proj-branchDemocracy-old-concordBylaws170110 2

Concord Democracy Bylaws

These are Bylaws defining the Concord Democracy procedures for an organization to make decisions, elect officials, adjudicate disputes, and admit (or expel) voters.

For an introduction, see proj-branchDemocracy-concord. For commentary, see (todo: [[proj--branchDemocracy-concordCommentary?]]).

Contents

Part I: Overview

Part II: Groups and officials:

Part III: Procedures

Appendix A: Indices

Appendix Z1 (optional): Independent and financially literate Boardmembers

Appendix Z2 (optional): Reputation

Appendix Z3 (optional): Prediction market


Part I: Overview

Oversight

The highest ranking officials are the Chairs. Their job is protect the organization's values and to administer procedure. Their duties and powers include to:

There are three Chairs and they are directly elected.

Setting policy

Policy is jointly set by the Forum and the Board.

The Forum is a written discussion group in which all members directly vote. Members may proxy their votes on a topic to any other member. Proposals are screened and improved by Forum Committees before they are voted upon by the entire Forum.

The Board is a group of seven members. Six of these members are selected by Delegates, and one is chosen randomly from a group of Board Nominees. Any group of sufficient size may form a Constituency, and that Constituency may choose a Delegate. Each election, every ballot cast may contain a nomination for one Board Nominee.

Execution of policy

The Board chooses a CEO, who executes policy.

Dispute resolution

Disputes are resolved by three-member Judge Panels. The Judges on these panels are selected by a Judicial Selection Committee of 7 members chosen by various diverse groups.

The Procedural Panel is a Judge Panel that interprets the Bylaws and Policy, administers the dispute resolution process, and has some extra powers:

todo move this, and also put relevant parts into the summary above:

Speaker, Secretary, Treasurer

The Chairs serve in the roles of Speaker, Secretary, and Treasurer. Initially, the first Chair (the first one selected in the proportional score voting procedure) is the Speaker, the second is the Secretary, and the third is the Treasurer. However, at any time, two Chairs may vote to swap the assignments of two of these roles between two of the Chairs (not necessarily the same two Chairs voting for the swap).

The Speaker presides at meetings, promulgates adopted proposals, addresses the Board, the Forum, or the Voters (that is, they may speak at Board meetings just as Boardmembers can, although they do not have a vote on the Board; they may post written statements which are displayed prominently in the Forum; and they may provide written statements which are displayed prominently in election ballots, on the organization's website, and/or accompanying any other information sent from the organization to its voters), and represents the organization externally (both in negotiation, and by co-signing agreements along with the CEO). The Secretary prepares meeting minutes, and administers the Forum and elections. The Treasurer oversees assets and co-signs (along with the CEO) authorizations for transactions. These functions may be delegated. Any individual decision of the Speaker, Secretary, or Treasurer may be overruled by a vote of the other two Chairs.

todo, most of this part is commentary or needs to be moved elsewhere:

These are oversight, not policy-making, functions:

In these roles, a Chair generally acts or co-signs at the direction of other entities, and they may refuse to do so only if they believe the actions are contrary to the Bylaws, to policy, or to the rights of the members. What happens when a Speaker, Secretary, or Treasurer refuses to do their duty, or mis-performs it? Provided the action that they are refusing to approve is, in fact, valid, the reluctant Chair may be bypassed or overruled. The other two Chairs may overrule a Chair (and, if necessary, for example if some external agency requires a witness or co-signature, may appoint a temporary Speaker or Secretary or Treasurer, who acts in the place of the reluctant Chair). If the other Chairs refuse to overrule, the CEO, or the Forum, or any member of the Board, may petition the Procedural Panel to appoint a temporary Speaker or Secretary or Treasurer (provided that the Procedural Panel disagrees with the Chairs, and determines that the action in question is, in fact, valid). Note that temporary Speaker/Secretary/Treasurers are in place only for a single action, and must be re-appointed for each action.

In order to overrule, the other Chairs must assert their opposition to a Chair's initial decision within one day of hearing about it, except if the decision is regarding the moderation of a meeting, in which case opposition must be asserted within a minute.

A simple majority of the Board can call early elections; this is recommended in the case of obstructionist Chairs who repeatedly refuse to do their duty as Speaker/Secretary/Treasurer, or who abuse their power to demand information for the purpose of wasting the time of departments of the organization.

end todo

Individual powers of Chairs

Any individual Chair may:

Note: a Chair's individual powers lasts for one Electoral Cycle from the most recent time they were elected, even if they lose the office of Chair midway through the Cycle via losing an early Election.

Powers of two Chairs acting together

Powers of all three Chairs acting together

Decision-making

 (Forum, Forum Committees, Forum Committee Co-chairs, Board, Constituencies, Delegates, Nominees), CEO

todo amend the bylaws

Execution (CEO)

Execution (CEO)

Dispute Resolution (Procedural Panel, Panels, Judicial Selection Committee (JSC), Judges, Delegates, Nominees)

Voters

todo Elections, proportional score voting


Part II: Structures and offices

Chairs

Powers

Election

The Chairs are directly elected by the Voters by Proportional Score Voting.

