Eligibility for Council

Eligibility for Council Policy: These criteria are used to determine who, having demonstrated commitment over time and remained informed on current issues, is eligible to block consensus (a privilege rarely used).
List of Policies - Policy Development

Eligibility for Council: What it takes to be a full-fledged council member with the ability to block decisions.
List of Policies - Policy Development

Policy

as approved by council in September 2002:

One must attend two consecutive meetings to vote and miss three consecutive meetings to lose the privelege. Also, one must be on the council mailing list for voting eligibility. Exceptions can be made in advance for these eligibility requirements.

On blocking votes, we decided to allow unlimited blocking for each person unless this becomes an issue later on. Also, the blocking member needs to explain their blocking vote.

Notes

The voting language is an artifact of the time period this was written in, while we were almost all new to consensus.

Any community member is eligable to participate in discussion at the Community Council. "Eligibility," in practice, effects mostly just blocking ability.

• When an unqualified member attends at least three meetings in a row, he or she becomes qualified at the third meeting.

The bit about requiring mailing list membership is usually overlooked in recent formulations of this policy.