The Balean Handbook

• 1: Balean
• 1.1: Balean Culture
• 1.1.1: Balean Values
• 1.1.2:
• 1.2: Support
• 1.3: Strategy
• 1.4: ANBI Status
• 2: Compliance
• 2.1: Compliance rules for ANBI
• 2.2: Travel and meeting policy
• 2.3: Confidentiality
• 3: Community
• 3.1: Code of Conduct
• 3.2: Volunteering
• 4: Engineering
• 4.1: Test Cases Guidelines
• 5: Governance
• 5.1: Customer Relations Management
• 5.2: IT
• 5.2.1: Tech stack
• 5.3: Finance
• 5.3.1: Payroll

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1 - Balean

Purpose

Our purpose is to connect people with the ocean.

We believe that protecting and restoring marine ecosystems starts by involving everyone; from individuals to institutions.

Through digital tools, storytelling, and shared knowledge, we make it easy to support science-based ocean conservation.

Together, we build a movement that transforms care into action. By connecting individuals, businesses, institutions, and governments to actionable marine efforts, we accelerate scalable impact on oceans and coasts, globally and locally.

Vision

Imagine what’s possible when we come together, fuelling a growing movement to protect and preserve nature for generations to come.

By growing a strong community of people, funding, and knowledge, we enable scalable solutions for nature conservation.

Our platform empowers partners to scale their conservation impact by connecting with a growing community—bringing together capital, data, and public engagement to drive systemic change.

Mission

We empower people to restore oceans together. Through our Balean platform, everyone can support conservation projects, follow their real-world impact, and feel connected to nature. Powered by a growing network of partners, we turn collective data into meaningful change.

Balean’s data-driven platform enables transparent and scalable ocean conservation through funding, awareness and visibility. The Balean platform creates a feedback loop between partners and the public, fostering trust, engagement, and insight, where everybody can be part of positive solutions.

Business architecture

To position Balean in the world at large, a business architecture is developed. This architecture is available in a draw.io diagram (For internal use only).

1.1 - Balean Culture

1.1.1 - Balean Values

The values we believe in

Balean is a purpose organisation that wants to make a positive impact. Everything we do to make this positive impact, should be guided by our 5 core values: Sustainability - Collaboration - Open mind - Honesty & Transparency - Trust.

What each of these values means to us is explained below.

Sustainability

In our organization, sustainability is our guidance and moral compass in everything we do and decisions we make. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 13 (climate action), 14 (life below water) and 17 (partnerships for the goals) are central for Balean, where we help partners achieve their own sustainability ambition.

Collaboration

In our global vision, collaboration outperforms competition for a positive impact. We search actively for mutually beneficial collaboration across disciplines. We continuously improve and embrace long term partnerships.

Honesty and transparency

We are transparent and honest about what we do and how we do it, in everything we do. Collaborative learning is central in public discussions both within Balean as towards 3rd parties.

Open mind

To make impact we need new ideas and perspectives. For our mission, anyone can contribute from their perspective, where we respect each others views and opinions. Diversity in background, culture, gender, or other any other factor enhances creativity and solutions.

Trust

Authenticity, empathy, and reliability is the basis for Balean. Everyone can make mistakes and we assume positive intent in our mission to a positive impact. Help each other in fixing things and learn collaboratively to improve together.

1.1.2 -

Guide to effectively work remotely

The Balean Foundation has people all over the world working together to make impact on ocean sustainability. This requires to put in place procedures and policies to effectively work together.

This page is a draft document on how we aim to work in an all-remote environment. It is still pending internal review before being published and changes may be made to the document before publication.

Since we are a young and dynamic team, we also still need to learn. But why not take the lessons from the established? Many of our remote policy is based on GitLab’s All Remote handbook. This is an iterative process where learn and make changes as necessary.

Important in an all-remote, asynchronous organisation is to have all information available online. Our single source of truth is our online handbook which holds information on how we work and decisions we make. Everyone is allowed and encouraged to make changes to the handbook.

Working from home

Working completely from home is not always easy. During the intake procedure, we always check with individuals if they are able to work from home comfortably. People get the flexibility to work at the times that fits their rhythm best in non-linear work days but we also encourage them to clearly separate work from life.

When you completely work at times that are out-of-sync with your colleagues, it will be a lot harder to collaborate and have meetings together. We strongly encourage people to stay connected with your team through regular meetings and synchronous collaboration via e.g. Slack. If timezones or other situations make it hard or impossible to sync work times within your team, then be very careful to log progress and outcomes for everyone to review.

Since working from home can be lonely sometimes we find it important to have regular check-ins to see and hear how somebody is doing. The goal is to have at least one weekly check-in with the direct manager or company representative and add more check-in meetings when necessary. People are encouraged to read this All remote starter guide.

Communication

Working remotely also brings with it that a lot of communication is asynchronously. We use Slack as the main channel for direct communication. People can at all times send a Slack message. We try to keep Slack and Slack channels as open as possible so everybody is aware of what is going on and everyone can respond to questions. We do ask people to check for and respond to Slack messages on every workday but we never expect people to respond outside working hours.

To keep your colleagues informed on your working schedule, we encourage you to complete your Slack profile. Especially your time zone and regular working hours would be great to see in Slack. You can also set regular working hours in Google Calendars so that when people book a meeting with you, they can see if the meeting is within working hours.

Meetings are a great way to synchronously discuss certain topics are make a decision. If the purpose of a meeting is not clear or a meeting is not really effective, everyone can always ask to clarify the purpose, provide an agenda or ask to cancel the meeting if ineffective. The outcome of a meeting should always be written down. This can be either in a Google Docs document to track meeting minutes or the transcription, or in an online source like the handbook or the documentation site.

Time off

Since there is no office where you can see if people are present, it is important to communicate about your whereabouts. When people take a day off or are away from their keyboard for a longer time (more than an hour), we ask them to set the correct status in Slack so everyone can see this.

Progress tracking

When you work from home, it is a lot harder to share or show what you are working on. Also is it more difficult to sit together and ask questions. We therefore expect people to work in openness and transparency. Work is tracked (mostly) in GitLab through tasks and merge requests. If people work on code, we expect them to commit frequently in order to trigger feedback loops and also to encourage collaboration.

