Bylaws

1.1 Purpose. WikiSubmission is organized and operated exclusively for religious, educational, and charitable purposes consistent with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its mission is to make the message of God accessible through trustworthy religious resources, education, research, creative work, community infrastructure, and free and open technology, with particular attention to the message of worldwide unity presented by Dr. Rashad Khalifa.

1.2 Devotion to God alone. WikiSubmission's religious foundation is devotion to God alone. The Quran is recognized as the complete source of religious guidance. The organization studies, preserves, and makes accessible Dr. Rashad Khalifa's work, including his presentation of the Quran's mathematical structure and his message concerning worship of God alone.

No director, officer, adviser, contributor, donor, scholar, community figure, or organization is an object of religious devotion or possesses authority to replace God, the Quran, evidence, or individual conscience.

1.3 Religious practice and righteous conduct. WikiSubmission affirms worship of God alone, belief in the Hereafter, and the religion of Abraham, including the Contact Prayers, obligatory charity, fasting during Ramadan, and pilgrimage for those able to perform it. The organization values truthfulness, justice, compassion, humility, patience, generosity, accountability, and service.

These principles govern the conduct of the organization but do not authorize the board to declare any person's ultimate standing before God.

1.4 Evidence, inquiry, and intellectual honesty. Religious conviction does not eliminate the duty to examine evidence honestly. WikiSubmission protects sincere questioning, study, disagreement, correction, and changes of understanding made in good faith.

The organization must clearly distinguish among the Quran, the recorded words or works of Dr. Rashad Khalifa, the work of other authors, historical material, and WikiSubmission's own analysis or interpretation. Reputation, office, seniority, wealth, popularity, or past contribution does not make a claim immune from examination.

Errors are to be corrected openly and proportionately. Significant corrections must preserve enough historical context for others to understand what changed and why.

1.5 Freedom of conscience and non-coercion. Participation in WikiSubmission is voluntary. The organization must not obtain agreement through threats, humiliation, retaliation, manufactured dependency, religious intimidation, social exclusion, misuse of private information, or abuse of organizational access.

No person may be pressured to surrender a legal right, accept mistreatment, conceal wrongdoing, or affirm a religious conclusion merely to preserve a role, relationship, reputation, or access to WikiSubmission resources.

Public religious and educational resources are available without requiring agreement with the board, financial contribution, organizational membership, or personal loyalty.

1.6 Consultation and unity. WikiSubmission is governed through consultation and freely reached agreement rather than simple majority domination. Each director has equal standing in board deliberations. Except where these bylaws expressly provide otherwise for conflicts of interest, accountability, emergencies, or vacancies, a board decision requires the affirmative agreement of every current director entitled to vote on the matter.

A dissenting director is not required to yield merely because the other directors are more numerous. Likewise, dissent does not entitle a director to demand unrelated concessions, obstruct for personal advantage, or refuse sincere consultation. Each director must explain material concerns honestly, listen to the others, remain open to revision, and seek an outcome all can conscientiously accept.

Failure to reach agreement is itself an outcome. No person may force approval merely because delay is inconvenient or the desired result appears beneficial.

1.7 Stewardship rather than ownership. WikiSubmission belongs to no founder, family, faction, donor, director, contributor, or generation. Organizational authority exists only to serve its exempt purposes.

No founder receives a permanent seat, special vote, veto, ownership interest, succession right, or superior religious status by reason of founding, funding, building, or historically leading the organization. The same rule applies to every later director or major contributor.

Authority follows a defined responsibility and ends when that responsibility ends.

1.8 Independence from personality and faction. WikiSubmission must be capable of continuing without any particular individual. Its systems, records, finances, credentials, intellectual property, and decision processes must therefore be maintained as organizational assets rather than personal possessions.

The organization must not structure itself around a personality cult, hereditary leadership, private following, or factional loyalty. Directors are expected to protect contributors and community members who raise sincere disagreement, including disagreement with influential people.

1.9 Institutional nonpartisanship. WikiSubmission does not participate or intervene in political campaigns for or against candidates for public office. Organizational money, property, publications, accounts, staff time, or reputation must not be used to endorse or oppose a candidate.

Directors, officers, contributors, and community members retain their individual civic freedoms when acting personally and not on behalf of WikiSubmission. Personal political views do not become organizational positions merely because the person holds a role within WikiSubmission.

Any legislative or public-policy activity undertaken by WikiSubmission must remain consistent with its exempt purposes and applicable law.

