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This page contains the core text of bylaws or a charter/constitution for Branch Democracy.
Please note that this core text must be augmented in order to create complete bylaws for an organization. First of all, some types of organizations, such as corporations, may be required by law to address various issues in their bylaws or charter which are not addressed here. Second, this core text purposefully leaves the following key questions unanswered:
The topics in the previous bullet list can be addressed by combining this core text with one of: the for-profit corporation addendum, the non-profit addendum, or the government addendum. However, in your jurisdiction, in order to form valid bylaws or a valid charter, you may still be required by law to address other issues which are not addressed here.
In the following, the phrase the organization refers to the organization in whose charter/bylaws/constitution this text is incorporated.
The bylaws are available as a network of hypertext pages or as a single page.
These bylaws define and structure the Organization.
The legislature sets policy by creating rules called "Acts". The Legislature is composed of three "houses", which are the Forum, the Elect Board, and the Delegate Board. The Forum uses direct democracy; the Boards are small bodies composed of representatives.
The CEO implements policy, with the exception of external affairs, which are handled by the EEO. The CEO and the EEO are appointed by the boardmembers.
The Court(s) interprets rules.
The Chairs investigate, with the aim of checking and restraining powerful elements within the Organization to ensure that the rules are followed.
under construction...
An act other than an act to amend the bylaws may be enacted in one of four ways:
If there is only one house (the case for Small Regime, when there is only the Forum), adoption by one house is necessary and sufficient (there is no other house to veto).
If there are two houses (the case for Medium Regime, when there is only the Forum and the Elect Board), then this procedure is mostly the same, except that with no third house, only "Adoption by one house with no veto" is available.
Adoption by each house must be in accordance with the proper vote thresholds, which differ according to the type of measure.
By a simple majority, any house may refer any measure to the High Court to inquire about its legality. In this case, the two week "veto clock" is paused until the High Court returns its verdict. If the High Court does not return a verdict within 3 months, the measure is presumed legal.
A measure to veto is a standing poll, or main motion without debate, with a threshold of >50%. A successful veto causes the vetoed measure to be scheduled for debate in the house that vetoed; after the debate, if the measure now passes the house that vetoed, in unamended form, then the veto is retracted and the act is enacted (because at this point, two houses have adopted it). Therefore, the initial veto can also be thought of as a delay action.
The legislature is prohibited from creating or bestowing decorations, awards, or titles of honor, or from using the naming of times or places to call attention to or to honor, or for issuing proclamations, commemorations, recognitions, memorials, or dictating the names or pictures of coins or medals or stamps. The legislature may, however, fund awards which are created and bestowed by the senior Chair.
The legislature may not declare anyone to be guilty of breaking any rule, and may not impose punishment for breaking a rule. In such a situation, the legislature should instead prosecute the offender in the Court.
In the following, a page of text is defined as 2000 characters (in some alphabet with approximately 26 letters, plus numbers and punctuation). However, parts of a bill which merely strike or eliminate text from existing rules (as opposed to modifying text or adding text) are not counted in this total.
Each house of the legislature is associated with a number called its "text quota". Each day, each house's text quota is incremented by 20 pages, until it reaches a maximum of 200 pages. No house may pass any bill which is longer than its current text quota; bills which are "adopted" over quota are not considered to have been adopted, regardless of the views and records of that chamber. Upon the passage of any bill, each house's text quota is decremented by the length of the bill.
No bill or amendment to a bill may be debated or voted upon until at least 10 minutes per page, excluding the first page, has elapsed after its presentation to the legislative body in the form in which it is to be voted upon (if a bill is presented and then amended, then, providing the time for reading the initial presented form and the amendments are satisfied, no additional time is needed for the amended form of the bill).
This "presentation" may be via posting in a designated spot on the internet and does not necessitate gaining the floor in any house of legislature.
The bylaw amendment process is initiated when the Legislature adopts an amendment, as if it were adopting an Act, except by a 2/3s vote threshold.
Once initiated, the amendment is placed on the ballot. Two electoral cycles with respect to the amendment are defined as follows: the first cycle begins at the time that the amendment is voted upon, and ends after one electoral cycle duration has elapsed since that time. The second cycle begins at the end of the first cycle, and lasts for one electoral cycle duration past that time.
The amendment succeeds if, in the second cycle, the amendment is re-adopted in the same fashion.
By passing an Act with a vote threshold of 2/3, the legislature may make a single, specific exception to the Bylaws. This exception cannot have the effect of making it easier to amend or to make an exception to the bylaws. An exception is not counted towards the text quota. The exception expires one electoral cycle duration after it was made.
The Forum is a direct-democracy deliberative body composed of all of the voters. It is one of the three legislative houses.
The Forum's rules of order depend on the group Size Regime. When the Size Regime is Small, simplified rules of order apply. Otherwise, see the Forum's regular rules of order.
The Forum is administered by the Parliamentarians. Vote thresholds are in effect.
The Forum can pass a resolution to cause early elections to the Elect boards with a vote threshold of 2/3. Such a resolution cannot be vetoed by the other legislative houses.
The Forum has two message boards to which messages may be posted; proposals and proxies. All messages on these boards are public.
Any voter may at any time propose a bill or an amendment to the bylaws.
To make a proposal, post the proposal on the Forum proposals board along with the date of posting. Each proposal should have space for three lists of signatures (votes) associated with it, labeled Yes, No, Still Deciding. These lists start out empty.
A Still Deciding vote indicates that the voter reserves the right to make up their mind later; the proposal is not decided until either they make up their mind, or their decision is rendered irrelevant to the passage of the proposal.
All votes are public. To cast a vote, a voter adds their name underneath the relevant proposal, in the relevant space.
The time elapsed since a proposal was posted is said to be the amount of time that the proposal has been "standing". A proposed act must normally stand for at least 1.5 weeks before being passed, except for a veto, which must normally stand for 5 days. A proposed amendment to the bylaws must normally stand for at least 1.5 months before being passed.
Once posted, proposals cannot be amended; instead, make a new proposal, and vote against the previous one. Voters are encouraged to air their proposals informally before posting.
To grant a proxy, the giver posts a message to the proxy board which notes who receives the proxy, and under what conditions, and which is signed by the giver.
Voters may give other voters their proxy for any subset of issues. This allows the receiver to cast the givers vote for them on those issues. Proxies are transitive; that is, a voter may forward a proxy that they have received along to another voter.
Any voter may change their vote or take back their proxy at any time until the conclusion of a vote (which is defined as when the proposal passes or fails).
To vote a proxy, the voter who holds the proxy casts the vote by writing "for (original person’s name), cast by (receiver’s name), proxy chain: (chain by which the receiver came into possesion of the proxy vote)". The receiver is responsible for keeping track of which proxies they have accumulated.
For each particular proposal, define the number of Participating Voters to be the sum of Yes, No, and Still Deciding votes, including votes cast by proxy.
A proposal passes when both of the following conditions obtain:
A proposal fails and is removed from the proposals board when both of the following conditions obtain:
Note that the effect of Still Deciding votes is that, in order to pass, a proposal must be strong enough so that even if all "Still Deciding" votes were turned into "No" votes, the proposal would pass. In order to fail, a proposal must be weak enough so that even if all "Still Deciding" votes were turned into "Yes" votes, the proposal would fail.
This page describes the rules of order for the Forum.
We want to generate a set of proposals and speeches that every person hears, but there are too many people to allow each person to make everyone else listen to them. Therefore, there must be a mechanism to choose which proposals and speeches to "post" out of a larger pool of "candidates".
The mechanism used by this protocol is called a "token contest". Each person is given an equal number of tokens. Any person may write a candidate speech or proposal. Any person may place any number of their tokens on any candidate. When it is time for the next proposal to be posted, the candidate with the most tokens is chosen. Speeches are treated similarly, except that there is a penalty for long speeches. We say that one candidate "wins the token contest" and is "posted" at that time.
When a topic wins, the difference between the number of tokens on it, and the number of tokens on the second-place candidate is refunded to the supporters of the winning topic, in proportion to their support. The remaining tokens on the winning topic are taken away.
The losing candidates don't go away, however, and they don't lose their tokens. The next time that a post is due to be made, perhaps one of the previous "losers" will win.
Once you place tokens, you can only move them after some time period has elapsed (1 month for topic tokens, 1 week for debate tokens). If you see a better candidate that you think should "replace" a candidate that you have placed token(s) on, however, you can indicate that you "would like to move" your token(s) from the old candidate to the new one; other people looking at the old candidate will be able to see a list that lists the new candidate along with how many tokens "would like to move" to it, perhaps inspiring them to place their tokens on the new candidate rather than the old one if they have free tokens.
For each token contest, there is a threshold that determines a minimum number of tokens that are needed to be posted (the Post Minimum Strength Threshold). If the candidate does not have at least that amount of tokens, then there is no winner and nothing is posted.
"Fractional tokens" may exist.
Participants are encouraged to discuss and debate the issue, comment upon posted speeches, and plan, coordinate and jointly edit candidate speeches outside the formal forum, in public and in private. Rather than think of the posted speeches as the entire debate, think of them as an distillation of the most salient and persuasive points of that debate, most of which takes places outside of the formal forum. The posted speeches are important as summaries because many people will not have the time or the inclination to read more -- the speeches may be your only chance to persuade these people. The speeches are also important because they provide a broadcast medium where speaking time is divided in a fair and principled way.
There are 5 proposals up for discussion at any one time. However, within each of these discussion topics, there is a linear thread of discussion. Sometimes a subproposal will be be made WITHIN a discussion (Amends and Commits); this creates a subdiscussion within the discussion.
There is one kind of token used for choosing which topics to discuss in the 5 discussion slots ("topic token"). Each discussion has its own kind of token for choosing which speeches and proposals to post within that discussion; these "debate tokens" are handed out at the beginning of the discussion. Similarly, each subdiscussion has its own kind of token.
Each time a discussion ends, the topic tokens that were taken away upon the selection of that topic are distributed back to all assembly members equally.
During a discussion, there are a number of "meta proposals", that is, proposals to alter the flow of the discussion in some way. If enough people vote in favor of one of these, it is executed. The voting for these is happening constantly, and you may cast or change your vote at any time; hence these are called "standing".
