ideas-groupDecisionMaking-fluidDemocracy-theShortVersion

Note: this is a abridged version of The Long Version. There are important details left out of this document which may be found in that one.

Note: this document is only a summary of the bylaws -- for clarification or in case of dispute, the actual bylaws, not this document, take precedence.

Temporary note: actually the previous is not yet true: in case i get hit by a bus, this version was written later than the bylaws and other overviews and is meant to replace them, but i havent gotten around to modifying them yet. Also, this "short version" turned into a long version because i added a bunch of details about the upcoming changes. After those are integrated into the bylaws, i'll make this version short again.

The Amendable Code Rules are a set of procedures to allow a group of people to make collective decisions, elect officers, and resolve disputes.

Benefits of the system:

These rules can be used for groups of any size. For very small groups, note that if we say, for example, that there are five members on the Board and three Chairpeople, this doesn't mean that eight people are required; a single person could hold two Board seats and also all three Chair positions.

Positions created by the system include:

A proposal that passes in the Forum or the Board is called a "Resolution". A Resolution that is not vetoed, or which overcomes the veto, is called an "Act". An Act is considered to be a valid collective decision of the group.

The Forum

The Forum is a public bulletin board. Any voter can create a proposal for the Forum. Voters are encouraged to air their proposals informally before posting. Before being posted, each proposal is vetted by Juror Committee and, if relevant, a Standing Committee (see below).

Voters can 'proxy' their vote to another voter. This allows their proxy to vote for them. Proxies can themselves be re-proxied, e.g. Alice can proxy her vote to Bob who can proxy both his vote and Alice's proxy to Caroline.

Committees

The function of the Committees is to filter and to improve proposals before they reach the Forum Floor.

A Committee examines the proposal and may make suggestions to the proposer to improve it.

Voting Thresholds

There are different voting thresholds depending on the type of measure.

A veto (see below) requires greater than 50%.

A measure to deficit spend (or borrow money), increase member dues, or to restrict the rights of the members requires at least 63%. A measure to decrease spending or to decrease the power of the organization with respect to the members requires greater than 50%. An ordinary measure requires at least 60%.

The Board

The Board is composed of up to seven Delegates. Each Delegate represents a Constituency, which is a group of voters who have chosen to come together and select their own Delegate. Each Constituency selects their Delegate by Score Voting.

If the group is large, then to prevent the Constituencies from becoming unmanagably large, there is a fractal/pyramidal system in which the voters gather into groups, who elect Delegates, who gather into groups, who elect Delegates, etc, until you get to the top and elect the Board's Delegates.

The External Relations subcommittee of the Board

3 of the Board members are chosen by Score Voting by all voters to be on the External Relations subcommittee. Only Board Members are eligible to be on the External Relations subcommittee. The External Relations subcommittee represent the entire Board when it comes to external affairs.

Executive Officers

The Board selects, via Score Voting, two Executive Officers, termed either CEOs or Co-prime Ministers or Co-presidents depending on the organization's preference.

One of the Executive Officers is selected by the External Relations subcommittee and deals with External Relations. The other Executive Officer is selected by the entire Board and deals with everything else.

The election of Executive Officers is continuous and each Executive Officer is replaced when another candidate wins the position.

Vetos

Any proposal passed by the Forum may be vetoed by the Board, and any proposal passed by the Board (except for the selection of Executive Officers or Judges or other individual candidates for office) may be vetoed by the Forum.

A Resolution which is vetoed but which has >=2/3s support in the body that passed it is then voted on by the highest appeals courts in the relevant Topical Area.

Amending the Bylaws

To Amend the Bylaws, an Act to amend the bylaws must be passed twice, the first time with a 2/3s majority in the Forum or a 3/4s majority on the Board.

If a change in procedure is desired more quickly, then in the interim a Temporary Exception to the Bylaws may be passed.

Budget

Proposal

At any time, the CEOi may proposed a new budget. The proposal is then sent to the Forum. Voters in the Forum who wish to (making use of transitive proxy voting and weighted voting as usual) then each create a budget that allocates the total amount in the proposed budget between the items in the budget. The weighted average of individual budget proposals these is taken. The Forum's Budget is then said to be a budget whose allocation to each item is the lesser of the amount allocated to this item (i) in CEOi's budget, and (ii) in the weighted average.

The Forum's Budget then goes to the Board. The Board debates it and amends it. The Board then votes on the resulting budget, this voting having a simple majority threshold if the resulting budget spends less than or equal to the current budget, and a 63% threshold if the resulting budget spends more than the current budget.

No need to renew

A budget does not need to be renewed -- the non-deficit spending portion of a budget auto-renews itself for each budgetary period until amended.

Deficit

A deficit is the portion of a budget financed by borrowing rather than by member dues, donations, and revenue. Deficit authorization require a higher voting threshold than ordinary resolutions. Deficits must be re-authorized each budgetary period.

