Spalding Valley Farm Caretaker Agreement

Purpose

In order to give people the freedom and autonomy to move forward on projects while maintaining just enough structure to minimize potential conflicts between interdependent functions, we organize resources and work around necessary (sub)functions, which we call “functional areas” (aka “domains” in S3.0), and each functional area is taken care of by a, well, caretaker. 

This document lays out the expectations / agreements that we have around the responsibilities and rights one takes on when agreeing to be an area caretaker. 

High Level View

Basically, the Stewardship Council representing the commons delegates influence and responsibility to the caretaker through the functional area driver statement which includes responsibilities, resources, and constraints specific to that area - why it exists and what it’s supposed to do. The collective also sets the service level agreements with the caretaker that helps establish what “good enough” looks like. The caretaker then takes on the job of figuring out the best way of getting it done - the how part. 

Nitty Gritty Stuff

Delegation

The caretakers can't change any of the responsibilities, resources, or constraints without consulting with the collective. However, within that domain, it is the caretaker's right and responsibility to make sure:

1. the chores get done (including the "how to" guides) 

2. effort is focused on priorities / high ROE activities

3. necessary improvements to area operations happen

They are not, however, responsible for actually doing all of these things. They serve as a point person and facilitator with responsibility for coordinating activity within the guild and functional area. 

Collaboration

The caretakers collectively manage the Ops Wall. Caretakers decide collectively through consent (no objections = good enough for now) on the sprint project priorities at the Sprint Planning session and update priorities as necessary in the Daily Huddle. Caretakers also have the ability to add tasks to the chore board or the honey-do list - provided the list isn't full (an application of the “limit work in progress” or WIP practice of S3.0) - in which case priorities are discussed at the huddle. 

Logbook and Metrics

Caretakers are responsible for maintaining an area logbook and metric tracking. We are agnostic about the technology - we offer google docs, sheets, and Asana as potentially valuable systems, but everyone is encouraged to experiment to see what develops as the easiest, most effective system.

Metrics are developed through a collaborative process involving the collective as a whole and the functional area team.The goal is tracking “just enough” information to have a sense of if we are moving in the right direction or getting off track. 

Retrospectives

Caretakers are also expected to take time to reflect periodically on the progress of the area in moving towards agreed upon goals. 

The key questions to be able to answer are:

1. What is our current "best practice"? How do we avoid wasting energy re-inventing the wheel?

2. What's the ROE for a particular process / project? (Which assumes we have a sense of the relative amount of effort that has gone into things.)

3. What major accomplishments / milestones / events happened - documenting history

4. Next steps / strategies / priorities (probably connects with #3) / progress.

Caretakers are encouraged to find a process that works well for them, but are required to submit a sprintly progress report with 

1. accomplishments 

2. lessons learned (implying updated "best practice" how-to guides or processes) 

3. next steps / priorities and maybe 

4. tensions and 

5. general notes and ideas.

Tension Triage / Navigation 

We have a standing tension gathering process where anyone at any time can “add a tension to the hopper.” This could be a frustration or an idea for a potential improvement. Tensions can be added to Asana as a task, added to the Ops Wall as a post-it, or brought up at Huddle or any farm meeting. 

The first step in the tension triage process is to ask yourself:

1. Is it covered by an existing agreement? Is this part of the responsibilities of a functional area?

   1. IF Yes > 

      1. Create a task in Asana, add the appropriate FA as a “project” and assign the task to the caretaker of the area.  

      2. Next, the FA caretaker accepts the task, reassigns it to another FA if more appropriate (in which case the caretaker of that FA has the same option to accept or return the task), or returns the task to the collective by either adding it to the “new business” section of the Sprint Plan or to the “hopper” of the Tensions project, as appropriate. 

      3. The caretaker then classifies the task as chore / project / procedural change

         1. IF chore > caretaker can choose to keep it as a personal task or add it to the chore board or honey-do list - both of which have WIP limits

         2. IF project > caretaker is responsible for advocating priorities at Sprint Planning and Seasonal Planning sessions. 

   2. IF No > 

      1. Task is moved to the Hive Mind Hopper section for processing by the collective.