The charter is the set of rules that protect the club, including from us. It binds every Guild member, every Circle member and fsyncDATA equally.
A club is only as useful as what its members are willing to say in it. These rules exist so that a DBA can say what a failover really took, and a CDO can say what HQ really thinks, without either sentence being used against them. They bind MinervaDB Inc., which convenes fsyncDATA as its GCC club, and its sister company ChistaDATA, exactly as they bind every member.
The six rules
- No selling. None. No pitches, product demonstrations, “quick intros to what we do”, recruiting approaches or follow-up emails offering services to anyone met through the club. This applies to members, to fsyncDATA, and to MinervaDB Inc. and ChistaDATA.
- Chatham House, one strike. What is said may be used; who said it, and which company, may not. One attributed leak, however small, ends membership in both tiers permanently. There is no warning stage.
- Membership is personal. It belongs to a person, not an employer. A member who changes company keeps it. A company cannot send a substitute.
- Give to get. Each year every member contributes at least one session, post-mortem, benchmark response or considered answer to a peer’s question.
- No sponsors, no data sales. The club takes no sponsorship money and sells no member data, lists or benchmark responses, to anyone, ever. Sponsors at the open conferences gain nothing inside the club.
- Members admit members. Guild applicants are vouched for by a member or admitted on a written account of their own work. Circle seats are filled by nomination and council approval.
Enforcement
Enforcement belongs to the members’ council, not to fsyncDATA. The council hears any complaint and its decision is final. Neither fsyncDATA nor MinervaDB has a seat or a veto.
If the council finds fsyncDATA, MinervaDB or ChistaDATA in breach of Rule 1, it publishes the breach to every member and may dissolve the club and take its member directory with it. The rules are written so that we can lose by them.
Conduct in sessions
- Criticise designs, not people.
- Name the engine and the version; never name the customer.
- No screenshots or recordings of sessions or the reading room.
- The secretariat never gives a member’s contact details to anyone attending a conference on behalf of a vendor.
Chatham House
The charter follows the Chatham House Rule as published by Chatham House, with one difference: there is no warning stage. Members may amend this charter at the annual assembly in Bengaluru each October.
Apply, ask, or nominate someone better
Practitioners apply to a Guild. Leaders request a Circle invitation. Anyone may nominate a peer. Every message to the secretariat is answered by a person within two working days.