Certification & Recognition Program

Status: Draft, pre-formation. Intended for adoption by the founding board with the founding bylaws and core policies.

What this program is — and is not

The Guild is a 501©(6) trade association. It does not issue the Ganjier credential. The Ganjier credential is issued by the Ganjier program, which is a separate entity (see ADR-0008).

What the Guild operates today is a recognition and continuing-education program:

The Guild does	The Guild does NOT
Verify that members holding a Certified Ganjier credential actually hold it	Issue, grant, or administer any Ganjier-program credential
Display Ganjier Product Specialist Level 1 (GPS L1) as a verified milestone badge on a member's profile	Treat GPS L1 as a Guild membership credential or use it for credential-gated rights
Track continuing-education (CE) hours members complete through the Guild	Set the Ganjier curriculum or pass the Ganjier exam
Issue Guild-internal certificates of completion (course completion, CE attainment, committee service) via mod_customcert in the Guild LMS	Issue Open Badges that purport to confer the Ganjier title
Recognize Certified Ganjiers (CG) as Certified Members (post-nominal display, public-directory opt-in eligibility, full voting rights)	Revoke or alter a member's underlying Ganjier credential
Maintain a future pathway for Guild-defined credentials (e.g., "Guild Fellow," subject-matter cohorts) once the founding board approves them under a separate ADR	Treat any future Guild credential as equivalent to or branded under "Ganjier"

The Guild may, in the future, define and issue its own peer-recognized credentials. That requires founding-board approval and a new ADR. Until then, this document describes the recognition and CE infrastructure the Guild operates.

How "membership" actually works behind the scenes

Two separate systems run side-by-side. Read this once and the rest of the document makes sense.

Concern	System of record	What it controls
Subscription & dues (is this person paid up? which paid tier are they on? did their renewal go through? when does access expire?)	WooCommerce (subscriptions + checkout on ganjierguild.com)	Which subscription product the member holds. Whether the account is active or lapsed. Payment, renewal cadence, dunning, refunds.
Profile permissions / role attributes (is this member a verified GPS L1? a verified CG? what shows on their directory listing? what can they vote on?)	Member profile (BuddyBoss + custom fields written by guildcommerce-core-plugin)	Profile-display attributes, internal-directory entry, public-directory eligibility (Certified Members only) and opt-in state, post-nominal display, CE ledger linkage, voting eligibility flags.

These two systems are linked by a clean rule: credential status determines subscription product, and credential changes drive subscription changes (with member consent on any price-affecting move).

Mapping: subscription product ↔ credential / badge status

WooCommerce subscription product	Members on this product	Credential / badge status
(none) — free Friend of the Guild	Public newsletter list	n/a
Community Education tier	Students, with or without a GPS L1 milestone badge on profile	No CG. May hold the verified GPS L1 milestone badge.
Full Membership tier	Certified Members (verified Certified Ganjiers)	Holds a current verified Certified Ganjier (CG) credential

Key distinction:

• The Certified Ganjier (CG) credential makes a member a Certified Member — the Guild's recognized credentialed-professional class. CG drives Full Membership tier subscription, public-directory opt-in eligibility, post-nominal "CG," and credential-gated voting rights.
• GPS L1 is a milestone badge, not a Guild membership credential. The Guild verifies it and displays it on the holder's internal profile as a recognized achievement, but it does not confer Certified Member status, Full Membership tier subscription, public-directory eligibility, or credential-gated voting rights. GPS L1 holders remain on the Community Education tier alongside Students.

What this means in practice:

• A new adult member without any Ganjier-program achievement signs up on the Community Education tier. Profile role: Student. No badges.
• A new member who holds a verified GPS L1 signs up on the Community Education tier — same product, same dues. The Guild verifies GPS L1 and adds the GPS L1 milestone badge to the member's internal profile. They are not a Certified Member.
• A new member who holds a verified Certified Ganjier signs up on the Full Membership tier. Profile role: Certified Member. Public-directory opt-in offered.
• A Student who later earns GPS L1 stays on Community Education tier; the GPS L1 milestone badge is added to their profile. No subscription change, no role change.
• A GPS L1 holder who later earns Certified Ganjier moves from Community Education tier to Full Membership tier (subscription upgrade, with member consent and proration). Profile role becomes Certified Member. The GPS L1 milestone badge remains on the profile as a permanent achievement marker.
• A Certified Ganjier whose credential lapses past grace drops from Full Membership tier back to Community Education tier (with refund of the difference for the unused portion of the Full Membership cycle, per the Guild refund policy). The CG indicator is removed; any historical GPS L1 milestone badge remains.

