Cultural Architecture Policy

Charter Hall Document — Circlworld Platform Version: 2.0 Effective: [Phase 1 launch date] Next scheduled review: [Phase 1 launch + 6 months] Owner: CirclWorld Ltd

Note on naming. This Policy is operative architecture. References to "Town Hall," "Dispute Settlement Centre," "Charter Hall," and other institutional district names remain canonical here. For Member-facing navigation and copy, Circlworld uses simplified naming: Town Hall is labelled Community, the Dispute Settlement Centre is labelled Resolutions, and the Wellbeing Centre + Help Office consolidate as Wellbeing & Help. The two layers coexist intentionally per the District Language Reframe brief (1 June 2026).

Editorial note on v2.0 (2026-05-30): This Policy is substantially shorter than v1.0. v1.0 codified a Cultural Advisor decisioning layer with per-tradition advisor authority, engagement-level membership tags, and review gates on tradition-specific content. Practice has shown that the Cultural Advisor layer creates onboarding bottlenecks and authority-allocation questions that are better handled by member-led processes already in the architecture (Town Hall, circle bylaws, the Dispute Settlement Centre). v2.0 retains editorial accuracy as a structural commitment; the decisioning is returned to members.

1. The Cultural Architecture principle

Community savings is a universal human practice, named differently across cultures and centuries. Pardna in Jamaica. Susu in Ghana. Ajo in Nigeria. Kameti in Pakistan. Hui in Vietnam. Tanda in Mexico. Kye in Korea. Paluwagan in the Philippines. Building societies in 19th-century England. Sometimes just a kitty among friends.

CirclWorld is the infrastructure for any community that saves together. The traditions are historical context for a practice that belongs to everyone. The platform does not claim ownership of any tradition. The platform does not gate participation on tradition identification.

2. Editorial accuracy

Where the platform represents a specific tradition in content (educational material, Plaza posts that reference a tradition, marketing copy that names a tradition, district pulses that surface a cultural moment), the platform commits to:

• Factual accuracy — names are spelled correctly; origin regions are accurate; historical context is sourced.
• Non-claiming language — the platform describes traditions as practices belonging to the communities that have practised them, not as platform features.
• No appropriation in branding — the platform's name, logo, district names, and feature names do not adopt the language of any specific tradition.
• Member-attributed content — content authored by members about their own traditions is treated as the member's voice, not as the platform's claim.

Editorial accuracy is a structural commitment that does not require an external review gate. Members may flag inaccuracies via the Help Desk; corrections are public when made.

3. Member-led cultural practice

The platform's cultural specificity lives where members place it:

• Inside a circle. The Circle Bylaws are the primary cultural agreement layer. A circle that wants its cycle structure, language, dispute-resolution norms, or ceremonial elements to follow a specific tradition records that in its Bylaws. Other circles do otherwise. Both are equally welcome on the platform.
• In Town Hall. Members may file petitions about how the platform represents traditions, what content should be added or removed, how naming conventions should evolve. Threshold-met petitions receive a platform response that becomes part of the public record.
• In the Dispute Settlement Centre. Disputes that touch on tradition-specific norms are mediated case-by-case under the DSC Charter. The Centre takes account of the cultural context that the parties bring; it does not impose a tradition's norms unilaterally.

The platform's role is to provide the infrastructure that supports all of these member-led processes.

4. The Common Tradition

The Common Tradition is the no-specific-tradition default. Members who do not identify with a specific savings tradition — or who simply prefer a tradition-neutral frame — engage with the platform through the Common Tradition. This is not a fallback. It is a first-class engagement mode; the white UK family doing a Christmas kitty, the workplace savings club among colleagues, the friends pooling for a holiday are equally served as a Jamaican pardna circle or a Filipino paluwagan.

5. Tradition-specific content

When tradition-specific content (educational courses, Plaza Heritage Story prompts, cultural moments in the Calendar) is published on the platform:

• The content is authored by, or substantively contributed by, members of the relevant community of practice.
• The platform identifies the author and the source where authorship is non-trivial.
• Members from the relevant community of practice may petition for changes via the Petitions Office; substantiated petitions for editorial correction are honoured promptly.

The platform does not maintain a closed authority list for tradition-specific content. Members of any community of practice may contribute, comment, and petition.

6. Cultural moments in the Calendar

The platform's shared Calendar surfaces cultural moments observed by communities the platform serves — Emancipation Day, Independence Days, Diwali, Eid, Lunar New Year, Windrush Day, Black History Months, and others. The list is maintained by Circlworld staff with input from members via petitions; the list is not exhaustive of any community's observances. Members may add personal observances to their own Calendar; circles may add observances relevant to their members.

7. Member-reported concerns

A member who believes the platform represents a tradition inaccurately or disrespectfully may:

• File a Help Desk ticket for editorial corrections.
• File a Petition in the Petitions Office for substantive changes.
• Raise a Concern in the Dispute Settlement Centre if the concern names another member's conduct.

These routes are member-led; the platform owes a response on the documented cadence (per the Petitions Office threshold mechanism and the Help Desk SLA).

8. Cross-references

This Policy supersedes the v1.0 Cultural Architecture Policy. Where other operative documents previously deferred to "Cultural Advisors" — the Dispute Settlement Centre Charter §9, the Member Agreement's representation clauses, the Terms of Service §10 — those references now defer to the member-led processes named in §3 above (circle bylaws, Town Hall, Dispute Settlement Centre).

The Cultural Advisor Authority Framework that was drafted as Schedule 3 to the Terms of Service in the v2 Foundational Agreements Pack is removed from the operative document set. Schedule 3 is reserved for future use.

9. Review

This Policy is reviewed every twelve months by the platform. Material amendments follow the Material Change procedure (Terms of Service clause 13). Member-led amendments may be proposed via the Petitions Office.