[Texgreen] GPUS platform amendment rules

[Roger Baker]

[I was once involved with this platform process but have ended up  
being a passive observer by default (I merely get the platform  
committee email now). I don't really think I am still a fully legal  
observer by these rules, but that does not seem to matter very much  
since I still get the emails. In my opinion the following rules  
regarding the GPUS platform are way too complex and amount to lawyer- 
ish hyper-democracy stemming from old faction fights.

In other words the likelihood of the same person being able to follow  
these procedures and jump through all the hoops, involving certain  
state level permissions, etc.,  while being creative and insightful  
in the area of environmental or party policy is asking for a lot. For  
better or worse, the following process is involved in changing the  
GPUS platform.

Jenefer Ellingston of Washington DC, (whom I personally like because  
I believe she is not a bureaucrat by inclination and certainly didn't  
write these rules) is now a GP leader in charge of the platform  
revision process. If anyone who is actively involved in the Greens in  
Texas on the local level has any concerns or comments about the  
current GPUS platform and wants to email her, I think she would be  
interested in hearing your input, no matter whether this input is  
filtered through official channels or not. Here is her email address:

jellingston@greens.org

-- Roger, Austin]





Green Party Platform Committee Rules


Since these haven't been posted in over a year, here's a copy of the  
committee's Rules, Policies & Procedures for those who don't have them.

Mike Ewall
-----

Background

The GPUS Platform is a consensus document, arrived at by a process  
involving submissions, input and feedback, based on the "4 D's" -  
democratic deliberation, discussion and debate - and open to members  
of all GPUS state affiliates and accredited caucuses. The Platform  
presents to Greens and the geenral public the policy on which most  
Greens reasonably agree.

The Platform Committee does not make policy decisions. The committee  
organizes and then facilitates participation in the development of  
the Platform (the next round is coming up in 2008, starting in 2006,  
and with a planned "kick-off" in 2007). The working rules, now rules,  
policies and procedures, are applied to internal committee functions.


GPUS PLATFORM COMMITTEE Rules, Policies and Procedures
GPUS Platform Committee Work Rules approved online and finalized in  
July, 2002, in Philadelphia
Amended, August-October, 2005
Amended, November 21, 2005; pending approval by the GPUS-National  
Committee or Steering Committee

I. MEMBERSHIP and VOTING
The Platform Committee of the GPUS rules on membership shall be  
derived from the Bylaws of the Green Party of the United States  
(GPUS) under Article III. Committees (see addendum below).

Affiliated state parties or caucuses and those state parties in the  
process of affiliation (hereinafter "states or caucuses") can elect  
delegates to the Committee as members or observers.

The terms for members and observers shall be one or two years, as  
determined by the state or caucus. If not specified, the term shall  
be one year.

Members of the Committee shall be approved (elected, appointed or  
selected) by states or caucuses.

Observers of the Committee shall be approved (elected, appointed or  
selected) by states or caucuses.

MEMBER and OBSERVER STATUS CHANGE:

Members may change their membership status to Observer or reinstate  
their Member status during the term in which they were approved.  
While in Observer status, a Member loses their right to vote and  
quorum may need to be recalculated.

If a Member chooses to change their status, they must simultaneously  
inform the Platform Committee (via the Committee's email list) and  
the state or caucus which they represent. The Platform Committee  
Secretary shall confirm this change with the Member's state or caucus  
within one week of the Member's notification. Members who have not  
been active for at least six months will be contacted by the Co- 
Chairs, the Secretary or another Member designated for this task, and  
asked to become active, change their status to Observer or resign.

Members who cannot be reached (through e-mail, telephone or their  
state party/caucus contacts) after at least 4 attempts spread over a  
period of two months will be dropped from the Platform Committee  
membership. Notification of such pending change shall be sent to  
Member's state party or caucus no fewer than 30 days before the  
change in status occurs.

Observers changing their status back to that of Member during the  
course of deliberation on a proposal (starting from when the proposal  
is made) can not vote on that proposal. The above rules apply only to  
those who were approved by their state or caucus to serve as a  
Member. Those selected to serve as Observers can not make themselves  
Members without approval from their state or caucus.

Advisors of the Committee shall be nominated by a Member then elected  
by obtaining a simple majority for placement on the Committee.  
Advisors need only be a member of states or caucuses; or, the nominee  
may be a registered Green Party voter in their state or territory.

Advisors participate in those matters when requested to do so by any  
Member regarding their particular expertise for advising the  
Committee. Any advice provided by a Committee Advisor must be put in  
writing by the advisor and must be posted by them to the Committee's  
email list.

II. MEETINGS
The Committee shall meet face-to-face at each Mid-Term Convention, at  
each Presidential Nominating Convention, and otherwise as necessary.  
The Committee may also meet online.

