Founders Charter of Reseated — RC/A/2026/1

Founders Charter of Reseated

Document: RC/A/2026/1

Published: 10 February 2026

Status: Founding Charter

Preamble

Small businesses make and move goods, provide services, employ people, support families and sustain communities. They work in every region and under many different legal, economic and cultural conditions. Their owners may be separated by language, distance and the size of the markets in which they operate, but they often face the consequences of decisions made by institutions with far greater resources and reach.

A business can depend on a platform to reach customers, a buyer to pay an invoice, a bank or payment provider to protect a transfer, a government office to issue a permit, an insurer to help after a disaster, or a clear rule to make a first hire. When the terms of those relationships are unclear, inconsistent or difficult to challenge, the owner may have little time or capacity to make the problem visible. A single account, delayed payment, denied claim or unprocessed application can have immediate consequences for a small firm. Similar experiences, repeated across places and businesses, may point to a practice that deserves wider examination.

The scale of small business is global. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises account for approximately 90 per cent of businesses, 60 to 70 per cent of employment and about half of gross domestic product worldwide, according to the United Nations.¹ The International Labour Organization estimates that MSMEs account for about 70 per cent of employment worldwide and that approximately 80

per cent operate in the informal economy.² These figures describe a diverse world of businesses. They do not make those businesses identical, and they do not give any one organization the right to speak for all of them. They do show why small-business experience should be heard in decisions that shape the conditions in which businesses operate.

Reseated is established as a global assembly of small-business owners: the Founders Assembly. It exists to give members a dependable way to report experience, identify recurring practices, test proposed responses in public, decide whether to adopt a standard, and place that standard before people with the authority to act. It does not claim that every report is representative, that every proposed rule is right, or that every recipient must agree. It commits instead to a visible, repeatable process in which evidence, uncertainty, disagreement and decisions can be recorded.

The Assembly is organized through seven councils. Each council examines a field of practice rather than a single company. Members may participate without disclosing their identity publicly or naming their own business. The Assembly may address named chief executive officers when it asks a particular organization to consider an adopted standard; that limited purpose does not authorize members to make unverified accusations against named companies in their personal accounts.

By this Charter, the founding members establish Reseated and undertake to keep it independent, specific and answerable to its members.

Part I. Purpose and principles

Article 1. Establishment and purpose

1. Reseated is established as the Founders Assembly, a global assembly of small-business owners organized through seven councils and supported by a Secretariat.

2. The purpose of Reseated is to collect and examine the experience of small-business owners, identify practices that recur across reports, develop practical standards or other proposed fixes, submit those proposals to public consultation and member decision, and communicate adopted proposals to institutions or officeholders able to consider them.

3. Reseated is a nonprofit. Its work is directed toward the public and member interest described in this Charter, not the private commercial interest of a funder, partner, member or officer.

4. The Assembly may publish reports, standards, opinions, consultation materials, letters and Secretariat statements under the document system established by this Charter and the applicable rules.

Article 2. Founding commitments

1. Reseated shall take small-business experience seriously without treating an individual account as proof of a general pattern.
2. It shall distinguish reported experience, verified information, analysis, proposal and adopted position. Documents shall identify which of these they contain.
3. It shall describe practices and problems in terms that can be examined. A council’s subject is a field of practice, not a standing finding against any one company.
4. It shall not invent evidence, replies, endorsements, quotations or commitments. A person or organization shall not be presented as having replied, agreed or signed unless the record supports that status.
5. Members retain control over whether their identity or seat is public. No member is required to disclose the name of their business to participate in Assembly work or to have it shown in a public document.
6. Disagreement is permitted. A consultation may produce criticism, a ballot may reject a proposal, and an intended recipient may decline to respond. The record shall not conceal those outcomes.

