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See Introduction to the structure of Branch Democracy for a shorter introduction.
Voting is done using a system called "Score Voting". Score Voting is simple: each person rates each candidate as 0, 1, or 2, and then the ratings for each candidate are summed. The candidate with the highest summed score wins. This system is superior to plurality voting because there is no spoiler effect and because compromise candidates have a better chance of winning.
For multi-seat elections, Reweighted Score Voting is used, which is an extension of Score Voting that is better when there are multiple seats up for election. Reweighted Score Voting is a "proportional representation" voting system, which ensures that the Directors will be a diverse, representative sample of the entire group.
(todo: write a sidebar that shows how reweighted Score Voting is a PR system; and gives an example of reweighted Score Voting).
Some groups may want to give each member an equal vote, but others may want to give some members more votes than others. Branch Democracy works for both of these cases.
My recommendation is that groups which are completely optional and voluntary (such as open projects) use unequal votes, and that groups for which membership is sort of obligatory, such as governments, unions, and professional licensing associations, use one-person-one-vote.
Branch Democracy doesn't tell you how to decide how many votes to give each person if you use unequal votes, but I recommend that you use the PieTrust system for this.
No member may spend more than a trivial amount of money campaigning.
There is a "text limit" that limits the volume of text that may be passed in Acts per day by a legislative body. Also, there is a minimum "reading time" per volume of text that must elapse after the introduction of a proposal and before it is voted upon.
Branch Democracy has different sets of rules for different sizes of groups. The rules are simple for small groups, and get more complex as the group gets larger. The rules themselves tell you when to change over. This allows a group to start using the Branch Democracy rules immediately when they are small, without strangling in bureaucracy, but while being confident that the rules will provide more structure as needed if and when the group grows.
In groups in which each member has one vote, the size of a group is just the number of voters. In groups in which members have unequal voting power, the size of a group is measured using a formula called "effective size", defined as: two times the smallest number of members who would form a majority if they voted together. Effective size is never greater than the number of members in the group, but is sometimes less. For example, if there were 100 people in the group, and six members each have 10% of the votes, then the effective size is only 12, because if those six members banded together they would have a majority.
The reason for using effective size is to avoid saddling a group with a lot of bureaucracy when decision could be made less formally by a small number of people.
In Branch Democracy, groups are either Small (effective size of 2 thru 10), Medium (effective size 11 thru 80), or Large (81+). When a group grows, it switches to the rules for its new size just before the next election. I'll describe the rules for each group size in turn.
For small groups (effective size of 10 or less), the Bylaws provide two structures, a Forum, which is a way for members to make proposals and vote on them, and a Chair, who is an elected official.
The Forum consists of a bulletin board to which any member can post a proposal. Other members can drop by and write "yes" or "no" or "still deciding" below a proposal, and if the proposal gets 3/5 yeses then it passes (3/5 is the default, but some types of proposals, such as renewals of a budget, only need a little over 50%; others, such as amending the bylaws, need 2/3). Members can also delegate their voting power to other members using proxies.
In small groups, the Chair leads the group, administers the procedural rules, and serves as chief executive officer. The group can create other officer positions if it feels they are needed. The Chair is elected periodically for a fixed term.
The Chair is periodically elected.
For medium-sized groups (effective size 11 thru 80), the Bylaws provide three more structures: an elected board of directors, a Chief Executive Officer, Internal (CEOi) who may be separate from the Chair, and an External Executive Officer, External (CEOe), who handles external affairs.
In medium-sized groups, the Forum still exists, but in addition, there is also an elected Board of Directors. The number of Directors varies with the effective size of the group:
| effective group size | number of elected directors | ||||
| < 11 | none | ||||
| 11-24 | 3 | ||||
| 25-48 | 5 | ||||
| 49+ | 7 |
The Directors are elected. Board elections occur periodically, but an early election can be called by a vote in the Forum.
Both the Forum and the Board can make proposals and vote on them. The required voting thresholds are the same in each case (3/5 by default). If a proposal passes in either the Forum or the Board, it is called a "Resolution". In this case, the other one (the Board or the Forum, respectively) has a chance to veto the proposal. If a proposal passes one of them and is not vetoed by the other one, then it passes overall, and is called an Act.
