Role and Membership types

OuiShare aims to be a liquid organization that enables new and existing contributors to easily move in and out of it as well as dynamically rotate between different roles and levels of involvement. This is to be achieved while at the same time ensuring the consistency and stability of the organization.

Organizational structure
Organizational Structure

What is a Member?
OuiShare members are people who identify themselves with the OuiShare mission, values and culture, and actively contribute to community activities, such as events, projects or online discussions. Members interact regularly with each other through the local or topical groups they are part of, which are facilitated by OuiShare Connectors.

Members wishing to contribute actively to OuiShare should ideally connect with a fellow Connector from their local team (or the regional coordinator of their area if there is no team in their city/country yet) to figure out how they can help. They can then start contributing on a regular basis, and eventually become a Future Connector if they wish to sustain their involvement in the medium-to-long term.

Rights and responsibilities
OuiShare members can:
 * join local or topical groups of their choice ;
 * attend community events and OuiShare Summits;
 * receive regular updates on community activities;
 * have a profile page on the OuiShare website

OuiShare members should:
 * thoroughly understand and commit to the OuiShare mission and values, and be familiar with its governance and management principles ;
 * contribute to community activities (e.g. attending events, participating in online discussions, connecting with other members, joining a project team, etc.) ; the scope and intensity of involvement can vary depending on the member's interest and personal situation
 * spread the OuiShare spirit whenever they can!

Note: To contribute to OuiShare, you do not have to be a registered member. Anyone is welcome to contribute to the network spontaneously, attend events and join our online discussion groups, but can officialize their involvement and get access to additional information by signing up.

Becoming a Member
OuiShare membership is open to everyone. Members sign up by filling out a registration form on the OuiShare website and providing basic information about themselves. By doing so, they express their commitment to the OuiShare mission and values.

Membership is free, but members are encouraged to make a voluntary one-time or recurring donation to support the organization.

Upon registration, members join existing local or topical groups, or can create a new one if it does not exist yet.

Sign up as a member here

End of Membership
Memberships remain active until they are deliberately cancelled by the member. OuiShare reserves the right to revoke a membership if a person acts against the best interests of the organization, the mission and values, is disrespectful towards other members, or engages in serious criminal activity.

What is a Connector?
OuiShare Connectors (or Cs) are the highly active members that put our mission into action day by day. They are community and/or project leaders who connect ideas, people and organizations around the collaborative economy. They participate in the co-creation of the OuiShare strategy and take part in decision-making processes.

Connectors mostly focus on one or several of the following:


 * Local Communities: by building and animating a local community (in a city, region or small country) and coordinating its activities.


 * Knowledge Curation and Creation: by animating online discussions in knowledge groups (on topics such as shared mobility, makers, crowdfunding, etc.), working on research projects, writing articles for the OuiShare Magazine, etc.


 * Project Management and Operations: by contributing to OuiShare projects such as OuiShare Fest, the OuiShare Job Board, editorial work on the OuiShare Magazine, or to day-to-day operational activities such as communication, finance, administration, etc. (most of these being carried out by core connectors)


 * Sponsoring: by helping with the guiding and onboarding of new Connectors

These activities can overlap, be extended, modified and reinvented. The exact scope is flexible and can vary by location, personal situation and background of Connectors.

Rights and responsibilities
In addition to Members' rights and responsibilities,

OuiShare Connectors can:
 * access the OuiShare Connectors group. This is where they can get regular updates or participate in online discussions and tactical decision-making ;
 * co-create the OuiShare strategy by attending Summits twice a year ;
 * use the OuiShare brand and get community support for their activities, under the following conditions (LINK) and based on their best judgement for acting in the interest of the organization
 * access the day-to-day OuiShare work tools, enabling them to access compensated opportunities such as speaking engagements, freelance work, etc.

OuiShare Connectors should:
 * commit a certain amount of time to stay up to date and contribute regularly to OuiShare activities and discussions depending on their focus ;
 * animate the community on and offline according to their focus (local or topical) ;
 * thoroughly understand and commit to the governance and management principles of OuiShare (LINK), as well as its collaboration tools ;
 * make an effort to keep a positive attitude and be helpful to other team members;
 * attend OuiShare Summits every 6 months (attendance mandatory for 1 per year)
 * take responsibility for finding funding for their activities;
 * give credit to OuiShare for supporting their activities when relevant
 * support and guide new or Future Connectors, acting as Sponsoring Connectors

Becoming a Connector
Connectors are members who have been contributing to OuiShare and wish to get more involved in the organization. Following the principle of do-ocracy, Connectors are appointed based on actions. The enrollment process follows the 333 Rule:

Connectors to-be go through a 3-month take-off period after declaring their intent to become a Connector, during which they voluntarily contribute to specific activities (development of physical communities, online communities, or topical projects; writing/research, etc.).