The current tallies for each Standing Motion are publically displayed. Most Standing Motions give you five alternatives: Yes, Leaning Towards Yes, Neutral, Leaning Towards No, No. Only Yes and No "count"; tallies of the other options are displayed, but don't affect the result. The motion to Change Post Minimum Strength Threshold is done differently (see below).
Rather than being yes/no, proposals may offer a list of multiple alternative choices; however, one choice is always "reject", meaning that the proposal is simply rejected and the status quo prevails.
The selection of a discussion topic:
The discussion itself:
Subdiscussions (Amends and Commits) follow a similar lifecycle; when the subdiscussion begins, its Opening Speech is posted. Every 4 days another speech or subproposal is posted. At the end of debate, Closing Speeches are selected, and then there is a vote.
You can delegate your vote on a given set of topics to someone else. They can cast the vote for you, or they can pass it on to a third party. The vote can continue to be re-delegated. You can always "undelegate" a delegated vote, meaning that you can choose to cast it yourself on any given issue, regardless of how far it has been re-delegated.
Only the votes at the end of subdiscussions, and the Final Votes at the ends of discussions, can be delegated (proxy votes also show up in the Straw Poll). Tokens cannot be given away or delegated.
Votes are secret. Whether your vote is delegated, or who you delegate it to, is secret. If you delegate your vote, you do not get to see which way your vote was ultimately cast. This is to prevent intimidation or vote buying targeting people who have collected a large number of delegated votes.
Although, if you cast your own vote, your vote is secret, if you delegate your vote, you can always see which way your vote was cast, and you may tell other people about this if you wish, although the system will not be able to confirm it publically (todo: is this enough to prevent vote-buying? couldnt the mafia plant delegators to find out how you voted them?). When you delegate your vote, this is secret.
Holders of proxies do not know whose proxies they hold, or even how many they hold, except approximately (order of magnitude, with some noise? but with a noise floor around P votes). Holders of proxies may vote their personal vote differently from their proxy votes.
These secrecy measures are to prevent vote-buying and voter intimidation by preventing any two voters A and B to conspire for A to prove to B how he voted, or to prove that A delegated his vote to B.
Groups for which the prevention of voter intimidation and vote buying are particularly important should require that anyone who holds more than a certain large number of delegated votes (actually, since people don't know exactly how many proxies they have, then in addition to a strict cutoff above which this requirement applies to you, some people below that cutoff but above some other cutoff should randomly be selected for this requirement to apply to, to prevent people from learning the exact number of proxies that they hold) may only vote in public voting booths, into which recording devices are not allowed (if this is infeasible, then make the ballot casting inside the booth happen in such a way that it would be difficult for a recording device to see the contents of the ballot). In this way it can be made more probable that such people will be unable to prove to anyone which way they voted, thereby protecting them somewhat from intimidation, and preventing vote buying. However, if it becomes technologically infeasible to prevent people from proving which way they voted, then the votes of people who hold large numbers of proxies should be made public.
Perhaps some sort of anonymized trace should be publicized afterwards to allow some sort of verification? How should this be done? Perhaps temporal ordering should be skewed to prevent de-anonymizing?
Ends the debate immediately and moves to the selection of Closing Speeches (or, if there are no speeches to select from, directly to the Final Vote). This motion requires a 2/3s supermajority (because it deprives the right to speak from those groups of people who have enough tokens remaining to sponsor another speech).
Replaces the current discussion topic with another, specified one. The current discussion topic will automatically come back the next time a discussion slot is vacated.
Puts the current discussion topic temporarily on hold.
Sometimes a small faction might sponsor a topic whose proposal(s) or Opening Speech are considered incoherent or offensive or out-of-bounds by almost everyone else. In this case, the assembly might want to indicate for the record that it considers the topic to be out-of-bounds and not worthy of debate. If this motion succeeds, the topic is immediately abandoned without a debate or further vote, and all proposals in it are considered to have failed.
Only available during the Opening Speech.
Gives one new speaking token to each assembly member. Requires a 2/3s supermajority.
Each person may at any time indicate a range of values that they would like the Post Minimum Strength Threshold to fall within. If the current value falls outside of more than 2/3s of participants' ranges, and there is a different value that satisfies more than 2/3s of participants, then the Post Minimum Strength Threshold is changed.
The proposal(s) under discussion also has a standing poll throughout the discussion. Unlike standing motions, however, this poll is merely a straw poll and has no effect (except in one special case; when a motion to Amend which only adds an alternative is under discussion, and more than 1/3 of the people vote for it in the Straw Poll, the Amend passes). However, if you cast a vote of "yes" or "no" in the straw poll, this will used as your default vote in the real vote unless you cast a different one later. Similarly, in multiple-choice proposals, there is an option to use your straw vote as your real vote if you choose.
Sometimes you think that the proposal under discussion should be rewritten or modified or split into multiple proposals that will be discussed and voted on separately. The way to do this a Motion to Amend (just Amend for short).
An Amend may not change the meaning of the proposal so radically that it is effectively a new topic for discussion. Parliamentarians annul such Amends if they are made.
An Amend sub-sub-discussion can be started within an Amend sub-discussion. However, an Amend sub-sub-sub-discussion cannot be started. In other words, amendments to amendments cannot themselves be amended.
Sometimes a formal assembly is just too inefficient for gathering or summarizing information or for editing a proposal. When this happens, the topic can be Referred to Committee.
The committee will work on the proposal and then generates a Report. The Report is treated as a new discussion topic which automatically fills the next vacant discussion slot. The Report is then discussed like any other topic.
If a new committee is being created, nominations are done via speeches in the Commit subdiscussion. The vote on the Commit then includes a vote to determine the composition of the committee.
A discussion topic can be of type Election, which means that it works like a Commit except that it is a main discussion, not a subdiscussion, and except that there is no Report.
In addition to elections, another special type of topic is an Average Proportional Allocation. In this topic, rather than multiple choice questions, the proposals consist of a range of alternatives to which you can allocate a share of some resource. The allocations of each voter are averaged together. This can be used for creating budgets.
The averaged result becomes a new discussion topic which is then discussed and amended and voted upon as usual. In this way, the assembly can make sure that it is happy with the averaged allocation, and can make sure that the averaged allocation makes sense.
There are 5 topics up for discussion at any one time. Each topic consists of an Opening Speech and one or more proposals. Each proposal consists of one or more multiple-choice options for action. Each proposal in addition must always contain a "reject" multiple-choice option.
During discussion, points of view can be expressed and the proposal(s) under discussion can be amended. Each of these discussions ends in a vote in which either (a) one of the proposals passes, or (b) none of them do (actually, some topics, such as the selection of people for a five-person committee, might permit more than one of the alternative proposals to succeed).
Periodically, one of the discussion slots will be vacated, either because the discussion filling it ended after a vote, or because it was postponed until later. At this time, a new topic for discussion is chosen to fill the slot.
Here is how the new topic is chosen. There is a pool of candidate topics that people have suggested discussing. There is also a fixed supply of "topic choice tokens". Each person is periodically given a topic choice token (see below). They may place the token on some candidate topic (or they can suggest a new topic and place the token on that; or they can save the token for later). Once placed, a token may not be moved for 1 month. When there is a vacant discussion slot, the topic with the most tokens is automatically selected to fill the slot, provided it has at least a minimum number of tokens (and provided the Stack is empty; see below); at that time, all the tokens currently on that topic become frozen and cannot ever be moved again (until after they are recycled). People may place multiple tokens on a single topic. At the conclusion of that topic's discussion and vote, those tokens are distributed back evenly to all assembly members.
However, the person who placed each token may indicate that they "would have liked to move it" to a given topic if they had been allowed, and the "what-if" tallies are public. Next to each candidate is displayed a list of a few alternative candidates that have received the most "what-if" tokens hypothetically moved "off of" the candidate at hand. This allows people to indicate that a better worded revision of a given topic has been published. These better-worded revisions can be later implemented via amendments after a topic is chosen.
Tokens may not given to other people or proxied.
The real end time is chosen randomly and secretly to occur sometime within 1 day after nominal end time of the contest.
At the conclusion of the contest, the candidate with the most tokens wins. When a topic wins, the difference between the number of tokens on it, and the number of tokens on the second-place candidate is refunded to the supporters of the winning topic, in proportion to their support. The remaining tokens on the winning topic are "spent" -- in the case of debate tokens, they disappear, whereas in the case of topic tokens, they are "frozen" on the topic and then get redistributed when the discussion finally ends.
After a new topic is chosen, there is a 1-week period before debate starts.
During this period, the Opening Speech associated with the discussion is on display. The Opening Speech was submitted as part of the candidate topic proposal. The Opening Speech may specify what is to be considered on-topic within this discussion. The Opening Speech may introduce the topic, give information and express opinion and may try persuade people to vote for some or all of the proposal(s).
Debate begins immediately after the Opening Speech with the posting of a speech or motion (see below).
At the beginning of the Opening Speech, each person is given a certain number of debate tokens. They are separate from the topic tokens. There is a distinct supply of debate tokens for each discussion and they cannot be used in place of one another. They are used similarly to topic tokens; see below. Once placed, debate tokens cannot be moved for 1 week.
2/3 standing poll which does not take effect until the end of the Opening Speech. At the end of the Opening Speech, if the yes/no of the Object to the Topic poll is greater than 2/3, the debate is skipped and the proposal immediatly fails. The proposal is not expunged from the record, however, although it is listed separately, and the topic as well as the tally of the Object to the Topic poll is publically archived as usual.
Object to the Topic is only available during the Opening Speech.
An important part of the discussion is speeches. Speeches are written pieces of text which discuss the topic at hand and try to persuade people to vote for or against the proposal(s). Normally, one speech (or other "motion"; see below) is posted every four days in each discussion. Anyone can write a candidate speech. People may place debate tokens on candidate speeches that they support. The "strength" of a candidate speech is defined as tokens divided by (character length + 1000). When it is time for the next speech or motion, the speech with the most strength is posted (ties broken randomly), provided it has at least as many tokens as the Minimum Speech Strength Threshold (and provided it is not surpassed by some Amend or Commit; see below). "per (character length + 1000)" means that longer speeches are harder to get posted -- for example, a speech with 500 characters and 15 tokens and a speech with 2000 characters and 20 tokens are equally matched. Unlike topic tokens, debate tokens do not get recycled after use; they are simply consumed.
