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Set up democratic decision-making, step by step
Bylaws, committees, proposals, voting, elections, meetings, and forms — everything your members need to govern together.
This guide walks you through setting up your organization's governance in FlockWorker, step by step. By the end, your members will be able to propose ideas, vote on decisions, run elections, and keep a clear record of everything. Follow the steps in order — each one builds on the previous.
| Action | Any Member | Manager | Admin |
|---|---|---|---|
| View proposals, elections, bylaws, minutes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Create proposals and vote | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Comment on proposals | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Delegate your vote to another member | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nominate candidates and vote in elections | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Export governance records as PDF | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Create, edit, and approve bylaws | Team Mgmt* | Yes | Yes |
| Create and manage elections, agendas, minutes | Team Mgmt* | Yes | Yes |
| Track implementation of passed proposals | Team Mgmt* | Yes | Yes |
| Enable/disable public voting on a proposal | — | Yes | Yes |
| Create and manage committees & external members | — | — | Yes |
| Create and manage proposal templates | — | — | Yes |
| Configure proxy voting & thresholds | — | — | Yes |
| Moderate proposal comments (hide/delete) | — | — | Yes |
*Team Mgmt = members with the Team Management permission, which admins can grant to trusted members.
Best if you're creating bylaws from scratch or have only a few articles. Go to Bylaws, click New Bylaw, and fill in the title, article number, version (starts at "1.0"), content, effective date, and whether it's the current version. Repeat for each article.
Best if your organization already has bylaws written up. Use the three-step wizard: Upload (paste text or a .txt/.md file, then Parse), Review (the parser splits the document into articles you can edit or reorder), and Import Settings (set version, effective date, and whether to mark all as current). Everything imports in a single operation.
Tips
Go to Committees, click New Committee, and choose a type: Standing (permanent), Ad Hoc (temporary), Executive (leadership), or Advisory (non-binding). Add a chair and members after creating it.
| Committee | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Executive / Steering | Executive | Overall strategic direction |
| Finance | Standing | Budget oversight, financial review |
| Membership | Standing | New member applications, onboarding |
| Grievance | Standing | Workplace conflict resolution |
Inviting external members
Admins can invite outside experts — a legal advisor, community representative, or auditor — to a specific committee without giving them full platform access. They get a secure, read-only portal showing the committee overview, shared agendas, and published minutes only. They cannot vote, create proposals, or see other modules.Optionally start from one of the six built-in templates (or your own custom template) to pre-fill the form. Then set the basics (title, type, urgency, summary, full text — Markdown supported) and the voting rules:
Tips
Quorum tracking
Each proposal shows a live quorum progress bar, so members can see at a glance whether enough people have participated and how many more votes are needed.For sensitive decisions — leadership changes, personnel matters, conflict resolution — a secret ballot protects voter identity. The system records that you voted but not how. It's set at creation and cannot be changed after voting opens.
When a member can't participate directly, they can delegate their vote to a trusted colleague. Admins enable proxy voting and set the maximum delegations one member can hold; members delegate (and can revoke) from the proposal page.
View ProposalsSet up the title, position, nomination and voting periods, seats, quorum, and voting method. Open nominations (any member can nominate), candidates accept and optionally write a platform statement, then voting opens and results calculate automatically.
Ranked choice voting (Instant Runoff)
With three or more candidates, ranked choice prevents vote splitting. Voters rank candidates by preference; the system counts first choices, eliminates the lowest candidate, and transfers those ballots to their next choice — repeating until one candidate has a majority.
Tips
Quorum is the minimum number of members who must vote for the result to count — it prevents a small group from deciding when most of the organization isn't paying attention. Threshold is the share of "yes" votes needed to approve, counted among those who actually voted.
| Configuration | Quorum | Threshold | When to use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Majority | 50% | 51% | Routine operational decisions, day-to-day policies |
| Standard Supermajority | 50% | 67% | Budget approval, new members, significant policy changes |
| Strong Supermajority | 60% | 75% | Bylaw amendments, officer removal |
| Near-Unanimous | 75% | 75% | Dissolution, fundamental structural changes |
Practical guidance
High-stakes intents are configured per-organization
Certain high-stakes proposal types (e.g. member termination) have no system default — they fail closed until an admin sets an explicit quorum and threshold. Configure these proactively so authors aren't blocked at create time. Configure thresholds| Scenario | Recommended Method | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Yes/no vote on a proposal | Single Choice | Only two options |
| Two-candidate election | Single Choice | Ranking two candidates adds no benefit |
| Three or more candidates for one seat | Ranked Choice | Prevents vote splitting, finds a consensus winner |
| Multiple seats (e.g. 3 board members) | Single Choice (one per seat) | Ranked choice is designed for single-seat races |
| Scenario | Recommended Ballot | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Routine proposals (budget, policy) | Open | Transparency supports democratic accountability |
| Officer elections | Secret | Prevents social pressure on leadership votes |
| Member expulsion votes | Secret | Protects voters from retaliation |
| Compensation decisions | Secret | Reduces social discomfort around money |
| Sensitive policy changes | Secret | Allows honest voting on contentious topics |
| Day-to-day operational decisions | Open | Straightforward, no reason to anonymize |
Common combinations
| Activity | How Often |
|---|---|
| Review and vote on proposals | As they come in |
| Committee meetings | Monthly or as needed |
| Build meeting agendas | Before each formal meeting |
| Record meeting minutes | After every formal meeting |
| Officer elections | Annually (or per your bylaws) |
| Bylaw review | Annually |
| Implementation check-ins | Weekly or biweekly |
| Step | What to Do | Why This Order |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upload bylaws | Establishes the rules everything else follows |
| 2 | Create committees & invite external members | Organizes members and outside expertise into groups |
| 3 | Create your first proposal | Tests the decision-making workflow |
| 4 | Vote and discuss | Engages members in democratic participation |
| 5 | Track implementation | Connects decisions to action |
| 6 | Run elections | Fills leadership positions democratically |
| 7 | Build agendas, hold meetings, record minutes | Creates institutional memory with follow-through |
| 8 | Attach forms | Collects detailed input beyond simple votes |
Ready to get started?
Begin with your bylaws, then work through each step. You can return to this guide any time from the Help Center.