Intro to Seasons

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This space serves as a unifying roadmap for coordinating creating a new economic system.

Governance history / Ratified (voted in) by the Citizens on:

February 1st, 2022 - This proposal has not been ratified by the Citizens of SEEDS

Living the change we wish to see

Creating a Regenerative Civilization isn't a marathon nor a sprint, there is no end where suddenly 'we're done'. With this idea in mind, Seasons is a pattern for us to sustainably and joyfully continue this journey without burning out (from trying to run the whole time).

Seasons is a model for us to start living in a Regenerative Culture today. Where in these cultures we would have generative patterns for how we set priorities, organize efforts, create balance, enjoy life, and shift focus throughout the year.

Measuring success

Seasons provide a pattern for measuring progress and success. So, instead of defaulting to old patterns of measuring success (what's the exchange value of a token) that's driven by short-sighted market cycles we can instead adopt a "cathedral building" mentality and use Seasonal cycles to measure progress across a wide diversity of indicators (well beyond the exchange price of various tokens).

Consciously stepping out of market cycles

When we adopt our own organizational rhythms, we step out of the default organizational rhythms of the dominant economies that are driven by market cycles of 'boom/bull' and 'bust/bear' and the myopic focus on quarterly finances. This model could also help our ecosystem earn a "countercyclical" status where if there's a "bear market" in the old economies it's an opportunity for capital to flee into more stable economies that aren't tethered to the boom and bust cycles of those economic models.

We're not here to keep up with "bull markets" and "bear markets" and try to "beat the competition each quarter". Those are all features of the economic systems we're leaving behind.

For example, instead of making a changes to our economic protocols to serve short sighted interests ("number go up" mentality) Seasons provides us a container to make decisions based on what's best for transitioning into a Regenerative Culture and our economy. This way SEEDS creates it's own economic rhythm.

Seasons...

  • provides a container for momentum and focus to better align our efforts;

  • reduce potential burnout of the expectation for some members to be "always on all year round";

  • model and experiment with creating more generative patterns for humanity (affording for diversity of life experience, seasonal shifts, balance, and more)

What follows is an overview of an economic tool we call "Renaissance Seasons"

Quick details

  • "Seasons" is a protocol to consciously and collaboratively focus our efforts each season (currently proposed to start/end on each solstice/equinox with our "Regenerative Renaissance Roundtables" or R3) to foster systemic balance - opposed to attempting all priorities at the same time, all the time.

  • Citizens steer SEEDS by choosing seasonally what work they want done. They do this by selecting which DHO's they want to participate in each upcoming season to steward the SEEDS Commons treasury (when anyone buys Seeds from joinseeds.earth you're trading Seeds with the SEEDS Commons and they sell the other tokens to fund Citizen directed operations).

  • You may participate in one season, all seasons, or anything that best suites you.

  • The seasons model provides a clear time for people to enter and exit active participation or change roles our organizations within the ecosystem.

  • The seasonal pattern provides a diversity of unique ways to contribute throughout the year to members of our community - and helps us avoid the trap of hyper-focusing on just one domain (such as focusing too much time on building tools and not enough time actively regenerating our planet).

  • Each season has an ecosystem theme that DHOs are encouraged to align with. However, there is no requirement for them to do so as some things the ecosystem needs may not line up with the stated theme. For example some technology providers may need to have support roles active all year round.

  • Stagger our learning journey's (so we can focus momentum and align them in the larger context of what we're doing). For example the various learning journey's within SEEDS:

    • Tools of the Regenerative Renaissance: When: By inspiration and demand. What: Ecosystem out-reach programs that help share all of the incredible things happening in the Regenerative Renaissance and help them understand the wider ecosystem in which SEEDS exists.

    • Ambassador academy: When: During expansion seasons. What: Ecosystem in-reach programs to facilitate orienting new people into the vast world of SEEDS. A resource to help us cultivate our purpose and find or create the right role for you in the movement.

    • Renaissance explorers: When: During grounding seasons. What: Ecosystem co-learning journeys that facilitate deep internal (personal protocols, mental habits and beliefs, etc landscapes) and external (collective protocols, governance, economic, etc landscapes) explorations.

    • Focus our orientation and onboarding efforts into clear seasons where everyone who's new and wants to join can all do so together in a collection of cohorts. This way we can build collective momentum where a critical mass of people is on a similar page in their journey.

    • Focus our governance evolution and discussions in a single season. This way we are only asking people to commit to these deep dialogues once during a year (opposed to at any time) which may make it more obtainable of an ask for Citizens and those wanting to be a part of architecting and deeply considering the protocols of SEEDS.

Rhythm

Seasons work as all cycles of life do, in cyclical balance.

  • In breathe & out breathe

  • Summer & winter

  • Spring and fall

  • Yin & Yang

  • Global & local

  • Expansion & contraction

Inspired by this balancing pattern we can consciously shift the focus of each season to bring balance throughout the course of the year and provide a foundation for a rhythm that our community can continue to modify as we learn and grow.

Developer seasons

A significant service of the SEEDS ecosystem is building tools and technology to help our movement coordinate.

Digital hygiene

Good internet hygiene (consciously creating periods where humans are encouraged to be "off line") is a fundamental exploration we can navigate together.

Setting expectations for internet use for each season (and adding seasons where internet use is expected to be at a low) can help us set rhythms as a community to take this time off (much like the various global efforts of the working class to turn a 7 day work week into 5 and now 4...).

That way we aren't expected to be "on line" year round to welcome in new people, engage in governance discussions, and everything else Citizens are encouraged to participate in.

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