An active participant is a person who votes in any standing poll in the discussion or who placed topic tokens on this topic or who places tokens on any post in the discussion. The count of active participants is used to allow some standing motions to end early by assuming that only active participants in that discussion will want to vote on its standing motions, and is also involved in blocking subdiscussions via motions' standing polls (see below).
The identity of active participants is kept secret, but the total count is displayed publically.
Each member of the assembly is also considered to be either "asleep" or "awake" at any given time. At the invocation of a General Recess, all members' status is set to asleep. By casting any vote, or placing any token, a member's status changes to awake. A member can also manually change their status at any time. The set of awake members is called "the active assembly". This is used to allow more important votes to end early by assuming that only awake members will want to vote.
The asleep/awake status of members is publically displayed, as are the total counts of asleep and awake members.
A "motion" is a formal proposal for an assembly to take some action. Some motions, when "made", begin a subdiscussion in which the assembly discusses whether it wants to execute the action indicated; this subdiscussion ends with a vote on the action. The non-standing motions are Amend and Refer to Committee. For convenience, this subsection speaks of "motions", but "non-standing motions" are what is meant.
Like topics or speeches, there is a pool of candidate motions. Debate tokens may placed on candidate motions. The candidate motions compete against each other and against speeches to be posted into the discussion (or "made"). Unlike speeches, motions are not penalized for length. Upon the posting of a motion, the tokens on it are consumed.
Here is the full procedure for deciding what happens when it is time for the next post.
The standing polls (see below) for all motions are checked. If the No votes in the a motion's standing poll total more than 1/2 of the count of active participants in this discussion, then the motion cannot be made at this time and this candidate is temporarily ignored.
Each motion's strength is calculated. A motion's strength is the number of debate tokens on it / 1000.
The speech with the most tokens per character is chosen. The number of tokens on that speech is compared to the number of tokens on all candidate Amends and Commits, and the one with the most tokens wins. If the winning post's strength is less than the Post Minimum Strength Threshold, then this cycle passes without any post being posted.
Otherwise, if a speech wins, it is posted. If an Amend wins, it is posted (i.e. "the Motion to Amend is made") and a subdiscussion is begun about whether or not to Amend. Motions may be made in this subdiscussion, and a final vote is taken at the end of it. The main discussion is on hold until the subdiscussion is complete. Similarly for a Commit.
Each subdiscussion has its own supply of debate tokens which are handed out at the start of the subdiscussion. During the subdiscussion, the "suspending motions" (see below), if passed, apply to the entire discussion topic, not just to the subdiscussion. The motion to Close Debate, if passed, applies just to the subdiscussion, not to the entire topic.
If an Amend is posted, then within the ensuing subdiscussion, the proposed Amendment may itself be Amended. However, an Amendment to an Amendment may not itself be amended, because that would just be too confusing.
An Amend may not change the meaning of the proposal so radically that it is effectively a new topic for discussion. Parliamentarians annul such Amends if they are made.
An Amend to change, remove, or add new proposals requires a simple majority. However, adding new multiple-choice options to existing proposals requires only >1/3; the logic being that these will be chosen among by a Score Voting method in the Final Vote anyhow, and hence to supress them should be considered to be a limitation on debate. Furthermore, during the subdiscussion on an Amend to add a new option, the presence of a >1/3 "yes/no" in the Straw Poll, stable for three days, ends the subdiscussion and passes the Amend.
The Opening Speech is just a speech; it cannot be amended.
If an Amend passes, a 4-day Recess is taken.
The mechanics of making a Motion to Commit is similar to Amend (see above). Whereas the content of an Amend specifies how the proposal shall be changed, the content of a Commit specifies to which committee the motion shall be referred, what the committee is supposed to do, and a deadline for the committee to report back by.
If a Commit is posted, then within the ensuing subdiscussion there cannot be a motion to Commit.
A Commit may refer the issue to an existing committee, or a new one may be created in the Commit. If the latter, the committee member selection process is as follows. The size of the committee is set in the proposal in the Commit (which may be Amended). Any number of candidates may be nominated by posting a speech in the Commit subdiscussion (they are counted towards the character limit as if each name were 250 characters long). In the Final Vote, the members are selected by the nominees via a Score Voting procedure.
A Commit motion that creates a new committee has two parts to the Final Vote; one part selects the members of the committee; the other part is to see if the Commit motion passes, that is, if a committee is actually created and if the motion is actually referred to it. If the Commit motion passes, then the discussion is immediately moved to the Table (see below). If the committee fails to report back before the deadline, the discussion reappears as if it were Postponed (see below). If the committee does report back before the deadline, a new discussion topic of type "Report" is created and placed on the bottom of the Stack (see below). When the Report is created, the topic tokens are transferred from the defunct original discussion to the Report, and the original discussion is deleted from the Table.
The Report is like a new topic -- fresh debate tokens are handled out to everyone. The opening speech of the Report is the textual report from the committee. The committee may provide reworked versions of the proposal(s) for the Report -- of course, the assembly may Amend these, perhaps right back to the old versions, if they choose.
Topics in committee may be prematurely discharged via the "resume from table" mechanism (see below).
A Recess:
A Recess follows a successful Amendment or resumption of a discussion from the Stack. A Recess gives people a chance to reconsider their position in light of changed circumstances.
A normal Recess (as opposed to a General Recess; see below) applies only to one discussion.
Unlike Amend and Commit, which have to compete with speeches and among themselves before they can be posted and considered, there are motions which are always "under consideration" and which take effect without further discussion if a sufficient number of people vote for them.
For a standing motion to pass, the tally of the corresponding standing poll must show a sufficient fraction of "yes" votes over "no" votes (or the corresponding situation in an auction; see below), and this state of affairs must hold for 3 days straight, unless so many people have cast votes already that the result is determined to be affirmative (assuming that all active participants might want to cast votes). The exceptions are Interrupt with Urgent Business which needs stability for only 2 days, and Close Debate during the Opening Speech, which requires at least 1/2 of the active assembly to cast an affirmative vote in order to take effect before the end of the Opening Speech.
The standing motions are: Close Debate, Give Out More Speaking Tokens (2/3 vote), Change Post Minimum Strength Threshold (2/3 auction; see below), Interrupt with Urgent Business, Postpone.
The proposal(s) under discussion also have a standing poll throughout the discussion. Unlike standing motions, however, this poll is merely a straw poll and has no effect (except in the case of Amend subdiscussions; see above). However, if you cast a vote of "yes" or "no" in the straw poll, this will used as your default vote in the real vote unless you cast a different one later. Similarly, in multiple-choice proposals, there is an option to use your straw vote as your real vote if you choose.
The Straw Poll counts proxy votes.
A standing poll is where you cast a vote on a standing motion or a straw poll. Within each discussion, there is one standing poll for each standing motion, one for each candidate Amend or Commit, and one for the straw poll. The aggregate results of each standing poll are always publically available, and tallies are updated instantly -- however, your individual vote is kept secret. You may change your vote in a standing poll at any time.
Except for straw polls on multiple-choice proposals, the format of a standing poll is as follows. There are five options: "no", "leaning towards no", "neutral", "leaning towords yes", "yes". Only "no" and "yes" votes have any effect (aside from confirming your participation, and being displayed in the public tally of votes for this standing poll).
2/3 standing poll.
give out more speaking tokens (2/3)
change speaking token threshold (2/3, bidir auction)The speaking minimum strength threshold starts at the Default Post Minimum Strength Threshold and can be changed changed via standing auction. Each person can enter a range that they would like the threshold to fall within. If (a) the current threshold falls outside the ranges entered by 2/3 of all persons who have entered a range, and (b) a range of new thresholds ("acceptable range") exist which is a subset of the ranges entered by 2/3 of all persons who have entered a range, and if this situation persists for 3 days straight, then the speaking minimum strength threshold is changed to the number in the acceptable range (as measured at the end of the 3-day period) which is closest to the old threshold. If Debate is about to end due to a lack of posts, the threshold is checked and changed again without waiting 3 days, in order to see if Debate will be prolonged.
By means of the motion to Commit or the suspending motions (see below), active discussions may sometimes be suspended. The Stack and the Table are metaphorical "places" where discussions reside while they are suspended.
The Stack is an ordered queue of upcoming discussions. Think of a stack of papers in a pile. When a discussion slot is vacant, if there is anything in the Stack, the discussion on "top" of the stack immediately fill the vacant slot and is resumed; thus, no topic token competition takes place in this situation. The only ways that discussions can be put in the Stack are Reports from committees, motions to Interrupt with Urgent Business (see below), and motions coming off of the Table (see below). Some organizations may specify in their Bylaws that external events may also inserts topics into the Stack; for example, the Stack could be used when some outside authority asks the assembly to answer some question. The Stack could also be used by an organization to force itself to consider some issues periodically or at certain times, for instance an annual budget.
The Table is an unordered set of suspended discussions. Each item on the Table is attached to a condition that, when satisfied, moves that item off of the Table and onto the bottom of the Stack. The only ways that discussions can be put on the Table are motion to Postpone (see below) and Commit.
When a discussion is resumed from the Stack, there is only a one-day Recess before discussion actively resumes (i.e. before the next post is chosen and posted). Aside from the effects of the Recess, everything is as it was when the discussion was suspended; if a Commit or Amend subdiscussion was in progress, it still is. Debate tokens are not refreshed.
When a discussion is moved to the Stack or the Table, it vacates its discussion slot; however, its topic tokens are not released.
Discussions on the Stack or the Table are treated as candidate topics. New topic tokens may be placed on them for the purpose of resuming them prematurely. Any of the frozen topic tokens already on the discussion may also be counted for this purpose, at the option of the person who placed them there. Hence, the total strength of these discussions is calculated as the number of new tokens placed on them since they were suspended, plus the number of frozen tokens whose owners want the discussion to be resumed prematurely. These discussions compete with other candidate topics to be chosen as next discussion topic. When a discussion is resumed, the new tokens are refunded to those who placed them. This is also the way that a discussion on the Table may be made the strongest motion for the purpose of choosing it with a motion to Interrupt with Urgent Business (see below).
By default, the topic tokens that are on a discussion topic that has been chosen act to resist its suspension, and if it is suspended, they support its premature resumption. However, if the owners of those tokens wish to support interruption, they may indicate that the tokens they placed are not to be counted for these purposes (a vote for a suspending motion on this topic is taken as such an indication). This choice may be changed at any time.
