The State Committee at the 1/12/2002 State committee meeting agreed on a process to make decisions by email. Delegates who do not have email are contacted by phone.

The Email Decision Making Process was reviewed at the 3/23/2002 State Committee meeting and was amended. It was reviewed again at the next State Committee meeting on 9/23/2002 and amended again.

The following is the process. There are two email proposal templates for delegates to use available for download. The first template is used for starting a email decision making process - click here. The second template is used for declaring the decision part of an email decision-making process - click here. Both documents are MS Word files. If you have problems, email tech@green-rainbow.org. Plain text versions can be added for download if needed.

Email Decision Making Process

The State Committee can put forth proposals and make decisions on them using email, or phone in the case where a delegate does not have email. This is a consensus seeking decision making process.

Process Guidelines

A) Four or more SC representatives can sponsor a proposal and send it to a special email address (statecom-proposal@green-rainbow.org) using the approved format described below. Volunteers in the The Procedures and Structures Working Committee receive the email proposal and check the proposal for format completeness. If complete, the proposal is then sent by the volunteers to the SC email list (statecom@green-rainbow.org), otherwise it is sent back to the sponsors for correction. If more than one proposal per week is received, the proposals are placed in a FIFO (First In First Out) queue and released to the SC email list at one per week. Once a proposal is posted to the email list, the sponsors of the proposal must call each SC delegate without email and explain the proposal.

B) After the proposal is posted to the SC email list, there is a two week period where the proposal can and should be discussed. Since this is a consensus seeking process, it is important to discuss how the proposal might be improved, if necessary.

C) During the two week period, the delegates sponsoring the proposal can make friendly amendments or changes to their proposal. If a change is made the proposal must be rebroadcast to the email list in its new form, and persons without email must be contacted by phone again. When the proposal is rebroadcast, the version number is incremented and is present in the Subject field. The email proposal with the highest version number is always the version under consideration.

If sponsorship drops below the required amount during the 2 week discussion period, the email decisionmaking process is ended immediately and no Decision period is held. If the proposal is important enough, it can be reintroduced with the required number of sponsors. At any time during the email discussion process a new sponsor may be accepted by consensus of the existing sponsors.

D) At the end of the two week period a final email is sent by the sponsors to the special email address (statecom-proposal@green-rainbow.org) calling for consensus using the second email template. This email must clearly state "[REMAINING CONCERNS]" in the subject line. The volunteer checks it out for completeness and forwards it on to the statecom list if ok. There is a one week period where delegates should post either a "No Concerns" or "Yes Concerns" to the email list. Delegates with remaining concerns are encouraged to briefly yet clearly state for the record what the remaining concerns are. Any responses not in by the end of the one week period will be considered as absent from the decision. Persons without email can phone their responses to any SC delegate and have that delegate post an email for them.

E) Tallying the responses from the SC members will be done by both the sponsors of the proposal and at least one volunteer from the SC who is not a sponsor of the proposal. The results are posted to the SC email list.

F) In all cases for a proposal to pass, there must be a quorum of responses. A quorum is defined as 1/2 of the seated State Committee Delegates, rounded down, plus 1. A proposal will pass if all the respones during the REMAINING CONCERNS 1 week period are "No Concerns". If any responses are "Yes Concerns", then for the proposal to pass at least 2/3 of Seated State Committee Delegates, rounded down, plus 1, must have responded with a "No Concerns". If the proposal is regarding a change to the bylaws, then the proposal will pass if at least 3/4 of the Seated Delegates, rounded down, plus 1, must have responded with a "No Concerns".

G) Each proposal passed using this process will be presented at the next SC meeting and will be entering into the minutes as an addendum. The sponsors are responsible for the presentation.

H) If there is a disagreement on the response totals, the sponsors of the proposal as a team, and the volunteer counter, will each pick another SC delegate to tally up the responses. This two person team will decide what the tally is.

I) An email proposal must use the standardized form which will be readily available for use by any SC delegates (downloadable from the web site). The format will look something like the following below (sample filled out) and be finalized by the Procedures & Structures committee. When responding to the call for consensus, each delegate will reply to the call for consensus and supply the info at the bottom.

J) This system will be used until the next regular State Committee meeting where it will be reviewed at the meeting and decided upon if it should be accepted as a regular procedure for the State Committee. The SC at this review can decide to remove the one proposal per week specification.

K) Proposal Email Templates available on the MGP website.

There are two email templates, one for the email proposal discussion period and one for the consent period.

K.1) Template for discussion period

Be sure to include in the email Subject line the '[EMAIL PROPOSAL]', the title of the proposal, and the version number of the proposal as in the example below.

Subject: [EMAIL PROPOSAL] Proposal Name - Version #
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SHORT PROCESS DESCRIPTION
1) The emailing of the proposal starts a two-week discussion period where friendly amendments can be made. This is marked with [EMAIL PROPOSAL] in the subject line.
2) After two weeks no more changes can be made and the voting period begins. This is marked with [REMAINING CONCERNS] in the subject line.
3) At the end of the one week voting period, the consents are tallied up by the proposers and one volunteer from the SC and the results are posted to the list.

For a complete description of the process go to: http://www.green-rainbow.org/statecom_email_proposals
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EMAIL PROPOSAL
DATE/TIMES:
Start Discussion: MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM
End Discussion/Start Call For Consensus: MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM
End Call For Consensus: MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM

SPONSORS: 4 delegate names and their email addresses, or phone numbers if no email

VERSION: version number of the proposal

TITLE: Your title

SUMMARY: Your summary

PROPOSAL: Your proposal text

K.2) Template for consensus call.

Be sure to include in the email Subject line the '[REMAINING CONCERNS]', the title of the proposal, and the version number of the proposal as in the example below.

Subject: [REMAINING CONCERNS] Proposal Name - Version #
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REMAINING CONCERNS RESPONSE: During the one week consent period, delegates reply to the [REMAINING CONCERNS] proposal email by filling in the information below
DELEGATE NAME:
DELEGATE EMAIL ADDRESS OR PHONE IF NO EMAIL:
DELEGATE CONSENTS ('Y' for yes and 'N' for no):

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EMAIL PROPOSAL
DATE/TIMES:
Start Discussion: MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM
End Discussion/Start Call For Consensus: MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM
End Call For Consensus: MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM

SPONSORS: 4 delegate names and their email addresses, or phone numbers if no email

VERSION: version number of the proposal

TITLE: Your title

SUMMARY: Your summary

PROPOSAL: Your proposal text
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHORT PROCESS DESCRIPTION
1) The emailing of the proposal starts a two-week discussion period where friendly amendments can be made. This is marked with [EMAIL PROPOSAL] in the subject line.
2) After two weeks no more changes can be made and the voting period begins. This is marked with [REMAINING CONCERNS] in the subject line.
3) At the end of the one week voting period, the consents are tallied up by the proposers and one volunteer from the SC and the results are posted to the list.

For a complete description of the process go to: http://www.green-rainbow.org/statecom_email_proposals