Bylaws
Bylaws CommitteeCounty Bylaws
Regional Bylaws
Bylaws Archive
Bylaws Discussion
Changing the Bylaws
What Are Bylaws?
Interpretations
GPCA Home
Green Party of California North Bay Region
Alternative Election Procedure
Enacted February, 2008
ARTICLE I: PURPOSE AND VALUES
A-1. Definition of Green Party of California North Bay Region: The Green Party of California North Bay Region is currently defined by the Green Party of California as Marin, Napa, and Sonoma counties. If this definition of the Region is changed by the Green Party of California, this Alternative Election Procedure shall be resubmitted to the counties of the new region for approval.
A-2. This alternative regional process for selection of a Regional representative to the GPCA Coordinating Committee and alternate(s) is established pursuant to Sections 7-1.4, 7-1.5, and 7-1.6 of the GPCA bylaws and will become effective when it has been adopted by all of the County Councils of the counties that make up the Region. When adopted by the three County Councils, this procedure will be filed with GPCA Coordinating Committee and the Bylaws Committee per Section 7-1.5 of the GPCA bylaws. Reference Green Party of California bylaws: http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/downloads/bylaws-2006-06.pdf
B-1. The California North Bay Green Party Regional Green Party Members will abide by all laws of the State of California pertaining to political parties and the By-Laws of the Green Party of California. It only has the powers outlined in this alternative election procedure. It may not assume any other roles and duties from either the State Green Party or the County Councils. After the Regional meeting for Elections are completed, the Green Party members in attendance are free to have county-level meetings, individually or jointly, to conduct any county business they wish to address as counties.
C. Severability. If any portion of these bylaws is found by the GPCA CC to be in conflict with state bylaws, or is otherwise nullified by the GPCA, the remaining parts of this Alternate Election Procedure will remain in effect.
ARTICLE II: REGIONAL MEETINGS
All regional meetings shall be open to all interested Green Party members of Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties. Non-residents and non-Green Party members are considered observers and shall be announced at the beginning of the meeting. Only Green Party members residing in Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties may vote in Regional Meetings. Attendance, minutes and a summary of decisions shall be recorded by a note-taker appointed at each regional meeting, and subject to correction by attendees within 2 weeks of the meeting. If there is dispute over the minutes, comments will be appended to the minutes prepared by the note-taker. The County Council Secretaries of all 3 counties are encouraged to keep and store copies of the Regional meeting minutes.
A. Regular Regional Meetings
Regional meetings shall be held a minimum of once every two calendar years, but ideally the region will meet once per year. The Marin, Napa and Sonoma county co-coodinators will determine the host county of the meetings and the exact dates times of the meetings. To the greatest extent possible, the location of regular Regional Meetings shall rotate from county to county.
B. Special Regional Meetings
Special regional meetings may be called by any single County Council, who will arrange to host the meeting.
C. Notice
Notice for all Regional Meetings will be distributed a minimum of 1 month in advance to all members of Marin, Napa, and Sonoma's county councils. The county councils will be responsible for informing, to the best of their ability, the general Green Party membership of their counties of the meeting location and date.
D. Agenda
The agenda for regional meetings shall be set by the County Councilors of the county hosting the meeting also called the agenda planning committee. Regional Green Party Members may submit agenda items to the Council for consideration. Meeting agendas shall be distributed by the North Bay Regional list serve at least 4 days in advance. Agenda items submitted by any Regional Green Party Members member will be either accepted onto the agenda by the agenda planning committee or submitted to a vote at the beginning of the meeting. In keeping with the role of the region as defined in article I, B1, action agenda items should be within the role of the region. A 2/3 majority is needed to exclude a submitted item from the agenda, or modify that agenda item.
E. Regional Greens Only Session
The Regional Green Party Members may choose to go into Regional Greens Only Session with a fallback simple majority vote. Only Regional Green Party members and anyone invited specifically by the Regional Green Party members (simple majority fallback vote) may attend Regional Greens Only Sessions. Regional Greens Only Session is ended and becomes an open meeting with a fallback simple majority vote. Minutes of these sessions will be included in the official minutes of the overall meeting.