Recognition vs. issuance — for the public-facing reader

The Guild operates two directories:

Directory	Who's listed	Who sees it
Internal directory	Every active member, regardless of profile role (Student, GPS L1 milestone badge holder, or Certified Member)	Guild staff and other active members only
Public directory (opt-in)	Only Certified Members — verified Certified Ganjiers — who have opted in	The public, on ganjierguild.com

Students and GPS L1 milestone badge holders do not appear in the public directory. Listing on the public directory is a Certified-Member benefit; opting in is voluntary even for Certified Members.

When you see a Guild member listed in the public directory with a Ganjier credential indicator, the Guild has:

1. Verified their Certified Ganjier credential through the Ganjier program's verification channel (or the member's Credly badge URL)
2. Recorded the credential's tier, issue date, and any expiration in the member's profile
3. Honored their opt-in to surface it on the public-facing directory as "Recognized Credential: Certified Ganjier" — never as "Guild-issued"

At this stage, the Guild's verification work breaks into two categories:

• Certified Ganjier (CG) — verified as a credential. Drives Certified Member status.
• GPS L1 — verified as a milestone badge for display only. Does not drive Certified Member status.

Higher Ganjier tiers (CG-Specialist, Master) are acknowledged in the pathway map but are not separately verified by the Guild until the Education & Certification Committee adopts a verification SOP for them.

The Guild does not vouch for the validity of the underlying credential beyond confirming the verification source on the date of recognition. If the Ganjier program revokes or modifies a credential, the member's record is updated at the next verification cycle.

Pathway map (recognized credentials + Guild-operated learning)

                     ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
                     │  Externally-issued Ganjier-program achievements  │
                     │  (Ganjier program — not Guild-issued)            │
                     │                                                  │
                     │  Verified as MILESTONE BADGE (display only):     │
                     │   • Ganjier Product Specialist L1  (GPS L1)      │
                     │                                                  │
                     │  Verified as CREDENTIAL (drives Certified Member):│
                     │   • Certified Ganjier              (CG)          │
                     │                                                  │
                     │  Acknowledged but not yet Guild-verified:        │
                     │   • CG-Specialist                                │
                     │   • Master Ganjier                               │
                     └─────────────────────────┬───────────────────────┘
                                               │   surfaced on profile
                                               ▼
        ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
        │                    Guild Membership                          │
        │                                                              │
        │   Friend of the Guild   (free, no subscription)              │
        │   Student               (Community Ed tier; ± GPS L1 badge)   │
        │   Certified Member      (Full Membership tier; verified CG)   │
        └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                               │
                                               ▼
        ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
        │             Guild-operated CE & internal recognitions        │
        │  • Course completion certificates  (mod_customcert PDFs)     │
        │  • CE-hour tracking                (ce-ledger module)        │
        │  • Committee service letters       (mod_customcert)          │
        │  • Future Guild-defined credentials (pending ADR)            │
        └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The left column (Ganjier credentials) is reference only. The right column (Guild-operated) is what this program runs.

Profile roles, subscription tiers, and the GPS L1 milestone badge

Three concepts; one row per profile role:

Profile role	WooCommerce subscription	Public directory	Co-op eligibility	GPS L1 milestone badge	Post-nominal	Voting
Friend of the Guild	None (free)	No (not in any directory)	No	n/a	None	None
Student	Community Education tier	No (internal directory only)	No	May hold the GPS L1 badge on profile if verified — still a Student	None (the GPS L1 badge does not confer a post-nominal)	None / advisory at AGM
Certified Member (verified CG)	Full Membership tier	Yes — opt-in with "Recognized Credential: Certified Ganjier"	Yes — reserved to Full Membership	May also display a historical GPS L1 badge if held	"CG"	Full (vote in board elections; eligible to run after one year)

The Certified Member role is the Guild-side label for an active member profile whose externally-issued Certified Ganjier credential is verified and current. CG verification — not exam administration by the Guild, and not a Student earning the GPS L1 milestone — is what flips this role on.