Anyone may also place new tokens on a chosen topic for these purposes. These new tokens are not frozen and may be moved at any time, and if not moved, they are refunded when the topic is disposed of.
Suspending motions are standing motions that suspend a discussion, moving it either to the Stack (in the case of Interrupt with Urgent Business) or to the Table (in the case of Postpone). Suspending motions apply to an entire topic at once; you cannot suspend an Amend or Commit subdiscussion without suspending the topic of which it is a part.
The effect of a motion to Interrupt with Urgent Business is to place the discussion topic on the top of the Stack and fill its spot with a different, specified discussion topic. The new discussion topic must be specified in the motion to Interrupt. The new discussion topic must either be currently on the stack, or it must be the topic which would be currently winning in the candidate topic token competition (if the motion specifies the latter, and the winning candidate topic changes before the Interrupt motion passes, then the Interrupt motion does nothing).
There are two kinds of motions to Postpone; Postpone to a Certain Time, and Postpone until The Disposal of Another Topic. Postpone to a Certain Time specifies a time (mechanically, there are a few preset time options, such as 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months -- note the maximum of 2 months), and a vote for postponing for a longer time is counted as a vote in favor of postponing for any shorter time also). Postpone until The Disposal of Another Topic specifies another one of the topics currently being discussed; after the disposal of that topic, this one will be resumed.
Neither a motion to Interrupt nor a motion to Postpone may be made if the current topic would win in the candidate topic token competition, if the current topic were a candidate whose strength is (its frozen topic tokens whose owners disagree with suspension + its unfrozen topic tokens). This prevents an absolute majority from thwarting the wishes of a small faction to discuss a particular topic, provided that the small faction has diligently saved up sufficient topic tokens over time.
Debate may be terminated in two ways:
At the close of debate, all candidate posts and standing polls (except for the straw poll and polls to Interrupt with Urgent Business) are deleted.
After the close of debate but before the beginning of the final vote, the closing speeches are selected. Each alternative that will be on the final ballot gets an associated closing speech. The closing speeches are chosen out of the previously posted speeches.
To participate in the choice of the closing speech associated with some ballot alternative, a person must irrecovably cast his or her vote for that alternative. By doing so, the person gives up the chance to change their vote later -- in addition, any proxy votes held by this person will be cast for that alternative during the final vote.
For each alternative, the closing speech is chosen by a Score Voting method among all speeches made during the discussion. Proxy votes do not count in this poll.
There are no closing speeches if there was no debate, and in this case this period passes instantaneously. Otherwise, this period lasts up most 4 days, less if the result can be determined early (assuming that the entire active assembly might want to cast votes).
When voting begins at the end of a discussion or subdiscussion, the straw poll is replaced by a standing poll for the purpose of counting the final vote. Immediately above the this poll, first the opening speech and then the closing speeches are displayed. This standing poll does not contain the "leaning towards" options. As noted above, individuals whose Straw Poll votes were set to "no" or "yes" at the beginning of the Final Vote cast these votes by default in the final vote, unless they change their vote during the final voting period. During the final voting period, votes may be changed at any time.
The vote ends early if at any time enough votes have been cast such that the result could not be affected by the remainder of the active assembly who have not yet voted (where people who have had proxy votes cast on their behalf are considered to have cast their votes, as are people who had cast "yes" or "no" in the Straw Poll as of the beginning of the Final Vote). For example, if there is a single proposal which requires a simple majority, and 51% of the active assembly have had proxy votes cast on their behalf for the affirmative, then voting immediately closes and the proposal immediately passes. Similarly, if there is a single proposal which requires a 2/3 supermajority, and 34% of the active assembly have had proxy votes cast on their behalf for the negative, then voting immediately closes and the proposal immediately fails. Note that this means you should not rely on being able to change your vote after casting it (or having it cast for you) during the Final Vote.
Three numbers are calculated in order to determine if the proposal passed: the fraction of "yes" votes divided by "no" votes (including proxy votes; see below), the number of partipicants in the discussion, and the raw number of "yes" votes (excluding proxy votes).
The Bylaws of the organization give minimums thresholds for these numbers in order for a proposal to pass. If any of these thresholds is not met, the proposal fails. These thresholds may depend on what type of topic is being discussed. The Parliamentarians determine the classification of each topic's type. Topics which include proposals to change the rules of parliamentary procedure should always have a threshold of at least 2/3 for yes/no.
transitive proxy voting
proxy votes are only counted in votes to Amend, votes to Commit, the Straw Poll, and Final Votes.
If a topic comprises multiple proposals, the voting is carried out according to a Score Voting method (with "none of these; do nothing" as one of the options; in the case of ties, this wins).
After the outcome of a topic's proposal(s) is decided by the final vote, the frozen topic tokens on the topic are recycled. The discussion is archived and deleted, any discussion on the Table which is waiting on the completion of this particular discussion is moved to the bottom of the stack, and the discussion slot is vacated.
General Recess ()
change topic token threshold (2/3, auction)A General Recess is a Recess that applies to the entire assembly; in addition, it marks all members as asleep, so that they must take some action to become awake again. It can be used to give the assembly some time off, and to reduce the count of the active assembly by marking inactive members as asleep. A General Recess is initiated via a standing motion at the topic level. General Recesses can be for 3 days, 1 week, 1 month, or 3 months.
These are topics in which some quantity needs to be divided up among alternatives (for example, budgets). Rather than starting with a proposed division coming from a single faction and then letting everyone Amend it, as is done for most topics, a better way might be to let the assembly collectively create the inital proposal.
A candidate discussion topic may be indicated to be of type "Average proportional allocation", in which case instead of voting (possible multiple choice) up or down, the voters will each specify their own ideal allocation of the quantity between alternatives (expressed as percentages), and then these are averaged. Multiple allocation proposals may be combined into one topic (i.e. in a budget, voters could divide the total money between departments, and then there could be a separate division between projects in each department, all asked in one topic).
This topic also has a set of ordinary proposals, but these are not voted on in the Final Vote, although they may be Amended during discussion. These proposals indicate what the allocation is for; for example, "Resolved, that proportional allocation (A) be set as our budget for the coming year, with a total expenditure of $10,000".
After the Final Vote, rather than vacating the discussion slot, the averaged allocation is automatically reintroduced into the same slot as if it were a prewritten proposal for a new discussion topic. In this way, the allocation can be further discussed and Amended, but the initial proposal has been developed collaboratively.
An Election topic is like a Commit motion (except that no Report will be generated).
The Elect board is one of the three legislative houses. Within the domain of external affairs, the Elect Board is represented by the External Affairs Committee.
For groups in Size Regime Small, there is no Elect Board. In this case, when some role is given to the Elect boards or to the Elect boards and the Delegate Pyramid, then the Forum fulfills that role.
The elect board is a small group of elected representatives. The External Elect Committee of the Elect Board handles external affairs, and the full Elect Board handles everything else (see Division between internal and external functions).
Each member of the External Elect Committee is also a member of the Elect Board.
Members of the Elect Board are styled Director.
The boardmembers are directly elected by the voters by [1]. The necessary and sufficient condition for any elgible voter to be included on the ballot is self-nomination. Self-nominations may be withdrawn. The Office of Procedure shall announce the self-nominations as they come in.
There is an election to the elect board after one electoral cycle duration has elapsed since the previous election. A measure to call early elections may be adopted by the Forum (and may not be vetoed), in which case an election happens sooner. All of the boardmembers are replaced (or reelected) each election.
On each ballot, two values may be assigned to each candidate, one value for their suitability for the Elect Board, and the other value for their suitability for the External Elect Committee. First, reweighted Score Voting is used to select the Elect Boardmembers based upon the Elect Board suitability values. Next, all candidates except for the new Elect Boardmembers are removed, and finally, reweighted Score Voting is used to select the External Elect Committeemembers based upon the External Elect Committee suitability values (out of the pool of the Elect Boardmembers).
The number of members in the Elect Board is 3 when n < 25, then 5 for 25 <= n <= 48, then 7 for n >= 49.
The number of members in the External Elect Committee is 1 until n = 49, at which point it becomes 3.
The proceeding of an Elect board are governed by the board rules of order.
If a member becomes unavailable or is removed, they are not replaced until the next elect board election.
Councils are deliberative small groups composed of a representative mixture of different factions. They make decisions through consensus.
Councils do not exist until the group is in Size Regime Large.
There are two types of councils, base-level councils, and delegate councils.
Each council shall be composed of 7 people, such that there is one (possibly indirect) constituent of each of the P Delegate Boardmembers.
The base-level councils are composed of voters who are not delegates. The delegate councils are composed of delegates of the same level in the delegate pyramid. Boardmembers may not serve on councils. Other high officials may serve on councils.
People must voluntarily sign up before they are assigned to a council. If councils meet online, people may specify a requirement to be placed on a council that meets offline, although doing so may prevent them from being placed at all.
If unequal votes are used, then people are assigned to councils in a way that attemps to put people with similar voting strenghts together.
When signing up, each voter may specify how often he or she would like to go to council, and people with similar frequency preferences may be placed together.
Everyone who volunteers and who can be assigned must be. Due to the required compositon of councils, it is likely that not all people who apply to be on a council can be assigned. The choice of which people are and are not placed, and with whom, must be made randomly, without reference to any distinguishing information between individuals besides their delegate boardmember representative, whether they require an offline meeting, their frequency preference, and their voting strengh.
A council has the powers of a virtual person in the Forum. When there is consensus, a council may vote or place tokens in the Forum.
Unanimous consensus (the consent of all members of a council) is required for that council to take any action. The votes of base-level councils are private. For councils of intermediate layers of delegates, attached to each action must be a public list of signatures of each consenting member, along with the name of the delegate boardmember for which that member is a constituent. Council deliberations, however, are closed and private. By agreeing that the council may cast a vote (not a decision to spend a token), a member also votes their votes (and delegated votes) in the Forum on that issue in the same way that the council does.
The total voting strength of all councils is 1/3 of the Forum votes.
