Coordinating Committee Rules and Procedures

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Coordinating Committee Rules and Procedures

Article I: Co-Coordinators

Section 1-1: Number and term

The Coordinating Committee shall have a male and female co-coordinator and a male and female alternate co-coordinator. Co-coordinators shall serve two year terms, with no term limits. Terms shall run from February of even-numbered years for the male co-coordinator and alternate and in odd-numbered years for the female co-coordinator and alternate.

Section 1-2: Duties and Authority

The co-coordinators will undertake, or otherwise engage all activities to do with facilitation and maintaining of a pro-active consensus based coordinating committee, proactively functioning to maintain and support the governance of the GPCA.

The co-coordinators shall insure that the coordinating committee's actions and decisions are in accordance with the GPCA bylaws, and the GPCA-CC's own internal rules.

Specific duties to include:

Coordinators will maintain regular phone and email contact with each other including weekly to bi-weekly phone meetings (more often when needed.)

GPCA-CC and Plenary Meetings:

1) Compile agendas for CC meetings, utilizing feedback and suggestions from all CC members, both voting and non-voting.

2) Coordinate appropriate venues for CC teleconferences, meetings, and retreats.

3) Facilitate monthly teleconference and other CC meetings, unless otherwise arranged before meeting time.

4) Be responsible for facilitation and presentation of new delegate orientation at GPCA plenaries, including other presenters as necessary and appropriate.

5) Introduce CC members and officers to plenary body.

Monitor and facilitate the CC email list to help the flow of information and to maintain a working decorum among CC members:

1) Read all email posted to the CC list

2) Respond to emails that are asking general questions on policy, procedure and other decisions. Make determination to respond to individual or to whole list.

3) Determine whether content of posted emails should be directed to an individual or CC ad-hoc committees instead of whole list and contact sender accordingly.

4) Facilitate online discussion by helping to focus, summarize and move discussion forward.

5) Determine whether there is a need for an online vote. Determine time constraints. Set up and run the vote.

6) Keep CC list serve roster updated. Communicate with Technical Assistant regarding CC members/officers to be added or removed from CC list serve.

Monitor & help to Facilitate Completion of Tasks and Decisions:

1) Maintain an updated task list, to include individual tasks, and CC ad hoc committee tasks and committee memberships.

2) Contact CC members/officers for updates on task completion/progress. If tasks are not getting done help problem solve, including reassigning tasks if necessary.

3) Assist committees that are not functioning by helping to problem solve structural and procedural road blocks, or if resolution is time sensitive and urgent, by stepping in to assist, including to coordinate committee.

4) Contact CC members/officers not engaged with tasks or meetings and help to facilitate a resolution.

5) Be persistent in pushing tasks to completion. Bring tasks back to meeting agendas until completed or no longer valid.

6) Facilitate and maintain an open line of communication between the CC and SC/WG co-coordinators.

Provide Communication and Assistance to CC members:

1) Help to orient new CC members to tasks and responsibilities ofCC.

2) Provide communication assistance to any CC member whose on-line capabilities are compromised due to technical failure.

3) Facilitate and maintain communication with those not able to attend meetings, and those non-voting CC members whose attendance is not specifically required, i.e. Liaison to Sec. of State, Tech assistant, Spokespersons, Secretaries to the CC.

Section 1-3: Nominations

Nominations for Co-coordinators shall open on last Monday of January and run through the Sunday before the first Monday of February. Nominations may be made by any Coordinating Committee member, including the candidate. Nominations shall be considered made when posted to the Coordinating Committee email list. Nominations shall be considered accepted when posted as such to the Coordinating Committee email list by the candidate. Self-nominations shall be considered accepted when made.

Candidates are strongly encouraged to submit a candidate statement to the Coordinating Committee email list, no later than the commencement of the discussion period. The statement should address performance of the position sought, as its duties and responsibilities are defined in this Article, and contain a biography of relevant experiences. Candidates are encouraged to submit video material in support of their candidacy.

Section 1-4: Elections

At the first Coordinating Committee conference call in February, each candidate shall have the opportunity to make a three minute candidate statement.

If there is only one candidate, the candidate shall make their statement, then there shall be call for questions, concerns and affirmations, after which the candidate may addresses concerns. Then there shall commence a two day voting period through midnight, the ensuing Wednesday. During this time discussion may continue on the Coordinating Committee email list. Votes shall be cast on a voting page equipped for instant run-off voting and shall include a None of the Above option. Any candidate receiving a majority of votes cast is considered elected.

