If you think about what FYREshire is working to create, it becomes clear that we need some level of organization to reach our goals. The FYREshire organizational structure utilizes a hybrid model combining professional staff, volunteer leadership, and member-driven working groups to manage operations, safety, and community engagement.
Once we climb the mountain of COMMUNITY together, other mountains become easier to climb!
Core Governance and Roles
Professional staff generally handle high-level operations, while working groups and volunteers manage daily functions and specific initiatives.
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
Manages internal operations, finances, and strategy with Officers positions such as President, VPof Internal Affairs, VPof External Affairs, Secretary, Treasurer, Chief Legal Officer, and add other Officer roles as needed.
OPERATIONAL STAFF
Includes Members functioning in Group Chairs, Vice-Chairs of Committees and employees of FYREshire.
VOLUNTEERS
Volunteer roles are critical for maintaining community culture and daily logistics. Some volunteer roles include: Volunteer Coordinator organizes and manages the Volunteer roster. Tool Testers are Members who test new users on their knowledge of proper tool usage, supporting Group Chairs.
Member-Driven Committees
We empower members through elected or volunteer-led groups that advise leadership and implement solutions. Committees act as a sounding board for each subject matter area and assist the Officers with policy and spending decisions. If a group grows large enough it could be split up to maintain manageable and effective administration of the subject area. Current Committees in alphabetical order include:
Communications
Includes a wide variety of skills and knowledge, including HAM radio, SDRs, antennae design, MeshCore/Meshtashic, and similar equipment and activities.
Construction & Maintenance
Includes a wide variety of skills and knowledge, including woodshop, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, equipment operation, concrete, tile work, and similar type activities. Also includes automotive and equipment related projects and maintenance.
Creative & Applied Arts
Includes sewing, ceramics, arts & crafts, leather working, blacksmithing, glasswork, paper making, and similar artisan-type activities.
Education, Training, & Knowledge Preservation
Include homeschooling, adult training, and managing organizational information (both physical and digital) and helps connect members to the right information. Works with each group to help develop and update operational policies and procedures.
Enterprise
Includes management of Enterprise Zone. This would likely be separated out into more groups once all of the enterprise areas within the zone are defined. Some of the potential groups could be retail, workshop/fabrication spaces, manufacturing activities, co-working spaces, offices, visitor parking, and the marketplace. Includes management of RV Park Zone.
Food Production
Include things like greenhouses, community gardens, orchards and windbreak plantings, poultry and livestock, worm systems, seed starting, and related activities.
Governance & Steering Committee
Identifies organizational needs (financial, operational, governance, or otherwise) and initiates strategic committee-led projects.
Health, Safety, & Medical
Addresses health and safety concerns, ensures proper tool usage, and works with each committee to maintains a safe secure environment within the community. Also, includes identifying first responders and first-aid activities.
Manufacturing
Includes a wide variety of skills and knowledge, including welding, fabrication, plasma cutting, machine shop activities, casting, 3D printing, automation, and similar type activities.
Recreation & Events
Includes management of Recreation Zone infrastructure. This would likely be separated out into more groups once all of the recreation areas within the community are defined. Some of the potential groups could be water activities (such as pool, water park area, and lazy river), shooting sports (such as skeet/trap shooting and shooting ranges), equestrian activities, lake activities (fishing, paddleboats, canoes, or kayaking), trail activities (walking, bike riding, and quads/ATVs), sports fields, paintball fields, and other activities. Also organizes community-building events and socials.
Science & Engineering
Includes a wide variety of science skills and knowledge, including Life Sciences (such as biology, botany, and zoology), Physical Sciences (such as physics, chemistry, and astronomy), and Earth Sciences (such as geology, meteorology, and hydrology). Engineering would include primarily civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering.
Security
Includes security protocols relating to each zone, security personnel, gates and access control, and security for events.
Support
Includes management of Support Zone infrastructure like warehouse and equipment yard, fuel storage, equipment storage, maintenance equipment, and associated inventory.
Utilities, Waste, and Composting (UWC)
Includes management of water and waste related infrastructure like well houses, water storage tanks, septic/wastewater treatment, composting, solid waste shredding/compaction, bulk solid waste disposal, and fire-water reserve.
Working Groups
Working groups are formed from members of the committee when there need to address particular tasks or goals of the committee. Depending on the size of the committee, they may be multiple working groups going simultaneously. When a Working Group is formed a Working Group Lead will volunteer or be assigned to keep the committee members informed of working group activities.
Special Interest Groups
Whereas a Committee manages a broad area of operations and a Working Group typically represents a smaller subset of committee members that are focused on the detailed execution of a particular task or project to support the committee, a Special Interest Group (SIG) is a subset of a committee that is focused on a specific niche topic that is related to the subject matter of the committee.
A SIG can be formed as either an informal or formal group, depending on the level of structure and whether funding desired.
Informal SIGs can be started at any time with no minimum membership requirement; they simply exist within the community without official committee sponsorship.
Formal SIGs must be sponsored by an existing committee (such as Communications, Education, Science, etc.) and typically require at least 5 interested Members to officially form.
Formal SIG Formation Requirements
Must have at least 5 interested Members to form and be sponsored by a committee.
Leaders of a SIG must be elected from within the SIG.
A committee must vote and approve sponsoring a SIG.
SIG Leaders are responsible for leading their SIG’s meetings.
While a sponsoring committee may choose to fund a SIG from it’s own budget, they are not obligated to do so.
Formal SIG Operational Requirements
Must meet at least quarterly.
Must record meeting minutes (including attendance, voted items, and outcomes).
Records must be uploaded to the SIG’s records page.
SIG Leaders must act as representatives when participating in the committee meetings.
Any spending must follow board and committee voting and records rules.