F. Functionaries To Assist Group Process
F-1. Facilitator(s): Provides non-directive leadership; assists process clarity; honors agenda contract; promotes good will. A facilitator does not give personal opinions unless s/he clearly relinquishes role and speaks as an individual. Gender balance between co-facilitators is desired. The facilitator is nominated by the Agenda Planning Committee, and subject to approval of those Regional Green Party Members attending the Regional Meeting, with a fallback majority vote. The facilitator will interpret the facilitation procedure. The Regional Membership may overturn an interpretation of the facilitation procedure by a simple majority vote. The facilitator is responsible for working with the Regional Green Party Members Present to select to following other functionaries:
F-2. Time Keeper: Keeps group aware of time status when it is important.
F-3. Note Taker: Records minutes of meeting, highlighting decisions made and tasks taken on by the members. The note taker shall receive copies of all proposals brought before the membership. These will be included in the record as received and as amended during the session with notation as to disposition of the proposal.
F-4. Scribe: Records on board or piece of paper concerns or items of discussion that come out at meeting.
E-5. Vibes Watcher: Alerts group of need to maintain respectful behavior; role may be filled by an individual or the whole group.
G. Decision Making
G-1. All Regional Green Party Members members, and observers when time permits, may participate in the decision making process. In the event that a vote is necessary to make a procedural decision, only Regional Green Party Members may participate. If a Regional Green Party Member cannot attend a meeting, s/he can send (by any means, including email) a written statement to be read by another member if the subject is on that meeting's agenda.
G-2. Consensus is a process of decision-making in which all legitimate concerns of group members are addressed to the satisfaction of the group.
G.3. A proposal is a positive statement of a possible action for a group to take.
A concern is a statement of how the proposal as stated might conflict with the group's stated purpose or shared values. Concerns are resolved as the proposal is explained or changed to address them.
G.4. Decisions of the Regional Meeting shall be made using the consensus-seeking process as follows:
- Consensus is sought after adequate discussion, including the repeated asking for and discussion of any unresolved concerns, within the time and content limits of the agenda.
- Any stand-asides will be recorded.
- In calling for a consensus, any unresolved concerns will be recorded, and those unresolved concerns will signal a move to a vote.
- Voting will be on the basis of a simple majority unless otherwise stated in this Regional Alternative Election Procedure.
- The consensus-making process shall be only used for valid decision items and not for facilitation decisions (which is defined in F-1).
See Addendum for more a detailed summary of the Consensus-Seeking Process.
H. Exclusion of Individuals from Meeting.
H-1. Members who participate in Regional meetings agree to abide by the Green party core values and the Norms of Behavior (addendum B).
H-2. Temporary Exclusion: With consensus (75% majority fall-back vote), the Regional Green Party members may exercise its right to exclude an individual who threatens violence or exhibits deliberately disruptive behavior. No member may be excluded only for expressing an opinion or a differing viewpoint. This exclusion shall be of the duration of the meeting only. The Region Green Party Attendees will issue an official statement to the individual explaining the reason for the exclusion, and warning the person that a repeat exclusion may result in longer term measures. The excluded individual is invited to participate in further meetings if and only if they give a written assurances that their future behavior will abide by the process, principles and values of the Green Party and the Norms of Behavior. All correspondence regarding an exclusion will be forwarded to the three County Councils and maintained by the Secretaries of the three County Councils.
H-3. Long-Term Exclusion: Any individual excluded from a regional meeting more than once may be subject to long-term exclusion from future Regional Meetings. The length of time of a long term exclusion will be approved by a fallback 75% vote of the Regional Green Party Members.
ARTICLE III: Regional Representative Responsibilities
A. General Responsibilities. The elected Regional Representative shall have the following responsibilities:
- Those duties and responsibilities outlined by the Green Party of California Bylaws, and any resolution passed by the Green Party of California.
- If temporarily unable to fulfill a duty of Regional Representative or attend a meeting as Regional Representative, communicate with an alternative representative to ensure duties are performed.
- Keep in mind Green values, Green Party processes, Green Party principles and the Norms of Behavior appended below and conduct themselves accordingly.
- Attend the Regional Green Party Members meetings.
- Meet with each county council a minimum of once per calendar year, and preferably twice a year. If at all possible, these meetings should be before 30 days of each state plenary.
- To the best of their ability and according to their conscience, accurately represent the interests and views of the County Councils at the state GPCA CC meetings.