The total voting strength of all councils are first divided evenly among the levels of the delegation pyramid, including the voters, but not including the delegate board. For example, if there are voters, and delegates, and 2nd order delegates, and then the councils of voters (the base-level councils), the councils of delegates, and the councils of 2nd-order delegates are each allocated 1/3 of the council votes, which means 1/9 (1/3 of 1/3) of Forum votes. Next, for each level, these votes are evenly distributed amongst the councils at that level, if one-person-one-vote is used; or they are distributed in proportion to the summed voting strength of the members of each council, if member voting strengths are unequal.
Note that these votes are distributed to the councils whether or not they use them. For example, if, on some issue in the Forum, most councils do not reach unanimity, and hence do not cast a vote, then the sum voting strength of those councils that do vote will be much less than 1/3 of the Forum.
Voters are not officials or agents of the organization merely by their service in council. They are not said to have a close relationship with the organization or subjected to any of the restrictions or oversight requirements of officials.
No rules shall apply to voters acting in council that don't apply to them otherwise. They are not elgible for special scruity or intrusion like executive or legislative officials when in council or because they are members of a council.
A council may not schedule a session except by unanimous consent.
A member who misses a scheduled council session may opt to give their consent to whatever the others decide during that session. Any member who misses more than 3 council sessions without good cause (sickness, emergency, etc), and without giving consent to decide in their absence, is removed from that council, and replaced by someone else on the wait list (unless there is no one from the required (indirect) constituency who is waiting to be placed).
A person is ineligble to be a candidate delegate of a constituency, or an Elect Director, if they have not attended most sessions of a council in the past electoral cycle duration; unless, during that cycle duration: they applied to be in a council, with no offline restriction, but were not placed; or less than 7 people in their constituency currently meet this criterion; or they were a boardmember or delegate; or the council(s) they were placed on (cumulatively) had less than 7 sessions.
When one-person-one-vote is not being used, a minimum voting strength threshold for council participation may be set by a statutory act. This threshold is taken to be 0 by default, and may be raised by a measure with a 2/3 threshold for enactment. In no case may the minimum vote threshold for councils be raised so high that is would be projected to exclude a set of voters who hold 1/3 or more of the total votes. The threshold may be lowered by simple majority.
The Delegate Pyramid is a structure of (possibly indirectly) elected recallable delegates. The pinnacle of the Delegate Pyramid is the Delegate board, one of the three legislative chambers.
The Delegate Pyramid does not exist until the group is in Size Regime Large.
The base of the Delegate Pyramid, "level 0", is composed of voters, who group themselves into "constituencies". A constituency is a group of people. Higher levels of the pyramid are composed of delegates from the next lowest level. These delegates form themselves into constituencies.
Each constituency has a minimum size. Any group of people who number at least the minimum size may form a new constituency. A person may leave constituencies, or switch constituencies, at any time. A person may be a member of only one constituency at a time. People may only join an existing constituency with its permission, according to whatever rules it has set for the acceptance of new members. Each constituency elects a single delegate to represent it in the next higher level of the Delegate Pyramid.
Since members may switch out of a constituency at any time, it is possible that the number of members for a constituency could fall below the minimum number. In this case, the constituency's delegate loses their office as a delegate, unless and until their constituency regains the minimum size.
Members who switch constituencies may not cast a vote in their new constituency for the election of a delegate until at least one half of one electoral cycle duration has elapsed since the last time they cast a vote in any other constituency for the election of a delegate (or, if they have never cast such a vote in any other constituency, then they may vote immediately).
If some voters hold multiple votes, then they may participate in multiple constituencies by pledging some of their votes to one constituency, and others to other constituencies. For voters who have only one vote, that vote is considered "pledged" to the constituency joined by that voter. The "size" of a constituency refers to how many votes are pledged to it.
Although base-level voters may spread out their multiple votes, delegates must pledge all of their votes to a single constituency, however, and must cast all of them at the same time during deliberation within the constituency.
The proceedings of a constituency (aside from the Delegate board) are private and closed, although the adopted resolutions of a constituency, for example the identity of the chosen delegate, are public. The membership roles of each constituency are public.
Any member of the constituency may declare that they are a candidate in the election for a delegate. No other form of nomination besides self-nomination is permitted. Only members of the constituency may be candidates.
In a replacement election, the incumbent is automatically a candidate, without nomination. Similarly, if a person is elected delegate, and then elected delegate in a higher constituency, and then replaced in the lower constituency, they may remain delegate in the higher constituency, and may remain a choice in a replacement election, even though they could not ordinarily be nominated in the higher constituency, no longer being a member.
See the procedure for electing a recallable delegate.
Constituencies are forbidden to bind the way their rep votes, or to pass nonbinding resolutions threatening a loss of support unless their rep votes a certain way (although they can pass nonbinding resolutions advising their rep how to vote, and individual members can informally threaten to (or decide to) vote to replace the rep, and then do so).
The number of votes held by a delegate is called their "strength". A delegate's strength determines how many votes they may pledge to constituencies in the next higher level, and also how many votes they may cast in every vote held in those constituencies.
The strength of a delegate is the same as their support in their election (where ballots are secret) or the same as the size of their constituency (where ballots are public), except that there is a cutoff associated with the level of the constituency that elected them. If the number of votes pledged in the constituency that elected them exceeds the cutoff, then their strength is only the amount of the cutoff.
The strength cutoff for a constituency on Level X shall be (L - X) * (minimum size of a level X constituency), where L is the level of the Delegate Pyramid which is the Delegate board. Note that, since L - (L-1) = 1, the cutoff for boardmembers in the Delegate board is equal to the minimum size of a level (L-1) constituency; so, the maximum and minimum strength of boardmembers in the Delegate board are equal. Therefore, all boardmembers in the Delegate board have equal strength.
The number of layers, including Layer 0 and the top layer which contains the delegate board, is 2 until n>7^(1+2), and then 3 until n > 7^(1+2+3), and then 4 until n > 7^(1+2+3+4), etc.
Note that the level of the delegate board layer is (# of layers) - 1, because the bottom layer is Layer 0.
First, let k = (log(n)/log(7) - 1 - layers + 1)/sum(1:(layers-1)) (this is written in MATLAB notation; in latex notation, sum(1:(layers-1)) would be written (\sum_{i=1}^{layers-1} i) )
where n is the effective group size, and layers is the number of layers in the delegate pyramid, as determined above.
Now, for the layer numbered L, the minimum size of the constituencies on that layer are:
floor(7.^(1+k*(layers - 1 - L)))
(again using matlab notation; using latex, it is floor(7^{1+k*(layers - 1 - L)}))
No organization, including a faction/party organization, may exert control over a constituency. No organization other than the constituency itself may exercise the power to nominate, to veto, to select, or to recall, the delegate of that constituency.
In particular, Officials may not recommend people to constituencies for the office of delegate. Higher levels of the Delegate Pyramid may not exert any political control over lower levels.
Open debate between members shall not be prohibited within any constituency.
Constituencies are forbidden from spending money or resources on anything except (a) their own operations, (b) advertising to attract new members, (c) coordinating sub-constituencies, and (d) paying a salary to their delegate or his or her staff. Specifically, they may not spend money on advertisments which intend to persuade other people to adopt a point of view, and they may not transfer money to other entities which influence policy.
The organization may allocate money for the allowed purposes to constituencies. An equal amount of money must be given to each constituency on the same level. The sum of the money given to all constituencies on some level X may not be greater than the sum of the money given to all constituencies on the next lowest level.
Constituencies may not raise money themselves; all of the money must come from the organization.
An exception is that goods and services of insignificant expense regarding a constituency's meetings and member communications may be donated. For instance, someone could donate a space to hold meetings in, or someone could create and maintain a website and email list for members to converse.
If a voter has a vote which is pledged to a constituency, and there is currently a delegate who is representing that constituency, then that delegate is said to be the direct representative of the voter, and that voter is said to be a direct constituent of that delegate, and that vote is said to support that delegate.
If a delegate A is a representative of another delegate B, and B is a representative of a person C, then A is said to be an indirect representative of C, and C is said to be an indirect constituent of A, and the votes of C which support B are said to support A.
A person who is either a direct or indirect representative of another person is also said to be their representative, and a person who is either a direct or indirect constituent of another person is also said to be their constituent.
Delegates are responsible only to their direct constituents. Delegates are forbidden from campaigning to attract the votes or loyalties of indirect constituents.
All Directors on a board have equal votes and powers.
The proceeding of a board are usually public. A board may call a closed session by a 2/3s vote.
A board is governed by the 4th edition of Sturgis's Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure; except for the following additions and changes:
However, since the board doesn't consist of very many people, is it suggested that meetings be initially conducted informally by general consent, and to switch to formal parliamentary procedure only when requested by one or more Directors, or when dealing with particularly weighty and controversial issues.
Every power of the organization must fall into the portfolio of one of the positions on an executive team, or into the portfolio of a quasi-independent agency.
The assignment of portfolios to positions on the executive team, or to quasi-independent agencies, is done by statue.
The executive branch is prohibited from ceremonial actions just as the legislature is, as described in the section "Prohibition on ceremonial bills" here.
Individual decisions taken by executive agencies can be overruled, before or after the fact, by statue. The exception is that individual decisions within some domain cannot be overruled when prohibited by tying of hands.
In Medium and Large organizations, the CEO and the EEO implement the Acts of the organization.
The EEO handles external affairs, and the CEO handles everything else. The CEO is not the boss of the EEO; the EEO has primacy within the domain of external affairs; see Division between internal and external functions.
In Large organizations, the CEO acts thru the Executive Team.
In Small organizations, the Chair fills the role of CEO and EEO, implementing the Acts of the organization.
The CEO and the EEO are recallable delegates of the representative houses of the legislature.
The CEO is selected by a body composed of all of the members of the Elect Board, plus all of the members of the Delegate Board (this is called the Combined Board).
The EEO is selected by a body composed of all of the members of the External Elect Board, plus all of the members of the Delegate Board, in which each members of the External Elect Board gets 2.5 votes (this is called the External Combined Board).
Any member of the relevant body may nominate any person to the position of CEO or EEO, with the consent of the nominee. See the procedure for electing a recallable delegate; except that ballots cast in these elections cannot say "no opinion". Nominations and ballots are public.
The EEO has the power to implement the Acts of the organization as they pertain to external affairs.
In Medium organizations, the CEO has the power to implement the Acts of the organization as they pertain to everything but external affairs (except for power which has been vested in some quasi-independent agency).