Article 3. Working principles

1. Member-grounded: proposals begin with reports and experience contributed by small-business owners, not with an assumption that an institution’s account is complete.
2. Evidence-conscious: the Assembly shall assess volume, frequency, consistency, spread and corroboration before describing reports as a pattern.
3. Specific: proposals should state the practice they address, the change sought, the actors asked to act and, where relevant, the information needed to assess implementation.
4. Fair process: members and the public should have a meaningful opportunity to comment on a draft before it is put to an Assembly ballot, subject to published procedural rules.
5. Transparency: the Assembly shall publish its documents, consultation periods, ballot results and the status of letters as far as privacy, safety and applicable law permit.
6. Independence: money, access, partnership or a pledge shall not purchase control over findings, drafts, ballots, membership or published conclusions.
7. Proportionality: a proposed fix should address the identified practice and avoid claiming more than the available evidence can sustain.
8. Accessibility: the Assembly should make its work understandable to members working across languages, jurisdictions, business sizes and levels of available time.

Part II. The Assembly and its seven councils

Article 4. The Founders Assembly

1. The Founders Assembly is the membership body of Reseated. It provides the forum in which members may contribute reports, take part in council work, comment on drafts and vote on proposals under the applicable rules.

2. The Assembly may adopt standards and other positions by ballot. An adopted position is the position of Reseated only to the extent stated in the adoption record. It does not imply unanimous agreement by members or bind a member who has not separately undertaken to follow it.

3. The Assembly may establish working groups or other temporary arrangements through published procedure. They shall have a defined task and shall not displace the authority of the Assembly to decide whether a proposal is adopted.

4. The Assembly shall maintain a public record of its formal documents, including document identifiers, publication dates and procedural status. Material containing protected information may be withheld or redacted under the privacy and data provisions of this Charter.

Article 5. Seven councils

1. Reseated is organized in seven councils. Each council gathers reports within its mandate, conducts or supports pattern review, develops proposed responses and presents its work through the common Assembly process.

2. Council mandates concern practices and systems. A council may examine reports involving particular organizations where necessary to understand the account or address a specific institutional seat, but it shall not treat its mandate as a finding against a single company.

3. The Platform Council examines practices affecting small businesses that sell, advertise, communicate, receive funds or otherwise operate through digital platforms and marketplaces. Its work may address notice, reasons for account or listing restrictions, human review, payout holds, changes to fees and the consistency of protections across countries.

4. The Cashflow Council examines payment practices affecting the ability of small businesses to receive money owed for goods or services. Its work may address invoice terms, delay, dispute procedures, interest, disclosure of payment performance and practical steps to improve the timing and predictability of payment.

5. The Fair Play Council examines fraud risks and the treatment of small businesses using banks and payment services. Its work may address payee verification, payment recall, response to authorized payment fraud or business email compromise, reimbursement and cross-border gaps.

6. The Trade Council examines the practical effect of trade rules and related services on small traders. Its work may address size-based thresholds, clear guidance, phase-in, customs or tariff obligations and transparency about landed costs.

7. The Resilience Council examines the ability of small businesses to prepare for, withstand and recover from disasters or other disruptive events. Its work may address insurance decisions, bridge support, continuity planning and the particular constraints of micro businesses.

8. The Red Tape Council examines the design and delivery of rules and public services affecting small businesses. Its work may address small-business impact assessment, joined-up digital processes, published service times and permit procedures.

9. The Team Council examines the costs and practical requirements associated with employing people in a small business. Its work may address the cost and administration of first hires, payroll registration, social contributions and predictable employment rules.

10. The Assembly may clarify or amend a council mandate through the amendment process. A council shall make clear when a matter is outside its mandate and may refer it to another council or the Secretariat for appropriate routing.

Article 6. Coordination among councils

1. A report may concern more than one council. The Secretariat shall record the primary routing and, where useful, invite another council to contribute. A report shall not be counted twice in a way that misrepresents the number of distinct reports.

2. Councils may coordinate on overlapping proposals, shared evidence or common terminology. Coordination shall not make a council’s analysis or recommendation appear to be the decision of another council unless that council has reviewed and approved it.

3. Where evidence is insufficient for a council to reach a conclusion, the council may identify the gap, invite further reports or record that the matter remains under examination.

