Slingshot Governance

The Alumni Council

Slingshot is governed by its Alumni Council — Members who have completed at least one Slingshot cohort. The Alumni Council:

  • Reviews and accepts applications for each cohort
  • Sets cohort themes and priorities (aligned with platform Pnyx decisions)
  • Mediates disputes within cohorts
  • Maintains the CANON contribution archive

Alumni Council membership is automatic upon cohort completion. Council decisions are made by simple majority and logged to substrate.

Cohort Governance

Within each cohort, projects govern themselves. The cohort as a whole:

  • Meets weekly (log to substrate required)
  • Reviews each other’s progress (peer accountability, not judgment)
  • Votes on cohort-wide resource decisions (Marks allocation, shared tools)

Slingshot and the Platform Pnyx

Slingshot reports to the platform Pnyx on:

  • Each cohort’s launch (cohort charter logged as canonical record)
  • Each project’s 90-day receipt (logged to substrate)
  • CANON contributions made by graduating projects

The Pnyx may issue priorities to Slingshot (e.g., “this cohort should focus on health-access projects”) but may not reject individual projects that pass the cooperative-class filter.

Resource Governance

Marks allocated to Slingshot projects are governed by:

  • VSL pool rules — cooperative credit, not grants; recovery expected within 24 months
  • Alumni Council oversight — no single project receives more than 20% of cohort Marks allocation
  • CANON tie — projects that contribute more to CANON may earn additional Marks

Intellectual Property

All innovations developed in Slingshot:

  • Are owned by the project’s cooperative (not Slingshot, not Liana Banyan Corporation)
  • Carry a CANON contribution commitment (innovations documented and shared)
  • May be used freely by other platform cooperatives under cooperative-class license

No project forfeits IP to participate in Slingshot. The CANON commitment is a documentation obligation, not an ownership transfer.

“We don’t own what you build. We helped you build it. That’s enough.”

Cross-ref: Pnyx · Bruck’lyn · Harper Guild · Brass Tacks