If more than one candidate has accepted nomination, shall make their statement, then there shall be call for questions and concerns, and after the candidate addresses concerns, there shall commence a six day voting period through midnight, the ensuing Sunday. During this time discussion may continue on the Coordinating Committee email list. Votes shall be cast on a voting page equipped for instant run-off voting and shall include a None of the Above option. Any candidate receiving a majority of votes cast is considered elected.

After the process is completed above for co-coordinators, repeat the same for alternate co-coordinators

3-2.2 All on-line elections shall have seven days for nomination and discussion and five days for voting. The seven day nomination and discussion period shall commence on the day after the initial posting of the proposal and shall conclude at midnight Pacific Time seven days later, after which the voting period shall commence immediately and conclude five days later on the 12th day at midnight Pacific Time. Nominations may be made by any County Councilmember and do not need to be seconded. Nominations shall be considered to be accepted if they are not declined by the conclusion of the nomination and discussion period. The purpose of the nomination and discussion period shall be for

3-2.2(a) Nomination of candidates for the position in question;

3-2.2(b) The declination of nomination for the position in question by candidates nominated;

3-2.2(c) A discussion of the merits of the candidates vis-a-vis serving in the position in question;

3-2.2(d) Responses by candidates to questions and concerns.

3-2.3 All votes shall be cast on the County Council email list (gplac-cc@cagreens.org), except if a County Councilmember has no access to email during the voting period, they may call in their vote to one of the GPLAC Co-coordinators, in which case it is the responsibility of the Co-coordinator to make a good faith effort to post the vote to the County Council email list as soon as possible and no later than the conclusion of the voting period.

Article II Teleconferences

2-1 Agendas

2-1.1 An agenda shall be established for each meeting. Each agenda shall include those items required by GPUS Bylaws, Rules and Procedures or otherwise determined by the National Committee. Additional items may be submitted by individual Steering Committee members. GPUS staff may suggest agenda items related to their work, but only Steering Committee members may submit them for the agenda.

2-1.1 Agenda items shall be sent to the Steering Committee and compiled by the Secretary. Agenda items shall include whether an item is a decision-making item, report or a discussion item, a title and brief description, who are the anticipated presenter(s) and how much time is requested. If the item is a decision-making item, it shall contain a brief description of what is being proposed, and if the entire text of the proposal is available, it shall include that. While it is not always possible to present a proposal fully in advance of a meeting, sponsors are strongly encouraged to submit as much specificity about decision-making items as possible in advance and to provide supportive documents or references as needed.

2-1.1 The Secretary shall circulate a draft agenda to the Steering Committee for input and feedback at least 96 hours in advance of each meeting (the 96-hour draft). Draft agendas shall include whether an agenda item is a decision-making item, report or a discussion item, its title and brief description, who are the anticipated presenter(s), how much time is proposed, as well as any attachments from a proposal's sponsor, including the full text of any proposal where available. A link to such attachments is acceptable in lieu of reprinting the entire text within the agenda.

2-1.1 Steering Committee members may suggest changes to the 96-hour draft agenda. The Secretary shall revise the 96-hour draft agenda in response to those suggested changes and present an updated draft agenda to both the Steering Committee and National Committee at least 48 hours in advance of a meeting (the 48-hour draft).

2-1.1 There may be instances where extraordinary circumstances prevent adherence to these time lines, but the Secretary shall make a reasonable, good-faith effort to follow this schedule by posting as close to the 96-hour and the 48-hour draft agenda deadlines as possible. When the Secretary knows in advance that these deadlines can not be met, notice shall be given to the Steering Committee (for the 96-hour draft and 48-hour draft) and National Committee (for the 48-hour draft) stating that this is so and when the relevant draft agenda can be expected.

2-1.1 After the release of the 48-hour draft, if Steering Committee members have additional agenda amendments they would like to propose at the beginning of the meeting, they are strongly encouraged to submit them to the Steering Committee email list as soon as possible before the meeting, to the extent they are able to anticipate the need.

2-1.1 At the beginning of each meeting, the Steering Committee may amend the agenda, and an agenda item to this effect shall be included as the first order of business at the beginning of each meeting. The time and order of already agendized items may be amended by a majority vote. New agenda items may be added by a 2/3 vote.

