Green Party of the United States - National Committee Voting

Home	Vote	Results	History	Contacts	Admin
	National Committee Voting

Login

Proposal Details

Proposal ID	744
Proposal	NC Forum Transition - Discussion Extended
Presenter	Steering Committee
Floor Manager	Darryl Moch
Phase	Closed
Discussion	06/03/2014 - 06/15/2014
Voting	06/16/2014 - 06/22/2014
Result	Adopted
Presens Quorum	30 0.6666
Consens Quorum	25 A Majority of Yes and No Votes

Background

The current USENET-format email lists do not serve the party's need as well as a forum system would. We have heard from many delegates that the high volume is difficult for them to deal with, and too often, they simply stop reading the listservs altogether. While there are other avenues we may pursue in the future to further improve the communication and engagement within the National Committee, we feel moving to a forum in a bulletin board format provides some immediate benefits.

Business (like discussion and voting on proposals) of the NC would happen on the National Committee Discussion Forum. Our NC Board has different Forums
(Dark Green Header Background). Within the Forums are Threads (Blue). One of the Forums is called GPUS Business and the first Thread in that Forum is titled Formal Proposals. That is where the NC will discuss proposals currently under deliberation and access the history of previous proposal

The benefits of using the forum include:

- Easier Access to All Posts On A Topic.

Currently someone who wants to read multiple posts on a given topic has to either read every post as it comes along, or search through long lists of emails to find the posts or login to the read the list archives. Even then, people use different subject lines to refer to the same topic, and there is no way on the listserv to aggregate these messages.

With the forum, there will be one thread per topic, and everyone will post their comments to that thread. It can be sorted by date or sender. Floor Managers will move posts to the proper thread, if they have gone astray.

- Easier Access to Various Topics

Threads will be set up both for "standing" topics (example, 2016) and for "temporary" topics (example, "Good Airfares to ANM in St. Paul"). It is possible to set up "sub threads" within a given topic, which further organizes them (for example, "open debates" within "2016." )

Users will be able to see at a glance which topics are active. Users may choose to have email notification of posts in topics they select sent to them.

- Easier Winnowing.

Within a given topic, you can easily scroll through, see who has sent messages and skim the content. You can stop to read only the ones that you want to read.

Proposal

The new National Delegates' Forum will replace the NC's old USENET-format e-mail lists when all the following steps have been completed.

1. All NC Delegates and Alternates enrolled in forum. Email David Doonan for assistance atwbmgr@gp.org

2. A Tutorial is offered to learn how to use the Forum effectively (include in new delegate materials). Go to: Green Party National Committee Bulletin Board / Making a GPUS-NC Bulletin Board a Reality / Downloadable PDF Tutorial

URL:https://secure.gpus.org/secure/intranet/forum-mybb/forumdisplay.php?fid=45

3. Guidelines and rules/etiquette for the Forum will be posted. Our current Forum Managers will continue to perform their duties for the forum. Our existing policies still apply and we will be adding recommendations for behavior on the forum.

4. Forum Admins will be designated to assist any NC members having problems using the forum. Floor Managers will be designated to help set up and manage the threads.

5. There will be a 60 day transition period where emails to the listserv will be cross-posted to the forum. The 60-day transition period will begin after Floor Managers and Forum Admins have been determined.

Resources

IMPLEMENTATION / TIMELINE

The listservs will become inactive after the transition period. The 60-day transition period will begin after Floor Managers and Forum Admins have been determined.

References

RULES AND PROCEDURES ARTICLE IX: GPUS NATIONAL COMMITTEE LISTSERVE PROTOCOLS AND POLICIES
Here is the link:
http://www.gp.org/rules-and-procedures-of-the-green-party-of-the-united-states

DEFINITIONS

List / Listserv / Forum - These terms are used interchangeably to refer to a group of people (members) who can send emails to a common email address and have those emails disseminated to the other people who are in the group.

"Forum Managers" are responsible for making sure the NC listserv subscribers (now) and the Forum members (soon) are abiding by the Posting Guidelines (ARTICLE IX: III) and dealing with consequences. We can have 3 Forum Managers with 1 alternate.

"Forum Admins" will provide technical assistance and sort out problems of that nature.

"Floor Managers" move messages and re-design threads, unless it's per request of whoever posted the original message in a thread.

Questions about this system?
Contact the Voting Admin.
The Green Party of the United States voting system is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
You can download a copy here.
To independently verify a ranked choice vote, or for information about how that works, go to Jonathan Lundell's Voting Page and upload the ballot file from the ranked choice vote result page. JL's ranked choice module is licensed under an alternate free software license.

Green Party of the United States