Ambassador Program¶

Status: Pre-formation operational draft. The Communications Committee will own this program once seated. Until then, the Administrator runs it as outlined here.

The Ambassador Program is a 12-month, recognition-only volunteer cohort of up to 25 founding Certified Ganjiers who agree to a defined quarterly content commitment in exchange for visibility, network access, and a complimentary membership at the Certified Ganjier tier for the term.

This document is the operational playbook. It does not define brand-voice rules, content licensing, FTC-style disclosure language, or media-release wording — those come from counsel and the communications committee, surfaced through Form L (Communications & Brand Authorization Matrix) and Form S (Media Release & Content Consent).

Charter¶

Item	Value
Purpose	Build the Guild's voice in public; provide a pipeline of practitioner perspectives for the Communications Committee; recognize founding-cohort contributors
Owner	Communications Committee
Day-to-day operator	Ambassador Program Coordinator (volunteer role) + Administrator
Cohort size	Up to 25 ambassadors per term
Term length	12 months, calendar-aligned (Jan–Dec) after Year 1; the founding term runs from program launch through Dec 31 of the launch year, prorated if launch is mid-year
Term limit	Two consecutive 12-month terms; then a one-year cooling-off period
Time commitment	~2–4 hours/month, concentrated around the quarterly deliverable
Compensation	Complimentary Certified Ganjier membership for the term (per the complimentary membership policy). No cash.
Reimbursable expenses	Per reimbursement policy; pre-approval required for anything over the policy threshold

Eligibility¶

Certified Ganjier member in good standing (or eligible to become one before the term begins)
Active in the community within the last 90 days
Completed volunteer onboarding and signed the standard volunteer agreement
Signed Form S — Media Release & Content Consent for the term
Comfortable being publicly identified as affiliated with the Guild (real name, professional bio, headshot)

Recruitment¶

Founding cohort (Year 1)¶

The Communications Committee — acting through the Administrator until seated — invites up to 25 founding Certified Ganjiers based on:

Practice-area diversity — at least one ambassador from each of: cultivation, retail/hospitality, sensory/craft, education, compliance, and one independent
Regional diversity — across legal-cannabis states; at least 4 represented
Channel mix — written, video, audio (podcast), and in-person speaking each represented
Capacity — willingness to commit to the quarterly deliverable cadence

Steady-state recruitment (Year 2+)¶

Open application via the Guild website, Sept 1–Oct 31 each year
Coordinator + Communications Committee chair shortlist
Committee selects the next cohort by Nov 30
Term begins Jan 1

The matrix above (practice / region / channel / capacity) carries through. The committee publishes a one-page selection rubric annually so the program is selecting against a public bar, not vibes.

Quarterly deliverable¶

Each ambassador delivers one approved piece of content per quarter. The format is the ambassador's choice from a published menu, refreshed annually by the Communications Committee.

Format	What it looks like	Approval window
Long-form post	800–1,500 words on a defined topic; published on the Guild blog or the ambassador's own platform with a Guild byline	5 business days
Video	5–10 minute talk, walkthrough, or interview; published on the Guild's video tier (see ADR-0007) or the ambassador's channel with attribution	10 business days
Podcast appearance	Guest spot on the Guild's podcast or an aligned third-party podcast where the ambassador represents the Guild	5 business days for topic; 5 days for post-recording review
In-person speaking	A talk, panel, or workshop at a Guild event or aligned industry event where the ambassador represents the Guild	Topic and slides reviewed 10 business days before the event
Standards-of-practice contribution	Authored or co-authored contribution to a public Standards working-group output	Coordinated through the working group's timeline
Regional meetup hosting	A small in-person or hybrid meetup (≥6 people, ≥90 minutes, brief agenda submitted)	10 business days before the meetup

Approval flow¶

Ambassador submits a short topic brief through the standard form pipeline (forms/ instrumentation, ambassador-program-quarterly-brief.md when authored).
Communications Committee liaison reviews against the approval window above. Liaison can approve, request changes, or escalate to the full committee.
After delivery, ambassador uploads the artifact (or a link to it) and a 1–3 sentence reflection. Coordinator confirms completion.

The committee publishes the list of approved formats and the approval rubric annually. The committee does not edit the ambassador's voice; it confirms scope, attribution, brand-mark use (per Form L), and that no off-limits content categories are crossed.

Off-limits content (operational, not legal)¶

These categories trip operational review automatically; the committee may approve with conditions but the default is "send back."

Anything that names a non-public member or non-public sponsor
Anything that asserts a Guild position the board has not adopted
Anything that endorses a specific commercial product (general category discussion is fine)
Anything that presents the ambassador's personal client work as a Guild engagement

This list is operational hygiene. The legal scope (defamation, FTC endorsement disclosure, IP, trademark) is governed by counsel-drafted policy and the existing forms; this list just catches obvious operational issues before they get to that review.

Cadence¶

Cadence	Activity	Owner
Term start	Kickoff call (60 min). Cohort meets. Coordinator walks the playbook.	Coordinator
Monthly	Office hours (30 min, optional). Coordinator + 1 Communications Committee member.	Coordinator
Quarterly	Deliverable due. Coordinator confirms completion in the program tracker.	Ambassador → Coordinator
Quarterly	Coordinator delivers a one-pager to the Communications Committee summarizing deliverables, themes, and anything that needed the committee's attention.	Coordinator
Term end	Closing call (60 min). Each ambassador delivers a 5-minute reflection. Coordinator publishes a public roll-up.	Coordinator
Term end	Coordinator + Communications Committee chair conduct a term-end review with each ambassador (15 min, optional). Two questions: "What worked?" and "Would you do another term?"	Coordinator

Recognition¶

Recognition	Source
Complimentary Certified Ganjier membership for the term	Complimentary membership policy
Ambassador badge in the community profile and on the public Guild member directory	Communications Committee
Listed by name on the Guild website's Ambassadors page for the term	Communications Committee
Named at the AGM in the founding-contributors recognition	Board
Volunteer hours toward certification	Hours certification

Off-cycle removal¶

Ambassadors may step down at any time with a one-line note to the Coordinator; complimentary membership is honored through the end of the term in which they step down.

The Coordinator may remove an ambassador for the program's operational reasons:

Two consecutive missed quarterly deliverables without a documented exception
Submitting work that crosses an off-limits category after a prior warning
Loss of underlying Certified Ganjier good-standing status

Operational removal is a Coordinator decision in consultation with the Communications Committee chair. Anything beyond operational removal — including any conduct concerns — leaves this program and goes through the counsel-drafted policy via the Communications Committee liaison.

Program health metrics¶

The Coordinator reports these to the Communications Committee quarterly:

Cohort size at start of quarter vs. end of quarter
Quarterly deliverables completed as a percentage of cohort
Format mix of completed deliverables
Average approval-window adherence (committee turnaround time)
Ambassador-side pulse — single-question end-of-quarter score: "On a scale of 1–5, was this quarter sustainable for you?"
Reach signals where available (views, attendees, etc.) — not a performance bar; descriptive only

A cohort retention rate below 70% in any term, or a sustainability pulse average ≤3, is an operational signal — the committee revisits the deliverable cadence and approval flow.

Year-1 capacity plan¶

Phase	Cohort target	Coordinator capacity
Months 0–3 (post-formation)	Recruit founding cohort to 15–20 ambassadors	One Coordinator
Months 4–6	Fill to 25 if practice/region/channel matrix supports it	One Coordinator
Months 7–12	Steady state at 25	One Coordinator + one backup volunteer

The cohort is capped at 25. The bottleneck is committee approval-window throughput, not demand to participate.