Part III. Membership and seats

Article 7. Membership

1. Membership is open to small-business owners who accept this Charter and the applicable rules of participation. The Assembly may publish eligibility and verification procedures consistent with the purpose of broad, cross-border participation.
2. Membership is personal. A person participates as an owner and member, not as a spokesperson for an undisclosed company, trade association, funder or government.
3. A member may contribute reports, participate in a council, comment on consultations, vote where eligible and accept a public or private seat under the applicable rules.
4. Membership does not guarantee that a report will be published, treated as corroborated or used in a proposal. The Secretariat and councils may seek clarification, group similar reports or exclude material that is outside scope, unsafe to publish, or inconsistent with published procedures.
5. Members shall not knowingly submit fabricated accounts, present another person’s experience as their own, or disclose protected information without a proper basis. Members should identify uncertainty and distinguish direct experience from information received from others.

Article 8. Public and private seats

1. A member may hold a public seat or a private seat. A public-seat member chooses to have a specified name or other approved identifier shown in the public Assembly record. A private-seat member participates without public identification.
2. A member’s choice of seat shall be informed and voluntary. The member may request a change in public status, subject to reasonable steps required to correct or preserve the integrity of records already lawfully published.
3. Public visibility shall not be a condition of equal standing in reports, consultations or ballots. Private-seat members may contribute and vote on the same basis as otherwise eligible members.
4. Reseated shall not show a member’s business name in public materials. It shall not invite members to name their own businesses in published personal accounts. A member may describe the relevant business context in general terms when needed to understand an experience.
5. When a member describes a third-party practice in a personal account or report, the public text should use a general description such as “a large marketplace,” “a national retail chain” or “a payment provider,” unless a formal document has a specific, justified need to identify an institution and the identification is supported by the record.

Article 9. Founding seats and founding record

1. The founding record shall reflect the position at launch, 10 February 2026, and shall not be retroactively altered by later membership or reports.

2. At launch, Reseated had 20 members seated in 18 countries. Five reports had been filed from five countries: four to the Platform Council and one to the Cashflow Council.

3. These figures describe the founding snapshot. They are not a claim that the reports establish a general pattern, and they shall not be combined with later totals without identifying the relevant date.

4. Founding members are subject to this Charter on the same basis as later members. Founding status does not confer authority to override a ballot, control evidence or claim to speak for members who are not present.

Article 10. Conduct and protection

1. Members shall treat other members with respect and shall not use membership to threaten, harass, expose or retaliate against another participant.
2. The Assembly shall seek to reduce unnecessary disclosure of information that could identify a member, their business, their customers or their workers. Members should avoid including names, account numbers, addresses or other details that are not needed to explain a report.
3. Where a concern about conduct or a member’s eligibility arises, the member should receive notice and a reasonable opportunity to respond, except where immediate action is necessary to protect safety, privacy or the integrity of the process. Procedures for review may be set out in rules.

Part IV. The method

Article 11. The common sequence

1. For every problem considered for an Assembly position, the common sequence is: reports; a five-part pattern test; a draft fix; public consultation; Assembly ballot; letters to the chief executive officers or other leaders who can adopt or implement the proposal; and tracking of the relevant seats.
2. The sequence is designed to separate experience from conclusion and proposal from decision. A step may identify that further evidence or work is needed. No proposal is entitled to advance merely because it has been submitted or because a member supports it.
3. A council or the Secretariat may publish an explanation when a step is paused, repeated, combined with another step or not pursued. The explanation should be sufficient for members to understand the procedural status without disclosing protected information.

Article 12. Reports

1. A report is an account, observation or other submission relevant to a council’s mandate. Reports may be based on direct experience or other information, but the basis should be made clear during submission and review.
2. Reports should describe what happened, the relevant timing and context, the effect on the business in general terms, and any records or independent information that may help assess the account. A report need not contain every detail to be received.
3. The Secretariat shall assign reports to the appropriate council or councils, record them in a manner that protects private information and identify whether they are new, related to an existing report or a follow-up. Similar reports may be grouped for analysis while preserving the ability to distinguish individual accounts.
4. Receipt of a report is not a finding that the event occurred as described, that an organization acted unlawfully, or that the experience is typical. Public summaries shall use careful language and shall not convert an allegation into an established fact.
5. The Assembly may invite supporting material or clarification. The person submitting a report may decline to provide information beyond what they consider safe or appropriate. A refusal to provide additional material is not itself proof against the account.