The GPS L1 milestone badge is a profile-display attribute. A Student earning GPS L1 gets the badge on their internal profile; they do not change profile role, do not change subscription product, and do not gain public-directory eligibility, voting rights, or co-op eligibility. The badge persists historically even after a CG promotion or any later role change.

Co-op eligibility is reserved to Full Membership tier (Certified Members). The co-op in question is The Guild Collective, a Maine cooperative whose single purpose is a profit-sharing waterfall to qualifying Guild members — see the ecosystem documentation in the GuildCommerce showcase site (site/client/src/data/ecosystem.ts) for the entity model, the Shared Services Agreement (SSA) with Smoke & Oakum LLC and the Guild C6, and the founding-officer roster. Students and GPS L1 holders are not eligible to participate in the Co-op. The Co-op's own governance, application flow, member rights, and waterfall mechanics live in the guildcommerce-repo Co-op program documents; this README only locks in the eligibility gate at the Guild side: only Certified Members on the Full Membership tier can join The Guild Collective Co-op.

Drafting note: the membership/tiers.md document needs reconciliation against this language — the tier name (Community Education tier covers Students with or without GPS L1), the Certified Ganjier eligibility line, the directory-access language (public directory is Certified-Member-only, opt-in), and the GPS L1 milestone-badge framing. See the tier reconciliation note at the bottom of this file.

What the Guild operates, in detail

1. Credential verification at intake

Two intake paths use the verification flow:

Path A — Certified Ganjier credential (drives Certified Member role + Full Membership tier subscription)

1. Member supplies their CG credential identifier (Credly badge URL, certificate ID, or program-issued lookup token)
2. Membership Committee staff (or a delegated administrator) verifies the credential through the Ganjier program's published verification channel
3. Verification record is logged in the member's profile: verified_on, verified_by, source, credential = cg, expires_on
4. Member is enrolled on the Full Membership tier subscription in WooCommerce
5. Member's internal directory entry shows the verified CG credential. The member is offered the public directory opt-in with the indicator "Recognized Credential: Certified Ganjier." The public listing only appears after the member opts in.
6. CE-hour tracking is initialized for the CG recertification cycle

If CG verification fails or is inconclusive, the member is offered the Community Education tier subscription with a Student profile role, a clear written reason, and an appeal pathway. The member may re-submit CG verification at any time; on successful verification the subscription upgrades (with proration) and the role changes to Certified Member.

Path B — GPS L1 milestone (display badge only)

1. Member supplies their GPS L1 verification identifier (Credly badge URL or certificate ID)
2. Membership Committee staff (or a delegated administrator) verifies through the Ganjier program's published verification channel
3. Verification record is logged: verified_on, verified_by, source, badge = gps_l1, expires_on (if the badge has an expiration)
4. The GPS L1 milestone badge appears on the member's internal profile. Member remains on the Community Education tier subscription with Student profile role.
5. No public-directory eligibility, no post-nominal, no credential-gated voting rights are conferred by GPS L1 alone.

2. Continuing-education tracking

The Guild operates a CE ledger (the ce-ledger module of guildcommerce-core-plugin) that records every CE-eligible activity a member completes through Guild-operated channels:

• Guild courses and quizzes in Moodle (learn.ganjierguild.com)
• Webinars where attendance is tracked via Zoom
• Committee service hours logged through the volunteer program
• Conference and event session attendance with badge-scan or check-in

Each ledger entry includes hours, category (ethics / sensory / cultivation / hospitality / elective), date, source, and an audit ID. The member can export a CE statement at any time.

The Guild reports the member's Guild-tracked CE to the Ganjier program at the member's recertification window if the member has authorized that data sharing in their profile. The Guild does not unilaterally disclose member CE data to the Ganjier program; the member's recertification with the Ganjier program is their own responsibility.

See the Ganjier program's published CE requirements for the standing requirement that the Guild's CE programming targets.

3. Guild-issued internal recognitions

The Guild issues its own certificates for things the Guild itself runs:

Recognition	Trigger	Issued via
Course completion certificate	Member completes a Guild-authored Moodle course and passes the final assessment	mod_customcert PDF (Moodle)
CE-hour attainment letter	Member crosses a CE-hour threshold (e.g., 20 hours within a 24-month window)	mod_customcert PDF
Committee service letter	Member completes a documented term of committee service	mod_customcert PDF
Instructor calibration completion	Faculty completes annual calibration	mod_customcert PDF
Annual ethics attestation	Member re-signs the Code of Ethics	Logged in member profile + PDF receipt

Each PDF carries: member name, recognition title, date, issuing committee or course, verification URL, and the Guild's seal. PDFs are revocable for ethics violations under documented due process (see appeals-and-revocation.md).

