On the structure of House Wayreth
In very broad terms with frequent use of Star Trek analogies
So I am writing here at the request of a family who are in the process of looking to join our clan; specifically they were looking for something that could be shown to others in their lives about how we are set up.
Reviewing our public information it became apparent that we didn’t have anything like that up and thus, this post.
Please bear in mind that this is being written with the goal of conveying broad concepts rather than granular detail.
The analogy we often use internally is that of a ship, really a star trek type ship. We have subject matter experts, or in star trek terms chief <insert department here> officer, the “command crew” in charge of making sure the ship runs smoothly and ultimately a “captain” to set the course.
Despite the analogy we use to explain it, our model is based on the Irish Celtic clan structure, hence the terms we use for the various roles within our clan; and indeed why we call it a clan.
Stepping away from the analogy somewhat; within House Wayreth our captain is our clan chief; currently Rob. Ultimately the responsibility for the direction of the clan falls to the clan chief and, as the old saying goes, is where the buck stops.
The clan chief isn’t elected and isn’t hereditary but is trained through an apprenticeship style of learning.
If we use the star trek analogies the Number 1 or first officer role is filled by two other members of the clan, presently Rose and Nix.
Collectively the “command crew” is referred to as the Triune.
From a legal perspective the Triune serves as a “board” with the clan chief acting as CEO. The members of the Triune are individuals trusted to be willing to speak truth to power if needed, trusted by the clan chief to be willing to hear the reasons behind decisions, function as administrators of the clans resources and communications systems. They also are the “sanity check” for the clan chief and play a key role in the documented accountability process for the clan chief.
Like the clan chief role the positions on the Triune are apprenticeship style succession.
Day to day things are left to each person within the clan, working within our established processes and expectations, much like any household; there is someone who is responsible for doing the vacuuming, someone to do the dishes and so on.
Things that require a change to process or any major decisions are made by the Triune as a group after taking soundings within the clan. A sounding is a non-binding vote; a way to open dialog on a decision that has to be made so that when a decision is made it is an informed one. Not everyone is involved in every decision; to go back to the star trek analogy the engineering department doesn’t need to weigh in on a change to the communications staff roster.
To date all major decisions that affect the clan as a whole dramatically have been approached with a single veto approach private vote wherein a period of time has been set aside and folks could take a marker and put it in an opaque container to vote yes or no confidentially and a no vote would stop the process.
Every member of the clan has their own private electronic channel to communicate with just the Triune members, allowing a clear delineation of interpersonal or social conversations and an “official” discussions with the role, or as we tend to say “the hat”, and not the person.
As we grow and continue to evolve we continue to assess the processes we use to adapt to the world around while trying to find better ways to live our ideals; one way in which we are working on this is to try to move some of the roles further apart so that no one person is having to wear too many “hats”.
Obviously there are a lot more specific and granular aspects to any sort of intentional community and in that aspect we are no different but hopefully this post has provided some transparency for folks around how we are structured and how we try to approach our intentional building of a community together.