Procedure

Although the Chairs investigate and prosecute, they needn't be the only ones who may do so.

If all of the Chairs resign or become permanently unavailable without an understudy, the Procedural Panel members become Chairs; if there are no Procedural Panel members, the Boardmembers become temporary Chairs until the next Election.

The roles of Speaker, Secretary, Treasurer are oversight roles, not policy-setting ones; in these roles the Chairs merely execute procedure, they don't make important decisions. The Speaker's choices at meetings can be overruled by the Overrule the Speaker procedure. The Secretary's role in administering elections, taking minutes, and certifying documents is not intended to involve substantive choices. The Treasurer does not have a choice which transactions and contracts to sign; they must co-sign all and only those transactions and contracts which the CEO directs them to sign, provided they are in accordance with the Bylaws. If the Speaker, Secretary, or Treasurer refuses to do their duty in a particular case, the Procedural Panel may appoint a temporary Speaker, Secretary, or Treasurer for one particular action (a new temporary appointment must be made for each action; this is inconvenient, and if a Chair is persistently obstinate, the Board can call early elections in hopes of replacing them).

The Chairs have 'standing' to prosecute any situation relating to the Organization and one of:

Forum

Powers

Composition

All members

Procedures

Forum discussions and voting

The Forum has three main 'discussion slots'. Proposals for the Forum are introduced by the Proposal Committees. During each discussion, there is a Proportional Score Vote to determine which three of the available proposals shall be discussed in the next Discussion Time Period after this one. Proposals not selected remain 'introduced' and are eligible for future discussion slots, unless fewer than 1/3 of the Forum votes which voted on the slots during that discussion voted +1 or greater for them, in which case the proposal dies.

Proposals are also introduced into the Forum when they are 'automatically placed on the agenda' via the Board voting in favor of a proposal, or by the Procedural Panel. These other proposals are in addition to do the three main slots.

There is a discussion and voting for each Proposal. Each Proposal is debated for one Discussion Time Period. The duration of a Discussion Time Period is one Electoral Subcycle. The discussions are divided into three phases of length 40%, 40%, and 20% of a Discussion Time Period (the Chair(s) can adjust these times up to 10% of the Discussion Time Period to account for holidays, busy times, time needed to tally votes in between phases, etc).

Phase 1: Debate and proposal of alternatives During the first phase, members can post written "speeches" in the discussion, can reply to each other's speeches, and can vote up speeches using +1s and +2s in the manner of Score Voting. Anyone may propose an additional Alternative, accompanied by a Speech; if this gets at least 1/3rd of the greatest number of votes cast for any Alternative or Speech in this discussion, it Qualifies as an Alternative to the proposal. The original Proposal must also Qualify in this manner. A special type of alternative, 'Send to Committee', may be proposed that sends the proposal back to a proposal committee indicated by this special alternative proposal; or that sends the proposal to an ad-hoc committee whose membership is specified in this proposal; or that sends the proposal to an ad-hoc committee whose membership will be voted upon.

At the conclusion of the first phase, the top three voted speeches, according to Proportional Score Voting, are selected, and the set of Qualifying Alternatives is computed.

Phase 2: Closing speeches During the second phase, speeches are posted and voted up but the set of Qualifying Alternatives is fixed. During this phase, the top three speeches from the first phase are displayed prominently. During this phase, there is a poll called 'Discuss Further'. At the conclusion of the second phase, the top three voted speeches, according to Proportional Score Voting, are selected.

Phase 3: Voting During the third phase, if Discuss Further won by >=2/3s, then the Proposal and all Qualifying Alternatives are returned to the 'introduced' pool, to be considered anew at some time in the future. Otherwise, there is a Score Voting with Runoff on the Qualifying Alternatives, plus an "alternative" called "No Action"; the instant runoff is between the winning Alternative, and "No Action" (unless No Action wins, in which case there is no need for a runoff). The top three speeches from the second phase are displayed prominently on the ballot. If the winning Alternative is to Send to Committee and to vote on the membership of an ad-hoc committee, the membership of the new committee is now selected using Proportional Score Voting.

Forum proxies

Voters may proxy their votes on any given topic(s) in a secret ballot in each election. Whether or not the voter proxied their votes is public, but whom to they gave them to is secret. The number of total votes currently proxied to each voter is public. All proxies expire at the next election, and may not be cancelled before that. Proxies are not transitive; eg if one person proxies to a second person, and the second person proxies to a third person, the third person does receive the second person's vote, but the second person ends up with the first person's vote; the first person's vote is not forwarded to the third person.

