About the Credit Commons Society

The CCS plays an essential role in the ecosystem that has sprung up around the members of the original Mutual Credit Services (MCS) collaboration. It is intended to function like a foundation, with a guiding direction of a global Credit Commons-enabled economy. Although groups like MCS may take a more hands-on role in building and supporting particular implementations of mutual credit exchange (especially in the commercial sector), the vision of the CCS is to foster an ecosystem of Credit Commons supporting groups and networks, particularly in communities.

In practice, this mostly means building the ‘brand’ of the Credit Commons, and – most importantly – its living culture. However, the CCS also asserts the right to prevent groups from claiming affiliation with the Credit Commons (and using its branding) on the basis of technical non-compliance with the Credit Commons Protocol.

The CCS currently has four ‘circles’ (see the next section for an explanation of our governance structure) – Credit Commons Protocol, Action Research, Comms, and Governance. Each of these has mutually-reinforcing purposes:

• The Protocol circle is responsible for technical development and maintenance of the Credit Commons Protocol. This means making sure that it can support real-world implementations, and that it becomes a viable open-source project.
• The Action Research circle was created to accelerate community-based economic empowerment projects via the Credit Commons. It brings together a wide range of community exchange practitioners for mutual learning and support, with an emphasis on practical problem-solving. You can learn more in the forum.
• The Comms circle communicates the activities of the CCS to a broad audience with the intention of raising its profile, recruiting new members, and otherwise driving engagement with the Credit Commons. Content is posted on this site’s blog, but we’d like to start engaging more on social media – see the ‘How do I join’ section if you’d like to get involved in this, or any other circle!
• The purpose of the Governance circle is to ensure healthy functioning of the CCS. This includes developing and maintaining structures and processes. 

The CCS practices sociocracy. The ‘anchor circle’ is the CCS itself, which at present has the four subcircles described above. Each of these circles is largely autonomous in how it meets its accountabilities. The members of the Governance circle have particular expertise and interest in ensuring that the CCS makes decisions on a sociocratic basis.

Anyone can ask to join a circle as a ‘working’ member (even if there are no specific openings listed on the Membership page) via the Contact form, with the decision of whether or not to accept the request made by the circle’s existing members. In practice, if you’re keen to get involved and are prepared to follow through on any commitments you make, the answer will almost certainly be ‘yes!’. The CCS is committed to ensuring that all such decisions are made in an accountable and transparent manner.

You can also become a ‘regular’ member just by joining our mailing list. This will keep you up to date on news, working member openings, and Credit Commons projects near you.

If you join a circle as a working member, your role and accountabilities will be mutually agreed with the circle’s other members. You will be expected to meet these commitments, and otherwise participate in sociocratic decision-making processes. Because the CCS is still in the early stages of development, there’s plenty of scope for the right people to influence its character and activities, so we’re looking for proactive, creative, and passionate people to come and join us.

At the moment, regular membership just involves hearing from us as and when we have news to share. We hope this will become a more compelling proposition in due course – if you’d like to help us get to that point, then please consider becoming a working member!

The best way to help is to become a member! You can also send this information to anyone you know who might be interested in building the Credit Commons.