1.10 Law and governing documents. WikiSubmission acts subject to applicable law, its articles of incorporation, these bylaws, and properly adopted board policies, in that order of legal authority. Nothing in these bylaws authorizes unlawful conduct or disregard of a binding legal obligation.

When a legal requirement appears to conflict with an organizational practice or religious interpretation, the board must seek competent advice and choose a lawful course that preserves the organization's principles as fully as reasonably possible.

1.11 Protection of the covenant. Article 1 states the organization's foundational covenant. It is not to be modified merely for convenience, growth, fundraising, influence, a new majority, a major donor, a prominent leader, or temporary conflict.

Any proposal to amend Article 1 must satisfy the heightened process in Section 10.2. No policy, delegation, emergency action, contract, subsidiary, venture, merger, or interpretation may be used to accomplish indirectly what these bylaws prohibit directly.

2.1 Governing body. WikiSubmission has no voting members. Its corporate powers, property, and affairs are directed by or under the authority of its board of directors, subject to applicable law, the articles of incorporation, these bylaws, and valid delegations.

Contributors, advisers, donors, users, supporters, and community participants do not acquire a corporate vote, ownership interest, or authority to bind WikiSubmission merely through participation or support.

2.2 Size of the board. The board consists of not fewer than three and not more than seven directors. The board may change the number of authorized seats within that range only by unanimous approval of all current directors.

The board should remain small enough for genuine consultation while broad enough to avoid dependence on one person or relationship.

2.3 Qualifications. A director must be at least eighteen years old, affirm and support the covenant in Article 1, accept the fiduciary responsibilities of nonprofit governance, exercise independent judgment, disclose material conflicts, and have sufficient availability to participate meaningfully.

Directors should be selected for demonstrated character, judgment, competence, ability to consult sincerely, and willingness to serve rather than for wealth, popularity, technical control, family relationship, seniority, or religious reputation alone.

No director is required to agree with every interpretation held by another director. A candidate must, however, be able to govern faithfully within Article 1.

2.4 Selection of directors. A new director is elected only by the affirmative agreement of every current director entitled to vote on the appointment.

Before election, the board must allow enough time for meaningful consideration of the candidate's character, judgment, contribution, availability, conflicts, financial relationships with WikiSubmission, and ability to work under unanimous consultation. The candidate must receive these bylaws and accept them in writing.

Ordinarily, the board should have enough prior experience with a candidate to evaluate conduct rather than reputation alone. Each candidate is considered separately.

2.5 Terms. Directors serve three-year terms and may be reelected without a fixed term limit. Reelection requires the same unanimous approval required for an initial appointment.

At least annually, the board reviews each director's participation, workload, conflicts, attendance, responsibilities, and succession needs. Reelection is not automatic and should not be treated as an entitlement.

A director whose term has expired may continue temporarily only to the extent permitted by law while an orderly succession is completed.

2.6 Public accountability. A director accepts that service on the board is a position of public trust. WikiSubmission may publicly identify its directors and principal officers and disclose information reasonably necessary for legal compliance and institutional accountability, including material organizational conflicts and compensation received from WikiSubmission.

Private addresses, personal contact details, security information, protected communications, and unrelated personal information are not public merely because someone serves as a director.

2.7 Resignation, leave, and inability to serve. A director may resign by written notice. A temporary absence, illness, travel, family responsibility, or other hardship does not automatically end a board seat or surrender a vote.

The board should first consider reasonable accommodations, redistribution of work, leave, or an agreed transition when a director temporarily cannot serve. A prolonged inability to perform essential board responsibilities may be addressed through Article 7.

2.8 No proxy governance. A director must exercise personal judgment and may not transfer the director's general vote, conscience, or governing responsibility to another person. Directors do not vote by proxy.

A director may rely in good faith on competent professional advice, staff analysis, advisers, or subject-matter expertise, but responsibility for the director's decision remains personal.

3.1 Unanimous approval. Except where these bylaws expressly provide otherwise, an action of the board requires the affirmative approval of every current director entitled to vote on the matter.

Silence, nonresponse, absence, abstention, or refusal to participate is not approval. The chair has no casting vote or additional authority because of the office.

3.2 Purpose of consultation. Consultation is not a contest for numerical control. Its purpose is to expose relevant facts, test reasoning, understand affected interests, correct error, and seek an outcome each director can accept in good conscience.