Forum Committees

Powers

Composition

There are two kinds of Forum Committees, pre-screening Committees and proposal Committees. Both are categorized by Topic. For each topic, there is one proposal Committee (with rotating membership). Pre-screening committees are constituted on-demand to evaluate individual proposals.

The pre-screening Committees are composed of six volunteer Delegates and one Nominee. The Delegates are chosen either randomly or via queue from a pool of available volunteers such that, for each Boardmember, one Delegate Supporter of that Boardmember is present. The Nominee is chosen randomly out of a pool of all available volunteer Nominees, weighted by Nominee weight.

A proposal Committee is composed of three Forum Committee Chairs, six volunteer Delegates and one Nominee, chosen such that for each Boardmember, one Delegate Supporter of that Boardmember is present. Within this constraint, the Delegates and the Nominee are chosen so as to give priority to those Delegates and Nominees who have given the most service to pre-screening Forum Committees and to pre-screening Dispute Committees: choose the Nominee who, out of the pool of available volunteer Nominees, has given the most service; then choose the Delegate, who, of the pool of available volunteer Delegates, has given the most service; then choose the next Delegate who has given the most service and who is not a Supporter of anyone already chosen, excepting the Nominee; etc. Unless specified by Policy, 'service' shall be a count of the total number of cases disposed of while serving on the relevant committees.

The three Forum Committee Chairs are assigned to each committee by the Forum by Proportional Score Voting, and may be replaced at any time by a Forum vote.

Procedures

To create a new proposal, a Delegate or Nominee writes and submits the proposal and makes themself available as a volunteer. A pre-screening Committee will be constituted to consider the proposal as soon as possible. The proposal writing is automatically assigned to this pre-screening Committee, occupying one of the Delegate or Nominee slots.

The deliberation of proposals in proposal committees follows the same procedures as for Board meetings. Pre-screening committes are chaired by the proposal author (who may speak and vote on the committee). Proposal Committees are chaired by the three assigned Forum Committee Chairs.

A pre-screening Committee may amend or dismiss a proposal by majority vote. If the (possibly amended) proposal is not dismissed, the proposal then passes to the proposal Committee for the Topic.

Proposal Commitees may pass a proposal by majority vote (regardless of the voting threshold required for the Proposal to be passed by the Forum); Alternatives may be considered as in the Boardmeetings. If it does not pass the proposal or any Alternatives, the proposal is dismissed. If it does pass it, then the proposal (or selected Alternative) is introduced to the Forum.

Proposals to replace Forum Committee Chairs are always available in the Forum, and do not first pass through the Forum Committees.

The Forum may not consider proposals which specify individuals.

Board

Powers

Composition

The Board has seven seats.

The first six seats are divided into two classes of three seats each; each class serves for a two Cycle term.

Each electoral cycle, the three Electors who receive the most votes from Electors (weighted by Elector voting strength) are elected onto the Board.

A Boardmember may be removed by a vote of 2/3s of the Electors (weighted by their Elector voting weight), after which those Electors who supported the removed Boardmember may elect a different replacement Boardmember using score voting (weighted by their Elector voting weight).

The last seat is randomly selected out of all Board Nominees each cycle for a one cycle term.

Procedure

Selection of the Board

The removal of a Boardmember may be done each subcycle.

If prohibitions against one person holding multiple offices have been waived, one person may hold more than one of these seats if the number of Elector votes they receive is great enough so that if they were multiple persons the votes could be divided equally between them and yet they each of them would still be among the top three.

The random selection of the seventh seat may be accomplished by the Secretary randomly drawing one of the ballots, or by any other method such that the chance of selecting a Nominee is proportional to the number of ballots nominating them.

Changing Judicial Selection Committee representatives

The Board's representatives to next Cycle's JSC can be changed at any time by having another Proportional Score Voting vote on the matter.

Board Meetings

Calling meetings The Chair(s) call the meetings and set the time and date and length. A meeting can also be called by any three of the Boardmembers. A quorum is a majority of Boardmembers if a month's notice or more was given; if less notice was given, a quorum is all members. No substantive decisions can be made at a meeting without a quorum, or if a quorum is lost due to members leaving, or during recess. All Boardmembers and all Chairs must be notified of any meeting. A meeting may only be adjourned (or recessed) by a vote with a simple majority threshold.

Schedule The first third of each meeting is reserved for approval or correction of the previous meeting's minutes, followed by reports from Chair(s), officers, and committees, and for formal consideration of any 'agenda items' set by the Chair(s). The second third is reserved for informal discussion moderated by the Chair(s). In the final third of each meeting, the Boardmembers may introduce new business. The first or second parts may be ended early by a vote of a majority of the Boardmembers. In the first and third parts, one Proposal is made and discussed at a time, and the exact wording of all Proposals must fixed before introduction, preferably in writing.

