On List Decisions Policy

On List Decisions Policy: Sometimes decision making bodies may be called upon to make decisions by email list, which is complicated for any form of democracy. Two of these groups have determined policies related to achieving binding consensus decisions via email list. Related tips: Better Online Discussions
List of Policies - Policy Development

Policy

Council

This policy pertains to the FREE GEEK council mailing list, which 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 amendments, 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 amendment 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 (as with all council meetings).

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

my interpretation is that list participation should be the same as meeting participation; that is, anyone can participate in discussion and decisions, it is only blocking that is limited to qualified council members. --Ideath 11:44, 28 September 2006 (PDT)

Board

The board differs from the council in that it has a limited set of participants and its decisions may be more legally or financially critical for the organization. Membership in the board email list is open, but blocking consensus is limited to board members.

approved by board July 2006

Issues come up often enough that quarterly board meetings need to be supplemented by other communication/decision process. Seamus requested board adopt a clear process to make communication/decisions by email effective and efficient. FG Board members are expected to do email. Process should make clear participation by all is desired, and that silence may be misinterpreted so all members should make concerted effort to participate. Members who will be out of email range for more than a few days should alert the board list in advance. It is useful for the person doing the proposing to summarize and consolidate discussion points as the discussion moves forward.

>>> BOARD ACTION: Adopted process that includes the following elements:

• Proposals should be clearly marked as such in subject line of email, including use of CAPS shouting things like IMPORTANT and/or ACTION REQUIRED
• A specific time should be announced for discussion and decision, usually about a week (can be extended if extensive discussion needed)
• Board members should weigh in, even if their response is "I don't have time to write a response now" or "This sounds reasonable but I'm not sure I understand all the intricacies yet."
• What action is required needs to be specified
• Action requires participation by quorum, consensus rules apply

Other Groups

if your group is trying to reach consensus via email, you may wish to adopt some of the elements of these policies, including

• clear subject lines
• defined timeline giving sufficient time for group members to have reasonably read and responded to messages
• clearly requesting participation and outlining requested action
• summarizing and restating