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(moved to concordBylawsRewrite1809)
First, we need a Temporary Secretary to organize the first Election. This position will last only thru the Election. Anyone who wishes to be Temporary Secretary should present themself as Candidate Temporary Secretary and call for other candidates; if no other candidates step forward, then they should assume the role and immediately begin work. If, however, other candidates step forward or multiple people announce themselves as candidates, then there is a quick election for Temporary Secretary as follows: each candidate is presented to the other organizers in turn (in the election for Temporary Secretary, the 'organizers' may mean all of the voters, or it may mean just some group of people who are setting up the organization), and for each candidate, each organizer may either vote "+1", or stay silent (if the organizers are physically present, this may be accomplished by raising a hand for +1). An organizer may vote +1 for as many candidates as they wish. The count of +1s is tallied for each candidate, and the candidate with the most +1s becomes Temporary Secretary.
The Temporary Secretary then leads the organization of the first Election. They should first familiarize themselves with the section 'Elections' below, and if possible, take advice from other organizers who are familiar with the Concord system.
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The 3 Chairs oversee the organization. Once per Electoral Cycle, the Chairs are elected directly by the voters via Triscore Voting with secret ballot. They serve as Speaker, Secretary, and Treasurer. They also serve the voters by protecting transparency and integrity.
The first Chair, in order of election, holds the office of Speaker, the second holds the office of Secretary, and the third holds the office of Treasurer; any two of the Chairs can switch these offices at any time by mutual consent. The Speaker presides over the Forum and Boardmeetings. The Secretary administers elections and certifies documents. The Treasurer who co-signs transactions and administers the adjudication process.
Each individual Chair has certain investigatory and publication powers (see section Transparency and Integrity).
When two Chairs agree, they can recommend or veto the admission or expulsion of voters.
When all three Chairs agree, they can pardon those who have been convicted by Tribunals, or authorize emergency procedures for urgent action (see section Emergencies).
In order to ensure transparency and integrity, any Chair acting unilaterally, or any three Board Members acting together, may:
Initially, the Board starts with 3 standing committees: Nominations and Governance, Audit, and Compensation. The Nominations and Governance committee, chaired by the Speaker, works on finding and checking out people to fill various roles, and monitoring of and revisions to the governance system. The Audit committee, chaired by the Secretary, conducts and/or oversees audits. The Compensation committee, chaired by the Treasurer, sets the compensation of the CEO and other senior employees of the organization.
A Board Meeting may be called by the Speaker or by any 3 Board Members with two weeks notice. Alternately, an urgent Board Meeting may be called with no notice by all three Chairs, or by any 5 Board Members.
In addition to Board Members, the Chairs and any Corporate Officers have the right to attend and speak at Board Meetings, although they cannot vote (unless they are also a Board Member). Each Board Member may also bring up to one Guest who may observe but not speak unless time is yielded to them. The Board may eject Corporate Officers or Guests for some time not exceeding the rest of the current meeting, by majority vote.
Any person whose turn it is to speak may yield that time to anyone else at the meeting.
The Speaker presides at Board Meetings unless the Speaker is not present, in which case the Secretary presides, unless the Secretary is not present in which case the Treasurer presides, unless no Chairs are present in which case the seniormost present Board Member presides. However, by a vote with a threshold of 5 or more Board Members, the Board Members may select another person to preside for some period of time not exceeding the rest of the current meeting (any Board Member may call for such a vote when it is their turn to speak. The person presiding is called the Presider.
A Board Meeting may be adjourned by a majority vote; a vote to adjourn may be called for by any Board Member when it is their turn to speak, or by the Presider at any time. The Presider may adjourn a meeting immediately in case of emergency or disorder. If the vote passes, the Presider must immediately declare the meeting adjourned.
The Board may not pass Resolutions unless a Quorum is present at the time of the vote. A Quorum is 4 Boardmembers.
The agenda for the first third of each meeting is set by the Presider; this part of the meeting may be used to hear reports from various people as well as to discuss and vote on proposals of interest to the Presider. The agenda for the rest of the meeting is set in turn by each Board Member, proceeding in round-robin fashion from seniormost Member to least senior. Whose turn it is next in this rotation persists across Board meetings, but resets after each Election, after which it is the seniormost Board Member's turn again. When a Board Member's turn comes up, they may introduce one proposal to be voted upon, after which they are the first person to speak on this topic (if the Board Member wishes to use their turn not to make a proposal but rather to cause the Board to listen to a report from another person, they could make their proposal 'to accept the report by So-and-so' or similar, and then yield time to the other person to give the report; similarly if they think some issue needs to be discussed but they don't have a concrete proposal yet, they can make a 'dummy proposal' to be amended during the discussion to an actual proposal). Each topic is discussed until the proposal is voted upon and either passes or fails, or unless a majority votes to move on to another topic without voting on this one; such a vote may be called for at any time, and may specify the new topic or may allow the next Board Member whose turn it is to choose it.
The introducer of a proposal may amend their own proposal without a vote unless the Board has begun to vote upon it, or unless the Board has successfully voted to amend it.
Votes other than votes on the proposals under discussion (for example, votes to adjourn, eject Corporate Officers or Guests, replace the Presider, or prematurely move on to another topic) may be called for by any Board Member when it is their turn to speak, and occur immediately when they are called for without discussion or debate.
When all three Chairs agree, they can declare an Emergency. During an Emergency, the Chairs, when they unanimously agree, may issue temporary Emergency Resolution with the effect of any Resolution that would ordinarily require a vote of the Board or the Forum with less than a 2/3 voting threshold (for example, the procedures relating to emergencies or to amendment of the Concord System Rules may not be changed through an Emergency Resolution, as this sort of Resolution would require a 2/3 voting threshold). The Concord System Rules remain in effect during an Emergency.