Introducing proposals In the first third of the meeting, Boardmembers who are on the 'agenda' (but not the Chair, unless the Chair is also a Boardmember) may give presentations and/or introduce proposals. In the final third of the meeting, the Boardmembers are each given a chance to introduce a Proposal in turn; so at the first meeting, the first Boardmember chooses the first Proposal, then after discussion and action on that Proposal is concluded, the second Boardmember chooses a Proposal, etc; who is next in line persists across meetings. In addition to ordinary Proposals, Proposals may be introduced to replace the Board's selection of CEO or the Board's selection of its 3 JSC members or to call early elections (these are voted upon with Score Voting with a runoff against the incumbent for the CEO, Proportional Score Voting for the 3 JSC members, and simple majority for early elections).

Discussion After a Proposal has been introduced, the Boardmember introducing it gives a speech explaining it. After this, discussion begins. Any member who wishes to speak raises their hand. The Chair(s) recognize one of the people who raised their hand. After a person has spoken on a Proposal, they may not speak again on the same proposal until everyone else who wants to speak on it has spoken once. That person now has the floor. The person may speak for up to five minutes, or however long is specified by Policy. They may also yield their time to anyone else to speak. They may also take questions during their time. The Chair cannot give speeches or vote.

Discussion ends when each person has spoken three times on this Proposal, or however many times are specified by Policy, or when no one else wants to speak. If feasible, each person should be give a 'time bank' of 15 minutes, or whatever Policy specifies, instead of being restricted to at most three speeches of at most five minutes.

There are certain things that members may do even when it is not their turn to speak. In order to do these, they should raise both hands. The Chair should immediately pause the speech and recognize the first person that they noticed who raised both hands.

The person who raised both hands may then ask the Chair a procedural question or make a small request (for example, "I can't hear, please speak louder"). Or, they may propose one of the following things, which is immediately voted upon without discussion and each of which requires a vote of >=2/3s to pass, unless the Chair(s) support them, in which case it requires a simple majority vote:

Also, by a simple majority:

The time taken to vote during someone's speech is not counted against their speaking time.

Voting During their speaking time, any Boardmember (but not the Chair, unless the Chair is also a Boardmember) may introduce an Alternative to the Proposal, provided it is on-topic. Some Alternatives may propose to send the matter to a committee, after which it will return to the Board. They may also propose to amend or kill an existing Alternative, including the original Proposal; this requires a vote of >=2/3s and is immediately voted upon. Discussion continues afterwards even if there are no live Alternatives, because someone might introduce a new Alternative. When the discussion of any Proposal ends, the Proposal and all Alternatives shall be voted upon by Score Voting with Runoff, where the runoff choice shall be between the Score Voting winner and the Status Quo (that is, to take no action, as if the Proposal had never been introduced).

Decorum Board members are bound by the following rules during each meeting:

The Chair(s) (the Speaker, except when overridden by both of the other Chairs) determine whether these rules are broken and what the punishment may be, out of the following list. Punishments imposed by the Chair(s) may include censure, a demand for an apology, or demanding the member to remain silent for some duration of time or for the rest of the meeting. A silenced member may still vote. If a silenced member continues to speak or otherwise disrupt the meeting, then the Chair(s) may throw them out for the rest of the meeting. The Chair(s)' decision to punish may be Overturned, except that Boardmembers may not be silenced or thrown out via Overturning the Chair(s)' decision.

Misc The discussion in Board meetings are public, except when all of the Chairs present agree to close the session.

The Chair(s) are permitted to make minor modifications to these rules, such as substituting something else for raising hands, slight modifications to the rules of decorum and punishment, etc. These modifications can be Overturned if the others don't like them, or appealed to the Procedural Panel if they exceed 'minor'.

todo The Chair(s) prepare meeting minutes

todo when we say "the Chair(s)" decide something, we mean that whichever Chair holds the relevant role (for example, the Speaker if this concerns moderating Board meetings, or the Secretary if it concerns the meeting minutes) initially decides it, but may be overruled if both other Chairs vote to do so. If one of the other Chairs chooses not to attend a meeting, then they cannot overrule the actions of the Speaker or Secretary at that meeting; a Chair not at the meeting cannot retroactively overrule moderation decisions made at the meeting.

Delegates and Electors

In an Election, ballots are available to vote for someone to serve on the Board. This vote may be cast towards any Voter.

After the votes are tallied, anyone who received one or more Board votes is termed a Delegate.

Those Delegates who either:

are termed Eligible Delegates. The number of votes they received is called their Initial Delegate Voting Strength. Initially, their Delegate Voting Strength is set to their Initial Delegate Voting Strength (the Initial Delegate Voting Strength of delegates who did not meet the above eligibility criterion is zero). Eligible Delegates may choose any other single Eligible Delegate to Support, by reporting their choice to the Secretary. This has the effect of adding their Delegate Voting Strength to that of the supportee (and reducing the Delegate Voting Strength of the supporter to 0). This is transitive; if Delegate A supports Delegate B, and Delegate B supports Delegate C, then Delegate C's new Delegate Voting Strength is the sum of their initial Delegate Voting Strength plus Delegate A's plus Delegate B's. In the case of a support cycle (a circle of support), the last Delegate to join the cycle holds the summed Voting Strength of the cycle members. Supporting is a public act (that is, not secret).

