---
title: Roles & Accountabilities
category: Who we are
source_files:
  - circlemanagement/ROLES.md  # generated from GlassFrog governance export
summary: >
  The Holacracy role structure of Respellion: the three circles (Anchor,
  Operations, Software Delivery), the shared definitions of the structural roles
  (Circle Lead, Facilitator, Secretary, Circle Rep), and the purpose and
  accountabilities of every operational role. Personal names of role fillers have
  been removed.
tags:
  - roles
  - accountabilities
  - holacracy
  - circles
  - governance
  - glassfrog
  - structural-roles
related_topics:
  - who-we-are.md  # Holacracy model, QMS, services
  - how-we-work-together.md  # core values, coaching culture, huddles
  - security.md  # Privacy Officer ties to GDPR handling
  - holiday-and-leave.md  # People Officer administers leave
  - learning-personal-development.md  # People Officer maintains performance model
key_facts:
  circles: [Respellion Anchor Circle, Respellion Operations, Software Delivery]
  structural_roles: [Circle Lead, Facilitator, Secretary, Circle Rep]
  anchor_purpose: "Een maatschappij waarin open source technologie wordt ingezet om duurzame oplossingen te bouwen."
  huddle_count: 3 (A, B, C) — identical role definition, buddy structure
ai_context: >
  This is the authoritative map of WHO-DOES-WHAT (by role, not by person) at
  Respellion, and complements the abstract Holacracy model in who-we-are.md.
  Personal filler names from the GlassFrog export have been intentionally removed;
  do not infer or reintroduce individual names. Structural roles (Circle Lead,
  Facilitator, Secretary, Circle Rep) are constitutionally required and share the
  same definition across circles, defined once below; per-circle deviations are
  noted explicitly. Many operational roles are referenced elsewhere in the
  handbook: People Officer (leave, onboarding, performance model), Privacy Officer
  (GDPR), Process Guardian (QMS/ISO 9001), Event Owner (conferences), Treasury
  Keeper (pension/salary admin).
---

# Roles & Accountabilities

This is the role structure of Respellion under Holacracy. Roles — not people — hold purposes and accountabilities. The organization has three nested circles: the **Respellion Anchor Circle**, its sub-circle **Respellion Operations**, and that circle's sub-circle **Software Delivery**.

> **Note:** Personal names of role fillers have been removed from this knowledge-base version. Current role assignments live in GlassFrog.

## Structural Roles (shared definitions)

These four roles are constitutionally required. Unless a circle notes a deviation below, each instance uses the definition here.

**Circle Lead.** Holds the Purpose of the overall Circle. *(Deviation — Software Delivery Circle Lead adds accountabilities: making sure the roles and their purposes and accountabilities in the circle are described properly; assigning people to roles; monitoring fit, offering feedback to enhance fit, and re-assigning roles to others when useful; defining priorities and strategies for the circle.)*

**Facilitator.** Purpose: Circle governance and operational practices aligned with the Constitution. Accountabilities:
- Facilitating the Circle's regular Tactical Meetings
- Facilitating the Circle's Governance Process
- Triggering new elections for the Circle's elected Roles after each election term expires
- Auditing a Sub-Circle's meetings and records on request and declaring a Process Breakdown if one is discovered

**Secretary.** Purpose: Stabilize the Circle's constitutionally-required records and meetings. Domain: all governance records of the Circle. Accountabilities:
- Scheduling regular Tactical Meetings for the Circle
- Capturing and publishing Tactical Meeting outputs
- Scheduling Governance Meetings for the Circle
- Capturing and publishing the outputs of the Circle's Governance Process
- Interpreting the Constitution and anything under its authority upon request

**Circle Rep.** Purpose: Tensions relevant to process in a broader Circle channeled out and resolved. Accountabilities:
- Seeking to understand Tensions conveyed by Role Leads within the Circle
- Discerning Tensions appropriate to process within a broader Circle that holds the Circle
- Processing Tensions within a broader Circle to remove constraints on the Circle

## Respellion Anchor Circle

**Purpose:** Een maatschappij waarin open source technologie wordt ingezet om duurzame oplossingen te bouwen.

**Structural roles present:** Circle Lead, Facilitator, Secretary (all per shared definitions above).

### Aandeelhouders

*(Shareholders — role present; filler name removed.)*

## Respellion Operations *(sub-circle of Anchor)*

**Structural roles present:** Circle Lead, Circle Rep, Facilitator, Secretary (all per shared definitions above).

### Buddy

- **Purpose:** Onboard a new Respellion employee so this person feels welcome and at home.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Following up the checklist until the new employee is satisfied
  - Checking (verifying) with the new employee if they indeed feel welcomed and at home

