proj-concordDemocracy-concordBylawsRewrite1904

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Introduction

Concord is a governance system; a set of procedures for elections, meetings, and decision-making.

The voters elect officials and also vote directly on issues.

The most important officals are:

Other officials include Boardelectors, a Judicial Selection Commission, and ordinary Judges.

Getting started

Depending on the type of organization, the system rules (this document) may be incorporated into Bylaws, Articles of Incorporation, a Constitution, a Charter, or similar governing documents.

The first thing to do is to elect a Provisional Chair, who will then adminster a full Election. Nominations are called for -- any member may nominate themself or another for Provisional Chair. A nominee may decline their nomination. When no more nominations seem to be coming in, a last call for nominations is made -- if any more nominations come in after that, another last call must be made afterwards. When a last call is made and no more nominations are made in response, voting begins.

Each candidate is presented to the members in turn. For each candidate, each member can either vote for the candidate, or do nothing. A MEMBER CAN VOTE FOR AS MANY CANDIDATES AS THEY LIKE -- they do not have to vote only for one candidate. The candidate with the most votes wins. In case of a tie, there are one or more rounds of voting between the tied candidates (again, with each member voting for as many candidates as they like) until there is no more tie.

The job of the newly elected Provisional Chair is to familiarize themself with the Election procedure in this document, and then to organize and administer an Election as quickly as possible. The Provisonal Chair announces the results of the Election and at that time their term ends.

If urgent action needs to be taken in the meantime, and if the organization is pre-existing, then these urgent decisions are made and executed however they used to be made before the adoption of Concord.

If the organization is new and has no obvious way to make decisions besides Concord itself, and if urgent action needs to be taken during the term of the Provisional Chair, then during their term the Provisional Chair may lead by Decree, make emergency binding decisions on behalf of the organization, and serve as the organization's legal representative. The Provisional Chair's Decrees are temporary and expire upon the end of their term.

A Provisional Chair can be removed from office by a petition signed by a majority of the members, in which case a new Provisional Chair is elected in the same manner as the first.

Immediately after the first Election, there are only 4 Boardmembers, and there are not yet any Judges nor members of the Judicial Selection Commission (in the absence of Judges, the Chairs fill that role as well). After the second Election, there should be 7 Boardmembers, and also the Judicial Selection Commission should have members and can start to nominate Judges.

Chairs

TODO

Speaker

Secretary

Chancellor

TODO

The Chancellor:

Boardmeetings

Initiating a meeting

Either the Speaker or the holder(s) of any 3 Board seats may call a meeting, specifying the time, date, and location. The call must be communicated to all Boardmembers and all Chairs. Meetings do not require physical presence and may be held over any communications medium and may even be held asynchronously (for example, over an email thread). Two weeks notice must be given unless all 3 Chairs unanimously agree to waive that requirement for a specific meeting.

All Chairs have the same rights to attend and to speak as Boardmembers. They do not have the right to propose topics or to vote, however (unless they are also Boardmembers).

The quorum requirement is >50% of Board seats. If the Boardmembers present at a meeting represent only 50% or less of Board seats, then quorum is not met and the meeting cannot continue unless/until quorum is met. Those members present at a meeting without quorum are free to discuss issues informally, but any final votes taken are not binding. If some members leave mid-meeting, it is possible for quorum to be lost mid-meeting.

Moderation and minutes

Board meetings are moderated (presided over) by the Speaker, or if they are absent, then by the Secretary, or if they are absent, by the Treasurer, or if they are absent, by the senior Boardmember present. The moderator's actions and decisions as moderator may be overruled by a vote of >=2/3 (and the moderator may not disallow such a vote).

The minutes of each meeting are taken by the Secretary, or if they are absent, by the Treasurer, or if they are absent, by the senior Boardmember present. The minutes must include the time, date, and location of the meeting, a list of all Boardmembers who attended the meeting, the exact text of every proposal that passed, and the number of votes that each such proposal passed with. The minutes should not include subjective summaries of what was said during the meeting.

The moderator may silence a Boardmember (for any duration up to the rest of the current meeting) if they are disruptive, dilatory, or refuse to follow the rules of Boardmeetings. Silenced Boardmembers may still vote but may not otherwise speak. If a silenced Boardmember refuses to remain silent, the moderator may expel them from the meeting.

Beginning a meeting

It is recommended that each meeting be immediately preceded by an optional, informal discussion between all Boardmembers present, moderated by the Speaker. In most cases, the actual formal meeting can then be short and can serve to merely formalize what was already informally decided upon.

The moderator opens the meeting. Each meeting begins with the presentation by the Secretary of the minutes of the previous meeting. Any Boardmember may point out any mistake in those minutes and propose a correction. The Boardmembers then vote on whether to amend the minutes according to the proposed correction; the minutes may be amended by a vote of >=2/3. After all alleged mistakes have been voted on, the minutes are considered approved.