At the conclusion of the first Subcycle after the Election is a deadline for some of the Delegates, those whose Delegate Voting Strength falls below a threshold (t1, see below), to have chosen whom to Support. Let d be the total number of Delegates. Let x1 be the decimal number represented by the digit 1 followed by a number of zeros equal to half of the number of digits in the decimal representation of d, rounded up (for example, if n were 123, then x1 would be 100). Now let the threshold t1 be n/x1, rounded down, where n is the sum total of all Delegate Voting Strengths. A harder to read but more compact representation of this method for computing t1 from n is: t1 = floor(n/10^ceil(log10(d)/2.0)). At the conclusion of the first Subcycle after the Election, any Delegates whose Delegate Voting Strength is less than t1 have their Delegate Voting Strength reduced to zero, and they are furthermore no longer Eligible to receive Support from other Delegates.

At the conclusion of the second Subcycle after the Election is another such deadline, again via a threshold t2. The formula for the threshold t2 is similar to t1, except that instead of x1, we compute x2, which is the decimal number represented by the digit 1 followed by a number of zeros equal to one FOURTH of the number of digits in the decimal representation of d, rounded up. The compact formula for t2 is t2 = floor(n/10^ceil(log10(d)/4.0)). Again, Delegates whose Delegate Voting Strength is less than t2 at the time of the second deadline have their Delegate Voting Strength reduced to zero, and become Ineligible to receive Support.

At the conclusion of the third Subcycle after the Election is another such deadline, this time with the threshold n/10, rounded down. Those Delegates who have Delegate Voting Strength greater than n/10 at this time are elected as Electors and begin their term as Electors at this time.

Electors serve for a term of three Cycles. At any given time (except for the first few Cycles after the initial setup of the Organization) there are therefore three classes of Delegates serving their first, second, and third term, respectively. The Voting Strength of an Elector is their Delegate Voting Strength at the time of the beginning of their term as Elector.

If there is currently no Prohibition on Multiple Seats in effect, then the same person may be elected as an Elector in a later class even while serving as an Elector in an earlier class. In this case, their Elector Voting Strength in each of their Elector seats is distinct.

At the time of each Election, each Elector may cast a vote for any other one Elector for Boardmember. These votes are public. The three Electors who received the most Elector votes (weighted by the Elector Voting Strength of those who cast them) become Boardmembers. In case of a tie, the tie is broken by Delegate Voting Strength; in case of a further tie, the tie is broken by the votes received in the previous Election (the votes which chose the Delegates); in case of a further tie, lots are drawn.

Electors are said to Support the person for whom they voted as Boardmember. A Delegate is said to indirectly support a Boardmember if they directly Supported that Boardmember, or if they directly Supported a Delegate who indirectly Supported that Boardmember. Those Delegates who indirectly Supported a Boardmember are termed that Boardmember's Supporters. Those Delegates who did not indirectly Support any Boardmember are termed Nonaligned Delegates.

todo grep the rest of this document and replace Nominee with Nonaligned Delegate. todo consider replacing Delegate with 'Candidate Elector' or 'Protoelector'? todo explain that Delegates and Electors are candidate Boardmembers. Mb call them Boardcandidate/Boardnominee, Boardelector (and Boardmember). "The Boardnominees are progressively filtered until approximately 10 of them are left; we call these the Boardelectors. The Boardelectors elect Boardmembers from among their number. The purpose of this multistage process is to make it possible for relative unknowns to be chosen by their peers as Boardmembers." commentary: we wish to avoid restricting Boardmembership to the union of (a) those who have broad name-recognition among the voters, and (b) those who garner a nomination from the incumbent Boardmembers; in traditional organizations, candidates who are not supported by the incumbents must engage in the mass media in order to achieve name-recognition, a process which rewards soundbites and namecalling as opposed to deliberation and compromise; this is what we wish to avoid.

todo still mb too complex for ppl. Maybe just say "top 10 are Electors"? or mb just raise the vote threshold linearly, rather than log?

Once per Subcycle, any Elector or Electors may be Recalled from their position of Elector by a vote of >=2/3s of Delegates, weighted by Initial Delegate Voting Strength. If this occurs, an election via Score Voting (weighted by Initial Delegate Voting Strength) is held among the supporters of each removed Elector in order to replace them (and the removed Elector is not a candidate). In order to hold a full vote on Recall, the Secretary must first be presented by a petition signed by a number of Delegates whose Initial Delegate Voting Strength totals at least 1/3 of the total.

for some of the Delegates, those whose Delegate Voting Strength falls below a threshold, to have chosen whom to Support. Let n be the sum total number of votes cast towards all Nominees in the Election. Let x be the decimal number represented by the digit 1 followed by a number of zeros equal to half of the number of digits in the decimal representation of n, rounded up (for example, if n were 123, then x would be 100). Now let the threshold t1 be n/x, rounded down. At the conclusion of the first Subcycle after the Election, any Delegates whose Delegate Voting Strength is less than t1 have their Delegate Voting Strength reduced to zero, and they are furthermore no longer eligible to receive Support from other Delegates.