III. OFFICERS
The Committee shall elect 2 Co-chairs and a Secretary for 2 year  
terms. The Co-chairs shall facilitate the work of the Committee. The  
Secretary shall keep the records of the Committee, including minutes  
of meetings and online decisions. The secretary would be responsible  
for minutes of meetings, archiving bylaws and rules, recording the  
language of motions, records of votes, lists of names, and contact  
information. The secretary will also work with and assist the co-chairs.

Terms of officers are two years, staggered with one co-chair and the  
secretary running from the mid-year convention to the nominating  
convention, with elections in the summers of even years. The other co- 
chair is elected in the summers of odd years.

All members of the Platform Committee are eligible for Co-chair and  
may nominate themselves or be nominated by another member.

All Co-chairs' decisions are openly made and distributed to the  
membership.

IV. DECISION-MAKING
All decisions by the Platform Committee (live or online) shall be  
through motions passed by consensus, or by voting.

IV. a. Consensus Decision Process of the Platform Committee

1. Any committee member may submit a Proposal by posting it to the  
Platform Committee e-mail list. When s/he submits a proposal, it must  
have a label or title in the subject line and that label must be used  
thereafter for identification.

2. When a proposal is seconded by a committee member from another  
state or caucus than the original proposer, the proposer notifies the  
Secretary who numbers, declares the 2-week dates for discussion  
followed by one week for voting of the timeline and publishes the  
proposal within a day of notification. Thereafter the proposer is  
responsible for chartering (guiding) the proposal through to the  
vote. The proposer accepts and negotiates amendments or rejects them,  
and reports a block when one occurs.

3. The discussion period runs for two weeks starting on the Monday  
following the seconding of the proposal (or the day of seconding, if  
it's seconded on a Monday), unless the Secretary and Co-Chairs  
establish a different discussion period within 4 days of the  
seconding of the proposal.

4. When one or more proposals are in discussion period, the Secretary  
will publish the list of numbered proposals with discussion and  
voting periods each week.

5. Discussion period shall last a minimum of 2 weeks. The proposer or  
Co-chairs may extend the discussion period if:
   -amendments accepted by the proposer are significant (change the  
reach or direction of original proposal); and,
   -these amendments are offered in 2nd week of discussion thus  
curtailing review time for members.
A call for an expedited decision may be requested by the proposer or  
Co-chairs, in case of an urgent need for a decision.

6. If no blocking or unfriendly amendment is offered by end of  
discussion period, the proposal is adopted and is published as such  
by the Secretary. If an unfriendly amendment is offered and the  
proposer cannot reconcile it with his/her original intention, the  
offerer may withdraw it, change it to a block, or offer it in a new  
proposal.

7. If a proposal is amended, then it is discussed between the amender  
and the original proposer, and the amended version is published.

8. If a proposal is blocked, then a one week voting period  
automatically ensues starting the day after the end of the discussion  
period. Then votes are cast via e-mail. The Secretary is responsible  
for tracking and counting the votes, and reporting a pass or fail. If  
the proposal passes, the Secretary archives the proposal as official.

9. Decisions by consensus or vote are recorded and posted by the  
secretary.

10. Proposals that fail by vote may be re-submitted after 6 months.

Quorum: A quorum for any decision-making shall be 2/3 of the members  
represented on the committee. Votes will be cast by individual  
committee members and counted on that basis.

[NOTE: Quorum is now 14 (of 21 members). January 21, 2007]

Work may be conducted over conference calls. Conference call  
decisions are not final, but must be submitted on email to the rest  
of the committee for approval, possible objections or amendments.  
Members who have difficulty paying personal conference call costs be  
reimbursed upon application to the Co-chairs, pending availability of  
funds.

Votes must be cast over the PlatCom email list or via a web interface  
where votes are visible.  Once a web voting method is available, it  
can be used if the secretary chooses to set it up in a timely manner  
for the vote in question.  The voting method will be announced by the  
secretary prior to commencement of the voting period.  If no voting  
method is posted by the secretary, then votes will be done on the  
list.  If voting is done via web interface, the secretary is  
obligated to post reminders every two days throughout the voting  
period so that committee members know of the vote and have a copy of  
the proposal and the link to the voting webpage.

Robert's Rules of Order shall be the default authority for decision- 
making questions, unless otherwise specified by these rules or by the  
GPUS bylaws.

[It is recommended that, during periods of activity, each committee  
member check their e-mail at least once every other day.]

****************
Working Rules Pertaining to Platform Submissions and Development

I. Submissions to the GPUS Platform will be filtered through the  
template posted on our online submissions page and/or made available  
to all GPUS affiliate state parties and caucuses. Submissions must be  
approved by a state party or accredited caucus before being submitted  
to the Platform Committee.