In addition to making and voting on proposals, the Board appoints at least two officers, the Chief Executive Officer, Internal (CEOi), and the Chief Executive Officer, External (CEOe). The CEOe handles external affairs, and the CEOi handles everything else (including program/operating activites). The CEOi and the CEOe may be replaced by the Board at any time. The CEOi is not the boss of the CEOe; the CEOe has primacy within the domain of external affairs. The same person may or may not be appointed to both of these roles, and may or may not be the same person as the Chair.
The CEOe is not appointed by the full board, but rather by a subboard, the External Affairs Committee, which is composed of a small number of people from the elected Board of Directors (1 boardmember for groups of effective size 9-48; 3 boardmembers for groups of effective size 49+). When the Board of Directors is elected, the members also rate each candidate for their suitability for external affairs, and these ratings determine which of the Directors will sit of the External Affairs Committee. The reason for this is that it is common that some people are well-suited for making decisions about most of an organization's business, but ill-suited for making decisions about external affairs; separating external affairs into an CEOe, appointed by an External Affairs Committee, allows members to separately vote on whether each candidate would be a good Director in general, and whether they would be good for external affairs.
The External Affairs Committee may also make or vote on proposals pertaining to external affairs. The full Board may not make or vote on such proposals.
The Chair is not a Director and does not have have a vote on the Board, and no person may simultaineously hold the offices of Chair and Director. However, the Chair does run Board meetings (without the Chair casting a vote). The Chair also interpret the Bylaws (although the Bylaws may be amended against the will of the Chair), mediate disputes, and oversee the organization (the organization must disclose any information to the Chair that the Chair requests). The Chair may participate in the Forum like any other member. The Chair is the highest-ranking and most prestigious office, and the Chair formally represents the organization when a formal representative is called for.
Decisions of the Chair regarding the running of Board meetings may be overturned by a 5/7 vote of the Board. Other decisions of the Chair may be overturned by an Act (except that the Chair may not be denied information which he or she requests).
For large-sized groups (effective size 81+), the Bylaws provide two more structures. The Board of Directors is split into two parts; a Board composed of 7 elected Directors, like before, and a new Board composed of (up to 7) delegate Directors. The former is referred to as the Elect Board, and the latter as the Delegate Board. Another new structure is the Councils, which are discussion groups made up of ordinary members. Optionally, any group may appoint Parliamentarians to run meetings and Judges to settle disputes. In addition, there are three chairs instead of just one, the CEOi position is split into two, one handling "program activities" (CEOp) and the other handling everything else (CEOi), and there are a few other changes.
The Delegate Board has a role identical to the Elect Board, but a different composition. Each Board separately meets and separately originates proposals, debates them, and votes on them.
The Delegate Board and the Elect Board act as one body, called the Combined Board, for the purpose of selecting officers. The Combined Board selects the CEOi and CEOe, confirms executive nominees, and appoints Judges and Parliamentarians and possibly other officials to roles particular to the group. The Combined Board does not serve any other function.
Delegates are chosen by constituencies, which are blocs of members who organize in order to select a delegate. A member may only be in one constituency at a time. A member may leave their constituency at any time, and may join a new one with the consent of 2/3 of the other members in that constituency; although members who switch after voting in their previous constituency may not vote again in their new constituency until at least one electoral cycle duration has elapsed. The Bylaws specify a minimum size for each constituency.
Constituencies select a delegate by Score Voting. Constituencies may recall and replace their delegate with a new one at any time by Score Voting. It is forbidden for any member outside of a constituency to control a constituency's choice of delegate, to lobby for a delegate, or to assist a delegate to campaign.
In groups with an effective size over 343, there is an intermediate layer of delegates in between the members and the Delegate Board. The Bylaws specify a threshold of constituents which a member must attract in order to become an intermediate delegate. The Delegate Directors must in turn accumulate a certain threshold of support, not from the members in general, but from the intermediate delegates.
In groups with an effective size over 117649, there are two intermediate layers of delegates.
In groups with an effective size over 282475249, there are three intermediate layers of delegates.
All three of the Forum, the Elect Board, and the Delegate Board may separately make proposals, debate, and vote on them. Any resolution passed by one of these may be vetoed by either of the other two; if it is not vetoed, it becomes an Act. If it is passed by one of these bodies, and then vetoed by a second one, then it passes only if it is passed by the third one.