Constituencies

Powers

Composition

Any voter or group of voters may get together and form a Constituency.

Procedures

To form a Constituency, a voter or group of voters notifies the Secretary of its formation and of its List of Constituency Trustees. The List consists of an enumeration of Trustees, and for each Trustee, the number of votes they hold as Constituency Trustees (which has no relation to the number of votes they may hold in the Organization as a Voter). The List is public.

One voter may be a Trustee or member of multiple Constituencies, if those Constituencies allow this.

The Constituency's Trustees are responsible for certifying the actions of the Constituency. The Constituency is considered to have taken an action when at least 2/3s of the Constituency Trustees (by number of votes) sign the action, and notify the Secretary of this action, providing their signatures. These actions are public.

A Constituency is only able to have a Delegate when either:

Each Constituency sets its own procedures. If it wishes, its procedures, proceedings, and membership rolls may be kept secret, or even anonymous. The Organization may not regulate, interfere with, or pry into the internal affairs of a Constituency. The organization may not refuse to recognize any Constituency of which it has been notified, may not ban anyone from becoming Delegate, and may not refuse to recognize any Delegate who has received the necessary votes.

Delegates

Powers

Appointment

Each Delegate is chosen by a Constituency. One person may serve as Delegate of many Constituencies ("their constituencies").

Procedures

Each Delegate has a Delegate Voting Strength, which is the sum of the votes received by their Constituencies in the previous Election, plus any votes that have been Proxied to them by other Delegates. This number is public.

At least once a quarter they may Proxy some or all of these votes to any other Delegate, except that they may not Proxy votes to a Delegate who is their superordinate or subordinate, family member, or someone with whom they do business; and they may also Cancel a previous Proxy at least once a quarter. These may be more frequent if the Treasurer declares a shorter time interval.

Proxies may not be traded for anything, although the receiver of a Proxy may make a (nonenforcable) proxy to vote in a certain way.

If a Delegate is replaced by their Constituency, then the power to proxy and cancel proxies made by the previous Delegate votes moves to the replacement Delegate.

Electors

Powers

Appointment

The 30 Delegates with the highest Delegate Voting Strength are Electors (or less, if there are less than 30 Delegates). Note that who is a Elector may change whenever Delegates Proxy and Cancel their Proxies. Their voting strength as Electors is the same as their Delegate Voting Strength.

The votes of the Electors for Boardmembers are public, not secret ballot.

CEO

The CEO executes Policy and Directives.

Powers

Subject to Policy and Directive, the CEO may:

Appointment

The CEO is chosen by the Board via Score Voting with Runoff. The CEO may be replaced at any time, but if there is currently a CEO who has not offered their resignation, then the runoff at the end of the Score Voting shall be between the incumbent CEO and the new selection (if the Score Voting selects the incumbent, then there is no runoff).

The CEO may or may not be a member of the Board.

Judges

Powers

Appointment

Judges are appointed in Panels of 3 by proportional score voting of the Judicial Selection Committee, for a term of 3 Electoral Cycles. If one Judge on a Panel resigns, this ends the term of all three Judges on this Panel.

Procedural Panel

Appointment

The Procedural Panel is a special Judge Panel of nine Judges. It is composed of three classes of three Judges each; each class serves for a term of three Cycles. Each Cycle, the Judicial Selection Committee (JSC) elects a new class of three Judges to serve on the Procedural Panel beginning at the start of the next Cycle.

Powers

Procedures

If one Judge on the Procedural Panel resigns, or becomes permanently unavailable without an understudy, the other two Judges in their class are also removed.

Initially, the Procedural Panel is empty, and it may become so again due to resignation or loss of members. In this case, it is filled by the current Chairs. These Chairs serve three Cycles on the panel as usual; in following two Cycles, these Chairs are joined by the Judge colleagues elected by the JSCs to form a larger Procedural Panel.

If somehow there is a tie vote on the Procedural Panel, then the current Chairs vote to break the tie.

Other dispute resolution panels

Composition

Dispute resolution panels are the Judge Panels appointed by the JSC. Note that the Judges in these Panels stick together with the other Judges appointed in the same Panel and are not separated or recombined when hearing actual cases.

Judge Panels are assigned to Topics by the administration of the Procedural Panel.

Dispute resolution procedure

Disputes which do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Procedural Panel are resolved in the following manner:

Further details of dispute resolution procedures may be set by Policy, or, where Policy is silent, by the Procedural Panel.