States which do not have a member on the Platform Committee will be  
asked to appoint/elect a member to act as "platform liaison," to be  
responsible for ensuring that necessary information gets back and  
forth, make sure members know of the opportunity and the submissions  
process, and perhaps help facilitate members in decision-making. If  
the state party or caucus is unable to provide a liaison, the  
Platform Committee shall assign a member to serve as liaison.

[NOTE: The Online Forum no longer in exists, however this is partly  
applicable to the committee email list.]
II. Online Platform Forum (General Discussion Forum):
The PlatCom wishes to keep communications as open as possible, but  
also realizes the need to keep the Forum workable for its  
participants. The right to free speech needs to be set in relation to  
others' right not to be subject to hostility.

Our webmaster has registrants sign a web form agreeing not to engage  
in hostile behaviour. A message has also been posted on the Forum,  
with an explanation of our policy. List moderators will give a  
warning to someone whose post is found obviously inappropriate, and  
ask that communications be kept respectful. If the problem occurs  
again, the person will be taken off the Forum.

*********************************

Addendum:

Excerpt from current Bylaws of the GPUS
(http://www.gp.org/documents/bylaws.shtml) regarding Committees --

ARTICLE III. COMMITTEES

"The National Committee of the Green Party of the United States shall  
establish standing committees and may create other committees  
according to need. The NC shall cause to be produced, and then  
approve a document for each committee including the purpose, duties  
and general charge of the committee, as a part of the process of  
creating a committee.

The Steering Committee shall be responsible for oversight for all  
committees and ensure that the NC is kept informed about the work of  
the committees.

Delegates to the NC shall automatically be eligible to serve on  
committees by virtue of their position. Other committee members shall  
be members of a state green party and have written permission from  
their state party to serve. Permission shall be submitted by the NC  
delegates or State Party co-chairs from the various states to the co- 
chairs of the relevant committee, and can be submitted on paper or  
via email. No state shall have more than three members per committee  
without a waiver from the Steering Committee. No committee shall have  
fewer than five states represented.

There shall be three categories of activity for GPUS committees:

1. MEMBERS - Committee Membership shall be defined as being a voting  
member of a committee who may take part in all decision making.  
Committee members shall be selected by their committees according to  
individual committee P&Ps. All committee members shall be approved by  
their respective state parties according to written, democratically  
derived state party rules that ensure full and open due process.

2. ADVISORS - It shall be at the discretion of committees to select  
advisors. Advisor status shall be determined by individual committees  
in their P&Ps . Anyone may serve as a committee advisor. Advisors  
shall enjoy limited participation in committee deliberations as  
determined by committees' written P&Ps . Advisors shall not be voting  
members of a committee, shall not formally introduce proposals and  
shall not represent either the committee or the party. Advisors shall  
serve one-year terms and will be eligible for re-election. State  
parties shall be free to express objections to committees regarding  
specific advisors. Such objections shall be considered by committee  
members in their deliberations.

3. OBSERVERS - Committee approved observers may monitor the listserv  
activity of a committee but cannot participate in discussions or  
votes. Observers must be approved by committees according to their  
P&P documents.

Furthermore, committees may communicate with individual Greens on an  
as needed basis on specific matters of mutual import.

All committees shall:

1) develop written rules, policies and procedure (RP&P) documents  
which must be approved by the National Committee.

2) use consensus-seeking procedure with backup voting for all  
decision making, and codify the procedure in their RP&Ps.

3) when voting, vote by state with each state casting one vote. The  
NC or the SC may, in their reviews of the work of a committee, allow  
a committee to waive the one state, one vote rule and replace it with  
a one member, one vote standard.

4) codify RP&Ps used to conduct general committee business and, when  
appropriate, codify rules for decision making via conference calls,  
email, and/or in-person meetings.

5) report to the NC on a regular basis and set up a schedule for  
written reporting, with monthly reports being the standard unless  
otherwise approved by the NC.

6) develop policies and procedures by which minority opinions on  
committee business that relate to the internal workings of the Green  
Party may be conveyed to the NC.

7) have two co-chairs unless directed to have a different number by  
the NC. Gender balance and co-chairs from different states shall be  
the norm, though under extraordinary circumstances committees may  
choose another arrangement.

8) detail all non-co-chair leadership position (e.g. secretary,  
coordinators etc.) in the committee's RP&P document.

9) conduct elections for leadership slots using preference voting and  
codify election procedures in their RP&P document.

10) participate in a biannual review of committee RP&Ps conducted by  
the BRPP, which shall report to the NC on each committee's procedures.

11) develop and make available to all members of the committee a  
packet including all rules, policies and procedures and provide other  
training and orientation, as appropriate, for new members. This  
material shall also be available on the committee website.

12) set up guidelines for member participation, with an emphasis on  
ensuring participation as a requirement of membership and/or  
participation in consensus decision making or quorum voting.