Management shifts

In our system, "hosting" is a state of being in which someone who has a strong tie to the body's collective self in some way is the "default" fronter or default headmate who manages anything that's happening. This includes being frontstuck, or at least very, VERY difficult to remove from front.

If a headmate spends their entire time hosting, they will always be around unless they are taking a break (which is difficult and generally requires another frequent fronter to stay out of front to make sure the host stays out of front as well). This leads to the existence of a host in the conventional sense, but also intense burnout on the part of said hosts.

Therefore, our system has what we call "management shifts", in which we trade off who hosts (or directs) in 3-4 day invervals.

Our system has two management shifts a week. One is the weekday shift, which lasts Monday to Thursday. The other is the weekend shift, which lasts Friday to Sunday.

During these times, three sidesystems step up to jointly serve a shift, are recommended by other headmates to fill a shift, or (very occasionally) are forced by the brain to serve a shift due to their issues being imminently processed.

These sidesystems choose from among their members to be directors, producers, and lead actors for the shift. Usually, two are collectively directing, and one is an assistant director who may take over sometimes.

While headmates in other, non-hosting sidesystems can and will take duties like acting and producing over a management shift, having sidesystems host and consistently supply these roles for a period of time means we do not have problems where we can't agree on who's "supposed" to be fronting or supervising things. There is therefore structure but with flexibility.

Actors front and interact with the outerworld during their shift, and producers do things like managing responsibilities or making decisions. Directors do a little of both and are basically keeping the show running.

While anyone can TRY to be a director and try to host, it seems to be that this role/position only really "sticks" for someone who has some kind of connection to the collective identity or the collective self. However, because the collective self is comprised of so many things, including ones that may seem contradictory, this can include a wide variety of traits, such that there are a few headmates who don't "work" as directors/hosts, but not many.

That said, the director of a sidesystem is not necessarily ever the director of the system overall, even if they might be a producer or an actor for a shift. If they sent their sidesystem to serve a management shift, it would likely be another headmate who served as the director for that shift.

It sometimes happens that who actually hosts during a management shift is not who, on paper, is SUPPOSED to front (i.e. who is scheduled for that time). As long as there is clarity on who is OFFICIALLY hosting and managing at a given time and as long as there is pre-arranged backup for headmates who have been fronting long enough to experience burnout, this is okay.

In our system, we view hosting as being like a curse that a headmate is under that affects the land of Voidelia (our innerworld country) and that the system came to be subject to in 2023, likely due to our system becoming more complex and certain aspects of our innerworld narrative playing out, including elements based on Sleeping Beauty.

However, this curse is like the opposite of Sleeping Beauty's curse, in that it curses one to always be awake (fronting). Two people - leaders of the land (hosts) - are always subject to the curse at once, and while additional people can choose to be under the curse at the same time, it does not inherently break the curse for those also under it, although it does mean one of those two could remove themself from the curse while the other two remain under it.

The curse is transferrable, meaning someone under the curse can change places with someone else. However, whoever changes places with the cursebearer has to have some traits in common with that person or else embody the spirit of the land of Voidelia in some way. In other words, they have to someone who has fundamental traits associated with our system, like identities, interests, hobbies, preferences, or attitude. If you try to trade places with someone who is too different, it might not work, and the force of nature that the curse itself is might choose someone else to hold the curse.

As long as at least two people are under the curse at once, conditions are satisfied and the land remains stable. However, there are some times where trying to transfer the curse to somebody else won't work, as the curse won't "stick" and might be redirected to someone else. In other words, some headmates don't really work as hosts because they don't have a strong enough connection to the collective for the brain to "register" them as a host.

Nowadays, however, we see it that different headmates take turns being subject to the curse. Usually, it is framed as the directors/hosts/cores of the sidesystems directing that are more specifically under the curse, but this necessitates the members of their sidesystems remain close to front due to the effects of the curse affecting their host.

However, we also frame serving a management shift as being akin to being in government, as the fronters and hosts are the ones making decisions for the system/country. This means we consider ourselves a direct democracy in which every citizen is or has the potential to be a member of government, and where government offices change so frequently that it is impossible to say that the country has any one leader but can potentially be generalized as having several citizens who more frequently take leadership positions than others.

Where it comes to hosting and the curse associated with it, there need to be at least two people under the curse at all times, but a third can join in. (Possibly a fourth, but this has not been tried yet.) This reflects how our system defaults to two hosts but can have three if someone chooses to become a host.

The third person/structure in this arrangement is considered to be co-hosting rather than hosting. However, this can also mean temporarily taking over host duties for a host, e.g. for a day of the shift.

In terms of the United Federation of Voidelia, serving a management shift is considered an honor and a desirable thing to do. No one is required to do to it, but it is recommended that one try to do it, especially as a part of recovery and the Unification.

However, it can also be a very intensive thing to do, as the government of Voidelia takes its job very seriously, and people serving in government are literally never not on the job as long as they serve.

Because individual members of government need to be so intensely concerned with their jobs at literally all times, and because we want to give all citizens a direct voice in our government and leadership, we run management shifts so that the intensity of this job can be spaced out and distributed amongst the citizens.

Not all denizens of the Voidelian Federation can or do serve management shifts. Only citizens do. Citizens are fronting headmates who are bound to the Voidelian Code of Conduct - in other words, our personal rules for what to do and not do in the outerworld that everyone needs to follow if they use the body.

Residents are non-fronting headmates, parts, or entities, including some NPCs and fragments. Most if not all residents can become citizens if they want, although it may be hard for them to revoke their citizenship if they want to (they may be front triggered even if they try not to front). If they agree to follow the Code of Conduct (which includes taking accountability for their actions as well as the actions taken by our body), they can serve management shifts with their sidesystems.