2-1.1 Steering Committee members are encouraged to suggest items they may have for future meetings in order to aid in long term agenda planning.

a. Proposals for CC meetings must be posted to the CC listserv at least one week in advance of a scheduled meeting.

b. CC meeting agendas shall be approved by the CC prior to or at the beginning of a meeting, with a simple majority threshold for approval.

c. Changes in announced facilitation require a simple majority threshold for approval.

d. Adding time to an agenda item or altering the approved agenda requires a simple majority approval of the CC.

e. Adding a last minute item that was not submitted to the CC list one week prior to the meeting requires a 2/3 threshold.

f. The CC prefers to discuss decision items on teleconferences and at in-person meetings. If an item is discussed at a meeting and scheduled for an online vote, the threshold for that vote is the same as if the vote had occurred during the meeting (2/3 for regular meetings, 80% for a special meeting not scheduled at a prior meeting at least a week in advance). If an item goes to an online vote without being discussed at a meeting, it has an 80% threshold.

g. Decisions may not be made after the regularly scheduled adjournment time of the meeting unless a majority (over half) decides to extend the call for a specific amount of time. Decisions must then be made within the time of the approved extension.

h. Simple majority approval votes on basic facilitation decisions can be done by asking quickly for “ayes” and “nays,” and only going to a roll call if approval is unclear.

i. The new CC is requested to hire a Secretary to take thorough minutes of meetings, post them to the CC list, amend them according to posted corrections, and post the final version to both the CC listserv and the archive of minutes. The new CC shall draft a job description and hiring criteria for this position.

j. The new CC shall form a schedule of its basic tasks that follow from the GPCA bylaws and integrate this schedule with the 2-year GPCA work plan, when it is adopted.

Section 2-2 Decision-making

2-2.1 Proposal sponsors shall be called upon first by the Facilitator to present their proposals. Facilitators shall then call for clarifying questions and give the sponsors the opportunity to respond, then call for concerns and affirmations and give the sponsors the opportunity to respond.

2-2.2 Once the process in 1-3.1 has occurred, the Facilitator shall ask whether there are any outstanding concerns. If no, there is consensus. If yes, the facilitator asks whether the person(s) holding them are willing to stand aside. If yes, their concern will be stated and recorded in the minutes and there is consensus. If no, their outstanding concerns shall be stated and recorded in the minutes. The sponsor may then ask for a vote or withdraw the proposal. If the proposal goes to a vote, the facilitator shall ask the Secretary to call the roll.

Section 2-3 Minutes

Minutes of Steering Committee meetings and conference calls shall consist of the date, time, location (where applicable) and attendance, agenda items heard, decisions-taken (including who voted for, against or stood aside) and the text of all proposals.

Section 2-4 Executive Session

2-4.1 The Steering Committee may go into Executive Session only for personnel matters, sensitive legal and financial matters in which the Party itself is involved in actual or potential legal proceedings, sensitive conversations concerning potential Green candidates or elected officials, and when dealing with the proprietary information of vendors and contractors. No other circumstances are appropriate for Executive Session.

2-4.2 It shall take a vote by the Steering Committee members taking part in the meeting or call in order to enter Executive Session. Any two Steering Committee members who believe that Executive Session is the inappropriate response to the business at hand may prevent the body from entering Executive Session by voting No. Anytime at least two members of the Steering Committee believes that the discussion is entering areas that are inappropriate for Executive Session as per GPUS Rules and Procedures Section 3-2, they may withdraw consent for Executive Session and the meeting returns to open session.

2-4.3 Agenda topics for which Executive Session is denied or permission withdrawn as per 3-1 may be added to the agenda according to the Steering Committee's regular process for adding new items in 1-7, but only within the limits of what may be discussed outside of Executive Session, as per GPUS Rules and Procedures Section 3-2.

2-4.4 Minutes of the Executive Session shall include the time of entering and exiting Executive Session, those present and a general summary of topics discussed, without including specific information precluded under 3-2.1. Decisions made in Executive Session shall be reported in the Steering Committee minutes, subject to any legal limitations on disclosure.

Article III On-Line Proposals

The preferred decision making process of the Coordinating Committee involves discussion during teleconferences or in-person meetings. The Coordinating Committee may make decisions on-line via the process described in this Article and as otherwise provided for in GPCA Bylaws.