In Large organizations, the CEO has some powers over the executive Team. The CEO has the power to nominate candidates for positions in the executive team, and to dismiss officers from those same teams. The CEO also summons and presides over meetings of the executive team. The CEO may vote on policy vetos (see below).
In Large organizations, the CEO has no powers except as described above (except when the Combined Board waives the requirement for an executive team). Among other things, the CEO does not have a portfolio, cannot issue orders, and cannot hire or fire people from any position except for their authority over their executive team.
In Large organizations, an executive team must be created with at least three positions in addition to the CEO by an Act. The need for the CEO to act thru the Executive Team (and for the creation of the Executive Team) can be waived by a vote of 5/7 by the Combined Board. This waiver may be recinded at any time by an Act with a simple majority threshold and must be renewed after each Elect Board election.
If an organization has been Large for two months and no statue has yet created the executive team, then the executive team is automatically created with three positions; Treasurer (whose portfolio includes finances), Program Officer (whose portfolio includes programs directly relating to the primary purposes of the organization), Miscellaneous executive (whose portfolio includes everything not currently covered by another portfolio; for example, personnel, legal compliance).
The executive team may contain at most 7 positions (this does not include the CEO).
The CEO nominates members for the team. Members of the CEO's team are confirmed by a vote of the Combined Board (the Elect Boardmembers plus the Delegate Boardmembers) with a threshold of 2/5.
The Combined Board has no other function besides selecting the CEO and confirming his or her team members and possibly quasi-independent appointees, and the External Combined Board has no other function besides selecting the EEO and possibly confirming quasi-independent appointees.
The CEO may dismiss any member of their executive team for any time or any reason, except that a CEO may not dismiss a member if a vacancy would be caused such that the vacant portfolio could not be reassigned to another team member.
Between the time when an executive team member is dismissed, and when a new member is confirmed for that position, there is a vacancy. During that time, the CEO may temporarily assign the portfolio associated with the vacancy to another executive team member.
A statue may forbid certain combinations of portfolios caused by temporary assignment. The CEO may never hold any portfolio.
Confirmation for a replacement member may occur before dismissal. Dismissal can occur without any vacancy if the member to be dismissed is immediately replaced by a confirmed replacement.
Executive team members retain their position until dismissed. In particular, they are not removed just because the CEO is dismissed.
With the consent of the CEO, a simple majority of the executive team may veto any action of any one of its members within that member's portfolio. The CEO may vote on this. Vetos may be pre-emptive.
Quasi-independent agencies are sub-organizations that exercise executive power and which have at least some directors who cannot be dismissed by the CEO or EEO.
Quasi-independent agencies are created and setup by statue. The statue specifies how the directors are selected and dismissed.
Creating or increasing the power of quasi-independent agencies requires a vote of 2/3. For independence from the legislature as well as the CEO and EEO, the procedure of tying hands can also be used.
External affairs may not be delegated to quasi-independent agencies.
The High Court interprets the rules and arbitrates disputes. The High Court is a panel composed of the Judges.
The High Court does not take action unless and until a case is brought to it.
A case may be brought to the High Court in any one the following ways:
If a case is brought by any of the previous methods, the High Court is obliged to accept it. In addition, if there are other courts, the losing party may appeal a case in another court, and the High Court may choose to accept the case by majority vote.
In addition, any voter may bring a case against the organization for violation of the voter's rights or a violation of procedure which impacts the voter -- such a case must be taken by some court, but not neccesarily by the High Court.
The Office of Procedure has final jurisdiction over questions of procedural details within each house of the legislature, including the determination of vote thresholds. The High Court is obliged to respect the Office of Procedure's decisions in such cases, except in case of corruption or medical incompetence. In all other matters the High Court has final jurisdiction.
The High Court has the power to decide the case at hand, except when the case falls under the jurisdiction of the Office of Procedure.
When prompted by a case, the High Court can take other actions in addition to deciding the case:
The High Court may find a rule legal at one time and then later strike it down., or vice versa.
The High Court may force the Legislature to make a clarification to the law. To do this, they describe the ambiguity, and present a small number of possible fixes.
The High Court may Force Clarification in cases which, in its judgement, meet one of the following criteria:
When they do this, the Boards are compelled to add the issue to their agenda as if this issue had met whatever criteria are necessary to place an item on the agenda for discussion on the main floor followed by a vote. In addition, the item must be added to the agenda so that discussion may reasonable be expected to be completed within 6 months. Except for this, the item is treated normally within the Boards, with each "possible fix" presented as a bill, or as a multiple-choice alternative. The Boards are not constrained to choose one of the alternatives provided by the High Court.
The Forum may also pass a resolution to address the problem.
After six months or more have elapsed, the High Court must determine whether the Force Clarification has succeeded or failed. It has succeeded if any of the High Court's proposed alternatives were adopted by the organization, or if some other measure has been adopted by the organization which removes the ambiguity or rectifies the absurd or unintentional result. If the Force Clarification has failed, then the High Court itself may create statues which remove the ambiguity or rectify the absurd or unintentional result.
As circumstances change, the High Court is empowered to decide that the voters hold other rights not explicitly enumerated in the bylaws, if they consider such rights to have been implicitly assumed. They do this by issuing text describing this "Found Right". The High Court shall not have the power to modify the text of the bylaws, but a Found Right is an effective rule, unless it is later removed by an amendment to the bylaws. However, when possible, the High Court is encouraged to use Forced Clarification rather than Found Rights.
The High Court takes action through majority vote.
The vote of an individual Judge on an issue is called a judge opinion, and the decision of the majority of the Judges is called a ruling. A judge opinion may contain a justification as well as a vote. All judge opinions are published.
See the method of selection of judges and Parliamentarians.
The function of the Chairs is to protect individual rights, to eliminate corruption, to ensure that proper procedure is followed, to eliminate unnecessary secrecy, and to temper "procedural bugs" by the application of individual judgement.
The existence of Chairs does not excuse other parts of the organization from the responsibility to have internal controls.
There is always at least one Chair position.
A second and third Chair position are added when the group reaches Size Regime Large. However, only one of these position is filled at each election; so, for a little while, the third Chair position will necessarily be vacant.
Each Chair has the power to request any information from any part of the organization, or any information relevant to the organization from high officials. Such a request for information must be met immediately (or, if fulfilling the request takes time, as soon as physically possible) and cannot be denied for any reason. In particular, no information may be kept secret from a Chair, except for personal passwords, and that only to the extent that the information is also kept secret from everyone else, including the CEO and EEO.
Each Chair may attend (or, if attendance is not possible, then prior to the meeting, request a video feed from) and quietly observe (but not necessarily participate in) any meeting in which the organization's business is being conducted. This is a form of a request for information.
When a Chair compels information, the information must be supplied along with a signed oath that it is the truth.
Each Chair has the power to take another Chair to court on the charge of making a request for information which imposes an excessive burden. A request is defined to impose an excessive burden if the burden of collecting and providing the information is (a) large, forcing the organization to significantly curtail important activities in order to divert its labor to fulfilling the request, and also (b) unreasonable, and also (c) in excess of the amount of information needed to reasonably ensure the non-corruption and procedure-following of government, or to make a case in court. In no case shall adverse effects thought to be caused by the release of information be taken as evidence for the excessiveness of a request.
Any official who does not comply with a Chair's request for information shall be permanently stripped of their position, possibly in addition to other sanctions as specified by statue.
Note that, because of (c), by saying something is excessive, the court is stating that the additional information gained will be irrelevant to the Chair's success in court, if they were going to use this information to go to court. So, if a Chair does go to court, the court should act as if the information gained was as would be favorable to the Chair's case, within reason.
If the court finds that the request for information was excessive, the only penalty shall be the nullification of that request and of future similar requests by the same Chair, if ordered by the court. In particular, the right to publish any information obtained is not affected. In no case shall a Chair be punished for the exercise of, or the results of exercising, their powers.
In addition, each Chair may request some information from or about entities, such as members, which have close relations with the organization or its officials, in proportion to the closeness and, in the case of entities which are close to officials, to the power of the officials. This type of request may be challenged in court before being complied with.
In addition, each Chair may request any information from or about any private entity if there is probable cause to believe that the information is related to an action or conspiracy by the organization or by officials of the organization relating to an attempt to deprive individuals of their rights, or to not follow procedure, or which may be corrupt. A court must find probable cause before this type of request may be issued. This type of request may be challenged in court before being complied with.
Each Chair has the power to publish any information, even information which was previously declared secret or private, and information which according to Bylaws and Statues may not be published. No Chair shall be hindered from or punished for the publication of any information. Chairs are never obligated to pre-notify any entity before publication. Publication implies that any rule by which the group kept the information secret from its membership no longer applies to that information, and therefore that information may be republished without penalty.
The information must be published in any manner which makes it available to the general membership of the group, not just to a few select individuals. Each Chair must make available a list of information which they have published, and where to find each publication. Published information must be kept available for at least one year, at the expense of the Organization. Before they have decided which information to publish, Chairs may reveal any information to their staff. Before publication, they may reveal any information to select individuals and entities if useful to arrange for publication.
Rather than publish information to the membership, Chairs may choose to publish it to the Combined Board, and must be provided with a venue for doing so. Chairs may not be compelled to publish information to the Combined Board instead of the membership.
Each Chair has the power and the standing to bring any case against any entity alleging corruption, failure to follow procedure, dereliction of duty of an official, or infringement of individual rights, provided these crimes are with reference to the organization.
An entity may be corrupt in their participation in some other organization, or involved in causing another organization to infringe or not to follow proper procedure, or guilty of a serious felony not covered in the previous paragraph, without being vulnerable to tribunal prosecution.
Any two Chairs, acting together, may pardon or commute the sentence of any individual (excepting high officials) for a crime or crimes.
When there are multiple Chair positions, some of them have special duties and powers, described in the following. These are in addition to their ordinary powers, described above. When there is only one Chair, he or she holds all of these powers. When there are only two Chairs, the senior one holds the powers described below for the senior Chair, and the junior one holds the powers described below for the middle Chair.
The middle Chair may accept complaints from individuals and entities and attempt to mediate between the complaintant and the organization. When there are three Chairs, the juniormost and seniormost Chair are forbidden from accepting complaints and attempting to resolve individual complaints through mediation; although they may accept tips and advice about situations in need of attention, and following this, to use their powers to investigate, publicize, and prosecute if they determine that doing so is for the good of all (not just for the good of a complaintant).