For example, if the Forum passes a proposal and the Delegate Board vetos it, then the proposal fails unless the Elect Board also passes it.
The External Affairs Committee (3 members) represents the Elect Board in matters of external affairs, and the Program Activity Committee (4 members) represents the Elect Board in matters of program activities. By contrast, the entire Delegate Board may vote on all matters.
A council is a body of members whose size is the number of Directors on the Delegate Board. Each council consists of one (possibly indirect) constituent for each Delegate Director.
Each councils is treated as if it were a single individual in the Forum. A council may take action only when there is a consensus among all members of the council. When there is consensus, a council may create proposals, place tokens on them, vote on them, etc, just like an individual can do in the Forum. 1/3 of the Forum votes are reserved for the councils and divided up between them. When a council votes in the Forum, all individuals making up the council automatically cast their vote the same way the council does.
Service on councils is voluntary. Any member (who is a direct or indirect constituent of a member of the Delegate Board) who is not a Director can request to be placed on a council. Each member may only be a member of one council at a time. If a member leaves a council, they cannot join another Council for a specified period of time.
As many councils are created as can be, satisfying the above constraints; that is to say, when a member requests to be placed on a council, this request is granted provided that they have not just left another council, and that there are members who are constituents of each other Delegate Directors who are also waiting to join a council.
No individual is eligible to stand for election as a Director, or to become a delegate, unless they attempted to serve on a council for the past electoral cycle, and usually attended the council if they were placed.
If there are intermediate layers of delegates, each layer has its own set of councils, and delegates in this layer who are placed on a council are placed on one of their layer's councils. The 1/3 of Forum votes reserved for the Councils is divided evenly between the layers, and then divided evenly between the councils in each layer.
The CEO position is now divided into 3 parts:
The CEOe and the CEOo are selected by committees of the Elect Board combined with the entire Delegate Board.
All of these roles, or any subset of them, may be filled by one person simultaineously.
Any CEO may nominate up to 3 individuals to serve under them as executive officers of the organization within some domain of authority (the domain of authority delegated to an executive officer called a "portfolio"). An executive officer means that, within their portfolio, they have the authority to act in the name of the organization and to bind the organization to agreements. To become an executive officer, the nominee must be confirmed by a vote of at least 2/5 of the Combined Board.
A CEO may not directly exercise the authority delegated to an executive officer. However, at any time, the CEO may dismiss an executive serving under them, after which the authority delegated to them reverts to the CEO.
Executive team members retain their position until dismissed or until their resignation. In particular, they are not removed just because the CEO who nominated them is dismissed. A CEO who wishes to reshuffle the executive team may wait until a replacement is confirmed before dismissing an incumbent executive officer.
A CEO may propose a redistribution of authority between portfolios, which must be confirmed by a 2/5 vote of the Combined Board.
Optionally, the Directors can decide to split up the role of the Chair by way of appointing up to 5 Judges and/or 5 Parliamentarians. Parliamentarians administer the Bylaws and moderate discussion, running Board meetings and moderating the Forum. Judges interpret the Bylaws and Acts in case of a dispute (except for disputes relating to the moderation of discussion, which are interpreted by the Parliamentarians). When there are less than 3 Judges or less than 3 Parliamentarians, the Chair also serves these roles.
In large groups, there are three Chairs instead of just one. The Chairs are elected in a staggered fashion, not all at once.
When there are less than 3 Judges or less than 3 Parliamentarians, the Chairs fill in for these roles.
Even when there are Judges or Parliamentarians, the Chairs retains the role of overseers, making sure that the Bylaws are followed and the rights of the members are protected.
Each chair individually holds the powers to:
Any two Chairs acting together may pardon or commute sentences the sentence of any member convicted by the organization.
Additionally, the middle Chair and the seniormost Chair have special roles.
The middle Chair advises members, takes member complaints, and attempts to mediate disputes.
The seniormost Chair is the highest-ranking official in the organization and in addition to the above has the power to:
There are term limits for Chairs, Directors, Judges and Parliamentarians.
A person may not be both Chair and CEO.
Discussion and voting in the Forum is governed by a new set of rules that includes agenda-setting procedures in order to prevent too many proposals from being discussed at once. Members can place tokens on a proposal in order to indicate that they think it should be discussed.
