The USGenWeb Project Standing Procedures


Advisory Board | Removal of SC or ASC | Election Committe | Mediation

Advisory Board
Below are the current "Standing Procedures" in effect for the Advisory Board. These are temporary procedures until the Advisory Board can work out a set of permanent procedures.

TEMPORARY PROCEDURES

PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY
This Board will use The Standard Code of Parliamentary Authority, by Alice Sturgis as its parliamentary authority, modified to adapt to the particular needs of conducting a meeting via an email list.

MEETING SCHEDULE
The Advisory Board of The USGenWeb Project will meet monthly. The meeting will be called to order on the first working day of each month.

ORDER OF BUSINESS
The Order of Business shall be:

  1. Call to order
  2. Reading, correction, approval, or disposition of minutes
  3. Reports of standing committees
  4. Reports of special committees
  5. Unfinished business
  6. New business
  7. Announcements, "good and welfare"
  8. Adjournment
This Order of Business will be flexible, depending on the amount and nature of the business to be conducted at any given meeting. The Chair will publish an agenda for each meeting in advance of the meeting. Board members should advise the Chair of items they want included.

QUORUM
The existence of a quorum (9) will be determined each time a vote is taken.

VOTING
All voting will be via email to the Board-L list. When a vote is called, members will have 48 hours to respond and have their vote recorded, however results of votes will be announced once a quorum has been reached and enough votes have been cast to insure the passage or failure of the motion.

PERMISSION TO SPEAK
The requirement for recognition by the Chair before speaking is suspended. However, the Chair may limit this blanket permission when a member demonstrates they are likely to make inappropriate posts to the Board-L list.

GENERAL CONSENT
The Chair will make every effort to Use General Consent to expedite the meeting.

INFORMAL DISCUSSION
This Board will make full use of the concept of "Informal Consideration" as outlined by Sturgis, except that this "Informal Consideration," including all discussion on the Board-Exec list, will be considered to occur outside of the regular Board meeting. Official votes may not be conducted on the Board-Exec list. This frees the participants to conduct straw votes on Board-Exec to determine the sense of the group.
Informal Consideration will allow the members to discuss issues and frame motions without concern for the details of procedure that must be followed in the regular meeting.

MEETING FORMAT
This Board will operate as an Assembly. Members can speak only to a motion that has been made and seconded. (Sturgis, pp 240-1)

Removal of an SC or ASC
As adopted February 2003 and amended 24 February 2003

A.

The process for removal of an SC or ASC may be initiated by the Advisory Board on a 2/3 favorable vote of a quorum (9), or by a petition signed by 10% of the voter-qualified CCs of XXGenWeb Project, or by 2 CCs if 10% of that total falls below the number of three (3). This petition must be presented to at least one of the regional CC Representatives for immediate forwarding to the entire Advisory Board. Reasons for removal must be clearly stated. Immediately following a favorable vote by the AB, or upon receipt of the CCs' petition, the National Coordinator shall request the EC to "freeze" the voter list for XXGenWeb until after the process is concluded.

B.

Reason(s) stated for removal will be forwarded to the named SC, or ASC, who will have five (5) days to send a response to his/her regional SC Representative for immediate forwarding to the entire Advisory Board. An additional five days will be granted only if the person is unable to respond due to unavoidable circumstances.

C.

Regardless of which entity begins the process, the National Coordinator, upon receipt of the response (if any), will immediately send a copy of the reasons for removal and the response (if any) to the Election Committee, instructing the Committee to conduct a vote within the State and within the Advisory Board, simultaneously, asking the question "Shall [Name and Title] be removed from office?" Choices are to be "Yes", "No", "Present". Included with this question will be the reason(s) for removal and the response (if any). The voting period will be 10 days in length.

D.

Removal will require, per USGenWeb Project Bylaws, a 2/3 favorable majority vote of a quorum (9 members) of Advisory Board Members and a 2/3 favorable majority vote of a quorum (minimum 75%) of the voter-qualified CCs of that State.

E.

