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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	193
Proposal	Policies and Procedures of the Green Party Annual National Meeting Committee
Presenter	GPUS Annual National Meeting Committee
Floor Manager	Gwendolyn Wages
Phase	Closed - Adopted
Discussion	11-21-2005 - 12-11-2005
Voting	12-12-2005 - 12-18-2005
Presens Quorum	Two Thirds of Active Accredited States/Caucuses
Consens Quorum	A Majority of Yes and No Votes

Background

None.

Proposal

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES OF GREEN PARTY ANNUAL NATIONAL MEETING
COMMITTEE

1. COMMITTEE MISSION

This committee is primarily responsible for organizing annual meetings
of The Green Party of the United States, including assisting the host
city in planning, organization, and facilitation of each annual
meeting, and conducting appropriate follow-up.

2. COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE

2.1 Membership of Committee: The ANMCommittee shall consist of up to 3
voting members from each state and caucus.

2.2 Non-voting advisors may be nominated by any member, approved by
majority vote, reappointed annually without limit, and removed by
majority vote called by any two members. Advisors can participate in
all committee activity including but not limited to email, meetings,
and conference calls but will not have a vote.

2.3 Applicants for committee membership shall verify or submit written
permission from their party to serve, or otherwise verify that such
permission has been received by the committee's cochair(s).

2.4 Applicants shall provide the committee with a short statement
expressing their interest and experience or training in areas
described in the committee's mission and purpose section(s).

2.5 Upon receipt of an application and permission the cochairs shall
post the prospective committee member's introductory letter to the
committee's listserv.

2.6 If no committee member raises an objection to the applicant's
membership within four days of posting, the applicant automatically
becomes a member of the committee.

2.7 If a member of the committee raises objections to an applicant's
membership, a three-day vote of the members shall be held with a
majority vote required for membership.

2.8 Members with objections must detail their concerns for the
committee.

2.9 The application of any person for whom membership is denied shall
be automatically forwarded to the NC for reconsideration.

2.10 Listserv privileges shall begin with membership.

2.11 State parties, through their cochairs, may change permission
status for any committee member from their state at any time, subject
to GPUS by-laws.

2.12 Members who have not actively participated and contributed either
by e-mail, teleconference or in person for the prior two months shall
be considered inactive. A quorum will consist of a majority of active
members only. The co-chairs shall determine which members are active
for purpose of reaching quorum. Co-chairs will inform any inactive
member of their status. Inactive members may participate freely, and
voting rights of an inactive member will be reinstated after
participating in one meeting.

2.13 Votes shall be by active members, not by state.

3. COMMITTEE OPERATION:

3.1 The committee shall operate by consensus as much as possible, with
more formal rules adopted as necessary.

3.2 MEETINGS The committee will meet no less than once per month but
may set more frequent meetings. Meetings will be in-person or by
teleconference.
Regular meeting times will be set at the prior meeting and special
meetings must be noticed to the committee members at least 3 days
in advance. Meeting agenda items are normally published in advance
but they may be added at the beginning of any meeting.

3.3 PROPOSALS Proposals require no advance notice but advance notice
is encouraged. The committee will seek to operate by consensus. If
there is no consensus a proposal may be brought to a vote. A
two-thirds vote of the committee members present at the meeting is
required to pass a proposal. When concerns are expressed but not
withdrawn this must be reported in the minutes. If the proposal is
being forwarded to the Steering Committee or the National Committee
the concerns must be included in the forwarded report.

3.4 An e-mail vote on a proposal may be authorized at a committee
meeting and will follow the same rules for quorum and passage as a
proposal presented in a meeting. Such proposals will have an explicit
deadline set and will require support of two-thirds of those with
voting privileges at the meeting for passage. The committee members
participating in the call can decide to conduct the vote on-line if
they deem necessary.

4. REPORTING PROCESS

4.1 The committee co-chairs shall submit a periodic report to the
National Committee for its review.

4.2 Minutes will be kept of each committee meeting and after the
committee approves the minutes they shall be posted electronically in
order to be reviewed by National Committee.

5. COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR ELECTIONS

5.1 The election of the committee co-chairs shall take place on the
first committee meeting after The Green Party of The United States annual
meeting. Gender balance and co-chairs from different states shall be the norm
and any member of the committee is eligible to serve as co-chair.
Co-chairs shall serve a two-year term with a limit of two consecutive terms.

6. COMMITTEE MEMBERS RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

6.1 The Committee is expressly prohibited from using disagreements
regarding differing views on issues and/or business before the committee
as a cause for curtailment or elimination of membership privileges.

