Those who join the Chaordic Commons are called Owning Members. In the Commons, ownership refers to nearly irrevocable rights of participation in the organization, including the right of access to common properties, not to a financial stake in the organization or its assets. There are six classes of Owning Members in the Commons, in three major groupings:

• Individuals and Institutions can apply for direct membership if they subscribe to Terra Civitas' purpose and principles in conducting their activities within the Commons. Institutions need not operate in accordance with the purpose or principles internally - that is, a private company need not become chaordic in order to join as an institutional participant.
• Leagues, Alliances and Communities are centers of activity within the Commons that fully subscribe to the purpose and principles and observe them in all their activities. They must be capable of contracting but need not have the same legal structure as the Commons to which they belong.
• Derivative Owning Members are those whose membership derives from their participation in a Community, Alliance or League that is a fractal of the Commons.

Correspondent Members receive email updates from the Commons and have limited access to products and services. They do not have Owning Members' voting rights in the organization.

In joining, participants will enter through one of six broad categories that we term Origins. The only purpose served by these Origins is the creation of a balanced Council of Trustees. They do not constrain members' participation in any way beyond election of that Council. The initial Origins are:

• Individual / Citizen Group
• Commercial / Economic
• Nonprofit / Nongovernmental
• Philanthropy / Investment
• Government / Political
• Scientific / Academic

When individual or institutional Owning Members join a Community, Alliance or League, they become Derivative Owning Members of the Commons. Their voting rights - for Trustees, or on the rare issue that requires a decision by the entire community - are exercised by the fractal to which they belong. The participants in that fractal will determine how these rights are exercised.

Becoming a Derivative Owner does not reduce a participant's rights within the Commons. It does help strengthen Communities, Alliances and Leagues in relation to the whole and reduces the administrative burden on the central staff.