Article 13. Five-part pattern test

1. Before a problem is treated as a pattern for purposes of drafting an Assembly fix, the relevant council shall assess five elements: volume, frequency, consistency, spread and corroboration.

2. Volume concerns the number of distinct reports available for review and whether the number is sufficient for the conclusion being considered. The council shall distinguish reports from unique members, incidents or affected businesses where those counts differ.

3. Frequency concerns how often the reported practice occurs, how long it has been observed and whether reports describe isolated events or repetition. A high report count does not, on its own, establish a rate of occurrence across all businesses.

4. Consistency concerns whether independent reports describe materially similar practices, steps, consequences or points of failure. Differences in context shall be noted rather than removed for convenience.

5. Spread concerns whether reports extend across more than one location, business type, route to market, time period or other relevant setting. The council shall explain what kind of spread is shown and what remains unknown.

6. Corroboration concerns support from material beyond the bare repetition of accounts, including documents, public data, rules, independent research or other sources that are relevant to the claim. Corroboration may support some parts of a pattern and not others.

7. The council shall record its assessment of each element. The assessment may be “passed,” “not yet passed,” or another status defined in procedure, but the council shall explain the basis and identify significant gaps. Passing the test is a threshold to develop a proposed fix; it is not proof of unlawful conduct or a guarantee that the fix is justified.

8. A council may continue collecting evidence where one or more elements remain incomplete. It shall not state that all five elements have passed when the record shows otherwise.

Article 14. Drafting a fix

1. When a council considers the pattern sufficiently established for drafting, it may prepare a proposed standard, recommendation or other fix. The draft shall identify the practice addressed, the change sought, the intended scope, the relevant actors and the reasons for the proposal.

2. A draft should be practical and clear enough for members, affected institutions and the public to assess. It should distinguish a requested outcome from a suggested means of achieving it and should identify material trade-offs or limits known to the council.

3. Drafts shall carry a document symbol and status. Draft documents use the form RC/XX/2026/L.n, with the council designation in place of XX, subject to a later approved document convention. A draft is not an adopted Assembly position.

4. The council shall consider whether the proposed fix treats small businesses fairly across relevant countries and whether the same basic protection is available where the problem crosses borders. The draft may acknowledge that law, market structure or implementation differs by jurisdiction.

Article 15. Public consultation

1. A draft intended for Assembly adoption shall be opened for public consultation before the ballot. The consultation notice shall identify the draft, the questions or provisions on which comments are sought, the means of submitting comments and the opening and closing dates.
2. The consultation period shall ordinarily be at least 30 days. A shorter or extended period may be used only for a stated reason under published procedure. The period shall provide a genuine opportunity to comment and shall not be shortened to predetermine the result.
3. Members and non-members may submit comments unless a published consultation rule provides otherwise. Consultation comments are not votes. They may support, oppose, qualify or propose amendments to a draft.
4. The responsible council shall review the consultation record and may revise the draft. It should publish a summary of material themes, changes made and significant issues not accepted. It shall not describe a comment as representative of all contributors unless the method and evidence support that description.
5. Personal information in submissions shall be protected as provided in Part VII. Public consultation does not require a contributor to disclose a business name or identity.

Article 16. Assembly ballot

1. After consultation, a proposal may be placed before the Assembly for a ballot. The ballot notice shall identify the final text, explain the voting period and state the applicable eligibility, quorum, counting and decision rules.
2. Voting rules shall be established in published procedure and applied consistently. This Charter does not set a numerical adoption threshold. The applicable rule must be available to members before voting begins.
3. The ballot record shall state the outcome, the number or proportion of eligible members participating where lawfully publishable, and the result under the applicable rule. It shall not suggest unanimity where there was none.
4. An adopted document shall be given a final document symbol and published with its adoption status and date. A proposal that does not pass shall not be represented as adopted. It may be revised and brought forward again under published procedure.

