[GPCA-SGA-Votes] Discuss ID 160: (Conditional) Bylaws Amendment - Elections Timing/Eligibility/Venue for GPUS Delegation

[GPCA Votes]

*Please send your discussion comments to gpca-votes at sfgreens.org
<gpca-votes at sfgreens.org>*

Discussion has begun for the following GPCA SGA ranked choice vote:

Ranked Choice Vote ID #160
Ranked Choice Vote *Bylaws Amendment - Elections Timing/Eligibility/Venue
for GPUS Delegation (*Conditional)*
Ranked Choice Vote Administrators: Victoria Ashley, Brian Good, Laura
Wells, Eric Brooks, Mike Goldbeck
Discussion  02/12/2018 - 03/25/2018
Voting  03/26/2018 - 04/01/2018
Voting ends at Midnight Pacific Time

***Please note: Currently, the final results of the vote to send this item
to the SGA are in dispute, meaning this item may be removed from the SGA
election if it is found not to have met the relevant vote threshold.*

*Background*

This is proposal that the Delegation would send to the GPCA Standing
General Assembly.  The proposal is primarily a housekeeping proposal with
four objectives, which would be accomplished by related changes in the GPCA
Bylaws.  Some of the changes are motivated by the fact that this section of
GPCA Bylaws was not updated when the GPCA Standing General Assembly (SGA)
was created.  Before the SGA, the Delegation was elected at a General
Assembly (GA).  Since then, it is elected via the SGA.  But the Delegation
Bylaws still refer to the GA. The same thing applies about filling
unscheduled vacancies in the Delegation.  In the old days, they were filled
at a GA. Now they are filled by the SGA.  The Delegation bylaws should be
updated to reflect this.  Note in both these cases, the proposed language
in this proposal uses the same language that is already currently used in
GPCA Bylaws to describe SGA elections for the Coordinating Committee, that
would be used here to describe SGA elections for the Delegation. This
ensures consistency in language throughout our party rules, so there is no
confusion on how what our processes are.

Third, the Delegation section of the GPCA Bylaws has abbreviations that now
are spelled out in the rest of GPCA Bylaws as of the 2013 changes.  This
proposal would make the spelling in the Delegation Bylaws consistent with
the rest of the GPCA Bylaws.  Finally, this proposal would clarify that one
needs to be a Green Party member to file to run for the Delegation.

Here are those four changes explained in more detail, with appropriate
links to current documents as reference:

The first objective of this proposal would remove a contradiction in the
Bylaws between 7-6.2 (http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_7-6_
Standing_General_Assembly , most recently updated on 7/3/2016), which
requires that elections for both the GPCA state Coordinating Committee and
the GPCA's GPUS Delegation be conducted by the Standing General Assembly,
and 12-4 (http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_12-4_Elections,
most recently updated 10/3/06, written before the advent of the Standing
General Assembly ) which specifies that elections to the GPUS Delegation be
conducted at the General Assembly.  In practice since the advent of the
Standing General Assembly, elections for the GPUS Delegation have been
conducted via the Standing General Assembly, in compliance with 7-6.2.
Therefore this new proposal would remove the old language about the GPUS
Delegation elections being conducted at the General Assembly and change
that to the Standing General Assembly..

The second objective of this proposal would add consistency in how
unscheduled, mid-term vacancies are filled for seats on the GPCA's GPUS
Delegation. Currently there is language in the Bylaws 8-4.5 (
http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Section_8-4_Elections)
specifying the process for filling such vacancies on the Coordinating
Committee via the Standing General Assembly, while the language for filling
such vacancies on the GPUS Delegation still refers to filling them at the
General Assembly.  This proposal would amend that to provide for the same
Standing General Assembly text for the Delegation process as for the
Coordinating Committee process.

The third objective of this proposal would address provide for consistency
in abbreviations and capitalization in Article 12, as compared to the rest
of the bylaws.  When the Bylaws were amended in 2013, abbreviations were
eliminated except when referring to the GPCA (Green Party of California)
and the GPUS (Green Party of the United States), such that committee names
and other internal organs of the GPCA were spelled out in full and
capitalized in their first letter.  This proposal would apply that same
formatting to Article 12 for the Delegation.

