| Green Party Committees:
Platform |
RULES, POLICIES and PROCEDURES of the GPUS PLATFORM COMMITTEE
The GPUS Platform is a consensus document, arrived at by a process involving
submissions, input and feedback, based on the "4 D's" - democratic deliberation, discussion and debate - and open to members of
all GPUS state affiliates and accredited caucuses. The Platform presents to Greens and the
general public the policy on which most Greens reasonably agree.
The Platform Committee does not make policy decisions. The committee
organizes and then facilitates participation in the development of the Platform (the next round is coming up in 2008, starting in 2006, and
with a planned "kick-off" in 2007). The working rules, now rules, policies and
procedures, are applied to internal committee functions.
GPUS Platform Committee Work Rules approved online and finalized in July,
2002, in Philadelphia Amended, August-October, 2005 Amended, November 21, 2005; approved, January 2, 2006, by the GPUS
National Committee
I. MEMBERSHIP and VOTING
The Platform Committee of the GPUS rules on membership shall be derived from
the Bylaws of the Green Party of the United States (GPUS) under Article III.
Committees (see addendum below).
Affiliated state parties or caucuses and those state parties in the process of
affiliation (hereinafter "states or caucuses") can elect delegates to the Committee as members or observers.
The terms for members and observers shall be one or two years, as determined
by the state or caucus. If not specified, the term shall be one year.
Members of the Committee shall be approved (elected, appointed or selected) by
states or caucuses.
Observers of the Committee shall be approved (elected, appointed or selected)
by states or caucuses.
MEMBER and OBSERVER STATUS CHANGE:
Members may change their membership status to Observer or reinstate their
Member status during the term in which they were approved. While in Observer
status, a Member loses their right to vote and quorum may need to be recalculated.
If a Member chooses to change their status, they must simultaneously inform
the Platform Committee (via the Committee's email list) and the state or caucus which they represent. The Platform Committee Secretary
shall confirm this change with the Member's state or caucus within one week of the Member's
notification. Members who have not been active for at least six months will be
contacted by the Co-Chairs, the Secretary or another Member designated for
this task, and asked to become active, change their status to Observer or resign.
Members who cannot be reached (through e-mail, telephone or their state
party/caucus contacts) after at least 4 attempts spread over a period of two
months will be dropped from the Platform Committee membership. Notification of
such pending change shall be sent to Member's state party or caucus no fewer
than 30 days before the change in status occurs.
Observers changing their status back to that of Member during the course of
deliberation on a proposal (starting from when the proposal is made) can not
vote on that proposal. The above rules apply only to those who were approved
by their state or caucus to serve as a Member. Those selected to serve as Observers can not make themselves Members without approval from their state or
caucus.
Advisors of the Committee shall be nominated by a Member then elected by
obtaining a simple majority for placement on the Committee. Advisors need only be a member of states or caucuses; or, the nominee may
be a registered Green Party voter in their state or territory.
Advisors participate in those matters when requested to do so by any Member
regarding their particular expertise for advising the Committee. Any advice
provided by a Committee Advisor must be put in writing by the advisor and must
be posted by them to the Committee's email list.
II. MEETINGS
The Committee shall meet face-to-face at each Mid-Term Convention, at each
Presidential Nominating Convention, and otherwise as necessary. The Committee
may also meet online.
III. OFFICERS
The Committee shall elect 2 Co-chairs and a Secretary for 2 year terms. The
Co-chairs shall facilitate the work of the Committee. The Secretary shall keep
the records of the Committee, including minutes of meetings and online decisions. The secretary would be responsible for minutes of meetings,
archiving bylaws and rules, recording the language of motions, records of
votes, lists of names, and contact information. The secretary will also work
with and assist the co-chairs.
Terms of officers are two years, staggered with one co-chair and the secretary
running from the mid-year convention to the nominating convention, with
elections in the summers of even years. The other co-chair is elected in the
summers of odd years.
All members of the Platform Committee are eligible for Co-chair and may
nominate themselves or be nominated by another member.
All Co-chairs' decisions are openly made and distributed to the membership.