Article 17. Letters and CEO seats

1. After a position is adopted, the Assembly may send letters to the chief executive officers or other leaders with authority to consider or implement it. A letter shall state the adopted request, identify the relevant Assembly document and provide a reasonable way for the recipient to respond.

2. The Assembly shall not claim that a recipient endorsed, rejected or answered a proposal unless a reply or other reliable record supports that claim. A lack of a reply on the Assembly record shall be described as such, without implying the recipient received or considered the letter unless delivery is recorded.

3. Letters shall be addressed to the people or offices selected for their ability to act. A council’s mandate remains about a practice; the naming of a CEO as the recipient of a letter does not turn the council into a judgment about that person.

4. CEO and institutional response seats shall be tracked using the statuses: Proposed, Letter sent, Delivered, Replied, Signed and Empty chair.

5. Proposed means a recipient has been identified for consideration. Letter sent means a letter has been dispatched. Delivered means delivery is recorded. Replied means a response has been received and recorded, whether or not it agrees with the request. Signed means the recipient has signed or otherwise formally accepted the relevant commitment in a recordable form. Empty chair means the seat remains without a recorded reply or commitment at the time of publication. A status shall not be advanced without evidence for that step.

Article 18. Fourteen-day notice

1. Before a public ballot on an Assembly proposal, members shall receive at least 14 days’ notice of the ballot opening and the text to be decided, unless an applicable published rule provides a longer period.
2. The notice shall identify the version of the proposal to be voted on and direct members to the consultation record and relevant explanation. If material changes are made after notice, the Secretariat shall determine under published procedure whether the notice period must restart.
3. The 14-day period is a minimum notice period, not a substitute for public consultation. It shall not be used to compress or bypass the consultation stage.

Article 19. Records and document symbols

1. Formal documents shall use a consistent symbol that identifies the issuing body, year and sequence. Assembly documents use RC/A/2026/n; Secretariat statements use RC/SEC/2026/n; council documents use RC/COUNCIL/2026/n; drafts use RC/XX/2026/L.n; notes use N.n; submissions use S.n; and opinions use OP.n, subject to the adopted document register.
2. The Secretariat shall maintain a register showing the title, symbol, date and status of formal documents. Corrections to a published document shall be dated and recorded so that readers can distinguish the original from the corrected version.
3. Internal working notes may support analysis but shall not be presented as adopted positions. Publication of a note does not itself signify approval by a council or the Assembly.

Part V. Officers, Fellows, partners and pledged businesses

Article 20. Officers and elected service

1. The Assembly may elect officers and a Board under rules adopted by the Assembly. The rules shall state the roles, terms, eligibility, election method, vacancy process and accountability arrangements.
2. Officers serve the Assembly and shall act within authority given by this Charter, Assembly decisions and published rules. They shall not use office to control an individual member’s report, direct a ballot outcome or make an unapproved proposal appear adopted.
3. Officers shall disclose relevant interests and shall recuse themselves from decisions where their interests could reasonably compromise impartial judgment. A recusal and its scope should be recorded where doing so does not disclose protected personal information.
4. Service is not a personal entitlement. The Assembly may review an officer’s conduct under fair, published procedures that provide notice and an opportunity to respond.

Article 21. Fellows

1. Fellows may be appointed or confirmed under procedures published by the Assembly. Their work may include research, evidence review, drafting support, translation, facilitation or other defined assistance.
2. A Fellowship is a contribution to the Assembly’s work, not authority to speak for the Assembly or determine an adopted position. Fellows shall identify their role accurately and disclose relevant interests.
3. Fellows shall respect member privacy and use evidence only for the purpose authorized. A Fellow’s analysis may be considered by a council, but the council remains responsible for its findings and any recommendation.

