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Proposal Details

Proposal ID135
ProposalBylaws Interpretation: Election of GPUS Delegation Alternate seats
PresenterCoordinating Committee
Floor ManagerTim Laidman
PhaseClosed
Discussion02/19/2018 - 03/25/2018
Voting03/26/2018 - 04/01/2018
ResultFailed: Quorum Not Met
Presens Quorum16 0.5001
Consens Quorum0 0.6666 of Yes and No Votes

Background

GPCA Bylaws Section 13-3 Bylaws Interpretation states (http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-03#Article_13-3_Bylaws_Interpretation ) : "In cases of ambiguity or procedural disagreement, the General Assembly shall decide for itself the meaning of its governing documents, the appropriate procedure to be followed and what amendments are necessary to resolve any further ambiguity or disagreement. Between General Assembly meetings, the Coordinating Committee shall decide these questions. (http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/interpretations ).

An issue arose this spring that created such an ambiguity regarding the application process for the GPCA’s GPUS Delegation. Traditionally in past years, a running summary was kept on the GPUS Delegation email list and published on the SGA voting page, of who had applied for GPUS Delegate and GPUS Alternate. Armed with such information, many potential applicants decided whether they would go for Delegate or Alternate - depending in part about how many others were running - or whether they would run at all.

This year in the Spring of 2017, the GPCA’s email lists were down for several weeks during the application period. As a result, interested GPCA members were not in possession of the same kind of basic information about who had already applied for Delegate and Alternate positions, that GPCA members in previous years had access to.

While one can not make an absolute casual connection between this lack of information and who applied for which seats, 22 candidates applied for 13 delegate seats, leaving nine candidates un-elected, while only nine candidates applied for 12 delegate seats, leaving three open seats that could have been filled if more candidates ran for alternate. In past years, when armed with the information about who was running for which seats, applicants spread out over both the Delegate and Alternate seats to maximize the overall number of Greens elected to the Delegation.

Given that basic information was not available to potential applicants during the application period that had been in the past, the bylaws ambiguity comes up that the bylaws have not required such information to be available in the past, but they have been supported by such information being available.

Proposal

That the Standing General Assembly approve the following bylaws interpretation:

Whereas the GPCA's timeline for Standing General Assembly applications, discussion and voting is based upon the practice of predictable communications via the GPCA's email lists, web pages, voting pages and the GPCA Inform list; and

Whereas in April 2017, the GPCA's switch to Liquid Web hosting services destabilized the GPCA's email lists, meaning information normally sent to those lists did not get sent; and

Whereas traditional GPCA practice has been to disseminate during the application period, the SGA voting page links on which the CC and GPUS Delegation elections would be held, showing which candidates have applied up to that point, providing that information to potential applicants; and

Whereas during April 2017 because of the GPCA's email list problems, these links and this information was not able to be made widely available; and

Whereas in the past GPCA members used this information to decide whether to run for GPUS Delegate or Alternate; and

Whereas in April 2017 an unprecedented number of applications for were received for GPUS Delegation (22 for 13 seats ), while fewer applications were received than seats for GPUS Delegation Alternate (nine for 12 seats); and

Whereas in past years, when armed with the information about who was running for which seats, applicants generally spread out over both the Delegate and Alternate seats to maximize the overall number of Greens elected to the Delegation, while in 2017 only 22 seats were filled when filing 25 seats was possible;

Therefore the GPCA shall hold a special election to fill the remaining three Alternate seats for the remainder of the July 2017 to July 2019 term, and that any GPCA member who correctly follows the application process may qualify for the ballot.

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