Directors must distinguish principled objection from preference, inconvenience, personality conflict, fear of change, and personal interest. No director is required to abandon a sincere material concern merely to create the appearance of harmony.

3.3 Preparing a proposal. A material proposal should identify its purpose, relevant evidence, expected cost, significant risks, responsible persons, alternatives, foreseeable effects, and whether the action can be reversed.

The level of documentation should be proportionate to the consequence of the decision. Routine matters do not require unnecessary bureaucracy, but major decisions should leave a record sufficient for future directors to understand why they were made.

3.4 Affected people and community input. The board governs the corporation, but it does not operate in isolation from the people affected by its decisions. For material decisions affecting contributors, users, communities, or public resources, the board should seek proportionate input from people with relevant knowledge or a substantial interest in the outcome.

Consultation outside the board informs the directors' judgment but does not create corporate voting rights. Popularity does not replace the directors' duties, and board unanimity does not by itself establish that everyone affected has been treated justly.

3.5 When agreement is not reached. When directors do not agree, the proposal is not approved. The board should identify the narrowest point of disagreement and consider revision, additional evidence, a smaller reversible step, a limited trial, delay, or an alternative arrangement.

The existing condition is not automatically entitled to continue merely because a proposed change lacks approval. If the status quo is causing material harm or violating a legal duty, the board must continue consulting and use whatever lawful existing authority is available to address that harm.

3.6 No coercion through delay or control. A director may not use control of money, credentials, infrastructure, property, private information, staffing, or timing to pressure another director into agreement. A director may not condition approval on an unrelated personal concession.

Likewise, a director may not use the unanimity rule in bad faith to obtain personal benefit, protect misconduct, retaliate, or disable the organization for an unrelated purpose.

3.7 Facilitation of persistent disagreement. For important disagreement that persists after sincere consultation, the board should pause where reasonably possible and seek additional evidence or an impartial facilitator acceptable to the directors.

A facilitator, adviser, scholar, attorney, accountant, mediator, or other expert may assist the board but receives no vote merely by advising it and may not impose an outcome.

3.8 Meetings. The board meets at least quarterly and holds an annual meeting. Any director may request a meeting.

Regular meetings should receive at least seven days' notice and a reasonable agenda. Urgent meetings may be called on at least forty-eight hours' notice when circumstances genuinely require faster action. Longer notice required elsewhere in these bylaws controls for amendments, director removal, and similarly consequential matters.

Meetings may occur in person or through reliable remote communication that allows all participating directors to hear one another.

3.9 Quorum. A majority of the directors then in office, and never fewer than two, constitutes a quorum for discussion and business at a meeting.

Quorum does not reduce the approval requirement in Section 3.1. When a director entitled to vote is absent, the board may deliberate but may not finally approve an ordinary board action until that director affirmatively agrees.

3.10 Written action. Board action without a meeting requires the affirmative written consent of every current director entitled to vote on the matter. Electronic consent is acceptable when the organization can reasonably verify the director and preserve the record.

WikiSubmission does not treat failure to respond, silence, or written abstention as consent to action without a meeting.

3.11 Reservations. A director may ultimately approve a compromise while requesting that a material reservation be recorded. Approval means the director consents to the action proceeding; it does not require the director to pretend that every concern disappeared.

The minutes should preserve significant reservations when they may help future review.

4.1 Principal officers. The board annually appoints a president or chair, a secretary, and a treasurer. The board may establish additional officer roles when useful.

The chair facilitates board consultation and follows up on decisions. The secretary preserves notices, minutes, resolutions, governing documents, and required corporate records. The treasurer oversees financial records, reporting, controls, and filing responsibilities.

An officer title does not create a superior vote, religious rank, ownership interest, or general authority beyond the responsibilities assigned to that office.

4.2 Separation of roles. When the board consists of only three directors, the principal offices should ordinarily be held by different directors unless temporary circumstances make that impracticable and applicable law permits otherwise.

Financial approval, recordkeeping, and custody of assets should be distributed so that no single person unnecessarily controls all parts of a material transaction.

4.3 Delegated authority. The board may unanimously delegate a defined project, operational area, recurring responsibility, or budget to an officer, contributor, employee, contractor, or team.

A delegation should identify the scope of authority, material limits, reporting expectations, financial authority where applicable, and a review point. A person acting within a valid delegation does not need a new board vote for each routine decision.

