Proposals and Voting Policy

Proposals and Voting Policy

All members can create a proposal and invite other members to a vote, in order to either:

• Accept a new policy
• Update an existing policy
• Enact a vote as described in a policy
• Out-of-band decisions (e.g. where are we going to have the next team building event)

Any member who wants to create a proposal will make use of the different methods as they are described in this policy. These methods are organized to match each specific phase of the proposal process. These phases are: "Creating and sharing a proposal", "Voting on a proposal" and "Adopting a proposal". Within each of these phases there are described two methods, one for asynchronous shared proposals and one for synchronous shared proposals.

Creating and Sharing proposals

Creating and sharing a Asynchronous proposal

Members should follow these steps:

1. Post your proposal in the appropriate channel in Basecamp.
   • Use the #vote channel for proposals that concern the entire organization.
   • Use the team channel for proposals for a specific team.
2. Use the template in this Wiki for sharing the proposal in Slack.
3. The proposer must remind the members who didn’t cast their vote two days before the deadline. We suggest two ways to remind other members: 1) use the /reminder functionality in slack (E.g. /remind #vote "proposal x vote deadline" at 05/30/1995 14:00) 2) mentioning members in the thread of the proposal by using the @name function of SlackThe intention for this reminder is twofold:
   • To motivate the people who haven’t interacted with the proposal yet to cast their vote. Do this in an inviting manner by asking them if they need anything to help them come to a vote.
   • The reminder gives every member that voted already the chance to see the information that has been added by the questions others asked, and to revise their vote if necessary.

Creating a proposal synchronously

When creating and sharing a proposal synchronously, the proposer should provide answers to any of the relevant questions as listed in the template earlier.

Voting on a proposal

Voting on a Asynchronous proposal

In the voting phase, two methods are available: interact with the proposal by using Slack’s thread function or by voting with emoticons.

• You can use the thread function to:
  • Make suggestions to add to the proposal
  • Ask clarifying questions in an open and neutral manner, which will benefit everyone else in Polis. The intention of asking clarifying questions should be to understand the original proposal better.