- Solicit the views of the County Councils on state issues coming before the state Coordinating committee.
- Put a brief summary on the North Bay Regional List-Serve of each state CC meeting and how they voted on major issues.
B. Alternate Representative responsibilities. The elected Alternate Representative shall have the following responsibilities:
- Those duties and responsibilities outlined by the Green Party of California Bylaws, and any resolution passed by the Green Party of California.
- Keep in mind Green values, Green Party processes, Green Party principles and the Norms of Behavior appended below and conduct themselves accordingly.
- Serve as the regional representative in the absence of the regional representative.
- At the request of the regional representative, and the consent and agreement of the alternate regional representative, the alternate representative may perform any duty in category A- d,e,f,g,h, above.
ARTICLE IV: COMMITTEES
A. The members or the Regional Green Party may create and disband committees and approve their purpose, activities, authority and duties.
B. Members of the committee or the Regional Green Party Members may dissolve a committee if it fails to meet the above criteria or when it has fulfilled its purpose.
ARTICLE V: FISCAL POLICY
The Green Party North Bay Region maintains no accounts, and has no fundraising or spending authority. The county councils assume responsibility for covering any expenses associated with the regional meetings.
ARTICLE VI: ELECTIONS
A-1. Preamble: This Article outlines the Procedure to elect a Regional Representative and/or Alternate(s) to the GPCA Coordinating Committee at a Regional Meeting.
Section B: Nominations
B-1. Timing of nominations: A call for nominations will be included with the announcement of any regional meeting where a regional election is expected to take place Contact information for the Election Coordinating Committee (ECC, defined below) will be included in the call for nomination.
B-2. Nominations: Nominations for Regional Representative and Alternate Representatives shall be submitted to the ECC. All County Councils are encouraged to submit at least one candidate for at least one of the Regional Representative positions available.
B-3. Advance Nominations. Nominations submitted to the ECC at least 10 days prior to the meeting will be distributed to the County Council Coordinators (with any personal statements; see B-4) by electronic means. It is the responsibility of the County Council Coordinators (to the best of their ability) to distribute the nominations and statements to the Regional Green party members residing within their county prior to the regional meeting. The ECC shall also place these on the North Bay Regional List Serve.
B-4. Personal Statement. The nominee or member of the nominee's County Council of residence should submit a personal statement for the Regional Green Party Members to review. These statements should be submitted to the ECC by 10 days prior to the meeting date.
B-5. Late Nominations: Nominations for Regional Representative and Alternate Representatives may continue up to and during the meeting. Late nominees will be responsible for distributing their own personal statements if not submitted to the agenda ECC at least 10 days in advance.
B-6. Nominee presentations at the Regional Meeting. After the close of nominations and prior to the election, each candidate may state their willingness to fill the position and speak briefly (about five minutes or less) to the assembled Greens. Questions from the assembled Greens for the candidates will be allowed but limited to no more than 10 minutes per candidate unless the Regional Green Party Members decide by consensus (fallback simple majority vote) to allow further discussion.
Section C: Election
C-1. Sequence of Elections. Following the close of nominations and the completion of candidate speeches and question and answer period, three separate elections will be held. The first election shall elect the regular regional member, the second election shall elect the alternate member, and the third election shall elect a second alternate member.
C-2. Balance. It is desired that the first and second alternates be from another county than the elected regional member and that gender and/or racial balance be considered with each election. However, depending on the number of candidates, this may not be possible, e.g., too few and/or all from one county.
Section D. Eligible Voters
D-1. All Registered Green party members of Marin, Napa, and Sonoma County are eligible to vote in the regional election.
D-2. Prior to the election, eligible voters will be verified, before receiving ballots, by one of four methods:
- Each County Council will be responsible for bringing a current list of Registered Green Party Members residing in their county (obtained from the County Registrar of Voters) to the Regional meeting. This list should be from the prior primary election cycle, or more recent. An attendee whose name is on the list is considered verified.
- An individual attendee can bring a printout from the local county registrar of voters office to prove that they are registered as a Green Party Member.
- The County Council of the attendee's residence may unanimously certify that they have verified the Party Registration status of the attendee.
- If an attendee's name is not on the Registrar of voters list, the attendee may bring a voter registration card proving that they have registered as a green party member more recently than the last primary election cycle.
