Code of Conduct of Lion.College

The binding ethical framework for all members. Drafted by the Standards Committee. Ratified by two-thirds of the Master Council. Reviewed and re-ratified every three years.

How to read this Code

This Code has teeth. A member who violates it may be reprimanded, placed on probation, or expelled — through the due process set out in Article VII of the Constitution.

But the Code is not a list of fears. It is a description of the conduct of a sovereign man. Read it as a vow more than a regulation. If any line gives you pause, sit with the pause. The pause is the work.

The ten articles below cover commerce, peers, contractors, customers, capital, speech, sex, substance, secrecy, and pastoral care. They are not exhaustive. They are the floor.

Article 1 — Honour your customers

1.1 Do not lie in your marketing. Do not promise outcomes you cannot deliver. Do not extract testimonials by pressure.

1.2 Honour your refund policy. If you do not have a written refund policy, write one this week.

1.3 If a customer claim has merit, settle it. Do not litigate honest customers into silence.

1.4 Do not target the vulnerable with the same persuasion you would feel proud to use on a sophisticated buyer.

1.5 If you stop offering a product, give existing customers reasonable notice and an honest off-ramp.

Article 2 — Pay what you owe

2.1 Pay your contractors on time. If your terms are net-30, mean it. If you cannot, renegotiate before the invoice is due, not after.

2.2 Pay your apprentices fairly during rotations. A junior member rotating through your business is not free labour.

2.3 Pay your employees superannuation correctly and on time. Pay your tax correctly and on time.

2.4 If you cannot pay this month, tell the person you owe before the due date. Tell them when you will pay. Then pay.

2.5 If you are owed by another member and a private resolution fails, you may file a Standards complaint. The guild will not let one member quietly cheat another.

Article 3 — Treat peers as brothers

3.1 What is shared in pod stays in pod. What is shared in confidence stays in confidence. If you must break this for safety reasons (suicide, abuse, crime), tell the person you are doing it and why before, not after.

3.2 Do not solicit another member's employees, contractors, or co-founders without prior written notice to that member.

3.3 Do not solicit another member's customers using information acquired through the guild.

3.4 Do not short, bet against, or publicly attack another member's venture.

3.5 If you compete with another member commercially, do so transparently. Both of you are still brothers in the guild.

3.6 Speak well of brothers in public. Speak honestly to them in private.

Article 4 — Capital is a trust, not a trophy

4.1 If you invite another member to invest in your venture, give them the same disclosure you would give a sophisticated institutional investor.

4.2 If you take member capital, honour the reporting cadence — quarterly, in writing. Failure to report for two consecutive quarters is a Standards matter.

4.3 If your venture fails, write the post-mortem and share it with your investors honestly within ninety days.

4.4 Do not commingle member-investment capital with your personal accounts.

4.5 If you operate the Syndicate (Masters): you may not vote on deals in which you have a personal stake. Recusal is required, not optional.

Article 5 — Speech and reputation

5.1 Do not publicly attack another member by name. Disagreements among brothers belong in pod or in private letter.

5.2 Do not amplify attacks on another member by others. Do not retweet, share, or comment publicly on third-party attacks on brothers.

5.3 Do not use guild access (membership directory, pod email, conclave attendance) to broker introductions for outside parties without disclosure.

5.4 You may speak publicly about the guild. You may not speak on behalf of the guild without authority from the Founder or Master Council.

5.5 Your social media is your own. The guild does not regulate your speech. But what you publish under your own name reflects on the brothers — bear this in mind, soberly.

Article 6 — Sexual conduct

6.1 No harassment, no coercion, no exploitation of power asymmetry. This is the floor.

6.2 Mentors do not have romantic or sexual relationships with their apprentices. Period.

6.3 If you are married, do not begin an affair while a member. If you are in an affair, tell your mentor. The guild does not regulate the state of your marriage — but it does ask that you not lie to your brothers while the lie is happening.

6.4 If a sexual misconduct allegation is made against a member, the Standards Committee will investigate with care for both parties. Findings of merit result in expulsion.

6.5 Conduct involving minors triggers immediate suspension and immediate referral to civil authorities. The guild does not handle such matters internally.

Article 7 — Substance, body, and active service

7.1 You may not perform active mentorship, syndicate decisions, or Conclave teaching while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

7.2 If you are in active addiction (defined by self or by a clinical professional), you may request a leave of absence. Leave is granted without prejudice.

7.3 Refusal to acknowledge a substance problem that is impacting other members is itself a Standards matter.

7.4 The guild does not require sobriety. It requires honesty about substance and its effects on your service.

7.5 Pastoral support is available through the Founder for substance, mental health, or crisis. It is private. It is not optional to use, but it is always offered.

Article 8 — Secrecy, doxxing, and digital conduct

8.1 You may not publicly identify another member as a member without their explicit consent.

8.2 You may not publicly link a member's pod, mentor, or guild discussions to their public identity.

8.3 You may not share screenshots of pod communications outside the pod.

8.4 If you leave the guild, you remain bound by Article 8 for life. The guild does not erase brothers from your memory, but it does ask that what was shared in confidence stays in confidence.

8.5 Digital security: use the guild-provided LionMail and infrastructure for guild communications. Personal email and consumer messaging apps are not appropriate channels for confidential guild matters.

Article 9 — Conflict of interest and disclosure

9.1 Disclose any conflict of interest before voting, advising, or transacting with another member.

9.2 Disclose any other men's-formation or business-society membership at intake. Multiple memberships are not forbidden; failure to disclose is.

9.3 Disclose any current or past legal proceedings relevant to your fitness as a member at intake.

9.4 If a conflict of interest emerges during your membership, disclose to the Founder within thirty days.

9.5 The Standards Committee may rule that a disclosed conflict requires recusal from specific guild activities (e.g., investment committee).

Article 10 — The duty of care

10.1 Care for the weakest brother. He sets the floor of the guild.

10.2 If a brother is in crisis (financial, emotional, marital, spiritual), do not look away. Reach out. If you cannot reach him, escalate to his mentor or to the Founder.

10.3 If you suspect a brother is being harmed by another member or by his pod, file a Standards complaint. Anonymous complaints are accepted in cases of fear of retaliation.

10.4 If you suspect a brother is at risk of self-harm or suicide, contact emergency services and the Founder immediately. Confidentiality yields to safety.

10.5 The guild is not a substitute for clinical mental health care. If you need a therapist, get one. Mentors are not therapists.

Enforcement

Standards complaints are filed in writing to the Founder. The process from filing to resolution is documented in Article VII of the Constitution.

The Standards Code is publicly readable. The Standards process is publicly documented. The outcomes of specific cases are private, except where the guild's learning is served by anonymous summary publication.

Members who feel the Code itself is wrong on a specific point may propose an amendment via the Standards Committee. The Code is revised and re-ratified every three years.

A note on tone

This Code is read aloud at every Apprentice Investiture. New Apprentices speak their assent. Existing members re-affirm by signature at the Annual Conclave.

The Code is not a list of fears. It is a description of the conduct of a sovereign man. May it be a vow more than a regulation.

Drafted by the Standards Committee. Ratified by the Master Council. Reviewed every three years.

Lion.College · Companion to LionMind · Melbourne, Australia