Use of terms in groups not signed up to the constitution
Any person or group can organise autonomously and take action in the name and spirit of XR so long as the action fits within XR’s principles and values. In this way, power is decentralised, meaning that there is no need to ask for permission from a central group or authority.
How groups organise is up to them, as long as it aligns with the Principles and Values (including "We are based on autonomy and decentralisation" and "We actively mitigate power"). There is no requirement to follow the XR UK Constitution, but the advantage of doing so is that provides a set of agreements about how we distribute authority and decision-making across the movement - this provides clarity and transparency so that we do not lose time arguing about who has the right to make each decision.
Many groups - particularly Local Groups, Affinity Groups and some Community Groups - may feel that the full constitution is not appropriate for them. For example, they may not want to commit to having all the Core Roles in the constitution. But at the same time they may want to follow the basic 'pattern' of the Self-Organising System approach.
To enable this, the XR UK Hub uses the same basic structure of data for these groups, but uses different terms, as shown in the following table.
| Signed up to the consitution | Not signed up |
|---|---|
| Mandate | Scope |
| Purpose | What this group/position is for |
| Role | Position |
| Accountability | Activity |
| Domain | Resources |
| External Coordinator | Connection |
| Internal Coordinator | Coordinator |
| Working Group, Circle, Sub-circle, Group, Team | Group, Team |
This reflects the fact that groups in the right hand column have not actually received a mandate from a broader circle. A mandate is how a circle or team distributes authority to its sub-circles. Groups on the right simply have their own authority under the Principles and Values (see top of page). And because there is no mandate for the group, other groups cannot hold them 'accountable' for performing specific activities. So we replace 'Accountability' with 'Activity'. And so on.