- Voter eligibility challenge : Any attendee of the meeting may challenge the eligibility of a voter, prior to the distribution of ballots. The ECC will mediate these challenges. If the disputed voter cannot demonstrate that they are eligible by one of the criteria above (D-2 a,b,c, or d), the ECC must rule that the person in question may not vote.
D-3. Meeting Quorum. A regional meeting must have at least two Regional Green Party members of each active county (as defined by the GPCA) present to conduct business, vote or have an election.
Section E. Vote Tabulation Procedure
Successive voting for each seat shall use the following process:
E-1. If only one candidate is nominated for each seat, a simple majority vote will be taken to affirm the candidate. If the candidate is not affirmed the seat will remain open until this (or another approved) alternative election procedure is followed at another regional meeting.
E-2. If more that one candidate is nominated for a seat, GPCA Bylaws Section 7-1.9 "Instant Runoff Voting" shall be applied to the seat's election. If NOC (no other candidate) is the resulting winner and thus a candidate is not affirmed, the seat will remain open until the next GPCA GA where a regional caucus is held, or this (or another approved) alternative election procedure is followed at another regional meeting.
E-3. As it is possible that one seat might be determined by one type of voting, while another may be determined another type. The types of voting for each round shall be announced prior to voting with an opportunity for clarifying questions about the voting procedure from the members present before the voting is started.
E-4. Candidates who are not elected for one position are eligible to be nominated in successive positions and thus there will be a brief (10 minutes) break between voting rounds for candidates to re-affirm their desire to be a candidate for election to the next position.
Section F: Balloting Verification Procedure for Votes Cast at the Regional Meeting
F-1. Election Coordinating Committee (ECC). The three County Councils of Marin, Napa, and Sonoma shall, in advance of the elections, appoint an Election Coordinating Committee (ECC) that shall oversee the elections. Each County Council will appoint one person from that county to serve as a member of this Committee. The Election Coordinating Committee shall define the role of observers of the election process.
F-2. The duties of the Election Coordinating Committee shall include but are not limited to:
- develop the in-person ballot which shall include: numbered ballots with a tear off number receipt for the voter, information about the vote being taken (names of candidates, date of election, what position is being voted on etc.). The ballot number is not duplicated on the ballot, to ensure that the principle of secret balloting is preserved.
- create an in-person registration list of in-person verified voting participants prior ballots being issued, based on Article VI, Section D. This in-person registration list is separate from attendance list.
- The ECC shall oversee the absentee voting process, as outlined in section J, below.
F-3. Ballot Distribution. One ballot shall be used for each Regional Green Party Member voting - the ECC shall monitor the passing out of ballots to make sure that each voting member is an eligible voter (see section D above).
F-4. Ballot Collection. In-person ballots are received and then the verified voter list is checked to note that an eligible voter submitted a ballot, one per eligible member voting, and placed into a secured box.
F-5. Completion of Voting. The election box is not opened to count in-person ballots until the entire ECC is present.
F-6. Counting of Ballots. When the ballot box is opened, the number of ballots cast will first be counted to be certain the number of ballots matches the number of ballots cast as recorded on the registration list. If the number does not match, the in-person ballots are all voided and the election begins again.
F-7. Tabulation of results. If the number of in-person ballots is correct, then the in-person ballots are examined one by one and the results tabulated, according to the procedure in Section E above. The ECC shall be responsible for reviewing each ballot and tabulating votes.
F-8. Tally Sheet. Each vote is tabulated on an ECC approved tally sheet that has all the information necessary to certify the results. Information included on this document shall include but is not limited to: The election description, location, date, time, candidates running, votes tallied, signature line for each vote tabulator signature and date with a statement that they certify that the elections were fair, impartial, timely and in accordance with this Regional Representative alternative election procedure.
F-9. The number of ballots tabulated will be compared to the number of ballots cast, to be certain that all ballots are accounted for. If there is a discrepancy in the number of ballots tabulated with the ballots cast, the in-person election is voided and a new election is held immediately.
F-10. The ECC-certified votes from the absentee ballot tally (see separate procedure, section I, below) are added to the in-person votes.
