Amendment: Appendices #8
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Code of Conduct would be relevant here - the constitution currently links to it on hacksoc.org/irc.html, it would be better to have it as an appendix. |
| 1. Pull Requests for amendments to Constitutional Appendices: | ||
| 1. MUST be merged following a successful vote at a meeting of the Committee. | ||
| 2. MUST contain the result of any vote on the amendment they represent. | ||
| 3. MUST represent an amendment to exactly one Appendix of the Constitution. |
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this (and 4.2.2) will make it difficult to merge, split, or update in bulk the amendments
| 4. MUST not affect the content of the Constitution. | ||
| 2. Commit messages merging Pull Requests for amendments to Constitutional appendices: | ||
| 1. MUST contain the results of the passing vote for the amendment they represent (i.e. the number of votes for, against, and abstaining) | ||
| 2. MUST start with the text 'Appendix `X`:', where `X` is the letter of the affected appendix. |
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suggestion: add something along the lines of "or, if the amendment affects multiple appendices, 'Appendices:'"
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| 2. MUST start with the text 'Appendix `X`:', where `X` is the letter of the affected appendix. | |
| 2. MUST start with the text 'Appendix `X`:', where `X` is the letter of the affected appendix, if the commit affects exactly one appendix. | |
| 3. MUST start with the text 'Appendices:' if the commit affects more than one appendix. |
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some concrete suggestions for changes to wording
also: given we have Constitution.md, Declaration.md, Roles.md, should we have Appendices/ rather than appendices/? (and should we specify somewhere in the README the format of filenames of appendices? e.g. if we want the make-based build to keep working, they cannot have spaces in the filenames)
(finally, I realise we'll need to add the appendices to the PDF build process at some point – presumably best to leave that out of this amendment, and do it in a housekeeping change later, to keep the thing we're voting on at the AGM as small as possible?)
| 1. All changes to this repository MUST be made via a Pull Request. | ||
| 2. 'Housekeeping' changes MAY be made on the conditions that said changes: | ||
| 1. MUST NOT affect the meaning of the Constitution or its appendices (though they MAY affect the format and/or style); | ||
| 2. MUST be made via a Pull Request as per §2.1, for which the following restrictions apply: |
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for the sake of keeping things consistent with the rest of the constitution, at least for the time being:
| 2. MUST be made via a Pull Request as per §2.1, for which the following restrictions apply: | |
| 2. MUST be made via a Pull Request as per 2.1, for which the following restrictions apply: |
(I would personally consider adding § to section numbers later to be a housekeeping change that would not require an AGM/EGM)
| 4. MUST not affect the content of the Constitution. | ||
| 2. Commit messages merging Pull Requests for amendments to Constitutional appendices: | ||
| 1. MUST contain the results of the passing vote for the amendment they represent (i.e. the number of votes for, against, and abstaining) | ||
| 2. MUST start with the text 'Appendix `X`:', where `X` is the letter of the affected appendix. |
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| 2. MUST start with the text 'Appendix `X`:', where `X` is the letter of the affected appendix. | |
| 2. MUST start with the text 'Appendix `X`:', where `X` is the letter of the affected appendix, if the commit affects exactly one appendix. | |
| 3. MUST start with the text 'Appendices:' if the commit affects more than one appendix. |
| 3. MUST represent an amendment to exactly one Appendix of the Constitution. | ||
| 4. MUST not affect the content of the Constitution. |
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given the possibility of merging/splitting appendices, and concerns raised about the word "affect":
| 3. MUST represent an amendment to exactly one Appendix of the Constitution. | |
| 4. MUST not affect the content of the Constitution. | |
| 3. MUST not alter the content of the Constitution. |
| 6. If any vacancies occur in the Committee during the academic year, they shall be democratically filled as soon as is convenient via an EGM (Extraordinary General Meeting). | ||
| 7. Members can stand jointly for election to any Committee position in teams of 2 individuals, under the following regulations: | ||
| 1. Both members must be paid-up Society members as per 10.1. | ||
| 2. If one member of a jointly elected committee position resigns or is dismissed from their role, an EGM (as per 10.6) shall be held to elect a replacement for the committee position. The remaining member may continue their duties if necessary until the by-election, at which point they must stand for reelection if they wish to continue. | ||
| 3. In committee-only votes, the members which hold a joint position shall only have one collective vote. | ||
| 4. If there is an irreconcilable disagreement between members holding a joint position in regards to a major decision related to their role, there shall be a committee vote in the next committee meeting. All present members shall be allowed to cast a vote on what action shall be taken in order to solve the disagreement and decide on the action to be taken. | ||
| 8. Before taking office, Society Committee members must sign a public declaration agreeing to abide by, enforce, and operate in accordance with this Constitution, YUSU's Constitution, YUSU's Policies, and guidelines in the Resource Hub. | ||
| 1. The template for this declaration is given in Appendix A. |
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one other thing: is the idea here to mv Declaration.md appendices/A-declaration.md? if we're going to continue to have Roles.md gitignored and created from Roles.template.md, that will require some effort to adjust the build process to put the names from Roles.md immediately after appendix A.
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This was discussed in the 2021 AGM. There were no comments. The amendment passed. As recorded in the news article, the results were: 16 for, 0 against, 1 abstaining. |
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almost all comments here were not related to Constitution.md, so undrafting this and merging. |
The Constitution regularly leaves out details on matters.
For example, §10.5.2 specifies that "Single Transferable Vote" should be used to count votes but STV is not a single method of counting votes. There are many variations that can produce significantly different results. As it stands, this is undefined and largely ends up being down to the Returning Officer to decide.
It makes sense for such specificities to be beyond the scope of the constitution. Such details are too important to leave to in-the-moment interterpretation while not important enough that they should require going to the lengths of organising a General Meeting and getting a two-thirds majority to amend. They can also be notably complex.
To fix this, I propose that we amend the constitution to allow "appendices". These constitutional appendicies should be required to be specified by the constitution and limited in scope, and they should be able to be amended by a simple majority of the committee. These measures would respectively prevent appendices from effectively being a backdoor to amending the constitution while maintaining reasonable democratic control over them.
As it stands, this pull request contains my initial proposal for what the amendment should be. This includes two places where I think appendices should be utilised: the definition of STV (text not yet provided) and the template for the committee declaration (which would basically be what we already have in Declaration.md).
This pull request also contains a suggested change to the rules for this repository to account for amendments to Constitutional Appendicies.
Comments, concerns, and suggestions are of course welcome.