The proposal, drafted
A few weeks ago I posted in this thread about local atproto groups forming our own organization. I’ve been drafting it. Here’s the result.
Why this, why now
Local groups are in very different places right now. Some of us are signing venue contracts and dealing with liability paperwork. Others are running on free space and a food budget and haven’t been asked to sign anything yet. But the disparity is an opportunity; to serve groups who need help now and prepare for when the others reach said point. The federation is infrastructure that exists so that when a group’s contract-or-liability moment arrives..
The more concrete near-term lever is funding. Bluesky PBC and a handful of other potential ongoing sponsors don’t currently have a clean way to support local groups across cities. They can’t easily wire ongoing money to “the LA meetup” or “the NYC meetup,” because that isn’t how corporate giving works at scale. They can, however, fund a member-governed 501(c)(6) that re-allocates to its member groups. The federation is the counterparty that makes a noncommittal funder commitable. It also allows the groups themselves to decide who needs that money, and when, because groups have different needs at different times.
You could use Open Collective for the money side alone, and we’ll be using Open Source Collective as our Phase 1 fiscal host while incorporation is in progress. But a fiscal host only gives you a bank account. A federation gives you member-governed decisions, liability insurance, and an ongoing counterparty for sponsors who want to support local groups across cities without negotiating one-off grants each time.
The shape
What I’d originally pitched as “a co-op” became something a little different once I did the legal homework: a member-governed nonprofit corporation. Worker cooperatives are vehicles for worker-owners doing commerce together, and that isn’t the shape we need. We want democratic governance and one-vote-per-group equality, without the worker-ownership and patronage-dividend scaffolding. The federation pattern, where local groups keep their autonomy and identity while shared infrastructure pools at the federation level, is what runs the Linux Foundation, Wikimedia’s chapter network, and Apache. We’re adapting it for local atproto organizing.
The home jurisdiction is the most consequential question still open for tomorrow’s meeting. California (Nonprofit Mutual Benefit Corporation pursuing 501(c)(6)) is what the architectural briefing currently recommends, because reference architectures are US-domiciled, California’s Attorney General has been an active defender of nonprofits against federal overreach, and (c)(6) status is structurally less exposed than (c)(3) to the current federal political climate. Canada (Not-for-Profit Corporation under the CNCA) is lighter on most operational dimensions: lower setup cost, weeks rather than months to incorporate, lower political risk. The honest tradeoff with Canada is that the home jurisdiction sits outside the US for a project whose member groups are mostly in the US. Article XIII (International Affiliates) gives us a migration path either way.
The principles haven’t changed since the initial April 24 pitch:
- One member group, one vote
- Funders get recognition, not governance rights
- Shared infrastructure: insurance, branding, templates, peer network
If you have views on California vs Canada, the architectural briefing makes the case for California. Come to the meeting ready to push back on it.
What membership actually asks of you
A few people have asked, fairly, what work this creates for a member group. Honest answer:
- Time investment: roughly 1 to 2 hours per month on average, with predictable spikes around the annual meeting and admission cycles.
- Decisions you vote on: board elections, bylaws changes, allocation criteria for federation funds, admission of new member groups. (I promise you this isn’t that hard, but collective governance requires collective decision-making)
- Things the federation sets up for you: liability insurance for US events (with subsidized local equivalents for international groups), branding assets, organizing playbooks, a Code of Conduct adoptable by reference.
- Things you continue to do yourself, unchanged: your programming, your speakers, your venue, your community relationships, any local funding you acquire.
- Good standing requirements(open for discussion): participate in 2 of 4 annual meetings, run at least 2 events per year, follow the Code of Conduct. Falling below those triggers notice and a remediation window, not automatic removal.
- If your group is outside the home jurisdiction: a one-time cross-border tax form at admission (W-8BEN-E if we land on California, the Canadian equivalent if we land on Canada), banking via the international rail we land on (under active discussion), same governance rights as home-jurisdiction groups. Per-jurisdiction details in the international operations doc.
One thing I’m actively designing around: how to handle banking for member groups so they don’t each have to set up their own bank account just to receive disbursements(this can be a particular pain). If we land on California, Stripe Treasury is one option I’m evaluating; it would let US member groups receive funds into a federation-issued virtual account with a debit card, subject to Stripe approval and a lawyer pass on tax-reporting implications. If we land on Canada, we’d look at Canadian banking-as-a-service equivalents. International banking for member groups outside the home jurisdiction is harder and will likely need a per-jurisdiction approach. Open to other ideas at the meeting.
If any of the obligations above are more or less than you’d want as a member, that’s exactly the kind of thing to push back on and share!
The meeting
The meeting is tomorrow at 3pm PT/6pm ET. Link is here So far the RSVPs include ATProto LA, ATProto Boston, ATProto PDX, ATProto Seattle, ATBrasil, and probably more since I last checked. Several more groups have expressed interest but can’t make the date, including NYC, Colorado, and Norway. The session will be recorded.
Boris’s parallel work
Boris mentioned in the original thread that he’s researching a global co-op structure with the community conference as its primary project. That’s adjacent to but not the same as what I’m proposing. The federation I’ve drafted is for local meetup groups and the back-office work they need. It doesn’t compete with whatever Boris’s structure becomes, and the architecture is designed to be merge-friendly if it turns out one of these vessels is the right one for everything: asset-lock to similar-purpose successor, Article XIII affiliate provisions, no exclusivity clauses.
I’d welcome Boris’s thoughts on what I’ve drafted, both as someone doing parallel work and as someone with Community Fund context. Same goes for anyone else thinking about adjacent structures!
How this got drafted
The documents below were drafted with significant AI assistance. It spanned several weeks and is most reasonably considered AIL 2.5. The architecture and design choices are mine. The legal text in particular still needs review by qualified counsel (SELC if we go with California, an equivalent Canadian firm if we go with Canada, plus cross-border review either way) before any of it gets filed.
I’m telling you this because I’d rather you know than find out later. If you have strong feelings about AI-assisted organizational drafting, I’d rather hear them now too.
What I’d love from you
Read what fits your time. The deck takes about 15 minutes and is the fastest entry. The architectural briefing is around 30 minutes and contains the substantive case. The bylaws are for people who want to argue with specific clauses, and I hope some of you do.
Push back, especially on the parts you disagree with. The home-jurisdiction question, the supermajority thresholds, the funder concentration cap, the destiny-lock provisions: these are crucial decisions, and the proposal will be better if you argue with them.
Come to the meeting if the time works. If it doesn’t, the documents will be up in a tangled repo tonight to be async-friendly and replies on this thread are super helpful!
If you’re organizing a local group and want in, DM me or just RSVP.
Documents
All founding documents are at chaosgremlin.wisp.place, hosted on AT Protocol via wisp.place. Felt right to use the protocol’s own infrastructure to publish the founding docs of a federation of the protocol’s local groups.
Thanks for the patience between the April 24 post and now. I wanted to bring something real, with the legal scratchwork done. See you at the meeting!!
Bryan
, IF I haven’t fallen asleep by then 
in the future (that would be a fresh forum thread), but chiming here in the meanwhile.