Standing General Assembly (SGA) Email Lists - IT Committee Protocols (Note: These are a bit long and wonky but will show you how the SGA list admins moderate the email list. You can find the full IT email protocols for all groups at: http://www.cagreens.org/it-protocol#email-lists ) Section 4-5 Standing General Assembly (SGA) Email Lists (added October 2016) 4-5.1 The GPCA General Assembly and IT committee, under direction of the Coordinating Committee, establish the email list for the Standing General Assembly (SGA) for the purposes described herein. Subscription automatically implies acceptance of the GPCA Email Rules of Decorum, and the procedures described in this Article. 4-5.2 List membership is limited to: 4-5.2(a) Delegates appointed by County Councils to the SGA; 4-5.2(b) Voting page and list administrators; and, 4-5.2(c) SGA list moderators as defined in 4-5.8. 4-5.3 The membership list of all GPCA email lists shall be available for review by all subscribers. Anonymous subscriptions are not permitted. 4-5.4 The purpose of the SGA Email list is to facilitate communication for the purposes of SGA decision-making. 4-5.5 Posting to the SGA Email list shall be limited to messages relating to: 4-5.5(a) decision-making items before the SGA as provided for in GPCA Bylaws, Rules and Procedures and Fiscal Policy, including proposals, elections, platform amendments, and positions on State propositions; and 4-5.5(b) making good faith efforts to state clarifying questions and concerns, and to bring forward relevant information, during the discussion period for SGA decision-making. 4-5.6 Delegates are considered the primary persons to post to the SGA Email list. Posting privileges are limited to Delegates and SGA List moderators. Section 4-5.7 Posting and formatting Guidelines 4-5.7 (a) All posts shall be signed at the bottom of every message with the first and last name of the author, and their county; 4-5.7 (b) Subject lines should accurately describe or reference the topic of the post. When quoting other messages, the person quoted should be properly cited, and extraneous text (including headers, footers, irrelevant text to the section being responded to) should be deleted. Short, non-substantive replies and one-on-one discussion belong off-list. Delegates are strongly encouraged to post responses to the original discussion thread for that decision-making item, rather than changing the title and starting separate and parallel discussions that bifurcate the discussion; 4-5.7 (c) Forwarding private messages without the expressed written permission of the author is prohibited; 4-5.7 (d) Copyrighted material (newspaper articles, website content, etc.) and other items forwarded should be accompanied by, where applicable, a source URL, the name(s) of the author(s), and the originating source (if a publication); 4-5.7 (e) SGA list members retain their personal copyright for their original messages, but through use of these lists grant other members the right to publicly quote portions of their message in any medium, and the right to forward messages in their entirety to others so long as the author's name and web address is cited or linked; and 4-5.7 (f) SGA list members shall familiarize themselves with the GPCA Rules of Decorum and act in accordance with the GPCA Email Rules of Decorum. Section 4-5.8. SGA List Moderators 4-5.8 (a) The Coordinating Committee shall nominate a minimum of five individuals (with gender balance), subject to 3/5 approval by the Coordinating Committee using ranked choice voting in accordance with 7-2.4(a) of the GPCA bylaws, with the three highest ranked serving as SGA list moderators to serve simultaneous two-year terms as SGA list moderators; and the next two ranked individuals to serve as Alternate SGA moderators for the same term. Terms shall run from September 1 to August 31 in even-numbered years. (For 2016 only, the CC will vote to approve the SGA list moderators and alternates at the next monthly meeting of the Coordinating Committee after adoption of this provision.) 4-5.8 (b) All nominees must be Green Party members and be recommended to the Coordinating Committee by their county council to be eligible. It is recommended but not required that SGA moderators have training and/or experience in meeting facilitation and/or dispute resolution. A call for SGA Moderator applicants shall be sent to the GPCA Inform, GPCA Forum and SGA Votes Email lists by the IT Committee at the direction of the Coordinating Committee, within the first 15 days of July of each even-numbered year. For 2016 only, the call for SGA Moderator applicants and alternates shall be sent within three (3) calendar days after adoption of this provision.) 4-5.8 (c) In the event that an SGA Moderator or Alternate seat is not filled by rank choice vote, the Coordinating Committee shall conduct an on-line vote to fill the seat(s). 4-5.8 (d) In the event of an SGA Moderator mid-term vacancy, an Alternate of the same gender, if possible, shall fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term. If both alternates are the same gender, the Coordinating Committee shall select one at either their next regular meeting or with an online vote. The Coordinating Committee shall [conduct an on-line vote/re-nominate] to fill the Alternate seat(s) in a gender-balanced manner. 