A professional society for cannabis professionals — built in the open.
Working document repository for a 501(c)(6) trade association, its operating LLC, and its member-owner cooperative. Launch proposal, governance, programs, and platform — repo stays open on GitHub for transparency; the styled reading library moves into the member portal + Hub per ADR-0010.
Status: Proposal — pre-formation. Nothing in this repo has been adopted, ratified, or filed. Tax classification (proposed): 501©(6) Business League · State of incorporation (proposed): Maine or Minnesota — comparison in
formation/· This is not legal or tax advice. All policies and templates require review by qualified tax-exempt counsel before adoption.
Governance, operations, and code — designed together.
Governance
Bylaws, board onboarding, seven standing-committee charters, role descriptions, and a complete policy stack — drafted for counsel review and built to scale.
Operations
Membership tiers, certification framework, volunteer program, sponsor ethics, financial policy, compliance calendar, and the cross-entity Service Schedule pattern.
Code
GuildCommerce — the WordPress platform powering the Guild hub, LLC commerce site, Co-op portal, and a public sublicensee API for certified-Ganjier business sites.
What GuildCommerce does.
Three flagship surfaces, one shared core. Built on WordPress multisite for reliability and contributor familiarity, with a clean API boundary so any third-party site can plug in.
Where Ganjiers meet the Guild
Course delivery, replay library, certification badges, member directory, and Form D / Form H workflows.
- Tier-aware content access
- Klaviyo-powered email automation
- Cross-entity Service Schedule (Form V) intake
Three entities. One auditable spine.
Recusal flagging, audit logs, and the Shared Services Agreement umbrella that lets the Guild, LLC, and Co-op collaborate without blurring lines.
- Form V intake with two-entity sign-off
- Disinterested-quorum voting helpers
- Cross-subsite read/write audit trail
Certified Ganjiers, on every site they touch.
Public REST endpoints for certifications, rubric, standards, and brand assets — gated by license records the Guild can suspend instantly.
- API keys for server-to-server
- OAuth2 for "Sign in with Ganjier Guild"
- Kill-switch on every license record
"The cannabis profession deserves the same standards-keeping infrastructure that wine, coffee, and culinary professionals have had for decades — built openly, governed cleanly, and owned by the practitioners themselves."
- Closed certification programs Open standards, peer review
- Single-vendor lock-in Tri-entity, sublicensable platform
- Pay-for-placement reviews Editorial independence, full disclosure
- Opaque governance Public bylaws, ADRs, audit trails
Three entities. Three websites. One coordinated profession.
Hub-and-spoke architecture, confirmed by counsel as appropriate. Each entity holds its own brand, its own domain, its own books — and consumes shared infrastructure and licensed Guild IP through the Shared Services Agreement.
The Ganjier Guild
Trade association. Owns the IP, the brand, the standards, and the certified-Ganjier community.
Smoke & Oakum LLC
Manager-managed Maine LLC. Runs commercial services, ratings, sponsorships, and shared infrastructure.
The Guild Collective
Maine cooperative. Member-owners participate in patronage, programs, and cooperative governance.
Read it. Review it. Push back on it.
This document repository stays open on GitHub so prospective directors, counsel, sponsors, members, and the broader cannabis-professional community can review and improve the launch proposal and supporting documents before the Guild is formed. The styled reading library lives in the member portal and Hub per ADR-0010.
How this repo is organized¶
| Folder | Purpose |
|---|---|
blueprint/ |
The complete launch blueprint — single canonical strategy document |
formation/ |
State-by-state formation guidance (Maine, Minnesota), IRS Form 1024 prep |
governance/ |
Proposed bylaws, policies, board onboarding, meeting minutes scaffold |
membership/ |
Tier definitions, member journey, dues schedule |
programs/ |
Certification framework, events, community |
brand/ |
Brand standards, voice, visual system |
finance/ |
Budget, financial policies, sponsor agreements |
tech/ |
Tech stack, architecture, SOPs |
template-library/ |
Reusable agreements, communications, event docs |
compliance/ |
Compliance calendar, risk register, disclaimers |
decisions/ |
ADR-style log of major Guild decisions |
Where to start¶
- Reading the launch proposal? Start with
blueprint/launch-blueprint.md— the strategic launch blueprint document. - Reviewing formation options? See
formation/README.mdfor the Maine vs. Minnesota comparison. - Reviewing proposed governance? See
governance/for draft bylaws and policies,governance/committees/for the seven standing-committee charters, andgovernance/roles/for board officer, Administrator, Bookkeeper, and committee-chair role descriptions. - Reviewing proposed programs? See
programs/for certification, events, community, and the volunteer program manual. - Current ganjierguild.com subscriber? See the subscriber conversion FAQ for what changes (and doesn't) at incorporation.
- Have feedback? Open an Issue using the appropriate template, or fork and submit a PR.
How this is shared¶
This repository stays open on GitHub so prospective directors, counsel, sponsors, members, and the broader cannabis-professional community can review and improve the launch proposal and supporting documents before the Guild is formed. The styled reading surface — what was previously published as a public MkDocs site at ginalyncox.github.io/ganjier-guild-launch-blueprint/ — is being retired per ADR-0010. Documents are rendered into the BuddyBoss member surface and the Hub surface inside the portal, gated by Form O. The repo + PDF build pipeline continue to produce the canonical artifacts.
Once a board is seated and operations move to private channels, this repo will become the historical record of the documents that founded the Guild.
How feedback works¶
Feedback on the launch proposal and supporting documents is welcome from prospective members, sponsors, counsel, and the broader cannabis-professional community.
Open questions seeking input are filed as Issues with the feedback wanted label and tracked on the public project board. The two most foundational are pinned at the top of the Issues tab:
Other active threads cover membership tiers and dues, the certification framework, sponsorship posture, advocacy and lobbying scope, Code of Ethics enforcement, and the online community platform choice.