[Federation Name]: Mission and Purpose
Status: Draft for discussion among founding member groups. Once aligned, this language will move into the Articles of Incorporation and the Bylaws. Edit ruthlessly.
Mission
[Federation Name] is an international federation of local AT Protocol meetup groups, organized for the mutual benefit of its members. Member groups share resources, infrastructure, and knowledge across the United States, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, and any other jurisdiction where local atproto communities are forming, so that more people can participate in shaping the open social web.
The Federation exists to make local atproto organizing easier and more sustainable, without making any local community dependent on a single funder, vendor, or jurisdiction.
What the Federation does
The Federation provides shared infrastructure so member groups can focus on the local work and stop reinventing the same back-office plumbing. Specifically:
- Holds and administers liability insurance covering member-group events
- Receives grants, sponsorships, and donations from organizations supporting the open social web, and distributes funds to member groups according to criteria the membership sets
- Maintains shared resources: a website, a code of conduct, event-organizing playbooks, speaker contact lists, accessibility templates, branding assets
- Convenes member groups for coordination, peer learning, and mutual support
- Represents the collective interest of member groups in conversations with protocol stewards, infrastructure providers, and the broader ecosystem, when explicitly authorized by the membership
What the Federation does not do
The Federation does not tell member groups what to organize, who to invite, or how to run an event. It does not speak on behalf of any member group without that group’s consent. It does not accept funding with conditions that would compromise member governance. It does not compete with member groups for local sponsorships, attendees, or attention. And it does not become a single point of failure that member groups depend on for survival.
Who the Federation serves
The Federation serves its member groups, and through them the people in local atproto communities: organizers, attendees, newcomers, builders, anyone curious about the open social web.
The Federation is a backbone. Funders, vendors, protocol authorities, and gatekeepers operate elsewhere in the ecosystem; the Federation is none of those things.
Values
These are not rules. They are how the Federation wants to feel about the work.
Equal voice. Every member group has one vote. Size, age, geography, jurisdiction, and fundraising capacity buy no extra influence.
Local sovereignty. The Federation works at the service of its members. Member groups operate under different legal regimes and in different community contexts, and the Federation accommodates that variety rather than flattening it.
Transparency by default. Finances, decisions, and communications are open to members. Communications affecting the broader community are open to the broader community.
Refusal as a tool. The Federation says no to outside money, partnerships, or pressure that would compromise these values, even when saying yes would be easier.
Slow when it matters. Governance decisions deserve deliberation. The Federation prefers fewer, better decisions over faster ones, and treats asynchronous decision-making as the primary mode of work.
No founder jurisdiction. Wherever the Federation incorporates, that jurisdiction is not the Federation’s home in any meaningful sense. The Federation belongs equally to its member groups wherever they are.
The work belongs to the people doing it. Local organizers know their communities. The Federation supports their judgment.
What success looks like in three years
- Five or more active member groups in different cities, each running events on a sustainable rhythm
- Federation revenue sufficient to cover insurance and basic infrastructure for all member groups, with no single funder representing more than a third of that revenue (an aspirational target tighter than the 40% bylaws cap in Section 7.5, intended as a self-imposed early-stage discipline)
- A pathway by which someone considering starting a local atproto group can join the Federation and have insurance, branding, and peer support within a month
- No member group pressured by the Federation, by a funder, or by an outside party into changing its programming against its will
- A federation that would still leave every member group standing if the Federation itself dissolved tomorrow