4-5.8 (e) SGA list moderators may be recalled by a 2/3 vote of the SGA. The vote will be placed in the SGA voting queue with expedited process with a two week discussion and one week voting period upon request to the Coordinating Committee by three different SGA delegates from three different counties. 4-5.8 (f) The threshold for SGA list Moderator decision-making shall be 2/3 and no fewer than two moderators in agreement for Compliance Advisories, Notices of Violations, Moderation of Posts, and Read-Only Status as described in this Article. If a moderator is not available an Alternate Moderator may participate in the decision making in their place. Quorum for all decisions shall be two. Section 4-6 SGA Email List Moderator Compliance and Enforcement 4-6.1 SGA moderators shall carry out their responsibilities in an informative, pro-active manner to promote general compliance with the posting guidelines and Email Rules of Decorum; and shall post periodic reminders of these to each list, citing the relevant text. 4-6.2 SGA moderators shall pro-actively take special notice of, document and respond to examples of egregious and/or multiple violations of the Posting Guidelines and Email Rules of Decorum. 4-6.3 Other list members may file complaints about non-compliance privately in writing directly to the SGA moderators, but shall not post them to the lists established in this Article. Complaints shall quote the post(s) of concern and the relevant Posting Guideline(s) and/or Email Rules of Decorum. 4-6.4 In response to examples of egregious and/or multiple violations of the Posting guidelines and Email Rules of Decorum, based upon their own initiative or in response to complaints filed by list members, SGA moderators may send Compliance Advisories to individuals, with a copy to the county they represent. SGA moderators shall respond to complaints in a uniform fashion. Such advisories shall quote the post(s) of concern and the relevant Posting Guidelines and/or Email Rules of Decorum; and suggest ways of compliance. Compliance Advisories shall also cite the steps described in this Article if non-compliance continues. 4-6.5 If two Compliance Advisories are issued within 120 days, upon further non-compliance within 120 days of the second such Compliance Advisory, the SGA moderators may send a Notice of Violation to the individual, with a copy to the county they represent, quoting the post(s) of concern and the relevant Posting Guideline(s) and/or Email Rules of Decorum being violated. Concurrently, the SGA moderators may place the participant upon moderation for up to forty-five days. 4-6.6 The county represented by the participant shall be notified immediately of the participant's moderation status, and may appeal it in writing to the Steering Committee, as may the participant, during which time the participate will remain on moderation. Requests for appeal must be submitted to the Coordinating Committee according to the same timeline as for proposals under GPCA Rules and Procedures Article VI. Upon a timely submission of the appeal, the Coordinating Committee shall consider the appeal at its next regularly scheduled meeting, and may overturn the decision of the SGA moderators by a two-thirds vote. This appeals process applies to all determinations of moderation status, as well as to determinations of read-only status. 4-6.7 Under moderation, the SGA moderators shall review all submissions from the participant and may withhold any post(s) they find are not in compliance with the Posting Guidelines and Email Rules of Decorum. The SGA moderators shall cite the relevant text in the Posting Guidelines and Email Rules of Decorum to the participant, explaining any posts moderated. Such review shall be done in a prompt manner to ensure that compliant posts are not detained unreasonably. 4-6.8 After the maximum of forty-five-day period of moderation, there shall be a probation period of 90 days, during which upon issuance of an additional Notice of Violation, the SGA moderators may place the participant under moderation again for up to 90 days. 4-6.9 After the maximum of ninety-day period of moderation, there shall be a probation period of 180 days, during which upon issuance of an additional Notice of Violation, the SGA moderators may place the participant under read-only status for up to 90 days. 4.6.10 If a list administrator feels that immediate action must be taken to halt the posts of a list member who is being extremely abusive or disruptive, that list moderator may unilaterally place the list member on temporary moderation, which shall not last more than three days, during which time the list administrator must seek the concurrence of one or more other list administrators in order to place the list member on longer term moderation, or in order to take other corrective action. 4-6.11 SGA moderators shall maintain an electronic archive of all complaints filed, all advisories and notices of violations sent and all subsequent communications with the recipient. The SGA moderators shall post quarterly reports to the SGA Email list detailing their activities, and include the number of advisories, and notices of violations. Upon request by one or more SGA list members, SGA moderators must provide references to the records of advisories and notices of violations sent to particular individuals for violating list procedures. ###