Your group needs a way to turn a shared question into a clear decision: what to fund, who can approve work, or which rules to change. Poa brings the proposal, eligible voters, result, and outcome of any supported action into the organization's public record. Governance means these everyday choices about how your organization runs.
To approve spending, change permissions, or update a supported rule, prepare a binding proposal. These proposals use Poa's hybrid voting system, called Blended voting in parts of the interface. It supports equal member weight, contribution weight, or a blend.
If you only want to gather preferences, use an equal-member poll. A poll records a choice but does not spend money or change permissions.
How voting classes work
A voting class defines three things:
- Who counts: the roles whose members can participate in that class.
- How their vote is weighted: equally or through the configured participation balance.
- How much the class contributes: its percentage of the combined result.
A familiar setup has one equal-member class and one contribution class, each worth 50% of the result. Advanced configurations can use other splits and classes. Contribution classes can optionally apply square-root weighting to narrow differences between larger and smaller balances.
Check the organization's actual classes before voting. Holding a role with task permissions does not automatically make someone eligible in a voting class.
Balance the workshop's next purchase
A shared workshop gives equal member voting 50% of its result and contribution voting the other 50%. Members are considering buying a new cutting machine.
Suppose all four eligible members vote: two for the purchase and two against. The two in favor hold 60% of the participation balance used in the vote. With ordinary balance weighting, their equal-member votes contribute 25 points and their contribution weight adds 30: 55 out of 100 for the purchase, with 45 against.
The result combines an equal member voice with recognition of work. It must also meet the proposal's passing and minimum-voter requirements; square-root weighting would produce a different calculation.
Binding decisions
The app routes every proposal containing executable actions through this system, including when equal member voting has 100% of the weight. The separate direct-democracy system is used for polls, which cannot execute actions.
From proposal to outcome
- An eligible proposer describes the decision and any action it will carry out.
- Members review the options, voting classes, time available, and requirements for a valid result.
- Eligible voters cast their votes.
- After the voting period, the available finalization action records the result and attempts any winning action.
- Members check the receipt and resulting state, especially for payments or permission changes.
Read the action preview as well as the proposal's title. The action is what the organization authorizes the system to do. A successful vote does not guarantee that an action with insufficient funding or unmet conditions will execute successfully.
Choose a balance you can explain
Before settling on a split, try a few hypothetical decisions with your actual membership and contribution balances. Look at whose views would carry weight and whether that matches the responsibilities your group wants to share.
Agree on the contribution rules before relying on their balances. Set minimum voter counts your active membership can meet, and allow enough time for members to understand a decision.
For your first proposal, choose one decision and describe its consequence plainly. A spending proposal, for example, should let members see exactly what will be paid, to whom, and why.
Is this the right voting tool for your group?
Poa fits groups that want member decisions connected to their work, responsibilities, and shared funds. Votes and proposal records are public; this is not a secret-ballot service. Discuss sensitive questions in your private tools and keep personal details out of public proposal text.
You can read the guides and browse organizations without signing in. Voting requires an account and eligibility under the organization's rules. A role that lets you create tasks may not give you a vote.
For a new collective, choose your setup and agree on who votes before opening the first proposal. For an existing group, review its voting classes, then start with a decision members can understand and check afterward.