4.4 Limits of delegation. Delegation does not transfer the board's ultimate responsibility. A delegate may not exceed the authority granted or use delegated control to establish personal ownership over organizational work, systems, people, or assets.

The board retains authority over matters reserved by Section 4.6.

4.5 Contributors and project leads. WikiSubmission may engage volunteers, employees, contractors, developers, designers, researchers, writers, translators, moderators, educators, artists, project leads, and others needed for its work.

Their responsibilities, access, compensation where applicable, supervision, authorship, licensing, confidentiality, and ownership of work should be documented at a level appropriate to the role.

A contributor or project title does not confer a board vote or authority to bind WikiSubmission unless that authority is expressly delegated.

4.6 Matters reserved to the board. The board itself must approve the annual budget; election or removal of directors; appointment of principal officers; borrowing or guarantees; compensation involving directors or officers; material related-party transactions; major new ventures; disposition of essential organizational assets; material changes to official religious publications or organizational positions; mergers; dissolution; amendments to governing documents; and other matters the board reserves by policy.

A reserved decision may not be divided into smaller transactions or routed through a delegate to avoid board review.

4.7 Policies. The board may adopt policies for finance, information security, privacy, contributor access, publication standards, compensation, records retention, conflicts of interest, intellectual property, artificial intelligence, incident response, and other recurring operational matters.

Policies must remain consistent with these bylaws and may not be used to alter the governing covenant or voting requirements indirectly.

5.1 Use of charitable assets. WikiSubmission's money, property, labor, reputation, and other assets are held solely for its exempt purposes. No part of its net earnings may improperly inure to the benefit of a director, officer, donor, contributor, founder, related person, or other private individual.

Reasonable compensation for genuine services and reimbursement of legitimate organizational expenses are permitted when approved through a fair process.

5.2 Budget and financial discipline. The board approves an annual budget or equivalent financial plan. The organization must maintain accurate books, preserve appropriate supporting records, reconcile its accounts regularly, and keep organizational funds separate from personal funds.

At least two authorized people should have independent visibility into material financial accounts and records. The board shall maintain a financial-controls policy appropriate to the organization's size and risk.

5.3 Payment controls. No person approves that person's own compensation or reimbursement. Material payments should be subject to independent review or approval under a written financial-controls policy.

Related purchases, contracts, or transfers must not be artificially separated to avoid a review or approval threshold.

5.4 Duty to disclose conflicts. Directors and principal officers must disclose material financial, family, business, organizational, romantic, or other personal interests when those interests could reasonably impair independent judgment on a WikiSubmission matter.

Disclosures must be made when joining, reviewed periodically, and updated when a relevant circumstance arises.

A mere disagreement, criticism of leadership, religious interpretation, friendship, community acquaintance, or report of wrongdoing is not automatically a disqualifying conflict.

5.5 Recusal. A person with a material conflict must disclose the relevant facts and, when appropriate, leave the deliberation and decision on the affected transaction except to provide factual information requested by the disinterested directors.

The conflicted director does not possess a veto over the matter. Approval requires the affirmative agreement of all directors entitled to vote after the recusal and must satisfy applicable law. The organization should seek independent advice when there are too few disinterested directors to evaluate the matter reliably.

5.6 Related-party transactions. A transaction involving a director, officer, close family member, related business, or another material personal interest must be demonstrably fair to WikiSubmission and serve its exempt purposes.

The record should identify the relationship, relevant alternatives or comparisons, reasons for the decision, and the basis for concluding that the terms are reasonable. Personal relationships must not substitute for documentation.

5.7 Compensation. Directors receive no compensation merely for serving on the board. A director may be paid for separate and necessary work if the arrangement is reasonable, documented in advance, and approved without that director's participation under the conflict rules.

Compensation for officers, employees, and contractors must reflect actual services and be reasonable in relation to the work, relevant market information, and WikiSubmission's resources. Organizational surplus is not a personal entitlement.

5.8 Loans and personal use. WikiSubmission does not make loans to directors or officers or use charitable assets as personal credit, collateral, or property except where applicable law expressly permits an arrangement and independent legal review confirms that it is appropriate. Organizational assets may not be diverted for personal use outside a documented lawful compensation or reimbursement arrangement.

5.9 Donations. Donations do not purchase governing authority, religious influence, appointments, favorable publication, private access, or control over organizational conclusions.

WikiSubmission will honor lawful donor restrictions it accepts. It may decline or return a gift whose conditions are inconsistent with the mission, create impermissible private benefit, compromise independence, or impose obligations disproportionate to the gift.

