Technical Council - Governance Decisions

Membership 

  •  Chair/Convener
    • Sets agenda
    • Acts as whip to move conversation towards goal
  • Scribe/Note taker
    • Rotation by surname
  • No individual may occupy a seat for more than 4 consecutive years on any council (2 terms), emphasis on "consecutive".
  • Any council may appoint members to fill vacant seats (up to the maximum) on the council, if necessary. When possible, individuals who were the next highest vote getters in the previous election should be selected. The CC will ratify any appointment to ensure that it doesn’t violate any council membership rules.

Meetings

  • Meets once a week. Wednesdays 11 AM (Eastern)
  • Chairperson will be responsible for setting meeting agendas each week
  • Cancelling meeting due to attendance is NOT preferred 
  • Quorum - At least half (6) of elected TC members
  • Meetings are recorded and stored in Google drive 
  • TC member can send a proxy if he/she is not able to attend

  • Hand raising will be used to limit interruptions and talking over one another. The chairperson will call on those with their hands raised, in the order they were raised.

Slack Chats

  • Use of chat should be limited to the current topic of conversation. In particular, chat should not be used to spawn separate topics. 

Voting Rules

  • 6 or more votes in favor are required to make a decision in favor of the motion
    • Example:  A vote is called to decide that watermelons are better than carrots.
      • 6 in favor, 5 against -> decision is made that watermelons are better than carrots. (i.e. motion carries)
      • 5 in favor, <=6 against -> decision is not made that watermelons are better than carrots. (I.e. motion does not carry)
  • Decision can be made via lazy Consensus with ability to escalate to a vote
  • Voting member or non-voting guests can call for a vote
  • Proxy has the right to vote
  • Votes will be Yes/No (+/- in zoom chat)
  • TC member can abstain from voting
  • TC member can delegate his/her vote
  • Voting via slack is NOT allowed. 
  • Voting must be done in person (via zoom)

Decision Making

  • Any decision requires a quorum
  • Decisions made by lazy consensus may be challenged/called for vote by TC member who was absent
  • Possible to informally poll all members
  • Documentation of decisions (with reasoning) in the meeting notes is sufficient documentation for conflict resolution. With reservation for publishing a separate document when appropriate.

Sub Groups

  • Establish a rough charter for outcomes
  • Set some expectation for how often to meet
  • Set a time on the calendar to review progress