Article 22. Partners

1. Partners may provide expertise, services, access, research, practical support or other assistance consistent with Reseated’s independence.
2. Partnership does not confer membership, a vote, control over a council or a right to approve, delay or suppress a document. A partner’s views may be submitted through the same consultation or evidence channels available to others.
3. The Secretariat shall maintain an appropriate record of partner relationships and disclose material support in a manner consistent with the independence and privacy provisions of this Charter.

Article 23. Pledged businesses

1. A business may make a public pledge to support or follow an Assembly standard or other clearly identified commitment. The pledge record shall state what was pledged and which document or commitment it concerns.
2. A pledge is voluntary and shall not be treated as evidence that the pledging business has implemented the commitment unless implementation is separately verified or reported with appropriate qualification.
3. The pledge program shall not give a pledging business authority over the Assembly’s evidence, membership, drafting or decision. Pledges shall not be counted as votes or as proof of broad business consensus.

Part VI. Independence

Article 24. Funder firewall

1. Funding may support the operation of Reseated but shall not purchase editorial control, selection of evidence, access to confidential member data, a seat in a ballot or a right to determine who receives a letter.

2. No funder may require the Assembly to remove, delay or alter a finding or proposal as a condition of financial or in-kind support. No funder may require favorable treatment of itself, an affiliate, a competitor or a customer.

3. Funding arrangements shall be administered separately from council assessment and ballot administration. People making funding decisions shall not direct the substantive conclusions of a council.

4. The Secretariat shall establish a process to record material funding and assess conditions that could compromise independence. Support that cannot be accepted without compromising this Charter shall be refused or returned where feasible.

Article 25. Conflicts of interest

1. Members, officers, Fellows and advisers shall disclose a material personal, financial or organizational interest that could reasonably affect their contribution to a specific decision. Disclosure shall be proportionate and should not require publication of unnecessary private information.
2. A conflict does not automatically disqualify a person from contributing. The appropriate response may include disclosure, limited participation, recusal from a particular decision or another safeguard set out in published rules.
3. A member shall not use confidential information obtained through Reseated for an unrelated commercial advantage or to harm another member. The Assembly shall not require a member to disclose commercially sensitive information that is not necessary for the work.
4. Where an interest is disputed, the matter shall be handled through a fair procedure. The existence of a conflict allegation shall not be treated as established merely because it has been raised.

Part VII. Languages, privacy and data

Article 26. Languages and access

1. Reseated is a global assembly. It shall seek to make participation possible across language and time-zone differences, recognizing that interpretation and translation resources may be limited.

2. The Secretariat may publish authoritative documents in one or more working languages and may provide translations or summaries where resources allow. A publication should identify whether it is the authoritative text, a translation or an informal summary.

3. Members should be able to submit reports and comments in languages accepted under published procedure. Where translation is necessary to consider a submission, the Secretariat should protect its meaning and flag uncertainty rather than silently resolving ambiguity.

4. Public meetings and Open Tables may use multiple sittings or other accessible formats. Participation in one format shall not be treated as less valid solely because of geography, language or availability.

Article 27. Privacy and confidentiality

1. Reseated shall collect only information reasonably needed to receive reports, administer membership, conduct analysis, protect the process and communicate decisions.

2. The Secretariat shall separate, where practicable, identifying details from report text used for analysis or publication. Public documents shall avoid details that could expose a private-seat member or their business without a clear, authorized and necessary basis.

3. Members may participate anonymously in public materials. Anonymity does not prevent the Secretariat from holding limited contact or verification information where needed for administration, provided that access is restricted and the purpose is explained.

4. Information supplied in confidence shall not be published as attributable material without the contributor’s informed permission, except where disclosure is required by law or necessary to address an immediate and serious safety concern. The Secretariat should notify the contributor where lawful and practicable.

5. Reports and submissions shall not be repurposed for commercial advertising, sale of leads or unrelated profiling. Access for research, evaluation or reporting shall be governed by safeguards, minimization and, where appropriate, aggregation or de-identification.

6. The Secretariat shall establish reasonable procedures for access, correction, retention, secure storage and deletion of personal information, subject to legal duties and the need to preserve an accurate institutional record.

