# Community Governance and Decision-Making Most successful community mesh networks are lightly governed but clearly structured. Too little structure leads to chaos; too much bureaucracy kills volunteer participation. Here's what works. ## Minimal viable governance - **Network coordinator(s):** 3 - 5 people who make final decisions on network settings, new repeater standards, and community direction. Usually the founders or most active contributors. - **Discord or forum:** Primary community space for announcements, help, and coordination. - **Wiki or docs:** Written reference for setup guides, network standards, and node documentation. - **Network map:** Visual representation of active nodes. ## Decisions that need explicit consensus Some decisions affect everyone and need community buy-in, not just coordinator fiat: - **Changing the default preset or frequency:** Migrating an existing network to a new preset requires coordinating every node simultaneously - a major disruptive event. Don't do this casually. - **Adding a private or encrypted channel:** If community nodes are being used to bridge a private channel, other participants should know. - **Hosting policies:** What standards do infrastructure nodes need to meet? Who can call themselves part of the network? ## Managing contributions from outsiders As the network grows, people will want to add nodes. This is good - but uncoordinated growth causes problems: - **Wrong settings:** New operators who configure incorrectly fragment the network - **Poorly placed nodes:** A ground-level node in a bad location adds noise to the network without contributing coverage - **Abandoned nodes:** Nodes that go offline and are never maintained degrade the perceived reliability **Solution:** Create a brief onboarding checklist for new node operators. It doesn't need to be formal - a Discord message template works. Cover: preset/channel settings, naming convention, role configuration, how to get on the network map, and who to ask for help. ## Handling network conflicts Occasional conflicts arise: two operators disagree on the right preset, a node is causing interference, someone deploys with wrong settings. Keep these principles in mind: - The coordinator's job is to be a technical arbiter, not a bureaucrat. Make technically correct decisions and explain the reasoning. - Document the standards. "The network uses X because Y" is much easier to enforce than "the coordinator said so." - Be welcoming to newcomers who made honest mistakes. Getting the settings wrong is easy. Help them fix it rather than shaming them.