Proposal: Establishing Decision-Making Procedures for the Maryland Green Party Coordination Council 

The following guidelines apply to decisions made by the Maryland Green Party Coordinating Council, with the exception of: 

- coalitions and endorsements (provided by the existing Policy for Approving Coalitions and Endorsements);
- expenditures less than $250 (to be made at the discretion of the Treasurer and/or Finance Committee); 
- day-to-day supervision of staff and volunteers;- delegation of ongoing project tasks to CC members;
- bylaws amendments (provided by Article 14 of the MGP bylaws); 
- decisions made at annual assemblies (provided by Article 6 of the MGP bylaws);
- MGP policy and platform adoptions (provided by the forthcoming policy);
- any MGP Committee decisions provided by rules or bylaws established for that committee.  

MGP CC members are encouraged to arrive at decisions by consensus. CC members wishing to submit a proposal for consideration by the MGP CC shall first perform initial steps of consensus-seeking, such as discussion of a draft proposal during a CC meeting, posting of a draft proposal on the CC listserv for discussion, discussion of a draft proposal among Green Party locals, and/or private conversations among members. In order to give all members an opportunity to participate in the consensus building process, it is expected that all proposals be posted/discussed in an online or phone discussion forum accessible by the CC (i.e. CC listserv, CC conference call, etc) at least once before the posting of a proposal for a final vote. If blocking concerns or requests for amendments are raised during the initial steps of the consensus-building process, they should be resolved prior to the posting of a proposal for a final vote. Blocking procedures are not allowed once a proposal has been placed online for a final vote. The final step in the process of seeking consensus shall be a vote held using online decision-making software (Loomio or other similar program) accessible to all CC members. 

All proposals should be as succinct as possible, and generally limited to the text of language to be posted publicly as new or amended policies of the Maryland Green Party. All questions regarding the text of a proposal should be clarified during the consensus-seeking process, before posting of a proposal online for a final vote. Proposals should be voted upon in their final form. Any proposal requiring textual changes after posting online for a final vote should be withdrawn and resubmitted rather than revised after completion of a vote.

Proposals shall be open for discussion and vote for at least seven (7) days after online posting for a final vote. Exceptions may be made for emergency/extenuating circumstances, but under no circumstances shall a proposal be open for discussion after online posting for a final vote for less than 24 hours.

Except where specifically provided elsewhere, the decision of a two-thirds (2/3) majority on substantive issues and a 50%+1 majority on process issues shall prevail.

The results of votes taken by the MGP CC shall be recorded for future reference by Green Party membership and the general public. The Recording Secretary shall maintain the results of all online votes in a text-based format separate from the online decision-making software for the purpose of creating a permanent record of MGP CC decisions. 

*italics indicate language in existing bylaws

 
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