On List Decisions Policy

This policy pertains to the FREE GEEK council mailing list.

It is open to anyone who volunteers or works at FREE GEEK.

The purpose of the list is to discuss issues that affect FREE GEEK, specifically issues that are not handled by other working groups at FREE GEEK, issues that overlap between other working groups, and issues that are more controversial and far reaching.

Anyone can participate in the discussion, but we ask that people consider their words carefully and be prepared to ask for (and give) clarifications.

Decisions affecting the FREE GEEK community can be made on this list.

To make decisions:

• Post a message with the word "proposal" and a meaningful title in the subject.
• Word your proposal carefully in the body of the message after thinking through any ramifications it might have for FREE GEEK.
• Note any time sensitive context for the proposal. (When does the decision need to take effect? When would be too late?)
• Ask people to respond with clarifying questions if they have them.
• Ask people to respond with ammendments, reservations and/or counter-proposals if they have them.
• Wait for responses. If after a reasonable amount of time no one has responded, respond yourself asking for people to at least indicate if they have read the proposal or not.
• As people discuss the proposal, they can suggest an ammendment and restate the proposal. This is a mechanism for creating compromises that everyone can live with, as well as a way to combine multiple proposals and come up something that is better than all of them.
• When a reasonable amount of discussion has taken place, ask for people whether they agree with the thrust of the proposal or not. People can respond by saying that they:
  • agree with no reservations
  • don't agree, but will stand aside and let the decision go forward
  • don't agree and will block the decision

If no one blocks then the decision goes forward, at least until it is reviewed at the next meeting of the council.

Any decision made on the list should be mentioned at the next council meeting. The meeting can then support or reverse the decision. People attending the meeting are expected to have read the discussion on the this list.

In some cases reversing the decision is moot, because the action has already been taken and is over and done with. The meeting should at least record this fact and call for any relevant comments to be placed in the minutes for future reference.

Minutes of the meeting, including who attended, should be posted to the list.

NOTE: Anyone can participate in the dicussions, but only qualifying council members can actually participate in making decisions.

Related tips: Better Online Discussions