8-1.3 While the County Council retains the ability to make on-line decisions regarding anything under its jurisdiction under GPLAC and GPCA bylaws, use of on-line decision making is generally recommended for the following:

8-1.3(a) When there is a need to make a decision in between face to face meetings to meet legal and/or internal party deadlines, or to otherwise effectuate meeting GPLAC Bylaws Section 5-2 Duties of the Council in a timely manner not possible by waiting until the next face-to-face County Council meeting or County Council teleconference;;

8-1.3(b) When an item has been discussed first at a Coordinating Committee conference call or face-to-face meeting;

8-1.3(c) When the date of the next County Council meeting was not set at a face-to-face County Council meeting or County Council teleconference;

8-1.3(d) For the approval of County Council meeting minutes.

8-1.2 Quorum and approval thresholds shall be the same as those defined for other Coordinating Committe decision making in GPLAC Bylaws Section 9-2 Quorum and

8-1.4 All on-line proposals must by co-sponsored by at least two County Councilmembers at the time of their posting; must be posted in the format specified in 8-4; and must be posted to the County Council email list (gplac-cc@cagreens.org) with the subject header of the email stating "ON-LINE PROPOSAL: subject/title of the proposal", or in the case of proposals with an expedited timelines as per 8-3, "EXPEDITED ON-LINE PROPOSAL: subject/title of the proposal".

8-1.5 All on-line elections for internal party positions must by co-sponsored by at least two County Councilmembers; must be posted in the format specified in 8-5; and must be posted to the County Council email list (gplac-cc@cagreens.org) with the subject header of the email stating "ON-LINE ELECTION: election of which position".

The delegation adopts the following procedure for decision-making between meetings:

  • An item can be put in the online voting queue at a teleconference or in-person meeting, to save time during meetings. In this case, a 3-day voting period may start immediately and is simply an extension of the normal meeting process rather than a special procedure.
  • An item can be put in the online voting queue if sponsored by 3 California delegates or alternate delegates.
  • The online voting procedure is that the item must be announced on the delegation listserv (gpus- del@cagreens.org) with the words "ONLINE VOTE: [TITLE]" in the subject line, followed by 3 days of discussion and 3 days of voting.
  • During voting, votes may be submitted online, by phone, or by email to the facilitator of the vote named in the proposal. All votes must be posted to the listserv, either by the voting delegate or the facilitator relaying a vote received from a delegate by phone or private email. A running tally should be kept on the listserv by adding votes to a list of previously submitted votes.
  • The voting threshold, per GPCA bylaws regarding committees other than the General Assembly, is 2/3.
  • The facilitator of the vote must post the results to the delegation listserv within 24 hours of the close of voting.

Section 3-2 Timeline

3-2.1 All on-line proposals, except expedited proposals as per 8-4, shall have seven days for discussion and five days for voting. The seven day discussion period shall commence on the day after the initial posting of the proposal and shall conclude at midnight Pacific Time seven days later, after which the voting period shall commence immediately and conclude five days later on the 12th day at midnight Pacific Time. If a proposal is amended during the discussion period, it shall be reposted as amended before the voting period commences. The sponsors of a proposal may chose to withdraw the proposal before the discussion period concludes, but may not do so once the voting period commences.

3-2.2 The purpose of the discussion period for proposal shall be for general discussion of the proposal, including

3-2.1(a) Hearing and responding to clarifying questions;

3-2.1(b) Hearing concerns and affirmations and hearing responding to concerns;

3-2.1(c) Considering and accepting amendments.

Section 8-3 Expedited Proposals

8-3.1 Proposals of a time-sensitive nature may be proposed with an expedited discussion period of less than the seven days. Expedited Proposals shall include a 'statements of findings' explaining the need for the compacted discussion schedule. When voting upon an Expedited Proposal, the County Council shall cast two votes: one regarding the statement of findings and the other on the proposal itself. The statement of findings must be approved for the proposal itself to be approved.