### Chief Azure

- **Purpose:** Ensure a maintainable and available Azure environment for Respellion.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Monitoring availability of the Respellion Azure environment
  - Communicating with CSP (ALSO)
  - Maintaining the infrastructure for internal and customer purposes
  - Following up any alerts from Azure
  - Coordinating changes in resources above SLA with service manager
  - Communicating to Respellion stakeholders about the Azure environment

### Event owner

- **Purpose:** Making sure Respellion colleagues have an awesome event experience.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Drafting list of congresses
  - Making sure there is a budget and using that budget
  - Making sure everything about a congress visit is facilitated (stay, transport, tickets, etc)
  - Being transparent about the budget and the use of it
  - Taking ownership for small team events

### Huddle (A, B, C)

There are three Huddles (A, B, and C) that share an identical role definition; each acts as a buddy structure of three or four individuals.

- **Purpose:** A group of three or four individuals that acts as a buddy structure.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Holding bi-weekly huddle check-ins
  - Coaching each other on professional and personal issues
  - Strengthening the feedback culture by developing personal plans
  - Creating transparency in individual progress and improvements

### Internal Auditor

- **Purpose:** Making sure that independent evaluations of risks, processes, and controls within Respellion are conducted regularly. The goal is to ensure effective and efficient operations and compliance with laws and regulations.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Identifying and assessing risks within Respellion
  - Analyzing the impact of these risks on operational and financial processes
  - Developing an annual (internal) audit plan based on risk analysis, including scope and objectives
  - Conducting operational, financial and compliance audits
  - Collecting and analyzing data to assess effectiveness of internal controls
  - Preparing audit reports (findings, conclusions, recommendations)
  - Presenting results to management and colleagues
  - Monitoring the implementation of recommendations
  - Evaluating the effectiveness of corrective actions
  - Ensuring compliance with internal guidelines and external law and regulations
  - Advising on improvements to processes and controls to ensure compliance
  - Contributing to the development of awareness of internal controls within the organization
  - Ensuring colleagues are aware of the importance of risk management and compliance

### Marketing

- **Purpose:** Respellion has an outstanding corporate reputation that aligns with the core values and manifest.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Maintaining our exposure on social media
  - Maintaining the website on a functional level
  - Developing relevant exposure on the website
  - Improving the corporate reputation in a structured and managed way

### Networker

- **Purpose:** Maintain a valuable and effective network of stakeholders.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Maintaining a network of partners (ICT brokers, IT companies)
  - Maintaining a network of potential customers
  - Monitoring a transparent sales funnel for potential tenders
  - Monitoring a transparent sales funnel for potential individual assignments
  - Aligning the sales funnel with the financial budget administration and forecast
  - Being transparent (communication) about the accountabilities above

### People Officer

- **Purpose:** Making sure Respellion has/maintains the organizational culture in which individuals can be the best versions of themselves, and making sure Respellion has/maintains a unique and attractive organizational structure.
- **Domain:** An asset, process, or other thing this Role may exclusively control and regulate as its property, for its purpose.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Maintaining the performance model (salary etc)
  - Facilitating the monthly celebration meeting
  - Guarding the Respellion culture/DNA
  - Designing employment contracts
  - Maintaining an effective onboarding program
  - Approving leave requests
  - Maintaining the employee handbook
  - Maintaining a comprehensive sick leave administration
  - Maintaining a comprehensive leave administration
  - Taking initiatives to improve people wellbeing
  - Increasing the connection with people's social system at home
  - Making sure that successes are being celebrated

### Privacy Officer

- **Purpose:** To ensure Respellion maintains the highest standards of data privacy compliance while enabling the organization to effectively use data in alignment with our values of trust, courage, self-discipline, and entrepreneurship.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Developing, implementing, and maintaining a comprehensive privacy program aligned with GDPR, Dutch privacy laws, and other applicable regulations
  - Monitoring and interpreting changes in privacy legislation and updating organizational policies accordingly
  - Serving as the primary point of contact for supervisory authorities (like the Dutch Data Protection Authority)
  - Conducting regular privacy impact assessments for new and existing processing activities
  - Maintaining records of processing activities as required by Article 30 of GDPR
  - Identifying privacy risks across the organization and recommending appropriate risk mitigation strategies
  - Managing privacy incident response, including breach notification procedures
  - Reviewing data processing agreements with vendors and partners to ensure privacy requirements are adequately addressed
  - Developing and delivering privacy training programs for all team members
  - Establishing and overseeing processes for handling data subject rights requests (access, rectification, erasure, etc.)
  - Ensuring timely responses to privacy inquiries from customers, employees, and other stakeholders