Documents, memos and other office related content is always written directly in our Google Docs workspace, again for visibility, transparency and to encourage collaboration.

To keep it easy and transparent to book meetings and know what people are doing, we strongly ask people to also share there calendars with everyone in the organization. We understand the privacy implications and aren’t making this mandatory but ask you to work fully transparent nonetheless. You can ofcourse set meetings as private to prevent others from seeing the topic.

Well-being

To beat loneliness, we allow people to have informal meetings among each other.

Long hours are not encouraged, neither is working in the weekends. But people can plan their workweek is they see fit, as long as progress is being made.

Working remotely can be a challenge for people. The regular check-in meetings are to detect early signs of remote work burnout.

Although not mandatory, we do offer to schedule regular in-person co-working days, for deeper connection, different topics of conversation and spontaneous discussions. This can help overcome the feeling of loneliness and being excluded.

1.2 - Support

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of Balean?

Our purpose is to connect people with the ocean. You can read more about our purpose in our handbook.

How can I become a member of the Balean platform?

At the moment, the platform does not support memberships or accounts. If you are an organisation and want to have your ocean sustainability project on our platform, then please contact us via this form.

How can I support the Balean initiative?

The Balean foundation is also a non-profit, living from your donations. If you want to support the platform itself, you can do that on our project page.

What is the background of the founders?

Please read our founder story.

Who are the founders?

The founders of Balean are Bart Oor and Sander Brienen. Please read our founder story.

Is Balean an organisation with public interest?

Please check our ANBI page.

Can I also publish my story on the Balean platform?

We are happy to discuss the possibilities with you. Please reach out via this contact form.

Can I also have my project listed on the Balean platform?

We are happy to discuss the possibilities with you. Please reach out via this contact form.

What happens with my money?

One of the values of the Balean Foundation is transparency. With our donation process, we also want to be fully transparent. Since the Balean Foundation is also a non-profit, we are as dependent from donations as the projects on our platform. Therefore, we ask for a tip during the checkout process to support the platform itself.

In short, When you donate to a project, you will see the following items on the donation page: Donation, Tip and Processing Fee. Let’s explain each of these items below.

• Donation: This is the amount that is actually going to the project you are donating to.
• Tip: This is the tip that goes to Balean to keep the platform running.
• Processing Fee: Every transaction costs money. Transaction cost are a significant part of our cost. If you want to make full impact, you can opt to cover the processing fee.

Why should I cover for the transaction cost?

Every transaction costs money. This is a significant part of the operational cost for the Balean Foundation. Balean is also depending on donations to keep the platform running. When you are willing to also cover for the transaction cost, you help Balean to stay operational so we can keep doing what we do.

How to get the Balean App on my phone?

The Balean App is a progressive web app that can be installed directly from your browser. It is not available in the app stores at the moment. Check how to install the app on your home screen.

How to install the Balean App on my home screen?

To install the Balean App on your home screen, navigate to https://www.balean.org in your browser.

Click on the three dots in the address bar of your browser to open the browser menu. From the drop-down menu, select the option “Add to Home Screen”.

1.3 - Strategy

Business architecture

To position Balean in the world at large, a business architecture is developed. This architecture is available in a draw.io diagram (For internal use only).

1.4 - ANBI Status

Dutch text below

Details

The Balean foundation is legally registered under the following name and address:

Stichting Balean
Provincialeweg 21
5835 CZ Beugen
The Netherlands

KvK (Chamber of Commerce) registration: 95267565
RSIN number: 867065710

Public Interest Organisation

Balean is formally identified as an organisation for public interest (ANBI status) as of August 18, 2025. You can verify this status on the site of the Dutch tax services using the RSIN number.

Purpose

According to our statutes (in dutch), Balean has the following purpose:

1. The aim of the Foundation is to connect organisations active in the conservation, protection and recovery of oceans and seas worldwide on the one hand and society, individuals, organisations, businesses and (semi-)governments on the other hand, as well as all anything that is related to the above in the broadest sense, is related to the above and/or can be conducive to the above.
2. The Foundation tries to achieve its objective by, among other things:
   • raising funds;
   • providing information;
   • creating a dialogue between the parties mentioned above; and
   • all other legally permissible ways.
3. The objective of the Foundation includes: accepting (or rejecting or not accepting) acquisitions by inheritance or gift, also if a charge or obligation is attached thereto.
4. The Foundation aims at the general interest and has no objective of making profit.

The above mission statement is translated from the statutes. The Dutch version is the original text.

Statutes

A copy of the statutes of the Balean Foundation is publicly available for review via this link. The statutes are in dutch and provided as is. The formal copy is deposited at the notary (Notariskantoor Teeuwen in Boxmeer, The Netherlands).

Strategy plan

The Balean Foundation (Stichting Balean) wrote a strategy plan in Dutch with justification and policies around the goals of the Foundation and a multi-year plan from inception through 2026. If you are interested in this plan, you can download it via this link.

Dutch

ANBI

Balean is officieel aangemerkt als ANBI per 18 augustus 2025. Je kunt de ANBI status verifieren via de website van de belastingdienst met behulp van het RSIN nummer of naam en vestigingsplaats.

Doelstelling

Zoals beschreven in onze statuten heeft de stichting het volgende doel:

1. De Stichting heeft ten doel het verbinden van organisaties actief in het behoud, bescherming en herstel van oceanen en zeeën wereldwijd enerzijds en de maatschappij, individuen, organisaties, ondernemingen en (semi-)overheden anderzijds alsmede al hetgeen in de ruimste zin met één en ander verband houdt, daartoe behoort en/of daartoe bevorderlijk kan zijn.
2. De Stichting tracht haar doel onder meer te bereiken door:
   • het werven van fondsen;
   • het geven van voorlichting;
   • het creëren van een dialoog tussen de hiervoor gemelde partijen; en - alle overige wettelijk toegestane manieren.
3. Tot de doelstelling van de Stichting is mede begrepen: het aanvaarden (of verwerpen dan wel niet aanvaarden) van verkrijgingen krachtens erfrecht of schenking, ook als daar een last of verplichting aan is verbonden.
4. De Stichting beoogt het algemeen belang en heeft niet ten doel het maken van winst.

Statuten

Een kopie van de statuten van de stichting zijn te downloaden via deze link. Deze statuten zijn een kopie van de oorspronkelijk door de notaris opgestelde statuten. De officiële statuten zijn gedeponeerd bij Notariskantoor Teeuwen te Boxmeer.

Beleidsplan

Stichting Balean heeft een beleidsplan opgesteld met een verantwoording en het beleid rondom de doelen van de Stichting en een meerjarenplan vanaf oprichting tot en met 2026. Dit beleidsplan is te downloaden via deze link.

2 - Compliance

2.1 - Compliance rules for ANBI

The source for these rules is the website of the Dutch tax services. The Dutch tax services is resonsible for giving organisations the status of ANBI.

Our statutes state our activities which are fully focussed on general interest. You can find the statutes and other documents on our ANBI page.

Integrity

When a person working for Balean and has a public function does not pass the integrity test, then Balean may loose its status as ANBI.

To prevent such a situation, we require every person working in a public-facing function for Balean to provide us with a Certificate of Conduct. One of the directors of Balean will set up a request for such a certificate. The person in question needs to finish the request on their personal behalf. Any costs involved will be reimbursed.

90% rule

An organisation of general interest must spend at least 90% of her expenses on general interest.

In our bookkeeping, we must make clear what cost are for general interest and what are for keeping the organisation running. For this, we need to provide clear overview of the purpose and the cost to fulfil that purpose.

Policy plan

A topical policy plan must be publicly available that at least covers what action the organisation is planning for the coming year towards their purpose.

2.2 - Travel and meeting policy

Summary

Balean is a foundation for ocean restoration and conservation. Based on the principle “practice what you preach”, we also have sustainability on our mind for all our internal activities. We have no office, no commute, mostly online meetings, and we are working on making our IT as green as possible as well.

In line with this, we also created a policy to help determine when to travel physically and when to meet online. The goal is to minimize our ecological footprint while ensuring effective collaboration.

Guidelines

Core Principles

• Avoid first: Prefer remote meetings unless they significantly compromise outcome quality.
• Reduce second: If physical travel is necessary, opt for the lowest-carbon alternative.
• Offset third: Only unavoidable emissions are compensated via verified schemes.

Avoid first

Online meetings and home office has allowed us to prevent carbon emissions from travel significantly. Online meetings is therefore the default option at Balean.

Reduce second

Sometimes a meeting can only be effective when you meet in person. See When to meet in person for more guidelines on this topic. If you need to meet in person, choose the travel option with the lowest carbon emissions.

1. Go by bike of by foot where possible
2. Prefer public transport (train/bus) over a car
3. Only use a car when public transport is not allowing you to reach your destination in time.
4. Use flying as a last resort.
5. If you do need to take a long journey, try to extend your stay by combining events. For example plan a vacation at the same destination to extend your stay.

Offset third

We see carbon offsetting as a last resort. Our priority is to reduce the amount we travel as much as possible. We pay to offset our carbon emissions from air, road and rail travel.

Meeting guidelines

When to meet online

• Online meetings always have the first preference.
• If you can meet in-person without carbon emission, prefer that over online.
• Only meet in person when online meetings are not an option. See When to meet in person for guidelines on when to consider an offline meeting.
• If the meeting takes less than 4 hours, always prefer online over meeting in person.

When to meet in person

• Strategic or Creative Collaboration is Critical
  • Multi-day workshops, design sprints, or innovation labs where brainstorming and co-creation are central.
• High-Trust Relationship Building is Required
  • Kick-offs with new partners, key donor negotiations, or sensitive stakeholder meetings where rapport and trust are essential.
• Complex or Sensitive Discussions Need Rich Communication
  • Conflict resolution, organizational change discussions, or high-stakes negotiations.
• Tactile or Physical Work is Involved
  • Hands-on activities like prototyping, field site visits, equipment training, or working with physical data/maps.
• Cross-Cultural or Interdisciplinary Teams Benefit from Rich Interaction
  • When face-to-face dynamics reduce misunderstanding and build common ground more effectively.
• Meeting Length and Intensity Justifies It
  • Extended workshops (e.g., 6+ hours/day over multiple days) where online fatigue would impair productivity.
• Multiple Goals Can Be Combined into One Trip
  • When several high-value engagements can be bundled (e.g., site visits + partner meetings + training) to maximize impact per trip.
  • It is also encouraged to extend your stay for personal reasons.
• Significant Long-Term Impact is Expected
  • When in-person interaction is likely to produce outcomes that shape strategy, partnerships, or funding in a lasting way.
• There is Clear Added Value Over Online
  • The organizer must demonstrate how physical presence will materially change the outcome compared to online.

Events and conferences

When you want to visit conferences or events, the same principles apply as with in person meetings. But also consider the following:

1. Does this event help us achieve outcomes we couldn’t achieve otherwise?
2. Justify travel if your visibility or influence is expected to create measurable impact.
3. Check if the event offers livestreams, hybrid participation, or recorded sessions and prioritize those options if they meet your needs.
4. Consider in-person attendance when critical partners, funders, or collaborators are confirmed to be present, and online networking would not provide the same opportunity.
5. Prefer local or regional conferences reachable by train or bus
   • Flights should only be considered if the event’s value and outcomes strongly outweigh the emissions impact.
6. Limit multiple team members attending the same event unless their roles are clearly distinct and necessary.
7. After the event, assess outcomes: Did we build valuable partnerships, raise our profile, or secure funding? If not, reconsider attending similar events in the future.

Travel guidelines

• Always prefer the lowest-carbon alternative.
• One-way rail journeys to other countries in Europe that take less than 10 hours, should be made by train at least one way; both ways where possible.
• One-way journeys that take less than 6 hours should be completed both ways by train.
• For journeys less than 200 km, consider public transport unless a destination is not reasonably accessible by public transport (e.g. public transport would take three hours or more).
• Also consider the lowest-carbon alternative when travelling from your destination airport/train station to your final destination. Prefer public transport or a shared bike over taking a taxi.
• If your destination is only reachable through flying, consider other alternatives first (like meeting online). Only fly as a last resort.

Emissions and offset

When calculating CO2 emissions, we use the CO2e standard. Use the calculators by MyClimate.org for a standardized way of calculation.

Decision criteria

1. Can the meeting be conducted effectively online?
   • Check Meeting guidelines
   • Yes -> Hold it online.
   • No -> Proceed to step 2.
2. Clearly describe the reason for meeting in person based on the guidelines.
   • Proceed to step 3
3. Select how to travel to the meeting based on the travel guidelines.
   • No carbon emissions -> Travel to the meeting
   • Otherwise -> Explain why necessary
4. Can you combine the trip with other events?
   • Yes -> Please elaborate on which events
   • No -> Reconsider meeting online

Roles & Accountability

• All significant travels must have a decision record which is reviewed by at least one other person.
• Travel logs and justifications are logged in a central system.

Decision template

Use the following decision template as an example to log specific decisions for meetings that include flying.

# Decision Overview: `Travel or Online Meeting`

**Date:** `[fill in]`
**Meeting Subject:** `[short description]`

## Meeting Details

* **Can the meeting be online?** `[yes/no]`
* **Distance between participants:** `[e.g., Europe - Canada]`
* **Meeting length:** `[e.g., 2 days]`
* **Justification for in-person:** `[e.g., yes, better brainstorming]`
* **Can the meeting be combined with other events?** `[Short motivation]`

## Decision

* **Decider(s):** [Name, Role]
* **Chosen option:** `[online/physical]`
* **Chosen transport:** `[bike/car/train/flight]`
* **Reason and justification:** `[short motivation]`

## Emissions & Offset

* **Estimated CO₂ emissions (kg):** [...]
* **Offset applied?** [Yes / No] — Details: [...]

Use Case Example

Meeting Details

To consider collaboration with a canadian organisation, we planned a 2-day workshop to work on a mutual business plan and discuss strategic details for that plan.

• Can the meeting be online? Yes - when split in multiple shorter meetings
• Distance between participants: Netherlands - Canada East Coast
• Meeting length: 2 days
• Justification for in-person: It is a meeting where Strategic or Creative Collaboration is Critical and High-Trust Relationship Building is Required. Significant Long-Term Impact is Expected with this meeting.
• Can the meeting be combined with other events? Yes, there is an opportunity to meet with other business partners.

Decision

• Decider(s): [Name, Role]
• Chosen option: Physical
• Chosen transport: Flight
• Reason and justification: The destination is only reachable by air. Due to timezone difference, a full day online meeting is not very practical. Relationship building in online meetings is less effective. The meeting is much more effective when held in person. Therefore the decision is made to fly.

Emissions & Offset

• Estimated CO₂ emissions (kg): 000
• Offset applied? [Yes / No] — Details: [...]

2.3 - Confidentiality

Content confidentiality

Every organisation manages information with different levels of confidentiality. Based on its confidentiality, different protection levels will be in place.

To identify the confidentiality of an asset, we use the following confidentiality ratings:

Safety measures

For each confidentiality rating, different safety measures apply.

Public information

Information that is public to everyone will be published in this handbook. The handbook is open to everyone in the world. This public handbook makes how Balean works open and transparent. Any procedures, processes or other information related to Balean can be treated as public if it cannot harm Balean, its team members or any of Balean’s partners or customers in any way. Keep in mind that information can be used for phishing attempts and social engineering hacks. Giving away too much information may be used for such attempts. If you are unsure if information can be public, treat it as internal instead and ask for internal guidance.

Examples of non-public information include: data about people or partner organisations, specific details inside of a process, policy or procedure that could potentially help to gain access to systems owned by Balean. Think about details like usernames, IP-addresses, server names, network details, internal URL’s, bank account details, etc.

Anyone can propose changes to public pages by opening a merge request or an issue in the corresponding project. Every handbook page has a link to edit the page. Every change request will be reviewed by a Balean team member before being published in the handbook. Every Balean team member can approve changes and merge changes to public pages.

Protected information

Protected information is still publicly visible in the handbook but has a more thorough process for reviewing. Information is protected when the information in question is strategic to Balean in general or if the information in question applies to processes or procedures related to team members of Balean. Examples are Balean’s values since it is strategic to Balean in general, or community code of conduct since it applies to team members of Balean.

Changes to pages that are rated as protected must be reviewed and merged by a designated team within Balean.

Internal information

Information is rated as internal when it would harm Balean in any way if people outside Balean would see it. Examples of internal information are for example meeting minutes of meetings, non-public roadmaps or business plans. Internal information should never be added to the handbook, since the handbook stores information in a public space.

If information is internal, then that information is typically stored in Balean’s Google Drive or in applications that are only accessible by Balean team members. Any new information must be treated as internal unless you are sure that it can be shared to the public.

Confidential information

Information should be treated as confidential when it can be used to identify single people, organisations, servers, systems or other. Information must also be treated as confidential when it can be used to harm Balean, individual people or other organisations. Information that is rated as confidential should only be visible to the people with whom it is explicitly shared and who should have access to that information to do their job. Access to confidential information must be tracked and reviewed regularly.

When information is confidential it should never be stored in a public space, like the Balean handbook. When stored in Google Drive, then it must be stored in a location where specific people have been giving access to. Confidential information stored in a folder that is shared with certain groups has the risk of being shared with more people than desired when people are being added to that group.

When confidential information is stored in other systems than Google Drive, then that system must be reviewed separately. Especially when systems contain personal data, it must be reviewed for GDPR compliance.

3 - Community

Balean is a non-profit organization powered by a community of ocean impact makers. The contribution of volunteers is indispensable to supporting our mission and everything we do. We envision a sustainable world where our oceans, our planet, and humanity thrive.

At the heart of Balean is the belief that meaningful change happens through collective action. Balean was built by people who care deeply about the ocean and are willing to contribute their time, skills, and energy to protect it. Our community is the foundation that allows Balean to exist, grow, and create impact.

Volunteers play a key role in transforming ideas into action. Every hour contributed, every skill shared, and every commitment made helps amplify our reach, strengthen our projects, and inspire others to take part in ocean conservation. Whether supporting operations, sharing knowledge, creating content, or helping build connections, our volunteers help turn purpose into measurable impact.

By volunteering with Balean, individuals become part of a collective movement where small actions, when combined, lead to lasting change for the ocean and the communities that depend on it.

Volunteering

How to get involved

Whether you are looking to join us for the first time or you are an existing volunteer ready for your next project, our Volunteering section provides everything you need. There, you’ll find our community guidelines, current roles, and the steps to start making an impact.

Explore our Volunteering Opportunities & Guidelines Volunteer Policy & Guidelines.

Communication

Balean is a fully remote and multidisciplinary organization where we welcome anyone who wants to make a positive impact on the oceans, no matter where they are in the world. We have people from all over the world working together to drive ocean sustainability.

🌍 Working Together, Apart: Since we work 100% remotely, we rely on clear, asynchronous communication to stay aligned. For tips on how we stay productive across borders, check out our How to effectively work remotely.

Team Communication Channels

Ensure everyone knows where to share updates, store documents, and collaborate effectively without the need for a physical office.

• Slack: Our virtual “office” for daily communication and quick updates. Use for: Quick questions, coordination, sharing short progress updates, and posting meeting reminders.
• Google Meet: Our space for face-to-face virtual meetings to organize or coordinate ideas. Use for: Scheduled syncs, brainstorming sessions, and getting to know your fellow impact makers.
• Google Drive: Our Centralized document storage and file sharing. Use for: Project documentation, reports, presentations, and visual assets.
• GitLab: Our project hub for technical knowledge and task tracking. Use for: Code repository, backlog/task management (Challenges), meeting notes, and tracking project progress.
• Email: External communication, inquiries and official foundation updates.

Challenges

To channel volunteering work, all things to work on as a volunteer are tracked as challenges in the Balean Coding Challenges project. Challenges can range from marketing challenges to software development or infrastructure challenges. Everyone can apply by signing up for the balean-oss group and assing a challenge to their name.

The software that Balean uses to build the platform is mostly open-source software, published via the Balean OSS group on GitLab. The challenge listed should indicate what the challenge is about. Even though software may be owned by a 3rd party, every challenge is created to bring the platform and therefore Balean forward in their mission.

3.1 - Code of Conduct

This Code of Conduct outlines the standards of behaviour we expect from everyone involved in Balean, including team members, partners, collaborators, and users of our platform. By participating in our ocean sustainability community on Discord, you agree to abide by this Code of Conduct.

We value your contribution and we hope you will welcome other members with an open mind as well.

Our Standards

Balean’s community standards are based on our values.

1. Be Respectful: Treat others with kindness, empathy, and understanding.
2. Keep it Civil: Avoid using language or tone that might be perceived as aggressive, discriminating, condescending, or dismissive.
3. Accountability and Transparency: Be honest and open in your actions, take responsibility for your contributions, and strive to foster an environment of trust.
4. Constructive Feedback and Improvement: Focus on helping each other grow and improve rather than discouraging others.
5. Focus on the Issue: Engage in constructive discussions without resorting to personal attacks or inflammatory rhetoric.
6. Respect Diverse Perspectives: Recognize and appreciate differing viewpoints while maintaining a commitment to respectful dialogue.

Our Responsibilities

As a member of the Balean community, we are committed to providing an environment that is:

1. Safe: Welcoming and free from harassment, hate speech, and other forms of unacceptable behaviour.
2. Inclusive: Welcoming individuals with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences.
3. Respectful: Fostering a culture where all members feel valued, heard, and respected.

To achieve this goal, we:

1. Monitor community interactions: Regularly review online discussions to ensure they align with our Code of Conduct.
2. Address concerns promptly: Respond quickly to reports of unacceptable behaviour or other issues that may impact the community’s well-being. Balean holds the right to remove content that is against Balean’s Code of Conduct.
3. Foster open communication: Encourage members to share their thoughts, ideas, and respect each other’s opinions, perspectives, and dignity.

Unacceptable Behaviour

1. Harassment: No form of harassment, including but not limited to:
   • Verbal abuse
   • Threats
   • Intimidation
2. Hate Speech: Language or behaviour that discriminates against individuals based on their identity (e.g., race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities).
3. Unwelcoming Behaviour: Dismissive or exclusionary behaviour, or making others feel unwelcome contradicts our standard of inclusivity.
4. Spamming: Posting excessive content with the intention of disrupting discussions.
5. Advertisement: Posting advertisement for other initiatives than Balean, being commercial or non-commercial, without notice and written approval by Balean.

Reporting Incidents

If you experience or witness any behaviour that doesn’t align with this Code of Conduct, please report it by:

1. Reaching out directly: Contacting the individual involved (if comfortable doing so).
2. Using our reporting mechanism: Utilizing Balean’s designated reporting system to alert moderators.

All reports will be handled with confidentiality and with the safety and well-being of our community members as a priority.

Consequences

Repeated instances of unacceptable behaviour may result in consequences such as:

1. Temporary or permanent suspension: Restricting access to specific features, forums, or the entire community.
2. Removal from roles: Revoking responsibilities related to community management and content curation.

By adhering to this Code of Conduct, we can foster a positive environment that encourages collaboration, learning, and growth within our ocean sustainability community.

Acknowledgement

By participating in Balean’s online forums or engaging with the platform, you acknowledge having read and understood these guidelines. If you have any questions or concerns about this Code of Conduct, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

3.2 - Volunteering

Volunteering

What it Means to Volunteer with Us

Volunteering for ocean impact within Balean is rewarding and inspirational. It offers the opportunity to make a positive change in the world while expanding your knowledge, experience, and network with like-minded people. While rewarding, volunteering is also time-consuming and comes with specific obligations to ensure our collective success.

Volunteer Requirements

To maintain a productive and respectful environment, we seek volunteers who demonstrate:

• Commitment: A strong passion for the ocean and a dedication to the community’s objectives.
• Communication: Good communication skills to help us work together effectively.
• Proactivity: We love to hear new ideas! If you have a creative spark and the initiative to propose something fresh, don’t hesitate to share, we truly value your input and vision for the community.
• Teamwork: The ability to collaborate effectively in a fully remote and multidisciplinary organization.
• Respect & Cordiality: We welcome anyone who wants to make a positive impact; we value a friendly environment and respect for all, regardless of culture, background, or gender.

Roles and Responsibilities

Volunteers support our mission through various pillars. Please note that while these are our main areas of focus, this list is not written in stone! We would love to explore what you enjoy doing and how you want to collaborate or grow within the foundation:

• Communication & Storytelling: Contributing ocean stories and creating content (articles, social media, or research) for our community.
• Community Management: Interacting with members, fostering engagement, and managing social channels.
• Events & Activities: Assisting in the organization of workshops, projects, and community events.
• Open source contributions: Put your technical skills into action and help us improve the platform. Explore our Challenges.
• Operations: Supporting the daily administrative and operational needs of the foundation.
• Representation: Representing the Balean Foundation in a positive and professional manner.

Commitment and Expenses

• Time and Availability: Each volunteer is responsible for organizing their own schedule within their daily life to meet agreed-upon goals and community tasks.
• Virtual Collaboration: This commitment includes the availability to hold virtual meetings to organize or coordinate ideas.
• Flexibility and Communication: If you are unable to fulfill a task or attend a meeting, don’t worry! Just let us know in advance. Our team values flexibility, understanding, and open communication to stay organized.
• Compensation: As a non-profit, although we would love to, we generally cannot afford to pay all volunteers for the work they do for our oceans. Exceptions for a “volunteering allowance” are rare, bound by strict regulations under Dutch law, and based on strategic dependency or specific knowledge .
• Expenses: Costs and expenses for travel or materials are, of course, covered by Balean; simply discuss these with us upfront and we will take care of it .

New to the Community?Join Us!

If you are ready to help us leverage the potential of our oceans, please complete our application form here: Link to Google Form.

We will be in touch soon!

If you sign up as a volunteer, you also agree to the Balean’s volunteering Code of Conduct.

Already a Volunteer?

If you are already part of the team, here is how to stay active and make the most of your journey with Balean:

• Check our Communication Channels: Stay connected by checking Slack for daily updates, quick questions, and coordination with your sub-teams.
• Pick up a Challenge: Visit the GitLab Challenges project to find new tasks in marketing, infrastructure, or software development.
• Share your feedback: We want to grow with you! If you have ideas on how to improve our community or want to explore a new way to collaborate, let us know. Your voice helps shape Balean.
• Support your Peers: Offer assistance or mentorship to new volunteers to foster the welcoming and collaborative environment we value.

Thank you for being part of a community that believes in open, inclusive, and scalable ocean impact.💙

4 - Engineering

Documentation of the platform design

To keep track of architectural decisions, functional and technical design, a separate docs site (Internal only) is made available.

Architectural design records

Building a platform requires architectural decisions to be made continuously. Tracking this in issues / epics creates the danger of loosing track of what is current and actual. Architectural decision records provide an easy way to document decisions and link newer decisions to previous ones. Since architectural decisions are directly linked to the technical and functional design, these decision records are kept in the same place as the system documentation.

Use case diagram

When building a new platform from scratch, many new features and functions need to be created and designed. To keep an overview of all the functions, systems and subsystems, a use-case diagram seemed the best approach to document this. Another way of making design decisions is to use issues or epics to create new designs and decide on what to build. The disadvantage is that this is isolated to the context of the issue. You miss the broader overview and interactions with other parts of the system. Even though Balean is using an agile approach, using use-cases enables us to keep overview and make holistic decisions on the design of the platform.

Coding styles

At Balean we strive for readable and maintainable code. This requires all developers to adhere to a certain standard. This guideline will give details on that coding standard.

Source code style

When writing new source code at Balean, all code must be indented with 2 spaces. Lines should always end with the lf character to ensure the build runs successfully in linux-based containers. Windows developers should ensure that source code is pushed with the lf line-ending. The default character set is utf-8. Please ensure, before pushing, that your source file uses this character set.

In oder to automatically apply this standard to your source code, a file called .editorconfig should be added to all repositories to ensure correct styleguides. See Editor config below for more information.

Cross-platform compatibility

It is up to the developer to develop on the system of their choice, whether it’s Windows, Mac or Linux. Deployment targets, build images and scripts tend to run on Linux systems though. It is therefore important that the code-bases are all compatible with Linux but should be usable on other platforms as well.

There are certain scripts and config files that are specifically sensitive to the correct encoding and line-ending. Within Balean, the following settings are being used:

• Text file encoding: UTF-8
• Line ending: lf (equivalent to \\n)

Git settings

Git is the main source of truth and should contain the correct encoding and line-ending, regardless of what individual contributors may want to use. In order to ensure that files are in the right configuration, repositories should have a .gitattributes file that configures the expected line-ending. See also the git-attributes docs

To configure your local system to normalize files to the proper line-ending, the core.autocrlf setting must be set: git config --global core.autocrlf true This does not force normalization of text files, but does ensure that text files that you introduce to the repository have their line endings normalized to LF when they are added, and that files that are already normalized in the repository stay normalized. See git docs

By default, git supports files in UTF-8 encoding. Other encodings are handled as binary files.

Example .gitattributes file

# Automatically normalize all text files to lf
* text=auto eol=lf

# Exceptions and specific configurations
*.bat text eol=crlf
*.sh text eol=lf

VS Code settings

Use the following settings in VS Code for compatibility with Balean’s settings:

"files.encoding": "utf8"
"files.eol": "\n"

IDE Config

Editor config

Adding a file called .editorconfig to your repository will help set the correct coding standard. The editorconfig file is based on an open standard maintained by editorconfig.org.

An example .editorconfig is given below. When adding this file to the root of your repository will automatically apply the Balean standard to your repository.

# editorconfig.org

root = true

[*]
indent_style = space
indent_size = 2
end_of_line = lf
charset = utf-8
trim_trailing_whitespace = true
insert_final_newline = true

4.1 - Test Cases Guidelines

Introduction

Clear and consistent test cases are essential to ensure software quality, reproducibility of results, and effective collaboration across the team.
These guidelines define Balean’s best practices for designing test cases, prioritizing them, and reporting defects.
Following this standard helps us:

• Improve communication between testers, developers, and stakeholders
• Ensure test coverage and traceability of requirements
• Reduce ambiguity and duplication in testing
• Provide a consistent format for documenting and tracking results

Standard Test Case Format

Here is a standard format to write test cases:

Test Case Format:

• Test Case ID
• Title
• Test Scenario
• Test Steps
• Prerequisites
• Test Data
• Expected Results
• Actual Results
• Test Status – Pass/Fail

While writing test cases, remember to include:

• A reasonable description of the requirement
• A description of the test process
• Details related to the testing setup: version of the software under test, browser, OS, environment, date, time, prerequisites, etc.
• Any related documents or attachments testers will require
• Alternatives to prerequisites, if they exist

Test Case Example

Here is a sample case based on a specific scenario:

• Test Case ID: #TC-001
• Test Scenario: Authenticate a successful user login on Gmail.com
• Test Steps:
  1. The user navigates to Gmail.com
  2. The user enters a registered email address in the “email” field
  3. The user clicks the “Next” button
  4. The user enters the registered password
  5. The user clicks “Sign In”
• Prerequisites: A registered Gmail ID with a unique username and password
• Browser: Chrome v86
• Device: Samsung Galaxy Tab S7
• Test Data:
  • Username: aquaman@gmail.com
  • Password: aquaman_123
• Expected/Intended Results: Once username and password are entered, the web page redirects to the user’s inbox, displaying and highlighting new emails at the top.
• Actual Results: As Expected
• Test Status – Pass/Fail: Pass

Test Case Prioritization

This is vital while writing test cases in software testing. Running all the test cases in a test suite requires much time and effort. As the number of features increases, testing the entire suite for every build is practically impossible. Test case prioritization helps overcome these challenges.

Testing should be automated as much as possible. This will overcome the limitation of the number of test cases to test before each build. With automated tests you can run as many tests as you want before each build, testing the application more thoroughly. But as with manual testing, time and resources are still limited. So prioritization will also help in test automation in two different ways:

1. It will help determine in which order to develop automated tests.
2. With continuous integration, you want quick and early feedback. So you probably can’t run the entire test suite for every commit, since that would take too long. The priority can then help build different test suites for quick tests and for the pre-production validation.

Test Case Priority Levels

While deciding how to assign priority to your test cases, consider the following levels:

• Priority 1: The test cases MUST be executed, or the consequences may worsen after the product is released. These are critical test cases where the chances of a functionality being disrupted due to a new feature are high.
• Priority 2: The test cases COULD be executed if enough time is available. These are not very critical cases but can be executed as a best practice for a double check before launch.
• Priority 3: The test cases are NOT important to be tested prior to the current release. These can be tested later, shortly after the release of the current software version, as a best practice. However, there is no direct dependency on them.
• Priority 4: The test cases are NEVER important, as their impact is nearly negligible.

What is a Defect or Bug Report?

A Defect Report is a document created during the software testing process to identify, describe, and track any issues or defects found in a software application.

It provides detailed information about the defect, including how it was discovered, the environment in which it occurred, and steps to reproduce it. A defect report includes complete details about the application/software defects, sources, actions needed to resolve them, and the expected result.

How to Write a Bug Report

Below is a short summary of what to include for each component of a full bug report:

Components of a Defect Report:

• Defect ID
• Defect Title
• Action Steps (Steps to Reproduce):
  The Steps to Reproduce section should list each step required to reproduce the bug in chronological order.
• Expected Result
  The Expected Results section should state how the app should behave according to its intended behavior.
  Example: The authorization phase completes successfully, the user is logged into the newly created account, and redirected to the home page of the app.
• Environment
  Each bug report must include details of the specific environment, device, and operating system used during testing to identify the bug.
• Actual Result
  This section should expand on the title by stating the behavior observed when the issue occurs.
• Severity
  • Critical – The bug prevents critical functionality within the app from working. This includes crashing or freezing where no workaround is possible, and a fix is required immediately.
  • High – The bug affects major functionality within the app. However, it can be temporarily avoided with a workaround.
  • Medium – The bug does not cause a failure and does not interfere with the fluent work of the system. It has an easy workaround.
  • Low – The bug does not affect functionality or data, or require a workaround. It is a result of non-conformance to a standard that does not impact productivity (e.g., typos, aesthetic inconsistencies).
• Usability – A suggestion that would improve how an app is understood, experienced, or used efficiently.
• Other Notes/Error Messages
  Include necessary and relevant evidence to show the problem you are describing. Evidence may include: screenshots, videos, or logs (if available).

5 - Governance

Governance is everything to run the company, like sales, finance, IT, etc. Find handbooks for each of these departments here.

5.1 - Customer Relations Management

At Balean, we use GitLab to manage organisations and contacts in GitLab’s CRM. This CRM is basic and simple but also part of the toolset we are already using. Matching our policy to use existing tools as much as possible, GitLab is the tool of choice for now, until we need something more sophisticated.

CRM Setup

The setup is very simple. Organisations and contacts are managed at group level in GitLab’s CRM so there is one group for Balean and one group for SBSC to be used as the CRM. For both these groups, the CRM featured is enabled in the group settings.

Opportunities are then created as issues in a project underneath those CRM groups: sales for SBSC and partners for Balean.

Organisation details are added in an epic per organisation.

Add new organisation

Organisations are not just added as a customer relation in GitLab, but also as an Epic in order to be able to store contract information and status information for the customer. The organisation as a customer relation only holds very limited information.

To add a new organisation, go to the group in GitLab that contains the CRM. Then navigate to Plan --> Customer relations in the sidebar.

Once in the customer relations, click on Organizations in the top right, just above the search bar. Now you can click on the New organization button. Fill in the fields for the organization and add it.

Once the organisation is added, also create an Epic in the same group as where Customer relations are enabled. Navigate to Plan --> Epics and click on New Epic. Use the organization name, prefixed with Organization: as the name of the Epic.

In the epic you can add links to:

1. Links to contracts, NDA’s and other documents
2. Important agreements with a customer
3. Customer status (as labels)
4. Status of negotiations
5. Other information important to store for a customer

Add contacts to an organization

To add contacts, make sure to navigate to the Customer relations section (See above under Add new organisation).

When you are in the Contacts section, you can click the button New contact just above the search bar, otherwise, click on Contacts first. Then fill in the details for the contact and add it.

Add contact to an issue

At the moment, you can not add contacts to issues via the UI. You can only do this via QuickActions.

To add a contact, go to an issue underneath the group that has customer relations enabled. On the issue add a new comment with the following text:

/add_contacts [contact:address@example.com]

Be careful to remove any spaces at the start of the line!

Post the comment and the contact will be added to the issue.

Please not the following limitations:

1. You cannot add contacts to epics, only to issues.
2. You cannot add organisations to epics or issues, just contacts.
3. All customers are also added to our bookkeeping software so no need to store addresses and such in GitLab unless it is information that is important or convenient to (also) store in GitLab.

5.2 - IT

5.2.1 - Tech stack

Office applications

Development

5.3 - Finance

The task of finance is to handle all financial transaction, tax payments as well as payments to employees, interns and volunteers.

Find all procedures and policies around finance in this section of the handbook.

Bookkeeping

For bookkeeping, we use e-boekhouden.nl. Documentation on how to use the application, how to book certain invoices or documents and what bookkeeping accounts are in use, can be found in our Drive.

Also, the bookkeeping accounts used for payrolling are listed in this document.

5.3.1 - Payroll

Volunteers

The Balean Foundation cannot exist with our valuable volunteers! Although volunteers typically do work for an organisation for free, their are circumstances in which a volunteer can still receive money to reimburse for any expenses or as an allowance for the work they do for the organisation.

Balean is non-profit and 100% dependable on donations. We try to keep our cost as low as possible so we can spend as much as possible on scaling the platform. Therefore, we can only pay an allowance and expenses in certain circumstances and maximized to what is allowed by the Dutch law. You can send an email to volunteer at balean dot org if you want to know more.

As a volunteer, please also read our community handbook for more information about our volunteering program and our code of conduct.

Volunteering allowance and expenses

Volunteers can get a monthly allowance under certain circumstances, as well as reimbursements of cost they made. The total amount received per hour, month and year are limited by Dutch law. See the Dutch tax services website for detailed information. Balean will not pay out more than the maximum amount allowed by the Dutch government to any volunteer, even if local rules are different.

It is important to note that one person can only receive a maximum amount of volunteering allowance for ALL volunteering work they do. If you do volunteering work for more than one organisation, it is the responsibility of the volunteer to keep proper administration and add these amounts to income tax applications. Please check the above link of the Dutch tax service or check with your local tax services.

Please note that these rules apply for everyone who files income tax returns in the Netherlands. If you live in another country other rules and laws may apply. Verify with local tax services for the local rules.

Volunteering allowance receipt

If you want to receive an overview of allowances paid to you, please send an email to volunteer at balean dot org.

Employees and interns

New employee

New employees that are paid a salary or allowance and that will receive a payslip, need to be registered with our payroll office.

In order to collect all necessary information, each employee need to fill in an employeeform (Werknemersformulier). New employees will get the link to this form before the first day of employment. As part of the form, employees need to upload a valid copy of their photo ID.

Every employee is also required to fill in a ‘statement of data for payroll taxes’ or ‘payroll tax statement’ (Loonbelastingverklaring). The template for this document can be downloaded from the website of the Dutch tax services.

Payroll payments and payslip

All payroll payments are made around the 24th of each month. Around that time, the payslip will become available as well.

For payslips, we use Nmbrs. Nmbrs also has a mobile app, which can be downloaded from the Nmbrs website or app stores.

It is the employee responsibility to read and verify the payslip on errors. If you see any error or issue, report this immediately to finance at sbsc dot nl.

Balean internal procedures

Bookkeeping of volunteering allowance

Volunteering allowances are booked under a specific bookkeeping account. To distinguish between volunteers, a cost centre is created for every volunteer who receives an allowance. Allowances paid need to be booked against that cost centre.

NOTE in order to make it easier to generate a receipt, use the exact name that needs to show on the receipt as the name of the cost centre.

When an allowances overview is requested, an export needs to be made of the specific cost centre and send to the volunteer as a PDF with Balean layout and signature.

Creating a volunteering allowance receipt

If a volunteer requests a volunteering allowance receipt, then follow the steps below to create a PDF. Send the PDF to the volunteer in question via email.

1. Login to e-boekhouden for the Balean Foundation
2. Go to cost centres and select the function per cost centre.
3. Select the year for which you want to generate a receipt and the cost centre of the volunteer.
4. Click continue to load the amounts paid and then click on csv to download the payments.
5. Use the volunteering allowance template sheet (internal only) to create the receipt.
   1. On the tab cost centre export, click on file -> import.
   2. Under Upload select the local csv file that you downloaded from e-boekhouden.
   3. For Import location select Replace current sheet.
   4. Click Import data.
   5. Go to the tab Receipt and check the data.
   6. Export the PDF via File -> Download -> PDF
   7. Make sure to set the following options when exporting:
      • Paper size: A4
      • Page orientation: Portrait
      • Margins: Wide
      • Formatting: Disable Show gridlines and Show notes

Registering a new employee for payrolling

In order to process payroll for new employees, the following tasks must have been executed:

1. Send an email to the new employee, asking them to fill in the employeeform.
   1. Employeeform (Internal Drive link).
2. After receiving the employeeform, prefill the payroll tax statement and the payroll office employee form (Aanmeldingsformulier werknemer of PH&A) with the employee data and send them via email for a signature. The payroll tax statement is already a PDF that you can fill in and save as PDF. The payroll office employee registration form is a spreadsheet that needs to be saved as PDF for the employee to sign. In both cases the employee need to sign for the choice to have payroll tax reduction applied or not.
   1. Statement of data for payroll taxes form
   2. PH&A specific ‘Aanmeldingsformulier werknemer’ (internal link)
3. Send an email to PH&A Salaris via info at phasalaris dot nl with the following documents:
   1. Signed copy of the PH&A specific ‘Aanmeldingsformulier werknemer’
   2. Signed copy of the payroll tax statement form
   3. Copy of photo ID of the employee

Payroll bookkeeping

Each month, the following tasks must be reviewed:

1. Pay the net salary that is listed on the employee payslip
2. Make the payslip available to the employee via Nmbrs
3. When the payroll tax is calculated and made available by the payroll office, pay the tax via Nmbrs
4. Book the following in the bookkeeping software:
   1. Net salary paid via bank - use the payslip as bookkeeping proof
   2. Payroll tax paid via bank - use the payroll tax document as bookkeeping proof
   3. Post payroll journal entries from the journal entries overview in Nmbrs - Use the journal entries PDF export as bookkeeping proof for the entry