No removal procedure may be implemented against the same SC, or ASC, within six months of a failed attempt, unless evidence is presented to the Advisory Board that retaliatory actions are being taken, or attempted, against the initiators of the original action. Evidence that is proven false, may result in the removal of the CC.

F.

In the event that removal of an SC, or ASC, is approved, an election to replace the SC will be conducted by the EC. The same shall apply to the ASC if that person was elected. If not, replacement of the ASC will be left to the SC.

G.

This policy will go into effect upon passage.

Election Committee
  1. Standing Election subCommittee

    2. The Advisory Board shall appoint a standing Election subCommittee (EC). This subCommittee shall operate year round. Day-to-day operating procedures shall be determined by the members of the EC.

    1. Composition of the subCommittee:

    The EC shall consist of 12 members total and shall include two members from each region, two members for the Special Projects, and two at-large EC members. From these members, the EC shall choose a Chair and a Publicist-Secretary, each to serve for one year as defined in (3) regardless of the length of their individual terms. The Chair of the EC shall vote only in the case of a tie. The National Coordinator, as ex officio member, and one other Advisory Board Representative, chosen by the Board, shall serve as advisors on the EC subcommittee. They shall not be eligible to be either the Chair of the EC nor its Publicist-Secretary.

    2. Formation of the subCommittee:

    The Advisory Board shall publish on the National Webpage, STATE-COORD, USGENWEB-ALL, USGW-CC-L, USGENWEB-DISCUSS, the Special Projects mailing lists, the regional mailing lists, and any other avenue appropriate to reach the most volunteers including, but not limited to, a personal e-mail to each project volunteer, a brief overview of the formation of a EC and a request for volunteers for such committee.

    From the list of volunteers the Advisory Board shall select a temporary chairperson of the committee. The chairperson shall select from the volunteer pool volunteers to fill the following positions: Two volunteers from each region, two volunteers from the Special Projects (as a group and not two volunteers for each special project) and two volunteers to represent the "at large" region for a total of 12 Standing Election Committee members.

    This list of volunteers shall then be submitted to the Advisory Board for approval. The Advisory Board shall not be allowed to "pick and choose" any individual committee member. Should the Advisory Board disapprove the slate of members in its entirety then the Advisory Board shall chose a new temporary chairperson and the process shall be repeated. 

    Replacement of EC members due to end of term shall be handled in the same manner as above. For members who need to be replaced within the term due to resignation or continuing non-responsiveness, a new member shall be chosen from the volunteer pool by the EC committee thru a majority vote. This majority opinion shall be forwarded to the Advisory Board for final approval.

    If deemed necessary by the EC, the EC may take on additional workers (as opposed to committee members) during actual election periods which shall be defined as the time from nominations through final vote count.

    The selection of the EC Chair and the EC Publicist-Secretary shall be made by secret ballot sent to the National Coordinator and the Advisory Board Representative for counting and verification.

    Any member of the project who is eligible to vote is eligible for membership in the EC unless they are presently running for office. EC members who decide to run for office must immediately withdraw from the EC and its mailing list. This includes the National Coordinator and the Advisory Board Representative. Should both of them choose to run for office, they shall together select another Board member who is not currently running for office to serve as ex-officio member of the EC until after the election.

    3. Tenure of the subCommittee: 

    Initially, each pair of EC members as outlined in (2) shall have one individual serving for one year and one individual for two years so as to stagger the turnover in EC members. Thence forward, regular terms (not the filling of unexpired terms) shall run for two years. Terms shall be from January 1 to December 31. EC members shall serve only one term and be ineligible for reappointment for one year after the expiration of a full two-year term. Those EC members serving for only one year initially in order to stagger terms may be re-selected for another term in the second year.

    If a member of the EC is not performing his/her duties on the EC or is disruptive of the EC's business, the EC may petition the Advisory Board via the National Coordinator and/or the Advisory Board Representative for replacement of that member by a new volunteer. EC members be removed only for cause, which shall include but not be limited to failing to respond promptly and considerately to members of the EC, or continually disrupting the business of the EC with inappropriate or unprofessional behavior.