6.2 Committee members are required to behave in accordance with the
Ten Key Values of the Green Party and abide by netiquette guidelines as
posted at "The Core Rules of Netiquette," by Virginia Shea, which can be
viewed at: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/ .

6.3 Other actions that will not be tolerated include:

a) misrepresentation of the committee's or a member's work,
b) financial improprieties,
c) violent personal attacks and/or threats, verbal or physical,
d) discrimination against federal or state (where applicable)
protected classes,
e) harassment
f) any other unethical or illegal activities related to committee
business or function.

6.4 Blatant and/or persistent violation of these guidelines can lead
to suspension of privileges or termination of membership via the
processes described below.

6.5 Before beginning any process leading to curtailment or elimination
of membership privileges, the committee shall take steps to maintain a
productive working environment by informal actions by committee
members followed by informal actions by committee co-chairs. These
steps shall include:

a) communication with the member's state party requesting they
intercede with the committee member regarding the behavior(s) in question.

b) use of facilitation, counseling, mediation, and/or arbitration
services, as provided through the Dispute Resolution Committee or a
mutually agreed upon outside source if necessary, which shall be
encouraged and expected. No member shall be subject to official
action before being permitted to consent to mediation and/or arbitration.

6.6 If all efforts listed above fail a petition may be filed by any
three or more members of the committee (including co-chairs) from
three different states (hereafter known as "the petitioners") to
require the committee co-chair(s) to initiate and administrate formal
action to curtail membership privileges. If all co-chairs are also
petitioner, the committee shall elect another non-petitioner member to
administrate. If there is no non-petitioner, the member should
probably just quit!

6.7 Procedures for discussion and consensus /voting on the petition
shall be according to regular procedures as described in these P&Ps.

6.8 The specific written charge(s) and proposed action, as
determined by the petitioners, shall accompany the petition.

6.9 The petitioners shall have full discretion for determining the
charges and proposed scope of action.

6.10 A 2/3 quorum and 2/3 vote, by state, of the committee, shall be
sufficient to confirm charges and the initiate action(s) detailed in
the petition.

6.11 The committee co-chair(s) shall initiate and execute approved
action(s) and notify the member immediately following the vote.

7. APPEAL PROCESS

7.1 Immediately following a member's confirmed notification of a
committee's vote to take action to curtail or eliminate membership
privileges, the committee's cochairs shall notify the NC voting
listserv and Secretary of the action in writing and the Secretary shall
re-post the petition on the NC listserv.

7.2 The committee member in question may, within seven (7) days of
these postings, appeal the committee's action by notifying the NC and the
Secretary of the appeal, in writing (in person, by mail, or by
email), with the secretary reposting the notice, as above.

7.3 Any two or more delegates from different states, other than the
person making the appeal, may within seven days of the posting of
the appeal, accept the appeal.

7.4 If two or more delegates from different states accept the appeal
the SC shall then schedule a two week discussion and one week vote
including the following procedures

a) The petitioners shall designate a presenter

b) The SC shall appoint a floor manager

c) The committee's cochair(s), or their designee(s), shall present
support for the original petition for action

d) The vote shall have a two-week discussion period and a one-week
voting period

e) A majority vote shall be sufficient to overturn the committee's
action.

7.5 If an appeal is not accepted by at least two NC delegates from
different states within seven (7) days of the posting of the appeal
on the NC listserv, it shall signify that the NC acquiesces to the
committee's action and the decision of the committee shall be considered final.

7.6 If the NC votes to overturn a committee's action the committee
shall be required to immediately reinstate all privileges to the committee
member in question.

8. SCHEDULING:

8.1 This committee shall organize its activities as necessary to
schedule conventions so as to comply with applicable federal law.

8.2 If possible and appropriate, this committee shall act according to
the following schedule:

By October 15 each year - solicit expressions of interest from
States/Locals to host the annual meeting (Request for Proposals)

by December 15 each year - deadline for receipt of Annual National
Meeting site proposals to the ANMC.

by January 15 - ANMC submits proposals to NC for consideration

by February 15 - NC makes selection and announces date and location of
annual meeting

Spring - ANMC and SC site visit

Summer - conduct annual meeting and request evaluations of the meeting
from the participants

September - review meeting evaluation forms

October - review these P & P's for improvement, and draft new RFP for
next annual meeting

9. BUDGET

9.1 This committee shall annually, at the appropriate time, request
budget line items for

a) operation of the committee;

b) pre-meeting site visit by committee, staff, and GPUS Steering
Committee.

c) conduct of the annual meeting, including post-meeting survey and
evaluation.

10. AMENDMENT

These policies and procedures may be amended by the National
Committee.

Resources

CONTACT: Matthew Abel, GPUS attorneyabel@comcast.net

References

None

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