The seniormost Chair is the highest ranking official, and is the head of the organization. Any ceremonial functions which require a high-ranking official representative should be carried out by the senior Chair. The senior Chair may address messages to the voters and/or to the legislative houses, at the expense of the organization.
When an act is enacted and there are Parliamentarians or Judges, it is sent to the senior Chair to receive his or her signature, and the act is not considered official until he or she has signed it. The senior Chair may issue a signing statement as he or she signs the act, which must be published along with the act, although it carries no legal force.
Rather than signing it, the senior Chair may refer the act to the High Court for a test of its legality. If the act is found to be legal, it is returned to the senior Chair.
The senior Chair may refuse to sign an act, as an expression of his or her belief that it is immoral or dangerous. If the senior Chair will not sign or refer the act within three days of receiving it, or within three days of its being found legal after his or her referral, or if he or she is incapacitated, then a Parliamentarian or Judge must sign it in his place (signing as a Parliamentarian or Judge, not with as the senior Chair), thereby making it official, just as if the Chair had signed it him or herself. In this case the Parliamentarians and Judges are compelled to sign; unlike the Chair, they may not refuse to sign.
Decorations, awards, and titles of honor may be created and bestowed by the senior Chair on entities, provided that the senior Chair and his or her staff, and not the legislature, decides who is to be honored.
The middle and senior Chairs may not be forced to fill any of their special roles, and may not be punished for refusing to. They have full control over the manner of their fulfillment of these roles; for instance, the senior Chair may insist that he or she be allowed to promulgate acts with minimal ceremony and maximal efficiency.
The Chairs are directly elected by the voters by reweighted Score Voting. The necessary and sufficient condition for any elgible voter to be included on the ballot is self-nomination. Self-nominations may be withdrawn. The Office of Procedure shall announce the self-nominations as they come in.
Each electoral cycle, at the same time as the election of the elect board, one Chair position is up for election. After the election of a new Chair, when there are three Chairs, the previously senior Chair steps down, the previously middle Chair becomes senior, and the previously junior Chair becomes the senior Chair. Hence, when there are multiple Chairs, each Chair is elected for a term of multiple electoral cycles.
Chairs may delegate any role or decision to staff (including but not limited to requesting and reviewing information, publication, observing meetings, chairing meetings, maintaining the Forum, prosecution, arbitrarion, mediation, hearing cases).
In Small and Medium groups, and Large groups with less than 3 Parliamentarians or less than 3 Judges, Chairs also fill the functions of Parliamentarians and/or Judges.
Decisions of the Chair regarding the running of a Board meeting may be overturned by a 5/7 vote of that Board.
Like Parliamentarians, Chairs may not vote in the meetings that they run. Unlike Parliamentarians, Chairs may participate in substantive discussion, like other participants in the meeting.
The Office of Procedure interprets parliamentary and democratic procedure.
It:
The Office of Procedure is a panel of officials called Parliamentarians. The Office of Procedure acts through majority vote. If the vote of Parliamentarians (or Chairs acting as Parliamentarians) results in a tie, the tie is broken by the opinion of the most senior one. The Office of Procedure may delegate its collective power to staff or to individual Parliamentarians.
The vote of an individual Parliamentarian on an issue is called a parliamentarian opinion, and the decision of the majority of the Parliamentarians is called a ruling. Each Parliamentarians is bound to issue parliamentarian opinions according to the bylaws and rules in effect, but she or he does not need to hold a hearing, meet with the other Parliamentarians, or go through any formal procedure, before issuing a parliamentarian opinion. A parliamentarian opinion may contain a justification as well as a vote. All parliamentarian opinions are published.
Neither the Parliamentarians nor their staff, individually or collectively, may vote or otherwise participate in the substantive discussion within the bodies which they chair.
See the method of selection of Judges and Parliamentarians.
A ruling of the office of procedure can be overturned by the same method as to make an exception to the constitution.
Everything in this document pertains to both Judges and Parliamentarians. For ease of reading, the words "Judge", "Judges", and "High Court", will be used throughout, but the same applies to "Parliamentarian", "Parliamentarians", and "Office of Procedure" -- except that, declarations of medical incompetence or corruption are always made by Judges, not by Parliamentarians.
Judges cannot be appointed until the group is in Size Regime Large.
There are 5 Judges in the High Court. Their method of appointment and terms are identical.
When there is a vacancy, an individual may be appointed a Judge by an Act with a vote threshold of 2/3.
Judges are appointed by the Combined Board for fixed terms of 3 electoral cycles, and no more than 2 Judges may be appointed within one electoral cycle duration.
On any particular issue, an odd number of Judges must be maintained. Whenever there is an even number, one of them must recuse her or himself. The juniormost Judge is forced to recuse her or himself if others do not volunteer.
When there are less than 3 Judges, the Chairs also serve as Judges. First the senior, then the middle, and finally the junior Chair is made a Judge, halting as soon as the total number of Judges is 3, or the number of Chairs is exhausted.
Chairs serving as Judge in this fashion end their term as Judge at the same time that they end their term as senior Chair, or sooner, if enough new Judges are appointed, except that if there are any cases in progress they are completed with the same people serving as Judges.
Chairs serving as Judge are not actually Judges and term limits, etc, which apply to Judges do not necessarily apply to Chairs.
The effective group size the minimum of:
| If the effective group size is | then the size regime is | ||||
| less than or equal to 10 | Small | ||||
| between 11 and 80 | Medium | ||||
| 81 or larger | Large |
If this is changed via an amendment to these Bylaws, then the terms of incumbents are recalculated using the new duration.
Note that the terms of different officers may start at different times; they do not have to be synchronized. For example, a Judge may be appointed at the beginning of year 1, and then in the middle of year 2 an Elect Board election may be called; the Judge's term is a certain number of electoral cycles, starting in year 1, and the maximum time until the next Elect Board election is one electoral cycle, starting in year 2.
External affairs are defined as relationships between the organization and other entities (even hostile relationships).
Constitutional questions are never external affairs. Issues surrounding the question of what is and is not external affairs are not external affairs.
Creating or modification of a procedure for expanding the franchise (granting votes to entities) is done by statuary act with a vote threshold of 2/3.
Creation or modification of a procedure for contracting the franchise (taking votes away from, or expelling, entities) can normally only be done by a modification to the bylaws. However, creation or modification of a procedure to strip votes from or expel entities as punishment for a crime, after the due process of a trial, can be done by statuary act with a vote threshold of 2/3.
No person or organization shall punish or reward, or threaten punishment or reward, any voter or delegate or boardmember, contingent upon a choice of constituency or upon voting behavior (except for punishments and rewards in the form of other votes, which are permitted; see vote trading).
"Party discipline" shall not be enforced, factions shall not be prohibited, and any group of people shall be permitted to organize independently.
In the normal course of business, it is expected that the organization must enter into various minor contracts with other entities. These are to be distinguished from "major" contracts, which constitute a long-term committment which significantly binds the organization's freedom of action.
Major contracts between the organizations and other entities must be ratified by the legislature before taking effect, with a vote threshold of 2/3.
Before the legislature can ratify, the Court must examine the major contract and declare whether or not the major contract conflicts with the Bylaws or with any Found Rights. If the major contract does conflict, then an amendment to the Bylaws must be made which removes the impediment, and the Court must declare that the impediment has been removed, before ratification can proceed.
If the major contract falls solely within the sphere of external affairs, then it must be ratified only by the external affairs component of the legislature. If the major contract also commits the organization on non-external affairs topics, then it must first be ratified by the external affairs component, and then also by the primary component.
Ratification consists of the passage of an act of ratification. Note that, notwithstanding the requirements above about primary versus external affairs components, the Forum alone may pass a resolution to ratify, and if it is not vetoed by another house, this is sufficient to pass any act of ratification. No one may accept any money or anything else, except for promises to vote certain ways on certain issues, in exchange for their votes.
Candidates for elected full-time positions must agree to open their financial records to a regulatory authority of the organization upon request. They may not accept gifts, payments or promises (that did not match the value of a good provided or service performed or investment) from anyone (with an exemption for small christmas, birthday gifts, etc from family and close friends, who gave them gifts before they became involved in the organization), except upon the permission of the legislature to make an exception. In any case they may not accept gifts from anyone which may be construed as buying their influence in connection with the organization or attention in connection with the organization or lobbying in connection with the organization.
Candidates for elected non-full-time positions may not accept gifts, payments, or promises from strangers or acquaintences or associates which are reasonably likely to be connected to or concerned with the organization, except upon the permission of the legislature to make an exception, and may not accept gifts from anyone which may be construed as buying their influence in connection with the organization or attention in connection with the organization or lobbying in connection with the organization.
When an exception must be sought, the person may accept the gift; if the exception is denied, they must either give the gift back, or give it to the organization.
No one may give or pay or promise anything to anyone else (except for promises to vote certain ways on certain issues) in exchange for their votes. The order of precedence of various types of rules are:
bylaw > Found Right > major contract > policy
High officials outrank other officials. From greatest to least, the ranking of high officials is:
If one high official outranks another, and both are full-time, then the official of higher rank must be provided with at least the same amount of privilages and deference and staff as the lower ranking one.
The salaries of all high officials are indexed to inflation.
This procedure does not specify how candidates shall be nominated, nor whether the ballot shall be secret; however, these are specified elsewhere in the bylaws, in the places where this procedure is referred to.
The nomination period shall run for one month prior to the vote.
The vote to choose a delegate out of the candidates shall be done using Score Voting by the members of the constituency.
When the ballot is secret: the support of the winning candidate is consequential. If the amount of support is less than the minimum that the delegate needs, they do not take their seat, and another election is held immediately. Otherwise, the support is still used in the calculation of the winner's "strength" within the next higher-level constituency of which they have become a member.
When the ballot is public: instead of using the support of the winning candidate to calculate strength, the size of the constituency is used.
Once elected, a delegate serves until they are replaced, or until they reach their term limit. Since the delegate is never recalled until they are replaced, the position of delegate will always be occupied except in the case of unexpected resignation, incapacity, or death.
