[Proposal] Administrative Bylaw updates, part 1

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Proposal Type: Bylaw Revision
Opened: 25-Dec-2020 12:00AM EST
Closing: 01-Jan-2021 12:00AM EST


As is frequently pointed out in discussions on Council, the ST list and in conversations among players and volunteers, our bylaws are a mess. Some issues are complicated and will require a lot of discussion and compromise, but others are fairly straight forward and just need language changes to reflect the org's current practices or remove out-dated concepts. I have been working on finding those issues in the Administrative Bylaws for the past couple of months, and have put together a number of proposals to put forward for Council to look over. Because I have found 25 different issues that can be addressed relatively quickly (I hope), I am going to break them down into smaller groups. Rather than prop 25 things at once, and having one item that causes concerns shoot down all the other changes, I will prop them in groups of five. It will make amendments easier as well.

 
And so.... I, Danielle Frink, as the Head Coordinator, propose the following changes and updates to the Administrative Bylaws. Each change will have the separate rationale for it following the proposed changes. 
 

Revise Administrative Bylaw 1.G.ii.1 and 1.G.ii.2:

Currently reads:

1.       Chronicles

G.      Following the Bylaws

                                    ii.      All votes passed by Council are considered binding. It is the duty of the Council Member to inform their Storytellers and players of any and all revisions to the bylaws, genre documents, rules, and regulations.

1.       Bylaw updates must be revised. The HC and/or AHC are responsible for ensuring this is updated on the OWBN website.

2.       The Genre Documents that have been passed by Council are the sole responsibility of the Genre Coordinators who are the custodians of that Genre. Council Members ought to obtain copies from the Coordinators for the Storytellers and players of their chronicles.

Change to:

1.       Chronicles

G.      Following the Bylaws

                                    ii.      All votes passed by Council are considered binding. It is the duty of the Council Member to inform their Storytellers and players of any and all revisions to the bylaws, genre documents, rules, and regulations.

1.       Bylaw changes must be updated on the website. This is the responsibility of the Web Team.

2.       Genre Documents that have been passed by Council will be stored on the website. Council Members and Storytellers can access these documents through their log-in to the OWBN Website.

Reasoning: The current bylaws do not reflect the processes that have been in place for the last several years.



Revise Administrative Bylaw 3.A.ii.3.

Currently reads:

3.       Proposals and Voting Procedures

A.      Proposals

                                         ii.      Discussion

3.       The original author of the [PROPOSAL] may accept or reject amendments at their own discretion, if a change is accepted it should be sent to an Assistant Head Coordinator to update the [PROPOSAL] on the website.

Change to:

3.       Proposals and Voting Procedures

A.      Proposals

                                         ii.      Discussion

3.       The original author of the [PROPOSAL] may accept or reject amendments at their own discretion.

4.       Any official amendment to the proposal resets the discussion week allowing for an additional seven days for any objection or second to be applied. The [PROPOSAL] must also be updated on the website by a member of the Executive Team.

Reasoning: The original version requires the individual proposing the Amendment alert an AHC separately from the update to Council. That is both redundant and not how this process has been handled in recent years. The updated version keeps the language requiring the amended version of the proposal be updated on the website, as that is an important step in the process.




Revise Administrative Bylaw 3.A.vi.1.a.

Currently reads:

3.       Proposal and Voting Procedures

A.      Proposals

                                        vi.      Uniform standard

1.       Any item that requires greater than a majority vote many not be bypassed with a simple majority vote. This applies to, but is not limited to, the following:

a.       Exception votes. This ensures that something deemed to require a 2/3 majority in council cannot be bypassed with a simple majority “exception to the bylaws” vote.

Change to:

3.       Proposal and Voting Procedures

A.      Proposals

                                         vi.      Uniform standard

1.       Any item that requires greater than a majority vote many not be bypassed with a simple majority vote. This applies to, but is not limited to, the following:

a.       Exception votes require a 2/3 majority of council in order to pass, and are used only to propose something that is not currently allowed by the bylaws.

Reasoning: The language here is unclear and does not clearly define when or how exception votes are supposed to be used.




Revise Administrative Bylaw 3.A.vi.4.

Currently reads:

3.       Proposal and Voting Procedures

A.      Proposals

                                           vi.      Uniform standard

4.       Any vote that requires greater than a simple majority counts for and against. Abstention votes are not taken into consideration when determining the voting percentages.

Change to:

3.       Proposal and Voting Procedures

A.      Proposals

                                          vi.      Uniform standard

4.       Abstention votes are not taken into consideration when determining the voting percentages.

Reasoning: As it currently reads, this bylaw implies that in simple majority votes some other process is used, which is inaccurate. This is how all votes are tallied, and the bylaw should reflect that.



Change the heading for Administrative Bylaw 3.C.

Currently reads:

3.       Proposal and Voting Procedures

C.      Quorum Definition for Council

Change to:

3.       Proposal and Voting Procedures

C.      Voting Regulations and Systems

Reasoning: The word quorum refers to the minimum number of individuals in a process for it to be valid for an entire group. These 3 bylaws refer to our requirements for vote to pass, optional systems we may use for votes and who may define what quorum is required for a vote to be binding. Only one of these things even relates to the word quorum, so we should adjust this language to more accurately reflect what is discussed in this section.

 

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