How to draft a procedure

This is a provisional procedure that has yet to be approved by the steering committee.

This is the procedure for drafting new procedures. Anyone in HATCH collective can draft new procedures, but before doing so you should make sure that the procedure falls in line with HATCH collective’s principles.

If there is no procedure for something you have to do, then procedure must be drafted. If time is absolutely critical, then you can act before drafting procedure, but a procedure must still be written so as to document what needs to be done in the future.

Check that you have access to the site’s Git repository.
Create a plain-text file for the procedure in the site’s procedures/ directory. The name of this file should be of the form “short-name.md”, where “short name” is replaced by a short phrase explaining what the procedure is for.
Write the following at the top of the file:
```
---
title: How to [thing]
status: provisional
---
```
Replace “[thing]” with whatever the procedure is for.
After this, write the following into the file:
1. A preamble. This will be a short description of what the procedure is for. It should also note any circumstances under which the procedure may change, or when another procedure may be more applicable.
2. A step-by-step guide to whatever the procedure is for. Try to be as explicit as possible, not leaving out any steps even if they are obvious.
Write this in Markdown.
Save the file.
Commit the change to the Git repository with the following commands:
```
git pull
git add .
git commit -m "Created procedure for [thing]"
git push
```
Replace “[thing]” with whatever the procedure is for.
At this point, you may wish to ask other people for input. Or, if you are satisfied with the procedure as it stands, you can move on to consulting the steering committee.
- It may be appropriate to “dry run” the procedure once or twice before consulting with the committee
- In any case, you should message other members of HATCH to let them know the new procedure has been drafted.

Legal Procedures

Some procedures don’t relate to HATCH collective’s operations directly, only to its status as a legal entity. These procedures can be tagged with status: legal and don’t need to be approved by the steering committee.

Before tagging a procedure as status: legal, you must be sure that:

The information in it relates primarily to legal or financial matters
Failure to carry out the procedure could lead to legal trouble for HATCH
Where possible, the procedure links to government guidance
The procedure does not involve the people requesting HATCH’s help, or their personal information

You should still make every effort to make the procedure as clear as possible. Remember, the next generation of HATCH collective will be relying on your documentation!

Rewriting Existing Procedures

Do not rewrite or edit procedure that has already been adopted. Instead, create a new file for the new version of the procedure, and keep the old version up on the website until the new version has been approved by the steering committee.

If the old version of the procedure needs to be updated for legal reasons, set its status to “legally_invalid” immediately. You can then redact any information that needs to be removed for legal reasons.
Otherwise, set the old procedure’s status to “retired” once the new procedure has been drafted.

Once the new version of the procedure has been approved, you can delete the old one.

Procedures that are still provisional can be rewritten.