Creating a new Guild

Creating a new guild requires several steps

Step 1 - Get Community Feedback

Have an idea for a Guild that can help solve a problem in Tech Fleet? You and the community can create one!

Any ideas for new guilds must go through community feedback channels to socialize the idea and get perspective from the community. This happens through the #community-ideas-feedback-and-discussion Slack channel today. Follow the guidelines for proposing changes in Tech Fleet for more details.

Guidelines for proposing changes:

🥳Tech Fleet Operations Workbook

Template document you can copy to write out your details of the Guild:

Guild Bylaws Template

Figjam board workshop example for your team to use to scope out the guild's responsibilities

Step 2 - Guild Bylaws: Write a Guild Thesis

After understanding the problem and collecting feedback in step 1, you can write your "guild thesis". This will eventually be posted in the Guilds section of the user guide for all to see.

A thesis should include:

1. The problems the guild will attempt to solve

2. The mission of the guild

3. The scope of the guild's work

4. Outcomes that the guild should seek to achieve

Write your thesis in a document and post it to the #community-ideas-feedback-and-discussion Slack channel for buy-in and feedback before considering it final.

Step 3 - Guild Bylaws: Define the Details and Scope

After the thesis is created, write out more details about the guild so that anyone who's interested can understand the intent and operations of the guild.

This includes:

1. What are the requirements for joining the guild?

2. How do people join the guild?

3. How does the guild operate day-to-day, week-to-week? Where do you keep your work progress in Notion?

4. What are your work agreements for the guild? (more about Scrum work agreements here)

5. Who's responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed within Tech Fleet for your guild work? (more about RACI charts here)

This should be documented in the Tech Fleet User Guide, write out a document and follow the Guild Template, then work with the Infrastructure Guild to implement the document in the User Guide.

Step 4 - Propose a Vote to Create the Guild

Work with the Infrastructure Guild to post a new vote where community members vote for the guild's creation. Follow the voting procedures to comply with voting.

Step 5 - Get Signups

Once your guild requirements are defined and approved by the community, community members can be recruited to the guild's efforts. Roles within the guild are important to define, so getting signups is the first part, and you should provide clarity on everyone's roles when they signup.

Step 6 - Create a Notion space for the Guild

Work with someone from the Infrastructure Guild to create a new Notion space for the guild, where all your backlog items, notes, and documentation should live. Public-facing documentation should be added to the Tech Fleet User Guide, so work with the Infrastructure Guild to determine the scope of User Guide sections vs. Notion sections.

Step 7 - Run a Pilot and Iterate

Your guild is self-organized and self-governed. No one should tell you how to run the guild; guild members should get together to decide how they should work together, and they should iterate on their process. As your process changes, be sure to communicate this out to the community and update the documentation you uphold about the guild so that people in the community can see the latest details about operations within your guild.