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Well, it's been a helluva month in the Natural Medicine community, with many real life happenings pulling us away from the community, despite our good intentions to make sure things are running smoothly and y'all are getting the Lotus Love you deserve.

This post is a little long awaited, but we've been trying to make sure that the collective is all organised and running smoothly before making any big announcements, and with time zones, immigration issues, family deaths, new jobs and mental health issues, we've had our work cut out for us trying to do just that - but we're only human, and doing our very best.

POWERDOWN

Many of you may have noticed the big powerdown on the Natural Medicine account. This is bound to cause concern, but rest assured it's all part of a restructuring of how the community is run. A large amount of the Hive is going to those who have invested heavily in the front end and it's various expenses over the last few years, and the huge amount of work they've put into building the community. Much of that has come from their own pocket and their own hard work - thousands of hours has been dedicated to Natural Medicine and the Lotus Team all agreed it was only fair to distribute the funds where they are due. We have always been clear that the community account funds were for the community - for development, upvotes, paying curators, challenges and so on. This remains the case.

Once this HIVE is distributed, the remaining HIVE will be distributed to the rest of the Lotus Team - @minismallholding, @justinparke, @pavanjr, @trucklife-family, @porters, @drrune and @holisticmom, proportionate to the amount of work they've put in over the last year. Then, this HIVE will be redelegated back to the account to increase the voting power. The proviso is that this be redelegated for a year, or if HIVE fails. Like most things on HIVE, it's based on trust and faith, and we believe we all have the best interests of HIVE at our hearts. If someone doesn't feel comfortable receiving the HIVE, they are free to resend it back to the community account, where it will stay to upvote.

LotusShares & Other Accounts

Currently, there is no powerdown on @lotusshares nor will there be unless the collective decides to cease the running of the Natural Medicine community. This is still used for upvotes for delegators, reblogs, upvotes and supplementary posts that can't fit on Natural Medicine that week.

There are a few supplementary accounts that were designed to suit various purposes and arrange funds - these will be consolidated soon. Any funds from these accounts will be used for the community and we'll update you coming newsletters about these.

We're Running as a Collective

The aim is to run as a collective in a more decentralised manner, rather than have a central leader with the keys. The keys (currently held by @riverflows and @alchemage, the main investors in the community) will be given to elected members who will be entrusted with them.

@riverflows and @alchemage are thus taking a step back from leadership of Natural Medicine, with the blessing of the Lotus Team, in the interests of creating a collective over a hierarchy, which fits better with her values and the values of the team. This means all Lotus Curators will have the power to make decisions and implement them, rather than one person being responsible. The workload will be more evenly distributed amongst many, rather than onerously shouldered by the very few. Decisions are made democratically in the Lotus Curators channel on Discord after majority votes. Both are hanging around to make sure all keys and other organisational matters are handed over smoothly and to help the collective run as best as it is able.

All beneficiary earnings since the powerdown began are going towards challenges and power ups for upvotes. Beneficiaries are still being discussed, but you'll see our post from last week about how they are distributed currently.

Whilst we can understand people might feel concern that the funds are being unfairly taken from the community, we assure you this is not the case - they are being given back to those who have worked incredibly hard to create the front end and the community with no remuneration. Our intention was always to help Natural Medicine have strong voting power to help others as an abundance project, and this has not changed - we're simply paying those who have put a lot of time and money into organising this community and making it what it is. We've given out thousands of HIVE over the years and supported so many people and feel really proud of what we've done to build this community. It's understandable that people may see this differently, but communities should be free to make their own decisions and run how they choose, so long as they are transparent and considering their curators, delegators, content creators and HIVE as a whole - something we're sure everyone agrees on, even if how they get there is a little different.

We're Still Natural Medicine

The core values of Natural Medicine and it's desire to support Natural Health content on HIVE remains the same. The entire team is committed to bringing you great curations and bringing you rewards and support as we have in the past few years.

The token remains the same, the front end remains the same, and our vibe remains the same.

Thankyou to all our delegators and supporters - we really appreciate what you do to keep us going as the best natural health community on HIVE.

The beneficiaries from this post remain with @lotusshares, with a 10 percent beneficiary to @sirenahippie, who is doing an extraordinary job keeping an eye on plagiarism and is now in charge of Lotus Recommends, a curation project that rewards curators and content creators through beneficiaries.

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