### Process guardian

- **Purpose:** Making sure Respellion's organizational processes are transparent, compliant and scalable.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Maintaining a file structure for documents that facilitates compliance and transparency
  - Maintaining a comprehensive quality management system that complies with potential ISO regulations
  - Advising the circle about effective software platforms
  - Advising the circle about (auditing) the quality management system(s)
  - Advising the circle about any other relevant internal processes
  - Organizing internal audits as described in ISO 9001:2015 chapter 9

### Recruiter

- **Purpose:** Recruiting new employees who fit Respellion's culture.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Selecting potential employees via necessary channels
  - Running the first telephone conversations in the application process
  - Organizing the introduction interview of the application process
  - Organizing the capacity interview of the application process
  - Monitoring the application process
  - Placing job vacancies on external websites
  - Making sure the application process is done within two weeks
  - Using a LinkedIn recruiter subscription
  - Placing posts for Respellion employer branding
  - Drafting job descriptions to attract potential employees
  - Reporting regularly on the recruiting process

### Service Manager

- **Purpose:** Take ownership of the services we provide for customers with an SLA for hosting, maintenance and operations, with the goal to be an excellent service provider.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Defining, aligning and agreeing upon SLAs
  - Managing ITIL service management processes
  - Acting as a single point of contact for hosting, operation and maintaining applications for customers

### Sustainability officer

- **Purpose:** Ensuring the balance between people-profit-planet in Respellion's corporate activities.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Taking initiatives for social return activities
  - Challenging policy, activities and ideas against the corporate values and manifest and suggesting changes/improvements
  - Communicating regularly to Respellion stakeholders about sustainability and social return activities

### System administrator

- **Purpose:** To maintain the Respellion company website and/or Respellion applications.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Monitoring the availability of the website
  - Coordinating activities with hosting partner (GRRR)
  - Maintaining an overview of the internal application landscape
  - Updating the Respellion website on a regular basis
  - Communicating to Respellion stakeholders about our website and internal application landscape

### Technology Officer

- **Purpose:** To create a technical strategy that aligns with and adds value to our purpose.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Designing a strategy on open-source technology for Respellion and keeping it updated
  - Defining internal technology projects
  - Coordinating the internal projects (project owner)
  - Communicating to Respellion stakeholders about the open source strategy

### Treasury Keeper

- **Purpose:** Respellion has a sustainable and transparent financial administration that meets legal obligations.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Maintaining salary administration
  - Maintaining declaration administration
  - Maintaining company budget sheets
  - Maintaining pension administration
  - Maintaining insurance administration
  - Reporting on the administrations to create transparency
  - Communicating to Respellion stakeholders about the financial administration

### Workplace support

- **Purpose:** Ensure a safe and effective digital workplace.
- **Accountabilities:**
  - Ensuring security compliance conform Microsoft security policies
  - Facilitating a healthy workplace
  - Supporting colleagues in IT (with regard to hardware and software)
  - Maintaining Microsoft 365
  - Providing software licenses to colleagues if needed

## Software Delivery *(sub-circle of Respellion Operations)*

**Purpose:** Deliver high quality software and have happy customers.

**Structural roles present:**

- **Circle Lead** — uses the expanded accountabilities noted in the shared Circle Lead definition above (describing roles, assigning people, monitoring fit, defining priorities/strategies).
- **Facilitator** — no purpose, accountabilities, or domains defined.
- **Secretary** — no purpose, accountabilities, or domains defined.

## Related Topics

- [Who We Are](who-we-are.md) — the Holacracy model, circles, tensions, and ISO 9001 QMS these roles operate within.
- [How We Work Together](how-we-work-together.md) — core values referenced in role purposes, and the coaching culture the Huddles enact.
- [Security](security.md) — GDPR handling that the Privacy Officer role owns.
- [Holiday and Leave](holiday-and-leave.md) — leave/sickness administration owned by the People Officer.
- [Learning & Personal Development](learning-personal-development.md) — the performance model maintained by the People Officer and conferences owned by the Event Owner.
