Double relationship between users and projects. Projects have many users that can work on them, and projects have one user who is the original creator.

projects.rb

class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :author, :description, :name, :user_ids

  has_and_belongs_to_many :users

  belongs_to :author, :class_name => "User", :foreign_key => "author"

end

user.rb

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  # Include default devise modules. Others available are:
  # :token_authenticatable, :confirmable,
  # :lockable, :timeoutable and :omniauthable
  devise :database_authenticatable, :registerable,
         :recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable

  # Setup accessible (or protected) attributes for your model
  attr_accessible :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :remember_me
  # attr_accessible :title, :body

  has_many :roles
  has_and_belongs_to_many :roles
  has_many :projects, through: :ProjectUser
  has_many :projects, :class_name => "Project", :foreign_key => "author"
  has_many :projects
  
  has_many :blogPosts

  def role?(role)
    return true 
    # roles.include? role.to_s
  end

  def to_s
    email
  end
end