SEEDS Changemakers Program

The SEEDS Changemakers to Citizens Pilot Program is a prototype for onboarding non-SEEDizen changemakers into the SEEDS ecosystem and culture using a self-organization system based on caring.

Changemaker Guide

See the SEEDS Changemaker Guide for specific instructions on how to participate as a Changemaker participant. It is designed as a complement to this page, which is an overview of the entire program.

Foundation

The Changemaker to Citizens program is based on a foundation of Partnerism, Self Organization and Co-creation.

Partnerism

Partnerism - is an economic system with values, assumptions, and beliefs based on caring for one another, nature, and our collective future. Unlike Capitalism & Socialism, Partnerism recognizes the economic value of care and adequately rewards it in both the market & non-market sectors. Partnerism was first coined by Riane Eisler and most internationally recognized in The Chalice and the Blade.

Self Organization

Self organizing systems - Processes where some form of overall order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The resulting organization is wholly decentralized, distributed over all the components of the system. As such, the organization is typically robust and able to survive or self-repair substantial perturbation.

Co-creation

Co-creation systems - Systems, models, tools for co-creation, designed, governed and owned by participants with a shared purpose, such as campaign teams and local communities.

Operation

The 125 changemakers will be selected by the Changemaker Host team. Each applicant must meet complete a changemaker survey to document how they are regenerative changemakers in the non-SEEDS world. The objective is to support at least 50 of the changemakers to become Citizens from non-SEEDS participants.

Group support

• A dedicated Changemaker to Citizens Discord server, integrated with the comprehensiveness of the main SEEDS Discord server.
• A user-friendly game guide via a SEEDS Changemaker Guide Wiki that includes:
  • Clear instructions on becoming a Citizen
  • Voting on and Developing Proposals for Campaigns and Alliances.
  • Clear guidelines on voting on and submitting Proposals
  • SEEDS FAQ
  • SEEDS Roadmap to Globally Regenerative Economies
  • SEEDS Glossary
• Descriptions of voted in Campaigns and Alliances, like the Regenerating Central America Campaign
• Develop our own tools and educational material, in sync with the Movement Building Circle.
• Joining the Ambassador Academy as a cohort with a certain start date.
• Assisting others in becoming Citizens through the next Changemaker Host cycle.

Invites/sponsorships

• Each Host can invite between 5 to 25 Changemakers = Total 125.
• Have no less than 80% of the Changemakers you are onboarding to be those you invited yourself to set a standard for others in being responsible for onboarding those they invite.
  • Because of how the reward system works, both Hosts and Changemakers are strongly recommended to only invite people that they will also invest the time to onboard to become active participants in the SEEDS ecosystem, otherwise that person should be invited by a SEEDizen who will.
  • The intent of the reward system is to incentivize SEEDizens for supporting non-SEEDizens in becoming active SEED Citizens, not for simply sending out invites which often lead to abandoned accounts.

Seeds rewards

Participation

• Participants will be rewarded 1 'participation' token for every meeting they attend (hosts receive 5 tokens to cover preparation and follow up), which are divided up by a pool of 4000, 6000 and 10,000 Seeds each month starting in October 2021.

Gratitude/Caring

• Based on the SEEDS Gratitude system, Changemakers will be rewarded for contributions based on the principles of a gifting economy. Changemakers and Hosts will recognize contributions in the #gratitude Changemaker Discord channel, backed by a Changemaker Seed Bank distributing 20,000 Seeds over four months (1000 in October, 4000, 6000, 10,000 in November through January) based on Tokens earned. Examples of Gratitude:
  • Acts of caring, kindness, community, generosity, ingenuity, inclusion
  • Acts of contribution towards growing the SEEDS ecosystem
  • Acts of service in supporting each changemaker in becoming an informed Citizen

Inviting others who become Citizens

• All SEEDS members including Changemakers are rewarded 750 Deferred Seeds for every person they invite that becomes a Resident, 1250 Deferred Seeds for every person they invite that becomes a Citizen (2000 total).

Changemaker Hosts

Phase I: New hosts welcomed September-October 2021

• Each of the Changemaker Hosts are responsible for gifting Seeds to the appropriate changemakers. For the first phase, Be The Change Cooperative (bethechangec) will send 100 Seeds x the number of Changemakers each Host has committed to onboarding to Resident. This will be sent as soon as the Changemakers complete the SEEDS Changemaker survey as the first step in the program. Be The Change Cooperative will send Seeds to each Changemaker Host to support changemakers as they progress to each level (100 Seeds to become a Resident, 200 Seeds to become a Citizen, 700 Seeds for becoming a Citizen), with the following participation guidelines:
  • Meeting minimum contributions by to-be-determined level of participation
  • Attended four community meetings
  • Watched selected videos on the SEEDS ecosystem

Phase II: New hosts welcomed November-December 2021

• The Changemaker Hosts will welcome new Hosts as long as there is gender balance among all the Hosts.

Changemaker Host remuneration

• Hosts will be rewarded 5 'participation' tokens for every meeting they attend (regular participants receive 1 token), which are divided up by a pool of 4000, 6000 and 10,000 Seeds each month starting in October 2021.
• All participants receive 'gratitude tokens' which are divided up by a pool of 4000, 6000 and 10,000 Seeds each month starting in November 2021.
• All SEEDs members including Hosts are rewarded 2000 Deferred Seeds for every participant they invite that becomes a Citizen.
• The objective is to eventually establish a program (not currently supported) where anyone is either remunerated or rewarded for helping onboard people into the SEEDS ecosystem regardless of who invited them. The role of Host would be based on what one does, not an earned title. The ideal would be to remove rewarding the minimal effort of inviting someone altogether. Until then we need to work within the existing system to prevent people from burning out from over-volunteering.

History

• Be The Change Cooperative, a cooperative of changemakers supporting the development of ‘ecovillages-in-a-building’ that are designed, governed, and owned by local communities, developed a proposal to onboard 125 non-SEEDS participants into the SEEDS ecosystem as SEEDS Citizens. The facilitators of the program are graduates of the SEEDS Ambassador Academy, and includes a cohort of 10-15 Hosts from around the world (Africa, Asia, Europe, US, Asia, South America). The proposal includes a request of 1000 Seeds per invited participant, to be rewarded as invites of the Hosts.
• A donor provided a 55,000 Seed loan to initiate the program ahead of the proposal funds.