Judicial Selection Committee (JSC)

Composition

The Judicial Selection Committee (JSC) has 7 seats; 3 seats chosen by the Board in the previous cycle, 2 seats chosen by the Judges in the previous cycle, 1 seat chosen by the Chairs in the previous cycle, and 1 seat randomly chosen from the Board nominees in the same manner as the seventh seat on the Board. All of the seats except for the randomly chosen one are chosen via Proportional Score Voting by the relevant group. If any of these groups did not elect representatives to their seats in the previous cycle, these seats remain empty in the current cycle.

Powers

Procedures

There is no JSC during the first Cycle of the group's existence.

The JSC must elect a new class of three Judges each Cycle. But if, for whatever reason, the JSC fails to elect a new class of three Judges to the Procedural Panel during some Cycle, then for the subsequent three Cycles, the seats in the Procedural Panel which would otherwise have been occupied by those Judges are simply empty (except that if the entire Procedural Panel empties, the Chairs become Judges).


Part III: Procedures and definitions

Electoral Cycles and Subcycles

The duration of an Electoral Cycle, or just Cycle, is one year (or shorter if there is an early election). One cycle ends and the next begins when the Secretary certifies the results of an Election.

The duration of an Electoral Subcycle, or just Subcycle, is one quarter of a year.

Elections

Elections shall be held at least once per Electoral Cycle duration.

In an election, for each vote they hold, each voter is provided with all of the following types of ballots:

A voter may also publicly declare a desire to proxy some or all of their Forum votes on one or more Topics, and be provided with the requisite number of proxy ballots for the corresponding Topics:

All of these are secret ballots. They are not associated with each other, eg it should not be possible to later find out which Chair election ballot was cast with which Board nominee ballot.

Voters with many votes need not fill out one ballot per vote; they may vest some or all of their ballots with the weight of multiple votes.

Proposals

Proposals to Amend or make a Temporary Exception to the Bylaws ("bylaws proposals") are special, see below.

Non-bylaws Proposals which do nothing except for things in the following categories require only a simple majority (>50%) in either the Forum or the Board, and the absence of a veto in the other, in order to pass:

Non-bylaws Proposals which create, repeal, or amend Firm Policy require a majority of >=2/3s in either the Forum or the Board, and the absence of a veto in the other. A Firm Policy is simply a Policy with a higher than usual voting threshold to amend or repeal.

Other non-bylaws Proposals require a majority of >=4/7 in either the Forum or the Board, and the absence of a veto in the other.

Either the Forum or the Board may Veto one or more proposals by simple majority. Upon the passage of a proposal by the Forum or the Board, the question of whether to Veto the proposal is automatically put on the top of the agenda of other.

Non-bylaw Proposals may order a specific one-time action (a "Directive"), or may create or modify a standing document (such documents are collectively referred to as "Policy").

Temporary Exceptions to the Bylaws

A Temporary Exception to the Bylaws may be passed by a simple majority of both of the Forum and the Board, if in addition either the Forum or the Board vote in favor with a majority of >=2/3s, and in addition no Chair vetos the proposal.

A Temporary Exception to the Bylaws may not alter the procedures regarding Amendments, or Temporary Exceptions to the Bylaws, or the Procedural Panel.

Amending the Bylaws

A pending Amendment to the Bylaws may be scheduled by a simple majority of both of the Forum and the Board, if in addition either the Forum or the Board vote in favor with a majority of >=2/3s. No Amendment may take effect until at least the duration of one Electoral Cycle has passed; at any point during this time the pending Amendment may be vetoed by a simple majority on either the Forum or the Board, or by all three Chairs acting together.

The same procedure may also be used to create or amend a Charter or Articles of Incorporation.

Score Voting and Proportional Score Voting

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In cases where only one seat is being filled or one alternative is being selected, the procedure may be called Score Voting with Runoff. In such a case, if there is an incumbent eligible to win or a 'status quo' alternative, then Score Voting is executed and there is then an instant runoff between the winning alternative and the incumbent or status quo. If there is no eligible incumbent or 'status quo' alternative, the instant runoff is between the two highest scoring candidates.

Admitting new voters, and expelling voters

Subject to Policy and Directives, the CEO may nominate one or more entities for admission as a voter. These nominations are reviewed by a new member pre-screening committee of the same composition as a dispute resolution pre-screening committee. By a majority vote, the new member pre-screening committee may forward some or all of these nominations to the Chairs.

Any two Chairs may veto any nomination. Any two Chairs may also make a new nomination (without necessarily having been forwarded a list of nominations to start with). The revised list of nominations is sent on to the Board.

By a vote of >=2/3s, the Board may approve some or all of these nominations (possibly after the approval of an appropriate subcommittee).

The procedure for expelling voters is identical to that for admitting new voters, except of course that the criteria for expulsion is distinct.

The procedure for issuing new votes via an employee compensation plan is identical to above. The procedure for issuing new votes via a rights issue, or public auction of new shares, is the same as above except with the omission of the pre-screening committee.

