[aur-general] [PATCH] tu-bylaws: Amend Standard Voting Procedure

[Xyne]

Peter Lewis wrote:

> Do we require that a proposal has only "yes" and "no" as options, as well as 
> "abstain"? Could a proposal present a list of options? How would this affect 
> the voting, or should it not be allowed? (If not, I think we should state 
> explicitly what is [only] allowed.)

For now those are the only options available on the interface, so we don't need
to consider anything else. Eventually "Standard Voting Procedure" could be
changed to "Simple Voting Procedure" and another procedure could be introduced
for anything beyond an accept/reject motion.

> I'm not quite sure what "all discussion shall..." means. Does it mean that 
> discussion outside of aur-general is forbidden, not allowed as evidence in a 
> court, etc.? What's the purpose of this line?

I've changed that to "Official discussion shall...".

> I'd suggest "5 full days" rather than just "5 days", for the removal of any 
> potential ambiguity.

I agree and will include that. In practice though, nobody counts the hours.


> In answer to your "normally" point, perhaps:
> 
> "The duration of the voting period shall be 7 days unless determined otherwise 
> according to the nature of the proposal and as described elsewhere in the 
> bylaws."

I tried to find a natural-sounding formulation using "unless" too but couldn't.
I think it's because I already had "... nature of the proposal..." in my head.
I agree with the use of "unless" but not the proposed statement.

I've used "UNLESS otherwise stated in a section of the bylaws pertaining to the
proposal." in the updated version below.



> But yes, I think these are very clear. Well done!

Thanks.




Second version:

Standard Voting Procedure (SVP) describes the formal procedure used by TUs to
accept or reject proposals regarding TU affairs.

SVP begins with a proposal, for example the addition of a TU or an amendment to
the bylaws. The proposal should be clear and concise and it must be posted on
the aur-general mailing list (aur-general).

The discussion period begins when the proposal is posted on aur-general. The
duration of the discussion period shall be 5 full days UNLESS otherwise stated
in a section of the bylaws pertaining to the proposal. Official discussion
shall take place on aur-general. During the discussion period, votes shall not
be cast.

The voting period begins when the discussion period ends. The duration of the
voting period shall be 7 full days UNLESS otherwise stated in a section of the
bylaws pertaining to the proposal. During the voting period, TUs may vote YES,
NO or ABSTAIN. Votes shall be cast under the Trusted User section of the AUR
homepage. At the end of the voting period, all votes shall be tallied.

In the context of SVP, TUs are considered active if they are marked as active
when the voting period ends.

Quorum shall be 66% of all active TUs, with participation measured by the sum
of YES, NO and ABSTAIN votes, UNLESS otherwise stated in a section of the
bylaws pertaining to the proposal.

The proposal is accepted if EITHER the number of YES votes is greater than half
the number of active TUs OR quorum has been established and the number of YES
votes is greater than the number of NO votes UNLESS otherwise stated in a
section of the bylaws pertaining to the proposal.

The proposal is rejected if EITHER more than half of all active TUs have voted
NO OR quorum was established and the number of NO votes is greater than or
equal to the number of YES votes UNLESS otherwise stated in a section of the
bylaws pertaining to the proposal.

A rejected proposal may not be presented again before a waiting period has
passed. The duration of the waiting period shall be 3 full months UNLESS
otherwise stated in a section of the bylaws pertaining to the proposal. The
waiting period begins at the end of the voting period.

If quorum is not established by the end of the voting period then the proposal
is neither accepted nor rejected. A second SVP shall begin to establish the
status of the proposal. If the proposal is not accepted at the end of the
second SVP then it shall be rejected.