F-11. If the entire ECC agrees that the elections were fair, impartial, timely and in accordance with this Regional Representative Alternative election procedure, the ECC shall announce the results
F-12. The Registered Green members attending the regional meeting then vote to certify the election. If the Region is unable to certify the election, a new election is immediately held.
Section G: Post-Election Procedures
G-1. Election Documents. The elections documents such as: election registration list, tally sheet, guest list, ballots are all secured and kept for a minimum of 12 months after the election.
G-2. Contested election results. If a Regional Green Party member who was present at the Regional Meeting objects or contests the elections the objection 1) must be submitted in writing to the ECC within one week after the election; 2) The ECC shall convene within 1 week to resolve the allegations or make a recommendation to the Regional Green Party Members to resolve the dispute. 3) If evidence exists that an infraction of the election rules has been verified then the ECC (fallback 2/3 vote) may call another regional meeting within four weeks to consider overturning the election. Overturning an election at a regional meeting requires a 3/5 fallback vote.
G-3. After seven days after the election, if no Regional Green Party Member who was present at the Regional Meeting contests the election, a representative of the ECC (on behalf of the entire ECC) must then inform the GPCA CC and the County Councils of the Region of the results of the election. This notification should occur within 21 days of the election, if it is uncontested.
G-4. As stated in Green Party of California Bylaws, until the election is reported by the ECC on behalf of the three County Councils, the previous Regional Representatives continue to serve in their prior capacities. If no report occurs prior to the GPCA General Assembly meeting, and the previous Regional Representatives have completed a two year term, then the newly elected regional representative will serve as interim regional representative until the election is reported to the GPCA.
Section H: Term of office
The elected Regional representative and alternate(s) shall serve a two year term commencing from the date of the regional meeting in which they were elected. They no longer serve if they are removed by the procedure noted in Article VIII below, resign, are permanently incapacitated or deceased, or are unable to be contacted by any of the County Councils for a period of 60 days. Ideally, a new regional meeting shall be held within 60 days of the end of the 2 year term of office.
Section I: Second Alternate
The GPCA has defined the roles and responsibilities of the second alternate delegate.
Section J: Absentee Voting
J-1: Regional Green Party Members unable to attend a Regional Meeting with an Election planned may submit an absentee vote, according to the procedure outlined here.
J-2: Any Regional Green Party Member requesting an absentee ballot must request one from the ECC no later than 7 days prior to the scheduled election.
J-3: The absentee ballot will be created by the ECC, and will include the names and personal statements (if available) of the candidates who have been nominated up to 7 days prior to the regional meeting, along with No Other Candidate (NOC) and a blank line for write-in candidates. All candidates from the Regional Election will also be included on the 1st alternate election ballot (along with NOC and a blank line), and all candidates for the Regional and Alternate election will be included on the 2nd alternate ballot (along with NOC and a blank line). The ballot is created and distributed in electronic format to those requesting an absentee ballot. With the absentee ballot will be a list of instructions written by the ECC. The ballot must be submitted in a sealed envelope (one ballot per envelope) with the following information on the outside of the sealed secret ballot envelope: Name of the person voting, county of membership, signature across the seal of the envelope, a copy of a photo ID (for name and signature verification, attached to the outside of the envelope), and phone number to contact the person, should verification be required. The absentee voter may optionally also attached proof of Green party voter registration. The ballots may be submitted by mail or in person to any of the ECC. For any absentee ballots collected in person by an ECC member, a single signed tally sheet will be used to collect their signatures to track the collected ballots, and each voter will be given a receipt. The sealed secret ballot envelope and copy of ID should be contained inside another envelope for mailing. Absentee ballots not in the hands of the ECC at the time of the election will not be counted.
J-4: The addition of new nominees after 7 days prior to the meeting does not affect this absentee voting procedure.
J-5: Sealed Absentee Ballots must be brought to the Regional meeting by a member of the ECC. Their Green party member status is verified under one of the methods described in Article VI, section D, and they are put on a list of Eligible Green party members who submitted absentee ballots.
J-6: If a Regional Green Party member submits an absentee ballot and is able to attend the meeting, the ECC must ask the member if they choose to vote in person or to use their absentee ballot. If they chose to vote in person, the absentee ballot will be destroyed by the ECC. The destroyed ballot will be preserved by the ECC in case of an election challenge.