Chairs

The Chair is the highest office of the organization; Chairs are protectors of the rights of the members and the keepers of the spirit of the organization. There are up to three Chairs.

The primary responsibility of the Chairs is auditing and investigating the organization, its officials (including the Board, the other Chairs, Committee members, and all Judges) and its appointees and employees. Their role is to protect individuals from violations of their rights by the organization, to protect minorities of voters by procedural violations by majorities, and to uncover and prosecute corruption.

Chairpeople are elected for a set term. Each electoral term, all three Chairs are elected by the voters via Score Voting. The end of the Chair electoral term does not mean that other officials, such as Executive Officers or High Judges, need to be reselected as well.

No information possessed by the organization may be kept secret from a Chair, and all parts of the organization must comprehensively respond to any requests for information from a Chair. Furthermore, any Chair may unilaterally "declassify" any secret organization and share it with the voters (although they are not permitted to selectively declassify information and share it only with a few selected individuals).

The Chairs rotate the duty of chairing the Board and its External Relations subcommittee. A parliamentary decision by any one Chair can be appealed to the other Chairs, who may overturn it by majority vote among the Chairs.

A majority of Chairs, acting together, may pardon or commute the sentence of any individual (excepting high officials) for a crime or crimes.

A majority of Chairs, acting together, may nominate an entity for admission to the franchise as a voting member, or may nominate an entity for expulsion from membership, even if a censorship court had previously considered this entity and decided not to act; but this nomination must be confirmed by the High Court to satisfy the rules for admission or expulsion before it can be acted on by the Board or the Forum.

Any single Chair may veto any nomination(s) for admission to or expulsion from membership, whether the nomination arose in censorship or from Chairs.

High Court

The High Court decides cases brought by the Forum, any member of the Board, any Chair, or either Executive Officer against other entites or officials of the organization concerning the interpretation of the Bylaws or violations of organizational procedure, as well as cases brought by any of the previous entities demanding the removal of a Judge or Chair due to incompetence or corruption. It also confirms cases decided against the default by majority rule in appeals courts (see below).

In addition, the High Court can take the following actions on its own:

The High Court is composed of 3 Judges selected from the set of existing Judges by the Board via Score Voting.

Other Courts

Other Courts are each specialized to a Topical Area.

Before a case is put before a Court, a Judge conducts a preliminary hearing. If s/he can decide the case quickly and cleanly, s/he does, but this decision can be appealed regardless of verdict. If there is an appeal, two more Judges are added to form a panel to conduct a preliminary trial. If they can decide the case quickly, clearly, and unanimously, they do so. Otherwise it is sent to a full trial.

Each Court is composed of up to seven jurors, and one Judge (a new one, if there are enough Judges). The jurors are selected according to the "board-coloring constraint", which states that for each Board member, there must be exactly one juror sitting on each court whose constituency supports that Board member.

Both the judge and the jurors vote. Courts act via consensus minus one.

Juror deliberations are purely written and are public, however the identity of jurors is anonymous (even from each other). The identity of judges is public. The identity of the parties are anonymous if feasible.

Should either party wish to hire lawyers or similar, they must notify the Court at the beginning how much they intend to spend, and pay to the Court an amout equal to that which they pay their own lawyers for any expense arising from the case (including consultation before the case, and an amortized share of consultation relevant to many potential cases of which this is one). The Court will reimburse the other party for legal fees up to this amount.

Jurors are volunteers.

Judges

Judges serve on courts.

Candidate Judges self-nominate for one or more designated Topical Areas. They are only eligible to be nominated after they have served as a juror on the highest appeals court in that Topical Area. They are vetted by two Courts, and then appointed by a Resolution of the Board with a >=2/3s threshold.

Censorship

Any voter can anonymously Flag a comment in the Forum if they think it violates decorum. A Flagged comment is reviewed by a Court on the topic of censorship.

Candidate Chairs and Delegates can also be Flagged at which point they are reviewed by a censorship court. If the court finds that they are not members in good standing, they are still eligible candidates, however, their candidacy is flagged on the ballot.

Members themselves can be flagged for suggested expulsion.

A voter can also positively Flag someone for admission to voting membership, causing them to be reviewed by a Censorship court.

Admission of new members, and expulsion of members

Censorship courts are also responsible for reviewing applications for voting membership, and expulsion of members, working according to the organization's policy on such matters; most organizations will have criteria for admission and expulsion beyond just 'enough people flagged them'.

A majority of Chairs acting together may also nominate for admission or expulsion.

Any single Chair may veto any nomination for admission to or expulsion from membership.

Candidates once nominated must be confirmed by an Act with a threshold of >= 2/3s. Typically a large number of noncontroversial individual nominees for admission will be periodically combined into a single Act for routine admission.