How XR Mass is structured

Overview

Decisions in XR Mass are made by individuals and groups with a particular mandate. Thus, we only use group-decision making when it’s necessary and not by default. Within this structure, XR encourages rebels to switch up roles once in a while to promote creativity and avoid burn-out.

Mandates

When someone has a mandate, it means that they have the authority to make a decision/act, and at the same time it sets an expectation which others can have of them. People take on roles, which have particular mandates that they are accountable for completing. Examples:

“manage information flow within the team” (one mandate of the coordinator role)
“implement the XR Conflict Resilience procedures” (mandate of conflict mediator role)

Working groups

Working groups are a group of people defined by a few overarching mandates, typically with many sub-mandates filled by individuals. XR Mass’ current working groups can be found here.

Our circles page shows the mandates of our working groups. You can also get directed to a certain working group by filling out our volunteer welcome form.

Affinity groups

Distinct from the working group structure, affinity groups are small groups of ~10 people undertaking non-violent direct action (NVDA) together. To form an affinity group, you should attend an NVDA training.

Affinity groups are empowered to plan and execute their own actions, as long as:

they follow XR principles and values
they meet the non-violence guidelines and agreements in the NVDA intro document
if necessary, the action goes through the XR Mass approval process

The action working group also researches and prepares options for NVDA, which affinity groups can decide whether/how to be involved in via participation in spokescouncils.

Resources on Group Structure

These documents describe the self-organizing system that XR Mass is using. We are transitioning to this structure to help us grow and become more resilient, from a much more fluid organization that we used when we only had a few members.

(4 min!) Intro to affinity groups and working groups
(2 pages!) recommendations for structuring XR chapters
(8 min!) More on working groups
Less-than-a-page introduction: collaborative document version of the overview given above, feel free to comment and add questions if you're confused!
Current developments in XR Mass structure. This document describes our transition process, where we were and where we're headed, in more detail.
Coming soon: Self-organizing systems trainings

XR Boston special statement on Coronavirus