Agenda items

Each topic on the agenda for this meeting, if any, are now taken up in turn.

Discussion of each topic

One goal of the rules for speaking is to ensure that everyone has a chance to be heard, even those who are in the minority, unless the holders of at least 2/3s of the votes don't want to hear them.

The Boardmember selecting the topic begins the discussion with an introduction of up to 5 minutes (during their introduction, they may request more time, in which case this request is immediately voted upon and may be granted by a vote of >=2/3).

For each topic, each Boardmember and each Chair have two speaking slots of 5 minutes each (in addition to the introduction made by the selector of the topic). To request to use their speaking slot, a person should raise their hand, or whatever else the moderator instructs (for example, perhaps the moderator will say that one should stand up; or add their name to a queue; or press a button; etc). A person may yield any portion of their speaking time to any person present; otherwise, no person aside from the moderator may speak out of turn without first being recognized by the moderator (except to initiate a vote to overrule a decision by the moderator). However, the moderator may make exceptions to this rule to allow members to interrupt to state that the speaker should speak louder, etc.

During any of their speaking slots, a Boardmember may make a Proposal by clearly stating that they are making a Proposal, and communicating the Proposal's exact wording. This Proposal then is said to be under consideration. Multiple Proposals may be under consideration simultaneously.

The moderator at any time, or anyone else during their speaking slot, may make a number of metaproposals:

When there is no one left who still has speaking slots and who has communicated a desire to speak, the discussion ends. Now, if there are any Proposals under consideration, a final vote is held on all such Proposals (as amended). The vote uses the Score Voting with Runoff procedure (TODO: not 3-2-1 or something else?) , where the runoff choice shall be between the Score Voting winner and the No Action (No Action means that none of the Proposals under consideration pass).

Selecting new topics of discussion

Now each Boardmember in turn has a chance to select a topic of discussion. The rotation of who is next in line to select a topic persists across meetings and starts at the first meeting after each Election with the seniormost Boardmember, proceeding in order of seniority.

On their turn to select a topic, a Boardmember may place a topic on the agenda of a future meeting instead of discussing it right now. The topic may be placed on the agenda of any already-scheduled meeting, or it may be placed on the agenda of 'the next meeting'. Topics appear within the agenda of a future meeting in the order that they were added.

Urgent issues

For consideration of an urgent issue, the moderator may suggest that whatever is currently being done should be interrputed (even mid-discussion). This suggestion is then immediately voted upon with a vote threshold of >= 2/3. If it fails, the meeting continues normally, and if it passes, the urgent issue is discussed, and then after the urgent issue is disposed of, discussion returns to the place on the agenda or to the topic (or turn to propose a topic) that was interrupted; a topic interrupted in this manner is re-introduced and discussion is restarted as if new.

Unfinished business

If the meeting is adjourned in the middle of a topic, that topic is placed at the top of the agenda for the next meeting, before any items currently on that agenda. The topic will be re-introduced and re-discussed as if new.

If the meeting is adjourned during consideration of an urgent issue that interrupted the normal flow of the meeting, then it is the topic, if any, that was interrupted that is placed at the top of next meeting's agenda. The urgent topic that caused the interruption is not placed on the next meeting's agenda (if it's really so urgent, then another vote can be taken to interrupt the next meeting, just as was done in this meeting).

If a meeting is adjourned before all of its agenda items have been disposed of, then the remaining agenda items are placed near the top of the next meeting's agenda; immediately after the one item which was being discussed when the meeting adjourned, if there was any, or otherwise right at the top.

Misc

To increase efficiency, when the moderator suspects that everyone will vote for something, then when it is time for a vote the moderator may ask if there is unanimous consent before taking a vote. If there are no objections, then this is treated as if as everyone present voted in favor.

When we speak of votes at Boardmeeting, the fractions given refer to numbers of Boardseats (rather than numbers of people voting; for example, one person holding two Boardseats gets two votes, not one; and non-Boardmembers present at the meeting get no votes at all). Unless indicated otherwise, the denominator of these fractions is the total sum of Board seats represented by all of the Boardmembers currently present at the meeting.

If the venue of a meeting is written (e.g. over email), the 5 minute limits are replaced by 3500 character limits. A speech may refer to external documents, but in doing so the speaker risks some of their audience not bothering to read those documents.

Emergencies

Upon the request of the CEO, any 2 Chairs can jointly declare an State of Emergency. During a State of Emergency, any 2 Chairs (not necessarily the same ones to declare the State of Emergency) may jointly:

These Bylaws remain in full force and may not be amended during a State of Emergency.

Any of the following can end a State of Emergency:

Procedures and Definitions

todo

Seniority

Seniority is by length of continuous service.

TODO