These are Guild recognitions, not Ganjier credentials. They do not confer any title outside the Guild.

4. Future Guild-defined credentials

ADR-0008 explicitly preserves the Guild's future option to define and issue its own peer-recognized credentials — for example, a "Guild Fellow" recognition for sustained scholarly contribution, or subject-matter cohorts (Sensory Fellows, Cultivation Fellows). Any such credential requires:

• Founding-board approval by majority vote
• A standalone ADR documenting scope, criteria, governance, exam (if any), recertification, and revocation
• A name that is clearly Guild-branded and not confusable with a Ganjier credential
• Counsel review against the Ganjier brand-license scope

Until the founding board acts, no such credential exists. The Guild does not market, hint at, or imply a Guild-defined credential in any external communication.

Operational SOPs in this directory

This README is the policy frame. The operational detail lives in companion documents, modeled on the programs/volunteers/ pattern:

Document	What it covers
candidate-handbook.md	The public-facing what-to-expect for someone joining with a recognized GPS L1 or CG credential — what verification looks like, what their CE obligations are, what Guild-issued recognitions they can earn
exam-administration.md	How the Guild administers Guild-internal assessments (course quizzes, capstone reviews, instructor calibration), including accommodations and oral-interview SOP. Not the Ganjier exam — the Guild does not administer that.
recertification.md	How the Guild supports a member through the Ganjier recertification window: CE export, gap analysis, lapse handling, reinstatement pathway. Covers GPS L1 and CG cycles separately.
instructor-and-assessor-standards.md	Standards for Guild faculty (instructors, capstone assessors, curriculum reviewers): minimum experience, calibration, conflict-of-interest disclosure, peer review
appeals-and-revocation.md	Due-process pathway when the Guild revokes a Guild-issued recognition or a member's directory listing for ethics reasons. Does not address the underlying Ganjier credential — that is the Ganjier program's process.

Governance

• Owning committee: Education & Certification (governance/committees/education-certification.md)
• Operational lead: Administrator (acting as program manager during Year 1)
• Counsel touchpoints: Brand-license scope (any Ganjier-program references), CE data sharing (member authorization), revocation due process

Related decisions

• ADR-0006 — LMS in member portal (Moodle)
• ADR-0007 — Library and video hosting tiers
• ADR-0008 — Guild–Ganjier brand relationship
• Education & Certification Committee charter

Tier language reconciliation

membership/tiers.md needs reconciliation with this program. The structural model is:

• Two paid subscription tiers in WooCommerce: Community Education tier (Students, with or without a GPS L1 milestone badge) and Full Membership tier (Certified Members — verified CG holders).
• GPS L1 is a milestone badge on the profile. It does not change the subscription product or unlock Certified Member benefits.
• Public-directory listing is exclusive to Certified Members and is opt-in.

Specific edits to membership/tiers.md:

1. Reframe the document opener. Add a short note that subscription and dues are handled in WooCommerce; the entries below describe what each subscription tier includes and which profile attributes apply. Reference this README for the Student / Certified Member / GPS L1 milestone framing.

2. Rename and rescope the existing "Community Education Membership" entry. Title remains Community Education tier (matches the WooCommerce product name). Body should describe: this is the subscription tier that covers Students. Holders may also display the GPS L1 milestone badge on their profile if verified. No public-directory listing.

3. Fix the Certified Ganjier eligibility line. Current text:

Eligibility: Pass the Guild certification exam + attest to Code of Ethics + complete onboarding.

This is inconsistent with ADR-0008. Accurate replacement:

Eligibility: Hold a current, verified Certified Ganjier credential (issued by the Ganjier program, recognized by the Guild) + active Full Membership tier subscription via WooCommerce + attest to the Guild Code of Ethics + complete Guild onboarding.

4. Add a short paragraph on the GPS L1 milestone badge — explicitly stating it is a profile-display attribute, not a credential class, and does not change the holder's subscription tier or unlock Certified Member benefits.

All edits should land in the same commit cycle that adopts this program manual.