Future Connectors must demonstrate that they meet the following 3 acceptance criteria during their take-off period:
 * taken leadership/shown results on the activities they committed to ;
 * clear objectives for their involvement as a Connector over the next 6 months, expressed in a letter of intent (usually a shared online document)
 * cultural fit with the team (which means there is no strong objection/veto from any other Connector to the persons' appointment)

Future Connectors are endorsed by any 3 other Connectors who will work with them during the take-off period, based on the 3 criteria listed above. Connectors who support a new Connector are responsible for helping this person integrate into the team and the OuiShare organizational processes.

Though exceptions can be made, it is strongly advised that Future Connectors attend at least one OuiShare Summit before starting, or during their take-off period.

In practice, the enrollment process goes as follows:


 * Step 1: Future Connectors sign-up as an official member of OuiShare;


 * Step 2: Future Connectors look for their 3 supporting Connectors, and express their intent to start their 3-month take-off period by choosing activities they want to be involved with. These intentions are shared by sponsoring Connectors in Slack channels;


 * Step 3: Sponsoring Connectors grant access to communication and operational platforms, and introduce Future Connectors;


 * Step 4: At the end of the take-off period, the 3 Connectors endorsing the Future Connector make an announcement in the Facebook Connectors group and Slack channel (in a video previously made by the Future Connector), stating that the criteria were met. The video's ideal duration is one minute, and should contain what the Future Connector worked on and wants to work on next;


 * Step 5: If there is no veto, the new Connector is added to the decision-making platforms for Connectors.

End of Connector status
The Connector status remains active as long as the person remains active.

The Connector status can be ended if/when:
 * The Connector deliberately choses to put a hold on his/her commitment (and does not wish to commit to any activities for the next 6 months);
 * The Connector did not deliver on his or her statement of intent without any clear and reasonable explanation;
 * The Connector has not attended 2 OuiShare Summits in a row (without good reason), or not contributed to any online conversations in over 3 months. Of course it will be taken into account that Connectors from outside of Europe may not be able to attend Summits regularly.

These points are thoroughly discussed between the Connector and the management / scaffolding team (aka Core Connectors) before any decision is taken, and the decision announcement will be made by the Connector himself/herself.

These conditions however remain flexible, for instance for Connectors who brought exceptional achievements to the organization such as co-founders, early builders and long-time Connectors.

Like for members, OuiShare reserves the right to revoke a Connector status if a person acts against the best interests of the organization, mission and values, is disrespectful towards other members, or engages in serious criminal activity.

Archive - Core Connectors
This role is no longer in use.

Alumni Connectors (ACs)
Unless a Connector's status is revoked for one of the above reasons, all Connectors become Alumni Connectors when they stop their activity. They are mentioned as such on a dedicated part of the website, and hold the rights of members from at point on.

Since people's professional or personal circumstances are subject to frequent change, we recognize the importance of accommodating dynamic, "liquid" involvement. Therefore Alumni Connectors reserve the right to restart their activitiy as a Connector at any time, by simply expressing their intent to do so to the Core Connector team.

See all Alumni Connectors

Advisors
Advisors are thought leaders from the Collaborative Economy and related fields that support OuiShare with consulting and advice on various matters to do with OuiShare activities, strategy and operatios. They are an informal group and hold no legal responsibility for the organisation.

Advisors can:


 * access the OuiShare Connectors group. This is where they can get regular updates or participate in online discussions, tactical decision-making and share their advice with the other Connectors;
 * co-create the OuiShare strategy by attending Summits twice a year;
 * have a profile on the OuiShare website on a dedicated page for advisors

Advisors should:


 * attend a bi-annual advisors call that takes place shortly after OuiShare Summits, during which they are updated on the OuiShare strategy and can give their feedback and advice;
 * support OuiShare when possible by spreading the word about our activities in their network and making introductions

See our Advisors