5.10 Ventures and earned revenue. WikiSubmission may operate, own, license, support, or participate in mission-consistent ventures, products, services, and revenue-generating activities when the board determines that the arrangement responsibly advances the organization's purposes.

Before a material venture is approved, the board should document its purpose, expected public benefit, ownership, financial exposure, conflicts, significant risks, use of WikiSubmission's name and intellectual property, and relevant tax or legal considerations.

A commercial label, revenue promise, or donation commitment does not by itself make an activity consistent with WikiSubmission's exempt purposes.

5.11 Separate entities. A separate company, project, partner, or operator is not bound merely because WikiSubmission supports it. Any commitment involving revenue sharing, intellectual property, use of WikiSubmission's name, charitable support, data access, or continuing obligations must be contained in an enforceable written agreement when material.

WikiSubmission must not use a separate entity to evade restrictions that apply to the nonprofit.

6.1 Source integrity. WikiSubmission must preserve reliable provenance for religious texts, translations, historical materials, mathematical claims, quotations, recordings, and archival resources that it publishes.

Where practicable, records should identify the source, author, edition, date, permissions, and material editorial changes. WikiSubmission must not silently alter another person's work and present the result as the original.

6.2 Interpretation and attribution. WikiSubmission must distinguish source material from commentary and interpretation. Statements produced by WikiSubmission, its contributors, software, or artificial intelligence must not be presented as scripture or as the infallible words of Dr. Rashad Khalifa.

Material claims should be supported by evidence appropriate to the nature of the claim. Where substantial uncertainty or disagreement exists, the presentation should not manufacture certainty.

6.3 Corrections. Errors should be corrected without defensiveness or concealment. Significant factual, textual, mathematical, historical, or attribution corrections should leave a reasonable public record of what changed.

A correction is not institutional weakness. The ability to identify and repair error is part of WikiSubmission's commitment to truth.

6.4 Free access. Core public religious and educational resources produced or maintained by WikiSubmission should remain freely accessible without requiring payment, donation, account status, or ideological conformity.

Optional products and services may charge reasonable fees when consistent with the organization's purposes and financial policies, but payment must not become a gatekeeper to essential public religious material.

6.5 Technology and open development. WikiSubmission uses technology to broaden access, preserve knowledge, and reduce unnecessary dependence on gatekeepers. Software owned by WikiSubmission should be released under appropriate open-source terms when reasonably compatible with security, privacy, licensing, sustainability, and the interests of the mission.

A decision to keep a material WikiSubmission-owned system closed should have a documented organizational reason rather than arising from personal control or convenience.

6.6 Artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence may assist research, translation, accessibility, software, search, education, and other work, but it must remain subject to human accountability appropriate to the risk.

AI-generated or substantially AI-transformed religious material should be identifiable as such where a reasonable user could otherwise mistake it for an original source or authoritative human scholarship. Systems should preserve traceability to primary sources when practicable and allow meaningful human correction.

6.7 Privacy and personal data. WikiSubmission collects and retains only personal information reasonably needed for its work, legal obligations, security, or legitimate administration. It must safeguard sensitive information proportionately to the risk and must not sell personal information.

Private correspondence, pastoral or personal disclosures, donor information, internal reports, and contributor identity information must not be used as instruments of leverage, retaliation, gossip, or religious pressure.

6.8 Advertising and commercial influence. Core religious resources should not be designed around behavioral advertising or commercial pressure. Sponsorships, partnerships, or commercial relationships must not determine religious conclusions or compromise the independence of educational material.

7.1 Right to raise concerns. Any director, officer, contributor, user, or other person may report suspected fraud, misuse of assets, harassment, retaliation, serious dishonesty, abuse of authority, security misconduct, substantial neglect of duty, or another material breach affecting WikiSubmission.

A person does not commit misconduct merely by making a good-faith report that is later unsubstantiated.

7.2 No retaliation. WikiSubmission prohibits retaliation against a person for raising a concern in good faith, declining an unlawful or materially improper instruction, participating honestly in a review, or contacting lawful outside authorities.

Criticism, dissent, questioning leadership, or disagreement over religious interpretation is not itself retaliation-worthy misconduct.

7.3 Impartial review. A person materially implicated in a complaint must not control its review. Serious allegations involving a director, senior officer, significant financial matter, or substantial risk should be evaluated through an impartial process proportionate to the issue.