Article 28. Data quality and publication

1. Published totals shall state the date to which they apply and distinguish members, reports, comments, businesses, countries and other units being counted. A report count shall not be described as a count of unique businesses unless that has been established.
2. Data summaries shall explain meaningful limitations, including duplicate or follow-up reports, missing information, uneven geographical coverage and the limits of self-selected reporting.
3. Where a figure comes from an external source, the Assembly shall cite the source and avoid extending the source’s conclusion beyond its stated scope.
4. The Secretariat shall correct a material numerical or factual error when identified and record the correction. A correction shall not erase the history of a formal decision.

Part VIII. The Secretariat

Article 29. Function of the Secretariat

1. The Secretariat supports the Assembly and councils by maintaining membership and document processes, receiving and routing reports, organizing consultations and ballots, keeping procedural records, coordinating communications and supporting accessible participation.

2. The Secretariat shall administer process, not predetermine substance. It may identify incomplete submissions, procedural defects, privacy risks or inconsistencies in a record and refer those matters to the appropriate council or officer.

3. The Secretariat shall distinguish its own statements from council findings and Assembly decisions. Secretariat statements use the document form RC/SEC/2026/n. A Secretariat statement does not amend an adopted standard.

4. The Secretariat shall maintain a record of the stages completed for each proposal, including pattern-test status, draft versions, consultation dates, ballot result, letters sent and current seat statuses.

5. The Secretariat shall report significant procedural limitations to members. It shall not state that a process was completed when a required stage remains open or has been omitted.

Article 30. Founding Secretariat

1. The Founding Secretariat is hosted in the United States. Robert Nikic serves as Advisory Council Chair of Reseated Councils.
2. Hosting is an administrative arrangement. It does not give the host a personal ownership interest in member reports, a right to direct the Assembly’s findings, or authority to override an Assembly ballot or an applicable rule.
3. The Secretariat shall preserve the distinction between its administrative role and the Assembly’s collective decisions. The Advisory Council Chair’s role shall be exercised subject to the same conflict, transparency and procedural safeguards as other service in Reseated.
4. The Assembly may review hosting and administrative arrangements as Reseated develops, subject to applicable law and the amendment provisions of this Charter. Any transition shall preserve access to institutional records and protect member data.

Part IX. Amendment and interpretation

Article 31. Amendment

1. This Charter may be amended by an Assembly ballot conducted under published rules. Members shall receive the proposed text and an explanation of the reasons for change in sufficient time to consider it.
2. An amendment shall identify the articles changed and state its effective date. The Secretariat shall publish the adopted text and retain a record of prior versions.
3. No amendment shall retroactively change the recorded outcome of a completed ballot or convert an unadopted draft into an adopted position.
4. Until amended, the Charter governs the Assembly, councils, Secretariat and other persons acting in an official Reseated capacity, subject to applicable law.

Article 32. Interpretation

1. This Charter shall be interpreted to preserve member participation, evidentiary care, privacy, independence and a meaningful distinction between reports, analysis, drafts and adopted positions.
2. Where a procedural question is not resolved by this Charter, the applicable published rules shall govern. If no rule applies, the Secretariat shall refer the question to the responsible Assembly body for a reasoned decision and shall record the outcome.
3. Nothing in this Charter authorizes a member or the Assembly to make a false claim about an individual or organization. Reports and proposals shall be framed in a manner proportionate to the evidence and the purpose of the work.

Article 33. Adoption and commencement

1. This Founders Charter is published as RC/A/2026/1 on 10 February 2026, the launch date of Reseated.

2. It establishes the founding framework for the Founders Assembly, its seven councils, its membership and its common method. Detailed procedures may be adopted or clarified under the authority of this Charter, but shall be consistent with its principles.

Sources

1. United Nations, Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day: global MSME figures and observance on 27 June.
2. International Labour Organization, Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: employment and informality estimates.

Notes and sources

Sources

1. United Nations — Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day
2. International Labour Organization — Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises