Leather family can mean a lot of different things.

For instance, I am a member of House Corwyn which was started by Lady Cynthia and me several years ago. House Corwyn is a female dominant house, with four female members, and four male members, three of whom are owned directly by the females of the house, all three of whom are in primary relationships with their lady owners. In our house, all males are expected to be submissive to all house females with certain limitations. We also have some rather loosely allied "friends" who are considered sort of "semi" members. They have some of the rights and privileges of members, but are not officially family. We don't "adopt" lightly.

All of us but two of the house males and our "Grande Domme" are involved in The Frugal Domme in some way, but that is just because we happen to have a business that fits the hobbies and interests of those members. All of the women of the house teach classes both singly and together. The bonds that hold our family together are love, similar codes of honor, similar beliefs about master/slave relationships, and very strong beliefs about training, teaching, our family, and the proper conduct of BDSM. (This doesn't mean we're always right, nor does it mean that we don't have some conflicting ideas. Lady Cynthia, for instance, is a female supremacist, while I am not, and I think, Atheris may not be a supremacist, either.) All of us feel that it is necessary to bottom before you top, it's necessary to have felt a toy as wielded by a dominant (not just tried on your leg or arm) before using it, and you never do anything to a submissive you have not been formally trained in how to do.

Lady Cynthia and I are co-heads of household and decisions effecting the house are made by us, though we ask for input from Lady Cynthia's daughter and usually the males. Entrance into our household is by invitation only. You have to be adopted into our house in some way, either by entering into a master slave relationship with one of the ladies, or by being adopted by Lady Cynthia or myself. Atheris, Lady Cynthia's adopted daughter and Lady Cynthia's mother, Mary (The Grande Domme) are the other two ladies of our house. (Mary has limited interest in most house decisions just because she is primarily vanilla in outlook, but she has no problem ordering the males of the household around and she's fully cognizant of what our household entails. She is 83.) 

We don't all live together, and it would probably not be a good idea to do so, because having a group of strong willed women in the same house could be hazardous to anyone's health. LOL. Our males may be submissive to us, but all of them are strong males in their own right. We believe in using the talents of our slaves and none of us enjoy doormats.

That is the short version of how our leather family works.

Other leather families are differently arranged. I know leather families that are very large with one leader, and very hierarchal obligations going both up and down the ladder with relationships and obligations moving both up and down and laterally. Often in those families, everyone is submissive to the leader. Most members switch. This is most often common in the gay and lesbian families. Many of these families seem to require a novitiate period where the prospective members is submissive to the entire family both in service and sexually. Full membership is accorded when training is considered complete. Some require a prospective member to enter in service to one full member and again, once training is complete, full membership is accorded.

Some leather families are centered around one dominant, and all other members are submissive to that dominant (and most or all ARE submissive only.)

There are many ways to set up a leather family. Probably as many ways to organize a leather family as there are leather families.

Strong leather families have a family code and belief system. Many so called leather families stay together for less than a year.  Lady Cynthia believes, and I concur, that the reason our family has lasted so long is that we don't invite people to join lightly.  They have to have developed strong bonds to the family before being invited in.  And all of us believe in the importance of our family.   No one in our family is considered lesser because they have chosen to serve rather than be served.  We don't select "worthless" slaves.  Everyone in our family is respected regardless of position.  It makes a difference.