CB.13:4.2 - Recover the authority that already exists

Obtain the current basis for relevant decision rights: an applicable agreement, an appointment under an established rule, members’ adopted constitution, a resource owner’s permission or an institutional decision. Check the subject, scope, holder and effective term against the proposed use. A former office holder may still have knowledge while lacking a current decision right.

Compare the stated arrangement with what people actually do and can obtain. OCE.2 supplies that recovery where the formal account is inadequate. Separate missing authority from missing access, an unavailable executor or disagreement with an otherwise valid decision.

Where no common mandate exists, identify who can enter a limited agreement about their own participation and contributions. Invite them to construct that agreement, stating who is included and what it will govern. A founding group can organise the activity of those who join on that basis; it cannot bind a wider population merely by claiming to speak for it.

Retain separate external conditions. If the proposed arrangement uses an organisation’s assets, employees, name or statutory role, obtain the corresponding permission or professional result. The community’s preferred rule cannot create that external authority. Return the specific unresolved permission or professional question to its holder.