Parliamentary Procedures

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ADOPTED BY the Governance Working Group on 27 Jan 2022

Current as of 27 Jan 2022


0L follows a light, informal set of parliamentary procedures designed to assure that the will of the community is reflected in decisions and that the rights of minority groups and absent individuals are preserved. The rules have been chosen to streamline processes and not create an overly burdensome standard for running meetings and advancing initiatives. These rules are subject to revision and are maintained by the Governance Working Group.

  1. Agendas
    1. Meeting agendas are intended to be flexible, without required notice or publication periods. Ideally, agendas will be publicized in advance for the benefit of attracting attendees and providing the basics needed for an informed discussion.
    2. Creation of Working Group agendas is the responsibility of the working group’s Coordinator, but this may be delegated.
  2. Quorum
    1. A meeting is said to have quorum when at least 3 persons are in attendance, of whom at least two hold key roles (i.e., Coordinator, Broker, Archivist)
    2. No official business can be transacted in the absence of a quorum, and the meeting notes should simply indicate who was in attendance and that quorum was not achieved.
  3. Facilitation
    1. Working Group meetings are facilitated by the working group’s Coordinator. The Archivist is empowered to chair the meeting in the absence of the Coordinator.
    2. General Community Meetings are led by volunteers from the community.
  4. Meeting Minutes
    1. Working Groups are required to keep minutes of all meetings, including who was present for the meeting.
      1. Note that “present” is somewhat discretionary. As a guideline, if a person is in the meeting for at least 50% of the session they should be considered present.
      2. The Archivist has reasonable latitude to vary from this, and an exact measure is not required. The decision of the archivist is final.
    2. The working group Archivist is charged with transcribing the minutes and posting them publicly for the community.
      1. In the event the Archivist is not able to perform this function, this duty must be delegated and completed.
    3. Audio & Video
      1. Audio or video recordings of meetings can substitute for written minutes, but must be posted in a publicly accessible location.
      2. Weekly Community (and other large scale) Meetings should be recorded and published to the 0L YouTube channel
      3. The use of audio and video recordings has privacy implications, and the person doing the recording must disclose the recording at the beginning of the session and ask if there are any objections. If there is an objection, there will be no recording.
    4. If written minutes are used, the minutes are considered to be final, and not subject to revision, if no one voices objection to the published minutes within 2 days of publication of the minutes by the Archivist.
    5. When a vote is taken, the minutes must record
      1. The outcome, including number of voted for, against, and abstentions (see, Sec. 5.6)
      2. Who, if any, voted against the proposal and, (see, Sec. 5.7)
      3. Who, if any, abstained. (see, Sec. 5.7)
    6. When a proxy is exercised, the details must be recorded in the minutes. (see, sec. 5.3.4.2)
    7. In the absence of a quorum, the meeting minutes need to reflect only that
      1. Quorum was not achieved, and
      2. Who was present (see, Sec. 2.2)
  5. Working Group Voting Process (*Interim Process)
    1. While the eventual goal is to manage all voting on-chain, until those mechanisms are adopted, all votes shall be manually recorded and documented in the relevant meeting minutes
    2. Process/Steps for voting on a proposal inside a working group:
      1. Proposal is explained
      2. Motion is made
      3. Motion is seconded
      4. Discussion/Debate
      5. Discussion closed
      6. Simple Yes/No vote of those present
      7. Result of vote recorded clearly in the minutes (see, Sec. 4.5 & 4.6)
    3. Eligibility to vote
      1. Eligibility is based on presence and participation; to have an informed opinion on the matters under consideration requires familiarity with the issues and the context.
      2. Anyone who has attended at least 2 of the previous 4 meetings of the working group is permitted to vote in the working group.
        1. Attendance will be verified by reference to the minutes.
      3. Anyone who is deemed to be an active member of the project is permitted to vote in the working group, where active member is defined as someone who has contributed in a meaningful fashion to the task or proposal under vote.
        1. The Broker and the Coordinator of the group where the vote is occurring are vested with discretion to determine whether an individual is an active member for purposes of this section.