The board may use an independent investigator, mediator, attorney, accountant, security professional, or other qualified reviewer when appropriate.

7.4 Fair process. Material corrective action should be based on reasonably established facts rather than rumor, factional pressure, anonymous hostility, or disagreement alone. The person affected should ordinarily receive notice of the material allegations and a meaningful opportunity to respond before final action, except where temporary protective measures are reasonably necessary.

Privacy should be respected without promising secrecy that would make a fair review or legal compliance impossible.

7.5 Grounds for serious discipline. Serious discipline may be appropriate for fraud, theft, material misuse of organizational assets, deliberate falsification, serious harassment, retaliation, abuse of confidential information, intentional sabotage, grave breach of fiduciary duty, repeated refusal to perform essential responsibilities after notice, or comparable misconduct materially affecting WikiSubmission.

Sincere disagreement, criticism, minority position, personal unpopularity, refusal to surrender conscience, or loss of favor with an influential person is not sufficient cause.

7.6 Temporary protective action. When credible facts indicate an immediate material risk to people, money, data, systems, legal compliance, or essential organizational property, the smallest reasonably necessary temporary protective action may be taken under Section 9.2.

Temporary restriction is not a finding of guilt and must not be used to predetermine the outcome of a fair review.

7.7 Removal of a director. To the extent permitted by applicable law, a director elected by the board may be removed for substantial cause only after a fair process.

The director must receive written notice describing the material grounds and proposed action at least twenty-one days before the final removal decision, together with a reasonable opportunity to respond. Where the allegations are disputed and serious, the board should obtain independent factual review before voting.

The affected director does not vote on the director's own removal. Removal requires the affirmative vote of every other director entitled to vote and at least two affirmative votes. The board must record the grounds, effective date, and transition arrangements.

7.8 Separate consequences. A board seat, officer appointment, employment relationship, contractor engagement, volunteer role, compensation arrangement, and technical access are legally and operationally distinct. Ending one does not automatically end the others unless the applicable agreement, law, or separate decision so provides.

Restrictions should be tailored to the actual risk rather than used to impose unnecessary collateral punishment.

8.1 Corporate records. WikiSubmission keeps accurate minutes, board resolutions, governing documents, director and officer records, accounting records, material contracts, conflict disclosures, and other records required by law or board policy.

Minutes should record material decisions, approvals, recusals, significant reservations, delegations, and temporary emergency actions without unnecessarily reproducing private discussion.

8.2 Transparency. WikiSubmission should make publicly available its current governing documents, current directors and principal officers, legally required public filings, and meaningful information about its finances and major institutional decisions.

At least annually, the organization should publish or otherwise make available a useful financial summary appropriate to its size and activities.

Transparency must be balanced with legitimate privacy, security, legal privilege, contractual confidentiality, and protection of sensitive personal information.

8.3 Organizational ownership and custody. Domains, repositories, software accounts, financial accounts, mailing lists, archives, credentials, licenses, datasets, significant equipment, organizational social accounts, and other essential assets should be owned or controlled by WikiSubmission where reasonably possible.

No person may withhold organizational property, credentials, access, or records to force a vote, obtain personal payment, retaliate, or gain leverage in a dispute.

8.4 Access resilience. Essential systems must not depend unnecessarily on a single person's private account, memory, device, or continued goodwill. The organization should maintain at least two independent authorized access or recovery paths for critical systems where technically and legally practical.

Access must follow actual responsibility and should be removed or changed promptly when responsibility changes.

8.5 Intellectual property. The ownership or license status of significant contributed work should be documented. Participation alone does not transfer copyright or other rights.

WikiSubmission must honor valid open-source licenses, content licenses, donor restrictions, contractual rights, and third-party intellectual property. Contributors should receive reasonable attribution consistent with the nature of the work and applicable agreements.

8.6 Record preservation. The board shall maintain a records-retention policy appropriate to legal, financial, historical, technical, and operational needs. Records relevant to an active complaint, investigation, audit, legal dispute, or preservation notice must not be destroyed merely because an ordinary retention period has expired.

9.1 Continuity as a duty. The board must plan for WikiSubmission to continue through departure, illness, death, conflict, technical failure, loss of a vendor, loss of a facility, or other foreseeable disruption.

At least annually, the board should review critical credentials, backups, financial access, legal filings, insurance where appropriate, key contracts, responsible persons, succession needs, and recovery procedures.

