KIRRAcivic (Kc)

KIRRAcivic (Kc) is the Kirra Ecovillage Community Association's legislative, general management and financial management committee.

The Kc function is essentially to design and implement the policy by which the farm and the people on the farm, including short-term guests and visitors must observe. As an informed and exclusive party, these people provide the council for the farms interactions internally and externally. They don't decide what projects proceed and which don't that is the role of the sponsoring division.

This division is the legal interface with non-farm entities. No Kirra entity or individual who is not operating in the capacity as a delegate of Kc can create an agreement or debt on behalf of Kirra Ecovillage Community Association as a whole.

Kc provides the following functions:

• Governance & Legislation

  • Design, Document, Implement and Enforce Community, Citizen and Guest Policy;

    • Community Participation Framework

    • Relationships and Stewardship Framework

    • Family and Friends Framework

    • Joining our community Framework

  • Other documentation or public interface activity (such as this website);

  • Scientific Publishing;

  • Manage external (third-party) agreements (e.g. Wooffers).

• Legal & General

  • Government (Federal, State, Local Government) Interactions - Any government agency;

  • Acquisitions - Major purchases including vehicles, land, machines etc.;

  • Third-Party Licensing - for use of another persons product or technology;

  • Product Licensing - allowing another person to use a product we have designed or built and/or its technology;

  • Trademarks - registration and management;

  • Open-Source Agreements - Acquisition, management and dissolution;

  • Legal Issues - Kc have access to three law firms that we have worked with for more than 20 years. These are "Eakin McCaffery Cox" (Sydney) for Civil and Criminal issues, "Gilchrist Connell" (National) for Civil and Criminal issues and Swan Family Lawyers (Adelaide) for issues of relationship breakdown, remediation, consultation and if necessary dissolution of marriage.

• Grants and External Funding - As a not-for-profit organisation, the community still needs income and funds to complete its extensive list of projects and research. To meet this objective the community will seek assistance from other institutions and the public to achieve this. To this extent, Kc will manage the Application process, Management and Acquittal of those funds and grants. They will prepare any necessary applications and reporting on behalf of the various community divisions. Kc in conjunction with other divisions will actively seek out funding for specific research projects. If there is a sharing of Intellectual Property on the tail-end of a funded project, this will be discussed and the end-user-license will be negotiated and agreed by Kc.

•   Economy and Finance - All Income and the financial affairs of Kirra Ecovillage Community Association will be managed by Kc. 

  • It will be the Finance Committee that manage the Sales of the community products, licenses and technology, (as already discussed) they will manage the funding process, reporting and acquittal of funds, provide internal fiscal management for the farm divisions, allowing the farm divisions to do what they do best, without needing to complete mountains of paperwork.

  • As a rule-of-thumb (although not in all cases) a capital purchase must be done through Kc. If the purchase is operational, it can be made by the appropriate Kirra division- this is relatively true in all cases, except where an ongoing service agreement, or licensing agreement comes into force with the acquisition. Naturally, this excludes agreements such as guarantees and warranties. 

  • All annual fiscal management of the community will be done by Kc. 

Digital Access & Currency

By the start of the 2023-2024 (1st of July 2024) financial year, Kc will be introducing a digital cashless payment / facility access system so that community citizens can interact with other community citizens and Kirra without the need for physical cash or payment arrangement. This electronic tokenized system will also allow community citizens to:

• Access facilities, pass through doors, gates and use equipment etc. 

• Provide enhanced internal security;

• Quickly and easily facilitate purchases from KIRRAretail (Kr) and the KIRRAstore. This system may extend outside of the Kirra space over time.

• Book a KIRRAcar, and access the vehicle from time of allocation until return.

• Buy and Sell to other community citizens without the need for physical cash or another banking facility, e.g. Credit Cards;

• Allow community citizens to barter or trade their fair-share of "Citizen's Entitlements" under Kirra's permaculture "Fair-Share" principles. An example of this may be that a community citizen who is going to be away for a period of time can temporarily allow a fellow community guest or citizen to use their accommodation (perhaps for a visiting community guest), take their community fuel entitlement or use their community store entitlement, perhaps in return for taking care of the dog or watering the plants etc. These understandings between community citizens don't need to be knowledge to Kirra in detail to allow these things to happen, they can be private arrangements between community citizens. In some cases, a community citizen leaving the property for a period, may invite a known community guest to use their entitlement and accommodation whilst they are away. In such a case, the community guest would assume the role of the community citizen for the duration, which extends to conduct and community work, as if they were the community citizen. The Governance team would need to know the general details of the arrangement, to ensure that all citizens are aware of the general arrangement and can treat the temporary citizen with the same courtesy as all other citizens - this is also a matter of community security. 

• Tokens would be provided to paying visitors and guests who are using Kirra facilities during their stay. Again, allowing access to facilities and engaging with the community citizens (as if they were also community citizens) including community meals etc.

• Under the rules of the Kirra Ecovillage Community Association, each community citizen (regardless of living arrangement) has a vote when community consensus is required for something, like a policy change or major acquisition or the addition of a new committee citizen as a member to a council or to a functional role. The token system would be used to allow the community citizens to cast their vote. This would also be the case if the community citizen was absent at the time of voting using the digital token system and enable them to vote remotely.