A Emergency may be unilaterally ended at any time by a declaration of the CEO, or by any person who was a Chair or Judge on the Procedural Tribunal as long as one Electoral Cycle before the declaration of the Emergency, or anytime since. It may also be ended by either the Board or the Forum with a vote of >= 1/3. It ends automatically at the end of the Electoral Cycle. All Emergency Resolutions lose their effect when the Emergency ends.
todo Electoral Cycle, Early Elections
todo if there are more than 3 vacancies, still only 3 members are elected to the Board per election; Boardmembers' terms end down 2 elections after they have been elected
todo If at any time in the future the Board or the Procedural Tribunal again fall below 7 and 9 members respectively, the Chairpeople fill in, so that temporarily the Board or the Procedural Tribunal consists of its remaining members plus the Chairpeople. (todo except the randomly selected Board member is just reselected)
todo random number generation procedure involving all three Chairs. The Chairs each contribute a randomly chosen number (any method may be used provided it is random). All summed at once using modular arithmetic (explain).
todo
The Procedural Tribunal, rather than external courts, is the final authority on the interpretation of the organization's rules, including this document, to the maximum extent permitted by law.
todo
todo
A Temporary Exception to the Concord System Rules may be passed by either the Forum or the Board with a majority of >=2/3s, if in addition every Chair is notified of the Proposal, and none of them veto it.
A Temporary Exception to the Concord System Rules may not alter the procedures regarding Amendments, or Temporary Exceptions to the Concord System Rules, or the Procedural Tribunal, or Emergencies.
A case begins when a formal request for adjudication by the organization is filed by one party (the 'plaintiff') against another (the 'defendant'). The request must include which particular rules are alleged to have been violated. The burden of proof is on the plaintiff.
In the following, the 'protected party' is the defendant, unless the defendant is the Organization itself, in which case the protected party is the plaintiff.
A Judge Panel is randomly selected out of those Judge Panels who deal with the relevant type of situation. The Judge Panel holds one or more expedited initial hearings. If at the conclusion of these, all Judges on the Judge Panel unanimously agree that the protected party is obviously correct, they decide the case in favor of the protected party and the case ends. Otherwise, the case continues.
If the case continues, the protected party then makes two choices:
1) Whether the case will be decided by the Judge Panel, or by a full Tribunal.
2) How legal costs, if any, are to be allocated between the parties. The alternatives are: (a) each party pays their own legal costs, or (b) the costs are split using the following method.
The method of splitting legal costs is as follows. Each party posts to the court a bond of an amount of their choice (or declines to post a bond, which is equivalent to a bond of amount zero). The amount of the larger of the two bonds becomes the legal cost limit for both parties; after this point, neither side is permitted to spend more than than that amount on legal fees related to this case, not even out of their own funds with no involvement of the Organization.
The difference between the amounts of the two bonds is made available by the court for disbursement to pay genuine and necesssary legal costs at the direction of the party who posted the smaller bond -- these costs are paid out of the larger bond. At the conclusion of the trial, an amount equal to twice the amount of the smaller bond is given to the winner, and any remaining amount (which corresponds to unused money out of difference between the amounts of the two bonds) is given back to the person who posted the larger bond.
If, during the case, either party wants to raise the legal cost limit, at the Judge Panel's discretion they may be allowed to post a new bond. The legal cost limit is raised by the amount of the new bond, and all of the new bond is made available for disbursement to pay genuine and necessary legal costs at the direction of the other party. At the conclusion of the trial, any remaining amount from the new bond is returned to the party who posted it.
The value of time spent by employees on a case count as legal costs, regardless of whether these employees are legal professionals.
If a full Tribunal was requested by the protected party, then (TODO define how a Tribunal is chosen: a Judge Panel + 3 Board-colored volunteers + 1 inactive BoardNominee? volunteer(?)).
The Judge Panel, or the Tribunal, then holds hearings to investigate the case. These hearings are organized and chaired by the Judge Panel (if the Judges on the panel disagree on how to run the hearings, this is resolved by simple majority vote). At the end, the case is decided by a majority vote of the Judge Panel, or the Tribunal, whichever was requested. At any time before the conclusion of the case, the parties may settle and mutually agree to withdraw the case.
Any ambiguity regarding the interpretation of Resolutions or governance rules (including this document) must always be referred to the Procedural Tribunal, which resolves it via simple majority vote.
The losing party may appeal a case to the Procedural Tribunal, which may find that the tribunal that decided that case incorrectly applied adjudication procedure or incorrectly interpreted Resolutions or governance rules, and send the case back to that tribunal with a correction (if the Procedural Tribunal finds that the tribunal persists in ignoring corrections, it may decide the appealed case itself).
Outside of an ordinary case, a single party may also file a request for clarification of the rules regarding their situation, which may be responded to by a Judge Panel if resources permit.
The Procedural Tribunal may, by a vote of >=2/3, create additional procedures and rules to be followed in adjudication.
(moved to concordBylawsRewrite1809) Any official may at any time designate, un-designate, or switch their designation of an 'understudy', which is a person who will temporarily inherit the powers and duties of that official if the official is unavailable or incapacitated (the definition of 'unavailable or incapacitated' may be set differently by each understudy-designating official). If the understudy-designating official becomes permanently unavailable or incapacitated, the understudy may permanently replace them.
(moved to concordBylawsRewrite1809)
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todo what to call resolutions passed by one body but waiting for potential veto? pending resolutions? waiting for veto? halffinished?