    B. Duties of the subCommittee:

    1. The EC shall conduct all national level elections for Advisory Board Representatives, including elections for National Coordinator, Representative-at-Large, Regional State Coordinator Representatives, Local Coordinator Representatives, Special Project Representatives, and votes on Bylaws Amendments as well as any elections required by future bylaws revisions or any other national level elections that may be held.

    2. The EC shall be responsible for maintaining current voter rolls. Lists of voters and email addresses shall be kept up-to-date on a quarterly basis. The voter rolls shall be maintained solely for the purpose of conducting national elections and shall be kept entirely confidential and shall not be supplied to the Board or to other parts of the project for any purpose. 

    3. As its first order of business the EC shall compile a current voter list. The EC shall request the list(s) of eligible voters from the last election and current voter lists from each State Coordinator and Special Project Coordinator. All duplicate entries (i.e. volunteers who work in more than one state, region or position) from the above specified lists shall be combined into one voter record. All voter records shall be maintained in a database capable of producing reports sorted by regional basis, special project basis, state basis, national basis or other breakdown as may be deemed necessary in the future. The voter record shall also be structured so as to contain information on all areas/issues in which the individual voter is eligible to vote.

    4. Verification of e-mail address and positions shall be made by use of an e-mail broadcast system to send personal e-mail messages to each voter. Other means of verification may be used as determined necessary by the committee to fulfill its obligation to have an accurate, up to date voter list. Any disputes or discrepancies shall be: (1) resolved between the State Coordinator and the EC (2) If no resolution is possible the matter shall be referred to the regional Advisory Board representative for resolution. If the dispute cannot be settled by the region Advisory Board representative, then the matter shall be referred to the entire Advisory Board for resolution.

    5. The committee shall be responsible for keeping the voter list up-to-date on a quarterly basis through:
    a. Using an e-mail broadcast software to send individual messages to all voters verify e-mail addresses and positions;
    b. Maintaining a membership registration or contact area on an EC website 
    c. Submitting the current list (sorted by state) to the current SC and/or other person chosen within the state to handle such duties;
    d. Resolution of any disputes or discrepancies shall be handled as stated above. 
    e. each regional voter list and communications shall be maintained and managed by the two members chosen for/by that region. The national list shall be managed and maintained by the two members chosen by the National Coordinator and the Advisory Board Representative, and the Special Project voter list shall be managed and maintained by the members chosen by the Special Project representatives. 
    f. The regional and national members shall manage communications with the state liaisons and/or the State Coordinators, but the Publicist-Secretary shall manage communications to the Advisory Board and to the project as a whole via the main lists (USGENWEB-ALL USGENWEB-DISCUSS, USGW-CC-L, STATE-COORD, the regional lists) and by any other avenues deemed appropriate during day to day operations of the committee. 
    g. The Publicist-Secretary shall be responsible for writing quarterly and post-election reports for submission to the Board and the Project. 
    h. The Publicist-Secretary shall be responsible for maintaining a web site for the EC that shall include. but is not limited to: 
             I. Contact page detailing who on the EC to contact, listing all members with emails both clickable and written out, their region of responsibility including the listing of the states in each region as well as noting who the current Chair and Publicist-Secretary; 
            II. A page detailing eligibility guidelines including how and who to contact regarding problems; 
           III. A general page about how the election mechanism functions in general (nominations, voting process, result release) to be replaced at an actual election time with a similar page detailing the specifics of that election including clickable and written out URLs to where each region voter goes, where to vote for national level, a listing of states in each region, alternative voting mechanisms for those who for any reason have a problem using the chosen voting mechanism, etc.; 
            IV. A page linking to all public election committee reports to date; and 
             V. During an election period a page listing all candidates with URLs to their campaign pages both clickable and written out. 