9.2 Emergency protective authority. When delay would create an imminent material risk to people, charitable assets, data, systems, legal compliance, or essential operations, a responsible officer may take the smallest reasonably necessary and reasonably reversible action to contain the risk.

The officer should obtain a second authorized person's agreement when time reasonably allows, document the circumstances, and notify all directors promptly. Emergency authority may not be used to settle an ordinary disagreement, permanently remove a director, amend governing documents, change the religious covenant, dissolve the organization, or transfer substantially all assets.

9.3 Review of emergency action. Emergency action must be reviewed by the board as soon as reasonably practicable. Restrictions should end when no longer necessary or be replaced by properly approved measures.

Emergency authority is protective, not legislative. It does not create a precedent for bypassing consultation.

9.4 Board vacancies. Vacancies should be filled deliberately but without unnecessary delay. Remaining directors may fill a vacancy in the manner permitted by law and these bylaws.

When two or more directors remain, filling a vacancy requires the affirmative agreement of all remaining directors entitled to vote. When fewer than the normal quorum remain, the remaining director or directors may use the authority permitted by law only to restore a functioning board, not to exploit the vacancy for unrelated structural changes.

9.5 Succession. The board should maintain an informal or formal succession pipeline of people whose character, competence, service, and judgment can be observed over time. A succession list does not confer a right to appointment.

No relative, executor, employee, technical administrator, donor, or close associate automatically succeeds to a board seat or organizational authority.

9.6 Loss of all directors. If no directors remain, the organization should use the lawful corporate or judicial process available to restore governance in a manner most faithful to Article 1. No private person acquires WikiSubmission's assets or governing rights merely because governance has temporarily failed.

10.1 Ordinary amendments. Any director may propose an amendment to these bylaws. The complete proposed language and a written explanation should be delivered to every director at least thirty days before final action.

An amendment requires the affirmative approval of every current director entitled to vote, at least three directors in office, and any additional approval required by law or the articles of incorporation.

An amendment may not be adopted indirectly through a policy, delegation, emergency action, or contract.

10.2 Amendments to the governing covenant. An amendment to Article 1 requires exceptional care. The complete proposed language and reasons must be provided at least sixty days before final action. The board must consider the proposal at not fewer than two consultations separated by sufficient time for reflection and must unanimously determine that the amendment preserves, clarifies, or more faithfully expresses WikiSubmission's fundamental religious and charitable identity rather than weakening it for temporary advantage.

When the amendment could affect the articles of incorporation, tax-exempt status, donor restrictions, or material legal rights, the board must obtain appropriate legal advice before adoption.

No amendment may authorize private ownership of WikiSubmission, hereditary authority, personal religious supremacy, coercive control of conscience, unlawful private benefit, or conduct incompatible with the organization's continued charitable status.

10.3 Periodic review. The board reviews these bylaws periodically and after significant growth, legal change, organizational restructuring, or experience revealing a material governance weakness.

Review does not imply that amendment is necessary. The purpose is to identify whether the written structure still protects the mission under real conditions rather than merely in theory.

10.4 Growth and restructuring. Before materially changing the governance structure, creating voting membership, expanding beyond the board-size range in these bylaws, transferring major governance functions to another entity, or undertaking a comparable structural change, the board must adopt a lawful plan that preserves the principles of Article 1, clear fiduciary responsibility, meaningful consultation, accountability, and continuity.

Growth is not by itself a reason to centralize authority in one person or weaken safeguards.

10.5 Merger and transfer of substantially all assets. A merger or transfer of all or substantially all organizational assets requires unanimous approval of every director entitled to vote, at least three directors in office, and compliance with applicable law and the articles of incorporation.

A merger, affiliate structure, asset transfer, or successor entity must not be used primarily to escape the governing covenant, enrich private persons, or place public religious resources under inappropriate private control.

10.6 Dissolution. Voluntary dissolution requires unanimous approval of every director entitled to vote, at least three directors in office, and compliance with all applicable legal procedures.

After payment or provision for lawful liabilities and compliance with valid restrictions, remaining assets must be distributed as required by the articles of incorporation and section 501(c)(3) to one or more qualifying organizations whose purposes are reasonably consistent with WikiSubmission's religious, educational, or charitable mission. No remaining charitable property may be distributed for the private benefit of a director, donor, founder, contributor, or other private person.

Where lawful and reasonably practicable, the organization should preserve continued public access to educational works, archives, and openly licensed software after dissolution.