APPROVED TEXT
Article 7: Binding Votes and Initiatives of the Membership
Binding votes of the membership are held when an issue must be decided which affects the whole board and is neither covered by existing Articles of the Charter nor requires an amendment to the Charter. Voting is conducted by the standing Committee for Binding Votes.
A request from the Mayor, or from two current Rangers, or from five registered members regardless of status will be sufficient to convene the Committee on Binding Votes.
¶1: Composition of the Committee
If the committee is convened by the Mayor or by two current Rangers, the committee will be composed of:
• one Loremaster to ensure that the vote is consistent with the Charter;
• the Mayor or the two Rangers who requested the vote;
• volunteers sufficient to bring the size of the committee to five members.
If five members requested the vote, the committee will be composed of:
• one Loremaster to ensure that the vote is consistent with the Charter;
• the five members who requested the vote;
• five volunteers, one of whom must be a current Ranger.
The Committee will be convened by posting a sticky thread in the Business Forum announcing that a vote has been requested and accepting volunteers in order until the committee is filled and composed as required. Any registered member may serve on the committee, unless the vote concerns the age-restricted forum, in which case committee members must be 18 years of age or older.
Announcement of the vote, acceptance of volunteers, discussion of the ballot, voting, and announcement of voting results will all take place in the same thread.
¶2: Routine voting cycle, emergency votes, and allowable propositions
Binding votes on non-emergency issues are held during the first week of the month. The Mayor can declare an emergency vote at any time if an issue requires immediate attention.
A binding vote cannot be held for a proposition that has been defeated by an earlier vote during the past six months and the same proposition cannot be voted on more often than twice in one year. It is the responsibility of the Committee to determine whether the proposed vote is allowable. If the committee is divided, a straw poll will be taken and a simple majority of the committee members will decide whether the vote is allowable.
The Committee will create the text of the ballot, edit the ballot into the first post of the Business Forum sticky thread created for the vote, and allow ten days of discussion among the membership. Ideally, the ballot will be posted during the third week of the month, between the 20th and 27th day, so that voting can begin during the first week of the following month, unless the issue is declared an emergency by the Mayor.
The ballot may be modified in response to member comments, and the request for a vote may also be withdrawn during this period.
Following the discussion period, the membership will vote for ten days, and the result of the vote will be binding.
¶3: Form of the Vote and quorum and majority requirements
For a vote to be binding, a quorum of the members must vote, defined as:
30% of the number of members active over the past 60 days.
The committee is responsible for deciding what form the vote will take, and this must be clearly indicated on the ballot.
The board recognizes three legitimate voting forms:
1. A simple poll for which the board software tallies the vote and a specified percentage wins;
2. A poll in which the board software tallies the vote and the percentages associated with successive responses which increase or decrease in stringency are aggregated until a specified percentage is reached and the response associated with that aggregated percentage wins;
3. A secret ballot submitted by PM or email, using either a two-choice format, or an instant runoff format when the vote entails more than one question or there are more than two mutually exclusive options.
If a simple poll or two-choice secret ballot is used, the proposition(s) will be accepted if 67% of the voting members accept it.
If aggregated percentages are used, the winning option will be determined as that response associated with an aggregated 67% of the vote.
If an instant runoff ballot is used, the winning option will be that which aggregates to 51% of the vote.
The committee will be responsible for counting the vote and announcing the results for each question on the ballot in the same thread in which the vote took place.
¶4: Executing and Archiving the voting results
A thread will be created in the History Forum entitled, “Binding Vote Ballot Archive,†and all ballots, together with voting results, will be placed in a post in that thread. The voting thread will be moved to the History Forum when the vote is concluded.
If the result of the vote takes the form of a Resolution of the Membership, the resolution will be recorded with the by-laws. If the result of the vote requires action by the Rangers, the Mayor, or the members, this action will be executed within ten days of the close of the vote.
The committee may dissolve when the results of the vote have been executed, the ballot has been placed in the archival thread, and the thread has been moved to the History forum.
¶5: Actions which cannot be undertaken without a Binding Vote of the Membership:
1. Moving to a new server
2. Altering the terms of ownership for the board
3. Elimination of a Forum and/or restructuring of the forums which would entail mass renaming and/or moving of subfora and threads.
4. In the deletion of threads, any departure from the policy stated in Article 8.
5. In the creation of new forums, any departure from the policy stated in Article 9.
A binding vote is not required if the action is being ratified by the membership as part of an Amendment to the Charter.
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Original Post:
This might be a tough issue friends, and I have to confess that my well of inspiration is going dry by now.
The only Elections the charter will provide for are the election of the Mayor and ratification of Amendment. But we will need binding votes of the membership to resolve issues that come up, and we need a way for members to initiatate (a) the launch of a binding vote, and (b) charter amendments. The Committee for Binding Votes will conduct the vote, but we need a mechanism by which the members can get the committee itself started.
Here are excerpts from the Committee Article where member initiative is relevant:
• Committee for Amendments to the Charter:
This committee will be convened under two circumstances:
(1) The Committee for Review of Extraordinary Powers decides that an Amendment to the Charter is required and convenes this committee;
(2) An Initiative by the Membership - suggest this be defined in Article 7 along with Binding votes
• Committee for Binding Votes of the Membership:
This committee will be convened under two circumstances:
(1) A majority of the Rangers do not agree that a decision can be made by ad hoc committee and they convene this committee instead;
(2) An Initiative by the Membership - suggest this be defined in Article 7 along with Binding votes
Here’s what we have to decide:
• Who among the members has the right to initiate a binding vote or propose an amendment to the charter?
• How do they go about doing this?
• What constitutes a quorum in a binding vote? Should it be the same for Amendments?
• What constitutes a winning majority in a binding vote? Should it be the same for Amendments?
• How long must a defeated proposition stand before it can be put to a vote again?
• Are there issues which require a binding vote? - general categories?
Jn