Vote to Amend Governance Documents

History

Announced: 12/26/18
Town Hall: 1/15/19
Language locked: 1/24/19
Voted on: 1/29/19

Background

Current bylaws: https://wiki.pumpingstationone.org/Bylaws
Current membership agreement: https://wiki.pumpingstationone.org/Membership_agreement

For information about previous bylaws and related votes, there are extensive resources beyond the links above. The Wiki and Google Group are the primary repository for that information. Two Town Halls were announced on the Google Group and held both live and online on Oct 10 and Oct 24, 2018

An update of the bylaws and membership agreement has been created. In addition, a wholly new document has been created, entitled Dispute Resolution Committee. When we refer to the “Bylaws Vote”, we are referring to these three interconnected documents. The documents must be considered as one set, as they reference each other and do not stand alone as individual documents.

Bylaws

The Bylaws adjusts several aspects and timing of various functions of organization. Some of these come into conflict with the current bylaws; issues will be sorted out in the vote language. Major changes include:

Removed language that was not directly to the operations of the organization, or rights provided to its members
Made one membership tier
Gives voting rights to all members
Dispute Resolution Committee is instantiated
10% of Membership for quorum

Membership Agreement

The Membership Agreement strengthens and clarifies various expectations for Member Conduct. It also states various organizational processes explicitly, membership benefits, and expectations between all parties.

Major changes include:

The revised bylaws only has one membership tier. All Full Members will be converted to a Membership with Member Storage level, and all Starving Hackers will be converted to a Membership level.
Updated anti-harassment and code of conduct.
Explicitly states rights and responsibilities of Members and Organization.
Clarifies methods for resolving disputes.

Dispute Resolution Committee

The Dispute Resolution Committee is an official committee instantiated by Pumping Station: One Bylaws; its management is at the discretion of the board. The revised bylaws include it as a requirement so that it must exist at all times. The document that governs the DRC shall be maintained by the DRC and the Board of Directors, and is provided here for reference - https://docs.google.com/document/d/15FOGG91VR_wQMaRdJBUguScCpBnzG7d77Q3sB1-ZppU/

Reasons for its creation:

Instantiates a committee tasked with working on resolving a dispute or issue.
Defines a clear and transparent process for raising an issue.
Has provisions for storing institutional knowledge about issues that arise and how disputes are handled.

Language

Replace our current bylaws with the revision contained in this document - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gCKp6NKaYEg4mjtNaPlb3eN5U3djD8WfUL5DkcEaYZg/.

Replace our current membership agreement with the revision contained in this document - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pCB4VwE5YOo03PAI9kj07vVi1T-eDjZQWwfOGZls8jQ/

All changes go into effect at midnight following the passing of vote.

If any policy is discovered to be in conflict with language or policies that appear in an ancillary governance document, then the organization will defer to the the newest of the documents. Corrections, amendments, and other forms of revised language will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

Results

Present:

For:

Against:

Abstain:

Vote to Amend Governance Documents

Contents

Sponsors