        2. In the event of a disagreement between the Broker and the Coordinator, the Archivist will provide the decision.
      4. Exceptions
        1. Coordinators’ Working Group: Only Coordinators are permitted to vote on matters within that working group.
        2. Anyone holding one of the key roles in a working group (i.e., Coordinator, Broker, Archivist) can always vote in the group where they hold the role.
      5. Proxies
        1. Proxy voting is permitted.
        2. To give a proxy, a person must notify the working group of their intention by posting in the working group’s Discord channel in advance of the meeting, describing the proxy, who it is given to, and what is in scope.
        3. When a proxy is exercised in a vote, the meeting minutes must record who exercised the proxy vote, who assigned the proxy to that person, and the vote that was cast.
        4. Proxies must be specific to the matter under vote; not a general grant of authority to act.
    4. Most matters require a simple majority (51% or greater) of those present during the meeting.
    5. No specific notice period is required prior to a vote.
      1. An exception to this rule will be made where at least 2 members of the working group request a notice period, in which case the matter will be published to the working group’s Discord channel for a period of not less than 5 days.
    6. Election of the Key Roles (i.e., Coordinator, Broker, Archivist) requires a three-fifths supermajority (60% or greater).
      1. If no candidate receives the required percentage, the field of candidates will be reduced to the 2 individuals that received the largest numbers of votes and the vote repeated. For this “runoff election” the candidate who receives a simple majority will be the winner.
    7. All votes are executed by either voice or roll call, and the outcome shall be reported in the minutes.
    8. The meeting minutes should indicate who, if anyone, voted against the proposal or abstained from the vote.
  6. Protocol Voting Process
    1. Voting on proposals related to the 0L protocol are cast on-chain by the Validator operators.
    2. Proposals requiring a vote must be posted in the appropriate Discord channels.
    3. The voting period for any proposals shall be
      1. Not less than 7 days except for
      2. Urgent matters, e.g., security patches or incident response, which may require a shorter period
    4. All proposals are passed with a two-thirds super majority (67%) of the active validators.
  7. Community-wide Voting (*Interim Process)
    1. While the eventual goal is to manage all voting on-chain, until those mechanisms are adopted, proposals that require broader community participation will follow the process outlined in this section.
    2. Only working groups may sponsor a proposal for a community-wide vote.
      1. Individuals wishing to put a proposal to community vote should engage with a relevant working group and petition that working group to sponsor the proposal.
    3. Once a working group votes to sponsor a proposal, the proposal will be added to GitHub and it will be posted to the #community-proposals-for-review channel in Discord for a period of public review and comment.
      1. Sponsored proposals must be discussed at the next weekly community mtg (someone from the sponsoring working group should present the proposal to the community).
      2. After the presentation to the community, the proposal must remain visible on the relevant Discord channel for no less than 2 days, and no more than 5 days.
      3. Proposals must be open for comment.
      4. If, during the comment period, at least 5 persons interact with the post (i.e., by leaving either a comment or an emoji), the proposal is advanced to the Coordinators’ Working Group.
      5. If a proposal fails to gain 5 interactions after a period of 5 days, it is sent back to the sponsoring working group.
        1. If a proposal is sent back to a working group, the group may again vote to sponsor it and the process repeats
    4. The Coordinators’ Working Group must perform at least one of these actions:
      1. Send the proposal back to the working group that sponsored it for revision (note: the typical response when the feedback was negative in whole or part),
        1. If a proposal is sent back to a working group, the group may choose to modify it and vote again to sponsor it, in which case the process in Sec. 7.3 repeats
      2. Schedule further discussion of the proposal (note: this is the recommended precursor to a vote),
      3. Schedule a vote on the proposal.
      4. Should the Coordinators’ Working Group be faced with multiple proposals, the group has the discretion to sequence the voting in such manner as they see fit to best advance the needs of the community.
    5. Eligibility and process for casting community-wide votes is TBD