Section 8-4 Proposal Format 8-4.1 SUBJECT/TITLE: PROPOSAL/EXPEDITED ON-LINE PROPOSAL: Name of Proposal

8-4.2 CO-SPONSOR(S): The names of the proposal's co-sponsors. At least two County Councilmembers must co-sponsor a proposal

8-4.3 QUORUM (as per GPLAC Bylaws 9-2) AND TYPE OF PROPOSAL AND APPROVAL THRESHOLD (as per GPLAC Bylaws 9-4.2):

8-4.4 DECISION-MAKING TIMELINE (all proposals shall have seven days of discussion followed by five days voting at per 8-2.1, except in cases of Expedited Proposals and the sponsors shall list the actual calendar dates for the discussion and voting periods)

8-4.5 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: (relationship, reasons and/or justification to the GPLAC)

8-4.6 PROPOSAL: (the text of what is proposed)

8-4.7 IMPLEMENTATION/TIMELINE/RESOURCES: (personnel, meetings, work hours, finances, period of implementation and any sunset clause if applicable)

8-4.8 REFERENCES: (Sources for readily obtainable materials to aid in the decision making process of voting members)

Article IV General Assembly Planning"

It is charged with the tasks and supervision of all planning and preparations necessary for conducting the GPCA's General Assemblies, retreats, and gatherings.

The Committee's deliberations and decisions are subject to the oversight and approval of the GPCA Coordinating Committee where necessary.

Agcom shall be composed of 8 - 12 members, serving no more than 2 years each, with 25% elected at 6 month intervals, or immediately after the GA date nearest to June 30th. (The current agcom members shall decide amongst themselves who will be replaced and will begin the rotation cycle in 12 months, ie Jan. 2007...)

The Agenda Committee will be responsible for (in chronological order from the conclusion of a General Assembly):

++ Post-plenary report. The primary purpose of this report is to notify Locals of the date and location of the next meeting, provide the agenda submittal deadline, describe the agenda submittal process, and (when possible) list a summary of decisions from the concluded meeting. This should be within a week after the meeting. ++ Meeting minutes. Follow-up with the host committee and/or notetakers to ensure the minutes are completed. This should be within two weeks after the meeting. (Some concern about whether or not this can really be done in two weeks.) Quality of the minutes also becomes an issue occasionally. Hiring a dictation professional, or taping the meetings and hiring a transcriber are possibilities.

Article IV Liaisons to Standing Committees

The Duties and Responsibilities of Committee Liaisons shall be to

5-3.1 Facilitate the work of the committee co-chairs and promote smooth and efficient functioning of committees by working with committee co-chairs and members;

5-3.2 Maintain communication with committee co-chairs and when applicable, other committee designees, regarding tasking of the committee, receiving its work product and assuring quality and accuracy of that work;

5-3.3 Track and participate in day-to-day committee activities via listservs and meetings;

5-3.4 Facilitate communications with the rest of the Steering Committee, National Committee and other GPUS Committees;

5-3.5 Elicit and receive written reports from committees for distribution to the National Committee;

5-3.6 Inform the Steering Committee of committee activities and carry out Steering Committee directives as they affect the committee;

5-3.7 Carry out directives from the National Committee and Steering Committee;

5-3.8 Promote committee compliance with GPUS Bylaws, Rules and Procedures and Committee Rules, Policies and Procedures.

Article V Appointments to Standing Committees

When considering appointments to standing committees, the CC will consider:

1. the qualifications stipulated in the GPCA bylaws (attendance at two plenaries in the preceding 24 months and demonstration of working knowledge of the GPCA bylaws and operating procedures)

2. any qualifications drafted by the standing committee itself

3. the input and nominations of the standing committee membership and Co-Co's.

4. any input or nominations submitted by active counties or CC members (per 6-1.4 in the bylaws)

5. any bios or statements presented by the candidates themselves

If there are fewer candidates than seats the CC will first attempt to reach consensus on the full list of candidates before using this process. If there are any unresolved concerns on the full list, this procedure will apply. This procedure will also apply to all cases where there are more recommendations than seats available.

After a deliberation period of at least 3 days, the CC will make its decision through an STV ballot, per GPCA bylaws 7-1.8, where CC members rank, in numerical order, all nominees they consider qualified and acceptable. This one ballot will be used for all calculations.

After the STV election is tabulated, as a further test, winning nominees must be ranked on at least 40% of the ballots to qualify for appointment. If a nominee is elected by the STV method but is not ranked on at least 40% of the ballots, that seat remains vacant until the next proposal for appointments to that committee.

Once the seats have been filled, if some of the seats involve partial terms, and there is not an agreement between the nominees as to who gets the longer or shorter terms, the same ranked ballots will be used to determine which nominees get which terms. The ballots will be run through STV again for the number of longer-term seats, and the nominees who win this election will receive the longer terms.

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