on-boarding people into the Brassica Collective so that they feel confident in co-creating the collective going forward.
In this context, orientation is a process of providing an overview of current practices while on-boarding builds on the orientation process to provide support while a new participant develops the context required to actively engage in our collective practices.
By the end on-boarding, a new participant is expected to have an overview of current practices. This include:
- Familiarity with the RAD housing approach that inspired the Brassica Collective
- Using the Collective’s communication channels.
- Attending Assemblies and contributing to online discussion forums
- Meeting with support people for one or more question & answer sessions about existing agreements
- Reviewing past agreements
- Engaging with all emerging agreements and processes
- Expressing confidence in participating in decisions and processes for updating and co-creating collective agreements going forward (see statement of confidence)
Check-list
The following check-list offers a more detailed list of tools and processes that new participants should be familiar with and/or confident using by the end of their orientation and on-boarding.
While on-boarding supporters are responsible for checking when and how to support new participant learn about each aspect of the current collective practices, new participants are encouraged to preemptively seek out information and ask for help as is most relevant to their ways of working.
Foundational Context
See the RAD Housing website, and discuss with on-boarding supporters the ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ questions around how the Collective is incorporating:
- Climate-adaptation processes
- Decommodification principles
- Collective practices for commoning
- Solidarity actions for connecting our collective to broader movements for justice.
- The Transition to Stewardship pathway shared by RAD housing
- Transformative Justice approaches to navigating conflict well
Current Agreements
See our agreements section of this Handbook and the relevant Loomio threads when the website is not up-to-date, including:
- Interim decision-making processes
- Interim Transitional Equity fund
- Assembly facilitation guidelines
- Delegation of decisions to the PAS crew
- Delegation to RAD Crew
- Splitting the PAS Crew from the RAD project
- Delegation of decision to Seedling Crew
Communication channels
On- boarding steps:
- Meet with a support person to discuss when/how/why to use each of the different communication channels
- Accept invitations to all relevant communication tools (listed below)
- Ask for IT support to set up apps on mobiles/computers if needed
- Meet with a support person to walk-through current ways-of-working for each app relevant to participation intentions
Software for Minimum participation
Software for Crew participation
- Project-management (Taiga)
- Document management & collaboration space (tbc)
Software for IT support participation
- Handbook Website updates (Github, Hugo)
- Communication tools admin & maintenance (Matrix, Loomio, etc.,)
Ways of working together
Draft Agreements and Emerging Proposals (see our Loomio forum for the latest)
- Project Management Processes / Crew Ways of Working
- Participation Agreement Drafts
Collaboration calibration
Q. Please share anything you feel is relevant about your approach to collaborative projects (e.g., your style of leadership, types of tasks you tend to avoid, how much experience you have at navigating conflict well together, etc.,)
Statement of Confidence Participating in Cocreating and Updating Collective Agreements Going Forward
Please add comments if there are any additional supports needed to be able to tick each of these off:
- I feel confident I understand the foundational context of the RAD housing project
- I feel confident I can use each of the Brassica communication channels appropriately
- I feel confident I understand the current Brassica agreements (including building high-trust relationships) and am able to participate in the collective ways that align with these expectations.
- I have had opportunities to express my preferences for ways of working together
- I feel confident that I can participate in future processes of updating and co-creating collective agreements going forward expressed