    C. Eligibility of voters

    No restriction should be made on the right of any member (excluding transcribers and lookup volunteers) to vote. Therefore, any number of coordinators per county or state, town coordinators, and state level special project coordinators (as opposed to Special Project coordinators from the national level projects) such as Native American projects, African American projects, military projects organized as and part of the XXGenWeb state projects, shall be eligible to vote. A requirement that one be a member for at least 30 days prior to the start of an election is acceptable purely on an administrative basis. State-level or Special Project-level voting restrictions shall not affect a member's right to vote in any national level election. 

    Challenges to a member's eligibility to vote shall in no circumstances be addressed by the EC. The Project Coordinator or XXGenWeb State Coordinator shall address the challenge in a timely fashion so as to allow the person to vote in the current election. If they do not, the person shall be given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to vote. If a Local Coordinator continues to challenge the decision of the State Coordinator, then the matter shall be referred to the regional Advisory Board rep. If the Local Coordinator continues to challenge the decision made by the Regional Advisory Board Representative, then the matter shall be referred to the entire AB. The decision of the entire Advisory Board shall be final. However, should the matter fail to be decided before the end of any election or voting issue, the person shall be given the right to vote by default. 

    Eligible voters may vote once for each region or special project position for which they are eligible, once for national positions and once for any national issue that may be placed on a ballot, including but not limited to bylaws amendments.

    As has been the practice in past elections, Special Project state and project level File Managers and Coordinators shall be eligible to vote in elections for Special Project Representatives. Transcribers are not included as defined in the Bylaws, Article VII Section 6.

    D. Nominations

    When nominations are made, the EC shall be responsible for verifying that the nominees are eligible to run for office, based solely on the criteria in Article VI, Section 9 of the bylaws. No other determination of eligibility shall be made by the EC, including that of good standing. Nominees shall be assumed to be in good standing unless determined otherwise by the Advisory Board or State Coordinators or Special Projects Coordinators.

    If the nominee challenges a finding that they are ineligible to vote or run for office, the EC shall in no circumstances make a ruling on their challenge. The Advisory Board should address the challenge in a timely fashion so as to allow the person to vote or run for office in the current election. If they do not, the person shall be given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to run for office.

    E. Voting Mechanism

    The voting mechanism selected should meet at least the following criteria: 
    1. Accept votes (more than one per person, with the ability to drop earlier votes); 
    2. Display appropriate ballots depending on the ID of the person or have clear directions so a voter can easily find the correct portions of the ballot for which they are eligible to vote; 
    3. Send a confirmation email once the vote is accepted that includes a date/time stamp, and their votes; 
    4. Count votes and return reliable results within 24 hours; 
    5. Compile vote statistics in a way that the EC can post so that people can verify their votes; and 
    6. Be confidential and secure. 

    Additionally, the mechanism should be flexible, reliable, and free. 

    A voting method meeting the above requirements should be chosen initially from an outside or "third-party" service. The EC shall research and select an outside voting service as one of its first orders of business after being seated. The system should be in place and functional as soon as possible, but no later than June 1, 2001. 

    The EC shall also look into forming a supporting group to work on producing election software that meets our requirements. Should the Project decide that the development of its own voting software is desirable, a working group of programmers be shall formed who shall address the requirements and design a suitable program. This working group shall operate independently of the EC but shall report to it regularly so that reports on development progress may be included in the EC's reports to the Project.

Mediation Process
Mediation Procedures (Approved by the Advisory Board 20 January 04)

When a grievance is filed with the Advisory Board, it will automatically become subject to this mandatory mediation process. Persons wishing to file complaints/grievances should read this document in its entirety, in order to fully understand the process and the responsibilities of everyone involved.

A. About the Mediation Process

  1. The purpose of the Mediation Process is to assist USGenWeb members, and some affiliates, in reaching fair and amicable settlement of issues on which disagreement exists, in concurrence with Article VI, Section 3, of the USGenWeb By-Laws.
  2. 2. The goal of Mediation is that final resolution of conflict in a fashion that best addresses the interests and concerns of all parties, the USGenWeb Project and researchers.