Emergency

The CEO may request that the Chairs declare an Emergency. If all three Chairs agree, then for the duration of the Emergency, almost all of the normal procedures and protections in the Bylaws, Firm Policy, Policies, and Directives are suspended, and the Organization operates at the direction of the CEO.

If all three Chairs cannot be reached quickly enough, the understudies of the absent ones may fill in. If they also cannot be reached, then Judges on the Procedural Panel may fill in. If they also cannot be reached, then the understudies of the absent ones may fill in. So, three out of the six Chairs plus Judges on the Procedural Panel, or their understudies, must be reached. If one person occupies multiple Chair seats or multiple Procedural Panel seats, then they count as multiple people for the purpose of declaring an Emergency.

A Emergency may be unilaterally ended at any time by a declaration of the CEO, or any person who was a Chair or Judge on the Procedural Panel as long as one Electoral Cycle before the declaration of the Emergency, or anytime since.

Limitations during Emergencies:

Initial setup

First, a pre-election is held for a single pre-Chair via Score Voting with Runoff. The pre-Chair then determines whether or not to put to the voters an option to waive the prohibition against holding multiple offices. The pre-Chair then administrates a full Election.

Initial setup of Procedural Panel

After the election, as the Procedural Panel is empty, the Chairs serve as the Procedural Panel. There is no Judicial Selection Committee (JSC) in this first Cycle. In the second Cycle, there will be a JSC but still no Procedural Panel, but the first cycle's Chairs are still on the Procedural Panel, in their second term. In the third Cycle, the Procedural Panel is composed of the three Judges elected to it by the second Cycle JSC, as well as first Cycle's Chairs, serving their third term. In the fourth Cycle, the Procedural Panel is composed of the three Judges elected to it by the second Cycle JSC, and the three Judges elected to it by the third Cycle JSC. In subsequent Cycles, the Procedural Panel is composed of the three classes of Judges elected to it by the previous three JSCs. The previous is modified if any of the Chairs or Judges mentioned resign; in this case, the resigned colleagues are simply absent from the Procedural Panel(s) from that time forward.


Part IV: Rights and rules

Rights

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Anti-corruption and limitations of power rules

Conflicts of interest

To avoid the appearance of a conflict of impropriety, none of Chairs, Boardmembers, Judges, or the CEO may accept any gifts, loans, or guarantees from, or do any business with, any entity relating to the Organization's business, with the exception of purchasing and selling common items in ordinary retail transactions.

Vote buying

Votes and promises to vote a certain way may not be bought or traded, except that they may be traded for other votes and for agreements to support proposals or people. Such trades and agreements are permitted but are not enforceable.

Term limits and prohibition against holding multiple offices

No person may simultaneously hold more than one seat or role out of: Chair, CEO, Boardmember, Judge on the Procedural Panel, nor may they hold any of these offices if for the majority of the past nine electoral cycles they have held one or more of them.

Terms limits and prohibition against holding multiple offices may be waived in particular Election if, prior to that election, a majority of the Chairs vote to put a waiver to the voters, and if >=2/3s of the votes vote for the waiver; or if there are no more than 35 voters in total.

Misc. rules

Precedence

From highest to lowest precedence:

In case of conflict between these, the highest precedence wins.

Delegation

Except where Policy says otherwise, Officials may delegate some or all of their powers, and may cancel these delegations, at any time. These delegations expire after each Election and may then be renewed.

Understudies

Any official may choose an understudy, or may change their choice of understudy, at any time. If the official resigns or becomes incapacitated, their chosen understudy takes their place and serves until the official is no longer incapacitated, or for the rest of their term, or until replaced, whichever is shorter. For these purposes, expulsion, death, or prolonged unavailability may be handled like incapacitation.

Publicity

All official actions taken by the Chairs, the Board, the Forum, and the Procedural Panel are public.


Appendices

Appendix A: Indices

Decision-making bodies and officials:

Roles:

Procedures:

Other concepts:

Appendix Z1 (optional): Independence and financial literacy of board members

The last four Board seats (the last three Delegate seats, and the Nominee seat) shall be selected from the subset of candidates who are both independent of the Organization (those who are not employed by the organization), and the last three seats shall be selected from the subset of candidates who are financially literate.

Appendix Z2 (optional): Reputation

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Appendix Z3 (optional): Prediction market

For the purpose of improving the Organization's decision-making by increasing the voting strength of those voters who are well-informed and good at prediction, any voter may wager against other voters up to half of their voting weight on the outcome of future events deemed by the Chairs to be of interest to the Organization. These wagers are public and must be made through a process administered by the Chairs. No money, nor indeed anything besides voting weight, may be wagered. No voter may wager on an event that they are in a position to substantially influence.

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effective holders of 20% or more votes must announce themselves (but not necessarily their identity, unless Policy dictates that they must)