IV. DECISION-MAKING
All decisions by the Platform Committee (live or online) shall be through
motions passed by consensus, or by voting.
IV. a. Consensus Decision Process of the Platform Committee
1. Any committee member may submit a Proposal by posting it to the Platform
Committee e-mail list. When s/he submits a proposal, it must have a label or
title in the subject line and that label must be used thereafter for identification.
2. When a proposal is seconded by a committee member from another state or
caucus than the original proposer, the proposer notifies the Secretary who
numbers, declares the 2-week dates for discussion followed by one week for
voting of the timeline and publishes the proposal within a day of notification.
Thereafter the proposer is responsible for chartering (guiding) the proposal through to the vote. The
proposer accepts and negotiates amendments or rejects them, and reports a block when one occurs.
3. The discussion period runs for two weeks starting on the Monday following
the seconding of the proposal (or the day of seconding, if it's seconded on a
Monday), unless the Secretary and Co-Chairs establish a different discussion
period within 4 days of the seconding of the proposal.
4. When one or more proposals are in discussion period, the Secretary will
publish the list of numbered proposals with discussion and voting periods each
week.
5. Discussion period shall last a minimum of 2 weeks. The proposer or Co-
chairs may extend the discussion period if: -amendments accepted by the proposer are significant (change the reach or
direction of original proposal); and, -these amendments are offered in 2nd week of discussion thus curtailing
review time for members. A call for an expedited decision may be requested by the proposer or Co-chairs, in case
of an urgent need for a decision.
6. If no blocking or unfriendly amendment is offered by end of discussion
period, the proposal is adopted and is published as such by the Secretary. If
an unfriendly amendment is offered and the proposer cannot reconcile it with
his/her original intention, the offerer may withdraw it, change it to a block,
or offer it in a new proposal.
7. If a proposal is amended, then it is discussed between the amender and the
original proposer, and the amended version is published.
8. If a proposal is blocked, then a one week voting period automatically
ensues starting the day after the end of the discussion period. Then votes are
cast via e-mail. The Secretary is responsible for tracking and counting the
votes, and reporting a pass or fail. If the proposal passes, the Secretary
archives the proposal as official.
9. Decisions by consensus or vote are recorded and posted by the secretary.
10. Proposals that fail by vote may be re-submitted after 6 months.
Quorum: A quorum for any decision-making shall be 2/3 of the members
represented on the committee. Votes will be cast by individual committee members and counted on that basis.
Work may be conducted over conference calls. Conference call decisions are not
final, but must be submitted on email to the rest of the committee for approval, possible objections or amendments. Members
who have difficulty paying personal conference call costs be reimbursed upon application to the
Co-chairs, pending availability of funds.
Robert's Rules of Order shall be the default authority for decision-making
questions, unless otherwise specified by these rules or by the GPUS bylaws.
[It is recommended that, during periods of activity, each committee member
check their e-mail at least once every other day.]
***************
Working Rules Pertaining to Platform Submissions and Development
I. Submissions to the GPUS Platform will be filtered through the template
posted on our online submissions page and/or made available to all GPUS affiliate state parties and caucuses. Submissions must be
approved by a state party or accredited caucus before being submitted to the Platform
Committee.
States which do not have a member on the Platform Committee will be asked to
appoint/elect a member to act as "platform liaison," to be responsible for
ensuring that necessary information gets back and forth, make sure members
know of the opportunity and the submissions process, and perhaps help facilitate
members in decision-making. If the state party or caucus is unable to provide a liaison, the Platform
Committee shall assign a member to serve as liaison.
[NOTE: The Online Forum no longer in exists, however this is partly applicable
to the committee email list.]
II. Online Platform Forum (General Discussion Forum):
The PlatCom wishes to keep communications as open as possible, but also realizes the need to keep the Forum workable for its participants. The right
to free speech needs to be set in relation to others' right not to be subject to hostility.
Our webmaster has registrants sign a web form agreeing not to engage in
hostile behavior. A message has also been posted on the Forum, with an explanation of our policy. List moderators will give a warning
to someone whose post is found obviously inappropriate, and ask that
communications be kept respectful. If the problem occurs again, the person
will be taken off the Forum.