B. Advisory Board Mediators--Selection, Procedure and Duties

  1. Selection of Mediators

    a. The National Coordinator shall ask which members of the Advisory Board are willing to serve as mediators. The entire Advisory Board shall then vote to select five (5) of these volunteers.
    b. The names of the mediators shall be posted in alphabetical order on the National Website.
    c. Immediately after the selection process is completed, the Advisory Board Secretary, or Recording Secretary, shall randomly draw these five (5) names to determine the order in which conflicts will be assigned. This order will remain confidential to the NC, Secretary and Mediators.
    d. No conflict shall be assigned to a Mediator if he/she is named in the complaint.

  2. Duties and Responsibilities of the Mediators

    a. Upon reviewing an assigned grievance, the Mediator may and should, pass the request to the next Mediator on the list if:

     i. He feels his association with either party would give the feeling of impropriety.
     ii. He knows he will not be available for the time needed.
    iii.     He feels he could not remain unbiased in a particular conflict.
    iv. He feels an inherent conflict of interest.

    b. The Mediator will contact the parties to notify each that the grievance has been received.
    c. The Mediator will subscribe all parties to a private list. The Mediator shall serve as neutral Chair, and will insure that all parties have a full, fair and equal opportunity to be heard and to present relevant material.
    d. The role of the Mediator shall not be to pass judgment, or determine outcome, but to serve as a facilitator in bringing the conflicting parties together so that they may reach a point of agreement between themselves, and thus resolve the conflict.
    e. The Mediator may utilize all forms of communication to enhance and expedite discussions.
    f. At the conclusion of mediation, the Mediator will unsubscribe all parties from the private list and report the outcome to the Advisory Board, in Executive session.
    g. In the event a Mediator is unable to complete his assignment, due to illness, emergency, etc., the next-in-line Mediator will be asked to step in so that discussions may continue.
    h. Agreements found to be not in concurrence with UsGenWeb By-Laws will be re-negotiated.

C. Mediation Eligibility

  1. The Mediation Process is applicable when a complaint, or grievance, is filed by the following:

    a. Any member of the USGenWeb Project, filing on his/her own behalf, within 45 days of incident, or discovery of incident.
    b. Former USGenWeb members within 14 days of termination of membership either with the Project, or within a specific State or Special Project.
    c. Transcribers and accepted contributing researchers, within 45 days of incident, or discovery of incident.
    d. Copyright disagreement may be assigned for mediation only by the Advisory Board.
    e. In the case of two or more individuals forming one party, the group will select one spokesperson to enter into Mediation, on behalf of the others, in addition to an advisor/counselor. The chosen advisor/counselor may be a member of the group.

  2. Filing Procedure

    a. A filer should compile a note using the subject line "Complaint", or "Grievance"; give a brief description of the conflict and the name(s) of the opposing party/parties. The note shall be sent to the filer's Regional Representatives on the Advisory Board.
    b. Filer understands that his Regional Representatives may request clarification, make helpful suggestions, or offer to personally assist in reconciling the differences, prior to forwarding the request to the appropriate USGenWeb Advisory Board Mediator, to insure that all other avenues of settlement have been exhausted.

  3. Mediation Procedure

    a. Upon receipt of the complaint/grievance, the Mediator shall offer each party an opportunity to choose a current member of The USGenWeb Project to serve as advisor/counselor. Each member has the right to waive the selection of an advisor/counselor. A waiver may not be withdrawn once mediation begins.
    b. Recognizing the importance of confidentiality during mediation, all communication, dialogue, documents, logs, etc. presented is to be considered privileged information and will remain confidential during and after negotiation.
    c. Mediation may continue for an indefinte period, as long as the mediator feels that progress is being made and an amicable and just conclusion may be reached.
    d. All agreements are considered binding and parties are expected to honor and abide by agreements reached during mediation.
    e. The results (only) of the Mediation Process may be made public to the membership, by the involved parties, if all parties are in agreement. f. At the close of Mediation, the Mediator shall report a summary of the grievance and outcome of mediation to the Advisory Board in Executive Session. In the event that a resolution has not been reached, the Advisory Board will then review the issue with the Mediator, call on the parties involved to submit further statements only if deemed necessary, and issue a ruling.


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