The fourth objective is to clarify that to be eligible to run for the
GPCA's GPUS Delegation, one must be a Green Party member in the state of
California as defined in Article 3 of the GPCA Bylaws (
http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Article_3._Membership), both at
the time of application for the position and to remain so through the
conclusion of the election. This is accomplished by amending Article 12
Delegates to the Green Party of the United States to specify this condition
of eligibility.

Why reference Article 3 in this clarification?  Note that GPCA Bylaws 3-2
specifies that only registered Green Party members in the state of
California may serve on the Coordinating Committee, whereas other GPCA
members as defined in 3-1 may serve as members of the GPCA's GPUS
Delegation ("County Organizations may also extend GPCA membership to county
residents who are not otherwise eligible to register to vote in California,
but who affirm in writing the Ten Key Values and the GPCA's purpose, and
meet other criteria established by the GPCA and/or the county organization.
For such membership to be valid within the parameters defined in these
bylaws, the County Organization must forward minutes to the Coordinating
Committee of the meeting at which such membership was extended.”).
Therefore referencing Article 3 here removes any confusion over whether
being on the Delegation is only restricted to registered Greens, or it also
includes other Greens as defined in the party’s bylaws.

*Proposal*

That GPCA Bylaw Article 12 be amended as follows:

Part 1: That Article 12-4 be amended from its current text

12-4.1 Regular Elections

At each GA, delegates and alternates shall be elected for two-year terms.
Elections shall be by 7-1.8 Choice Voting. The delegation may recommend
candidates to the GA. Recommendations shall be made with attention to
gender, ethnic, and geographic balance.

12-4.2 Filling Unscheduled Vacancies

If delegate and alternate seats become vacant in the middle of a term the
GA may elect replacements at its first meeting following the vacancy and at
subsequent meetings until the end of the term. Elections shall be by 7-1.8
Choice Voting and those elected in this manner shall serve the remainder of
the term.

to read as follows

12-4.1 Regular Elections

Elections shall be conducted each year by the Standing Green Assembly by
secret ballot, using Ranked Choice Voting with a No Other Candidate option.
There shall be a six week discussion period beginning on the first Monday
of May and the one week voting period commencing immediately thereafter.

12-4.2 To be eligible, candidates must submit an application to the
Coordinating Committee by the last Monday of April, be a Green Party in the
state of California as defined in Article 3 at the time of application for
the position and remain so through the conclusion of the election. Any
candidate who fails to remain a member of the Green Party in the state of
California during this period shall be removed from the ballot prior to the
commencement of the voting period, should their membership in the Green
Party as define in change prior to the commencement of the voting period;
and should their registration from Green Party change during the voting
period, the votes shall be calculated without inclusion of said candidate.

12-4.3 Filling Mid-Term Vacancies

Upon a mid-term vacancy occurring on the Delegation (but not a vacancy
occurring as a result of any seats not being filled during an annual
regular election), the Coordinating Committee shall publish a Notice of
Vacancy and Call for Candidate Submissions to the active County
Organizations, for candidates seeking to fill the remainder of the vacated
term. The Notice shall contain the timing of the submission, discussion and
election process, and the time remaining in the term for which a vacancy
has occurred. The Notice shall be published within two days of the vacancy
occurring. The submission deadline shall be 21 days from the publishing of
the Notice. The discussion period shall begin on the first Monday after the
close of the submission period. No vacancy shall be noticed to be filled if
from the resultant timeline above, the seat would be filled after the first
Monday of the April before the end of the vacated term.

Part 2:  That Article 12 be amended such that every place where the
Coordinating Committee is referred to as the 'CC', that 'CC' be replaced by
the full two words 'Coordinating Committee'; that where the word
'delegation' is written in lower case, that it be replaced by 'Delegation';
that where the GPUS National Committee is referred to as 'NC', that it be
replaced by National Committee; and that where the General Assembly is
referred to as 'GA', that it be replaced by 'General Assembly'.

Full details will be available at:
http://www.sjcgreens.org/sga_vote_bylaw_interpretations

*Please send your comments to gpca-votes at cagreens.org
<gpca-votes at cagreens.org>.*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.sfgreens.org/pipermail/gpca-votes/attachments/20180215/219e1bdd/attachment.html>