*********************************
Addendum:
Excerpt from current Bylaws of the GPUS
(http://www.gp.org/documents/bylaws.shtml) regarding Committees --
ARTICLE III. COMMITTEES
"The National Committee of the Green Party of the United States shall establish standing committees and
may create other committees according to need. The NC shall cause to be produced, and then approve a
document for each committee including the purpose, duties and general charge of the committee, as a part
of the process of creating a committee.
The Steering Committee shall be responsible for oversight for all committees and ensure that the NC is kept
informed about the work of the committees.
Delegates to the NC shall automatically be eligible to serve on committees by virtue of their position. Other
committee members shall be members of a state green party and have written permission from their state
party to serve. Permission shall be submitted by the NC delegates or State Party co-chairs from the various
states to the co-chairs of the relevant committee, and can be submitted on paper or via email. No state shall
have more than three members per committee without a waiver from the Steering Committee. No committee
shall have fewer than five states represented.
There shall be three categories of activity for GPUS committees:
1. MEMBERS - Committee Membership shall be defined as being a voting member of a committee who may
take part in all decision making. Committee members shall be selected by their committees according to individual committee P&Ps. All committee members shall be approved by their respective state parties
according to written, democratically derived state party rules that ensure full and open due process.
2. ADVISORS - It shall be at the discretion of committees to select advisors. Advisor status shall be
determined by individual committees in their P&Ps . Anyone may serve as a committee advisor. Advisors shall enjoy limited participation in committee deliberations as determined by committees' written P&Ps .Advisors shall not be voting members of a committee, shall not formally introduce proposals and shall not
represent either the committee or the party. Advisors shall serve one-year terms and will be eligible for
re-election. State parties shall be free to express objections to committees regarding specific advisors.
Such objections shall be considered by committee members in their deliberations.
3. OBSERVERS - Committee approved observers may monitor the listserv activity of a committee but
cannot participate in discussions or votes. Observers must be approved by committees according to their P&P documents.
Furthermore, committees may communicate with individual Greens on an as needed basis on specific
matters of mutual import.
All committees shall:
1) develop written rules, policies and procedure (RP&P) documents which must be approved by the
National Committee.
2) use consensus-seeking procedure with backup voting for all decision making, and codify the procedure
in their RP&Ps.
3) when voting, vote by state with each state casting one vote. The NC or the SC may, in their reviews ofthe work of a committee, allow
a committee to waive the one state, one vote rule and replace it with a one member, one vote standard.
4) codify RP&Ps used to conduct general committee business and, when appropriate, codify rules for
decision making via conference calls, email, and/or in-person meetings.
5) report to the NC on a regular basis and set up a schedule for written reporting, with monthly reports
being the standard unless otherwise approved by the NC.
6) develop policies and procedures by which minority opinions on committee business that relate to the
internal workings of the Green Party may be conveyed to the NC.
7) have two co-chairs unless directed to have a different number by the NC. Gender balance and
co-chairs from different states shall be the norm, though under extraordinary circumstances committees
may choose another arrangement.
8) detail all non-co-chair leadership position (e.g. secretary, coordinators etc.) in the committee's RP&P
document.
9) conduct elections for leadership slots using preference voting and codify election procedures in their
RP&P document.
10) participate in a biannual review of committee RP&Ps conducted by the
BRPP, which shall report to the NC on each committee's procedures.
11) develop and make available to all members of the committee a packet including all rules, policies and
procedures and provide other training and orientation, as appropriate, for new members. This material shall
also be available on the committee website.
12) set up guidelines for member participation, with an emphasis on ensuring participation as a requirement
of membership and/or participation in consensus decision making or quorum voting.
Resources
CONTACTS:
Howard Switzer, co-chair, GPUS Platform Committee
Holly Hart, co-chair, GPUS Platform Committee
Budd Dickinson, secretary, GPUS Platform Committee
References
None. For supplementary material, the Timeline/Process leading
to the development of the 2004 Platform is available at:
http://www.gp.org/committees/platform/timeline.html
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