To call a replacement election, a simple majority of the constituents is needed. This may be accomplished by means of a "standing poll"; otherwise, a petition of 1/3 of the constituents is sufficient to initiate a vote on the question of whether to have a replacement election. The replacement election is just like a normal election for a delegate. While the results of the replacement election are pending, the incumbent retains power. If the incumbent has not resigned, been incapacitated, or died, then the incumbent is assumed to be a candidate in the replacement election unless they explicitly opt not to be; if they win, no change takes place. In the case of a tie, if the incumbent is one of the candidates in the tie, the incumbent wins.
In the case of unexpected resignation, incapacity or death, a temporary delegate will be elected as follows. Candidates are nominated as usual; the vote is taken on the third day following the first nomination of a candidate for the temporary position. If there is a tie, the candidate with the greatest voting weight wins. If there is still a tie, the candidate who has been a member of the organization the longest wins. If there is still a tie, the winner is decided randomly. One month after this, there shall be another election to (possibly) replace the temporary delegate. The temporary delegate may be nominated for candidacy in the follow-up election.
Before the expiration of their terms, Judges, Parliamentarians, Chairs, and directors of quasi-independent agencies may only be removed for mental incompetence (in the medical sense) or for corruption. They must be declared mentally incompetent or corrupt by both of:
and when both of these declarations have been made, they are considered removed.
Elect boardmembers may also be removed for mental incompetence or corruption, in the same way as above. They may also be removed for serious crimes, in the same way as above.
As noted elsewhere, CEOs, EEOs, and delegate boardmembers may be replaced by the bodies that chose them. As noted elsewhere, other executive team members may be dismissed by the CEO.
A renewable Act is an Act that takes effect for a set duration of time. If it is renewed, then the effect of the act is repeated over an amount of time of the same duration as the original Act, beginning when the original Act expires; just as if a new copy of the Act had been passed with the dates translated forward in time.
A renewable Act may be renewed by a simple majority vote. Acts may not be amended before or during renewal.
An Act is renewable if it specifies in its text that it is renewable.
Budgets are always renewable. All bills dealing with budgets for permanent offices, or the paying of salaries of Organization employees, or the satisfaction of continuing financial obligations of the Organization, are Renewable.
Each voter may submit a secret ballot which, for each candidate, may indicate one of four choices: Like (+1), Neutral (0), Dislike (-1), or No opinion. The first three choices correspond to numerical scores, but No opinion is treated specially.
1. For each candidate, the count of the number of ballots that voted Like or Neutral is calculated. The result is called the candidate's "support". The support will be used to make sure that candidates that "no one has heard of" can't win.
2. For each candidate, the average of their scores is calculated, leaving out those ballots which marked "No opinion" for that candidate. The result is called the candidate's "average score".
3. The candidate with the highest average score, out of those whose support is at least half of the support of the candidate with the greatest support is declared the winner.
Each voter submits a ballot which, for each candidate, may indicate one of four choices: Like (+2), Neutral (+1), Dislike (0), or No opinion. The first three choices correspond to numerical scores, but No opinion is treated specially.
Each ballot is given an initial "weight" of 1.
Repeat the following P times, where P is the number of winners to be chosen: 1. For each candidate, the weighted count of the number of ballots that voted Like or Neutral is calculated. The result is called the candidate's "support". The support will be used to make sure that candidates that "no one has heard of" can't win.
2. For each candidate, the weighted average of their scores is calculated, leaving out those ballots which marked "No opinion" for that candidate. The result is called the candidate's "average score".
3. The candidate with the highest average score, out of those whose support is at least half of the support of the candidate with the greatest support (not including other previous winners), is declared a winner.
4. When a voter "gets her way" in the sense that a candidate she rated highly wins, her ballot weight is reduced so that she has less influence on later choices of winners. To accomplish that, each ballot is given a new weight = 1/(1+SUM/2), where SUM is the sum of the scores that ballot gives to the winners-so-far, with "no opinion" treated as 0.
Note: If P=1, this yields the same result as [2].
Term limits do not come into effect until the group is in Size Regime Large. Terms begun when term limits are not in effect do not count towards term limits. Terms begin immediately upon the election or appointment of an official.
When term limits are in effect, each person may serve at most:
An individual may resign from any position at will, in which case the remainder of their term does not count against term limits. An individual may not serve more than 4 cycles total in all of these positions. An individual may stand for a position whose term he or she will not be able to serve out, due to term limits, in which case their tenure ends when the term limit is reached. For example, an individual may serve as an Elect Director for 2 cycles, then as a Delegate Director for 1 cycle (at which point they are inelgible to become Director again), then as a Chair for 1 cycle, at which point their tenure is over.
As noted elsewhere, in some cases a Chair may be called upon to fulfill the roles of Judge and Parliamentarian while serving as Chair. This does not make them a Judge or Parliamentarian, and for the purpose of term limits and simultaneous officeholding, they are serving only as Chair while this is happening.
While a single voter possesses more than 1/P of the votes, the delegate boardmember(s) supported solely by the votes of that voter are exempt from term limits, and terms served in this manner do not count towards that boardmember's limit.
There are no term limits for intermediate-level Delegates (Delegates who are not on the Delegate Board).
No person may stand for election for an office that they cannot assume.
No person may simultaneously hold more than one of the following types of offices in the organization: Chair, Elect Boardmember, Delegate Boardmember, Director of quasi-independent agency, Judge, Parliamentarian -- unless they are serving as the delegate of a voter with more than 1/P of the votes.
In groups in Size Regime Large, a Chair cannot simultaineously be CEO or EEO.
CEO and EEO may be the same person.
No office prevents its incumbent from normal participation in the Forum, including accumulating delegated votes in the Forum and voting them.
When any information is said in these bylaws to be "public", that means that it is made available at no cost to all members, and also that all members have a sublicensable, perpetual, irrevocable right to copy, sell, and create derivative works of such information.
When the executive branch undertakes any secret operation that is expected to remain secret for more than one week, all of the Chairs and all of the boardmembers must be briefed.
Boardmembers may say whatever they like during the official sessions of the boards, without regard to libel, slander, or secrecy. Similarly, voters may say whatever they like in council.
Information which is kept secret must be kept secret for some reasonable reason. The following reasons are prohibited:
By an act with a vote threshold of 2/3, the legislature can prevent itself from, in the future, overruling the executive agencies on individual decisions within some specific domain.
The legislature still has the authority to dictate general procedure; it can only prevent itself from intervening in individual cases.
Tying of hands can be cancelled by a vote with a threshold of 2/3.
Votes may be traded for promises to vote (or not vote) on another issue (or the same issue) in a certain way, however, these promises may not be enforced.
Votes may not be traded for anything else; trading votes for anything else is corrupt.
This applies to votes in council as well as other sorts of votes.
| Type of measure | Required fraction | ||||
| veto | >1/2 | ||||
| renew budget or other renewable bill | >1/2 | ||||
| confirm executive team nominee | 2/5 | ||||
| hold closed session of elect or delegate board | 2/3 | ||||
| appoint a Judge or Parliamentarian | 2/3 | ||||
| ratify major contract | 2/3 | ||||
| refer vetoed resolution to referendum | 2/3 | ||||
| modify procedure for expanding the franchise | 2/3 | ||||
| modify procedure for expulsion after a trial | 2/3 | ||||
| create or increase the power of a quasi-independent agency | 2/3 | ||||
| tie or untie hands | 2/3 | ||||
| raise vote threshold for council participation | 2/3 | ||||
| lower vote threshold for council participation | >1/2 | ||||
| declare certain officials medically incompetent or corrupt | 2/3 | ||||
| declare elect boardmembers to have committed a serious crime | 2/3 | ||||
| call an early election to the elect board (only applicable in Forum) | 2/3 | ||||
| make an exception to the bylaws | 2/3 | ||||
| other | 3/5 |
This threshold must be met separately by each house which passes a measure, and in a referendum if there is one.
If there is a greater-than-sign (>) before the required fraction, then the vote fraction must be strictly greater than the threshold in order for the measure to be adoped. Otherwise, the vote fraction must only be greater than or equal to the threshold.
Note that most ordinary measures will fall under "other" for which the threshold is 3/5 (it is not just a simple majority).
Special thresholds apply for amendments to the bylaws; see Amending these bylaws.
A deliberative body is an abstract group entity which can be said to adopt resolutions.
A proposal or measure is a document which is a candidate to become a resolution through adoption by a deliberative body.
A resolution is a document which has been adopted by a deliberative body.
For a deliberative body to adopt a resolution means that the deliberative body metaphorically agrees with, decides, utters, or issues the resolution.
To pass* a resolution is synonymous with adopting it.
An act is a document which can be said to be adopted by the organization. For the organization to enact a document is synonymous with the organization passing it.
Chair, president, external president, executive team member, external executive team member, elect boardmember, delegate boardmember, Parliamentarian, judge, and delegate are offical roles.
An officer or official is a person serving in an official role.
A high official is a chair, CEO, EEO, executive team member, director of a quasi-independent agency, elect boardmember, delegate boardmember, Parliamentarian, or judge.
The Forum, the Elect Board, the external affairs committee of the Elect Board, the Delegate Board, the Executive Team, the Office of Procedure, the High Court, the councils, and the organization as a whole, are deliberative bodies.
The three legislative houses or legislative chambers are the Forum, the Elect Board, and the Delegate Board.
An electoral cycle is a period of time whose length is the electoral cycle duration. There is not one global electoral cycle calendar, but rather, electoral cycles are defined with respect to various events, for instance, elections to the elect board.
A bylaw is a rule found in the Bylaws. A Found Right is a right declared by the Court. A treaty is a contract between the organization and some other entity. A statute is a rule adopted by the organization through a resolution. When one of these terms, or the word "rule" is used herein, it is implicitly taken to refer to a rule within the organization, not a rule imposed by some external authority. For example, as the organization may exist under the jurisdiction of an external government, the use herein of the word "statute" to indicate an internal rule should not be confused with the usual use of the term to indicate a law passed by a government, unless otherwise specified.
Similarly, the word crime as used herein refers only to breaking the rules of the organization, not to actually breaking the law of some external authority.
An officer's portfolio is the set of domains over which that officer has executive authority.
Executive authority is the authority to administer and execute the organization's power, possibly restricted to some domain or domains.
An executive agency is a part of the organization within the executive branch, ultimately answerable to either an executive team member, or the directors of some quasi-independent agency.
