General Rules For Decision Making

1. All decisions require somebody to propose it. Anybody can put forward a proposal, whether they are a member or not. The proposer should carry out the decision once approved or should find a member to volunteer to do so.
2. Generally decision making methods for actions specify the number of approvals required, the time allowed for objections and a mechanism for resolving disagreements in cases where there are objections.
3. The collective, or any subgroup can agree a particular decision making mechanism for any specific action within their mandate.
4. If there is no specific decision making method defined for a particular action, the following default method will be used

Default Method For Decision Making

1. The decision is approved if a proposal is supported by three members and there are no objections.
2. For online decisions, the proposer should specify a time limit. If there are any objections to this time-limit it defaults to one week..
3. If any member objects to the proposal, the proposal is debated in an attempt to reach a consensus.
4. Debates should have a specific time limit. For online decisions this defaults to one week. The proposer can, at any stage in the debate, modify their proposal in an attempt to reach consensus.
5. At the end of the time limit, each member can express their opinion.
   • Yes - signifying support for the current proposal
   • No - signifying that the member is against the proposal but has no problem going along with it if it is the majority opinion
   • Extension - signifying a wish to extend the debate
   • Block - signifying a strong opposition to the proposal as it stands.
6. If any member votes to extend or block, a new time limit is agreed and the debate continues.
7. For any particular decision, each member can only vote to extend once. Members can block repeatedly times, but only the first one carries an extension.
8. Whenever a time limit is reached and there are no outstanding extensions, the votes are tallied. If there are no blocks and more Yes votes than No votes, the decision is passed. Otherwise it fails.
9. If a majority vote yes and there are outstanding blocks at the end of the process, the collective can vote by majority to exclude the blocker(s) and implement the decision, or can respect the block and keep working together despite the fundamental differences.

See Also:

• Rules of the Indymedia Collective
• Rules of the Internet Collective
• Organisational Flow Chart