Organization chart

The Decidim universe may seem complex at first glance. There are multiple actors, bodies and groups that are part of the community.

In this post, we explain who is who and how this universe called the Metadecidim community works 🚀🪐.

Below you can see the organisation chart of the Decidim universe:

Next we will explain some of the concepts that appear in the above flowchart. First of all, we must differentiate between the Community and the Association:

• The Community: The Decidim community is called Metadecidim, and is made up of people and organisations that use the software and want to contribute to improving it. All those people, companies or public institutions that have a relationship with the Decidim software are part of the community. Anyone can be part of it.

• The Decidim Association: The Decidim Free Software Association is a non-profit association, responsible for the governance of the Decidim community. To join the Association you must become a member (enllaç a fer-te soci).

Within the Association there are different spaces:

• The General Assembly: This is the Association's sovereign body. This is where decisions are taken on everything that has to do with the governance of the project. All the members of the association are members of the General Assembly.

• The Coordination Committee: This is the body that manages and represents the Association. Its members are democratically elected by all the members of the Decidim Association.

• The Thematic Groups: These are spaces for the members of the Decidim Association and work on issues related to the governance of the project. These groups must be linked to the Coordination Committee.

• The Technical Office: The professional team that works for the Decidim Association.

Within the Community there are other types of spaces:

• The Themattic Groups: These are the channel that we have designed so that people who want to can actively contribute to the project, anyone can be part of them. These groups can work on issues related to software improvement, academic research or participatory methodology. They should be coordinated with the Coordination Committee or the team.

So, you may ask: What is the difference between community members and Association members? Quite simply:

• Community members can participate and contribute to improve the software. By reporting bugs, proposing new features, improving the documentation, participating in a working group, and so on. However, they cannot participate in governance discussions. Look at the processes open to the community.

• The members of the Association are the only ones who can decide on all those issues related to the governance of the project. See the open processes within the Association.