J-7: During the voting process, the envelopes containing the absentee ballots are inspected by the ECC, to be sure the seal is intact, and the number of envelopes is recorded. As each envelope is opened, the ballots are numbered and the absentee ballots are maintained separately from the in-person ballots, in case a repeat vote of those present is required. Envelopes of ballots accepted in person by the ECC are compared to the tally sheets provided by the ECC under J-3. The number of ballots in each envelope is inspected by the ECC; any envelope with no ballot is recorded. Any envelope with more than one ballot is disqualified, and recorded.
J-8: Prior to vote tabulation, the absentee ballots are again counted to be sure they match the number of envelopes tallied, minus any disqualified envelopes and empty envelopes. After vote tabulation, the number of votes tabulated is compared to the number of valid ballots to be sure they are the same.
Article VII: North Bay Regional Alternative Election Procedure.
Section A: Ratification: This Green Party North Bay Region Alternative Election Procedure will be ratified when it is approved by all three County Councils in the region, and the County Councils jointly file a copy with the State Green Party Bylaws committee.
Section B: Cancellation: This procedure shall be cancelled at any time all three of the Region's county councils informs the other county councils, in writing and on the North Bay Regional List Serve, that they no longer agree to this procedure and inform the GPCA CC and Bylaws Committees of the cancellation of this procedure. Selection of the regional representative will then revert to the procedure as outlined by CA GP Bylaws.
Section C: Modification: Modifications of this procedure may be proposed at any time by any one of the Region's county councils. The modifications shall be agreed to by all other county councils before the modifications are in effect. All agreed to modifications of this procedure shall be transmitted to the GPCA CC and Bylaws Committees.
Section D: Dispute: If any interpretation of this Alternative Election Procedure is disputed, or any application of the procedure is disputed, the dispute will first be put to the Regional Green Party Members for discussion or resolution, with a simple majority fallback.
Article VIII: Removal of Regional Members or Alternates
Section A. Reasons for Removal: State. Section 6-3, Removal for Cause, of the GPCA Bylaws shall apply for the removal of regional members or alternates. The GPCA CC shall be informed of such a removal.
Section B: Reasons for Removal: Regional. In addition to the reasons for removal listed in the GPCA bylaws, Regional Representatives or Alternate Regional Representatives not fulfilling their responsibilities as listed under Article IV of this Alternative Election Procedure, may also be removed for cause.
Section C: Procedure for Removal. The Regional Representatives or Alternate Regional Representatives shall be removed before the two year term is expired in either of two ways.
- Two of the three Counties find that the representative should be removed, based on the reasons in section A or B above. This may be done at regular county general green party meeting.
- A Regional Green Party meeting may be called by any County Council to consider removal a Regional Representative or Alternate. The fallback threshold for this vote is 2/3. Only Regional Green Party members attending the Regional Meeting may vote for removal. No absentee ballots are permitted for removal votes. An election for a new regional representative may only be held at the same meeting as a vote to remove a regional representative, if the nomination, advance warning procedures, and voting and balloting procedures are carried out, as outlined above.
Prior to a vote on the removal of the regional representative, the body voting on removal is strongly encouraged, but not required, to notify the Regional Representative or Alternate Regional Representative of the reason for consideration of removal, and give them an opportunity to respond, prior to the final vote.
Section D: Notification. Required notification of Regional Representative or Alternate Regional Representative removal includes: All 3 County Councils, the State GPCA Coordinating Committee, the removed Representative and the other Representatives.
Article IX: Vacancies
Section A-1: Timing. After a Regional Representative or Alternative Regional Representative has been removed, the general succession applies immediately
Section A-2: General Succession. Should a vacancy of the Regional Member or Alternate seats occur, succession shall follow an upward order, i.e., if the Regional Member's seat is vacant, the 1st alternate will assume that position for the remainder of the Regional Member's term. Correspondingly, the 2nd alternate may fill the 1st alternate's seat. If there is no 1st alternate and the regional member seat is vacant, the 2nd alternate may fill the Regional Member seat for the remainder of the Regional Member's term.
Section A-3: Filling remaining vacant seats. After succession, all open seats shall be filled at a regional meeting process as described above. The GPCA CC shall be informed of all such changes in positions by the county councils of the region.
APPENDIX 1
Consensus-Seeking Process
A proposal may be presented to the Regional Meeting for inclusion on the agenda of a Regional meeting, or it may grow naturally out of a meeting discussion. Either way, the proposal presenter provides a brief statement on the proposal, giving a written copy, if available, to the note taker. The facilitator determines if a quorum exists. If one does, the consensus-seeking process begins:
- The presenter answers "clarifying questions" from members.
- The facilitator checks for affirmations and concerns.
- Concerns are listed by a scribe where all can see them.
- The facilitator gets a feel for the group's assessment of the proposal.
- The group seeks to resolve those concerns deemed legitimate by incorporating them into the proposal. The presenter must agree to modifications before they can be made. The note taker reads back any modifications to be sure they are properly recorded.
- The facilitator asks if there remain any unresolved concerns:
- If there are no remaining concerns, the proposal is adopted with a plan for implementation.
- If concerns remain, go to the next level for resolution.
- The facilitator asks those holding concerns if they are willing to
allow the group to adopt the proposal without their approval with their
unresolved concerns being listed with the plan for implementation:
- If those holding such concerns are agreeable, these "stand aside" concerns are recorded by the note taker and included in the minutes with the adopted proposal.
- If someone holding a concern is unwilling to stand aside, go to the next level for resolution.
- The facilitator addresses the remaining concerns one at a time as
follows:
- The concern is restated.
- Questions clarify the concern.
- Discussion focuses on the single concern.
- The facilitator asks if all concerns are resolved:
- If yes, the proposal is adopted.
- If no, the facilitator asks for stand asides.
- If a concern remains and the person is unwilling to stand aside, go to the closing options.
- If time is being kept, the timekeeper will notify the facilitator
when three minutes remain in the time allotted for the proposal. At this
point, prior to submitting the proposal for vote, the facilitator will ask
the presenter to decide on a closing option (should the proposal fail):
- Send or return the proposal to a committee for further refinement and an attempt to resolve the legitimate concerns raised.
- Suggest the empowerment of an ad hoc committee made up of the
representatives of the remaining concerns and advocates of the proposal to
reach some fair resolution:
- to act on behalf of the membership if time is critical, or
- to return to a subsequent meeting with a recommendation for adoption.
- Request additional agenda time in the meeting to reach a resolution of any remaining concerns.
- Request that the membership use the voting option.
- Withdraw the proposal.
- Request additional agenda time to complete the discussion. Requests for additional agenda time for an item will include a specific number of minutes and whether the time will be added to the length of the meeting or if it will come from some other item. A majority fallback vote of the membership is necessary to approve the request for more time.
- When the closing option of voting is selected by the presenter of
the proposal, the facilitator will proceed with the following steps:
- The note taker will be asked to read the proposal as it stands.
- The total "yes," "no" and "abstaining" votes of the active members shall be recorded and included in the meeting minutes.
- A majority vote is necessary to approve a business item, unless an alternative fall-back approval is specified in this Alternative Election Procedure. Abstentions are not counted in calculating the percentage vote.
- Points of Order: Any member may signal the facilitator by raising
two hands if s/he:
- Believes a violation of this procedure has taken place (POINT OF PROCESS)
- Does not understand the procedure (POINT OF CLARIFICATION)
- Has knowledge of an item of information that is important to the discussion (POINT OF INFORMATION).
Appendix 2: Regional Green Party Members Norms of Behavior/Statement of Values
- We will work together in a collaborative way and avoid words and actions that are divisive.
- We will discuss ideas and information, not people. Refrain from ad hominem arguments.
- We will be open to new ideas and information. When there is disagreement, we will attempt to understand the other's point of view and to bridge the gap, if possible, by seeking out more information.
- We will allow people time to complete their thoughts and not interrupt.
- We will encourage participation from of all of the Council.
- In making decisions, our goal will be consensus where possible, or a clear statement of the area of disagreement, if consensus is not possible.
- To encourage frank discussion and build a positive image of the Green Party, participants agree be cautious in sharing the details of the discussion (for example, who said what if it is not reflected in the agreed upon minutes; opinions on tone of voice and underlying motivations) to individuals outside the Green Party, and particularly to members of the media. Discussion of general ideas, concepts, election results and action items is encouraged.