RA rules of procedure

[Jamie Palisades]

This is an informational post regarding current RA practices for running meetings. Some of the RA's procedures are specified by the Constitution. Others are set by RA legislation. Others are just informal customs. Below, after a few preliminary comments, is an "organized" copy of some recent relevant adopted RA legislation about how we will run the RA meetings.

Regarding the method we use to run meetings, we've recently adopted some few specific procedures. We will start using them at our meeting on 30 March 2008. They're copied below, for the convenience of citizens and guests who attend our RA meetings. The RA regards them as an experiment to balance (and, we hope, to improve, meeting efficiency, fairness and citizen access.

Here are my unofficial comments, first:

* Please continue to help us, by reasonably minimizing social and side comments during official meetings. It's hard to follow the official threads, in open virtual text chat, when there are multiple distractions and "Hi Jamie" interruptions.

* When there are multiple people who want to speak, we have *specific* rules now, for time limits and order of speakers. (Read on below.) Please be aware of this, and listen for cues from the meeting's presiding officer about who has the floor.

* Citizens are welcome at RA meetings, and welcome to introduce items of business. You can see below that there are specific methods for that too.

* Please note: because these rules below are set by CDS legislation (a CDS RA majority vote), they also can be changed or waived by an RA majority vote. Rules that are established by the Constitution, on the other hand, can only be changed by changing the Constitution.

RA MEETING AGENDA RULES
(Below is text from bills passed by the RA on 24 March 2008, re-formatted for easy reading. The [bracketed captions] were not part of the legislation.)

Every agenda for the RA shall be based on a schedule of 2 hours, with no less than a 10 minute open discussion time allowed at the end and no less than 10 minutes of administrative time set at the beginning.

[Administrative time first]

During the administrative time, the LRA shall perform administrative business on the RA agenda (such electing and swearing in a Chancellor and swearing in new members) and shall entertain procedural motions from the RA (such as motions to adjust the order of the agenda, extend or adjust time for debate, or to move a item designated as "noncontroversial" to a "consent agenda" in the next session; or to move an item on the "consent agenda" to the end of the agenda for debate) and shall ask the RA to pass the "consent agenda" without debate.

[Time limits for each agenda item]

Each item on the agenda shall be allocated a time for debate by the LRA. If the LRA believes that a proposed piece of legislation shall not be controversial, it shall be allocated not less than 10 munutes for debate. If the LRA believes that a proposed piece of legislation may be controversial, it shall be allocated not less than 15 minutes for debate. All members of the RA and all citizens in attendance at the RA shall indicate to the LRA, before the start of the RA session or during the first ten minutes of the session, whether they wish to speak on an item on the agenda, and which side they wish to speak on.

[Allocating speaking time within an agenda item]

Time for debate shall be allocated as follows: for ten minute matters (3 minutes pro; three minutes con; 2 minutes pro rebuttal; 2 minutes con rebuttal; vote); for 15 minute matters (5 minutes pro; 5 minutes con; 2 minutes pro rebuttal; 2 minutes con rebuttal; 1 minute vote); time longer debates shall be set by the LRA, with each side getting equal time for original statements and for rebuttal, with pro going first, and con going second. The LRA shall divide time for debate between those wishing to speak pro and con, with the provision that half the time for debate shall be reserved for RA members wishing to speak on a matter. Prior to debate, the LRA shall announce the order of speakers and the time allowed for each speaker. Speakers may speak to the issue for the time allowed, or cede their time to another speaker of record. During the time allowed for speaking, the speaker shall not be interrupted by any person in attendance. No speaker shall speak longer than the allocated time.

[RA decision on an action item after debate closes]

Following debate, the RA shall either move to vote on the issue; move for futher debate; or move to allow amendments and further debate. If the RA wishes further debate or amendments, no vote shall be held, and the matter shall be tabled until the next session of the RA, at which time the matter shall be considered as a "prior matter of the RA" on the agenda, and shall be considered to be controversial for the purpose of setting time for debate. If the RA has voted to allow amendments, the matter shall be tabled and amendments shall be drafted and submitted to the LRA and posted on the forums at least one day prior to the date on which the LRA is to publish the RA agenda.

[Provision for citizen input]

Any citizen may propose legislation to the RA by: 1. emailing the proposal to the LRA; 2. giving the LRA a proposal inworld on notecard; or 3. posting specifically proposed text in the "legislative discussion" forum in a post that specifically requests that the LRA add the proposal to the agenda.

[end of post]

[Patroklus Murakami]

Jamie

Thanks for posting this summary of the recent changes to the RA rules of procedure. They're a little restrictive in many ways and seem to reduce the options for debate at meetings but no doubt these can be adapted as the new procedures bed in and we see how they work in practice. I understand the considerable support for more formal procedures to make RA meetings run more effectively and hopefully, if people follow these procedures a little more assiduously than some followed the old ones, meetings might run a bit more smoothly. My question, and it's a request for information rather than a snarky comment is, how do these new procedures relate to the old ones posted here? The new procedures recently passed by the RA do not, to the best of my knowledge, abolish the old ones. Nor should they, since the previous set of procedures covered a number of situations that are not covered by the new ones such as the creation of committees, public access to meetings etc. We need to know which portions of the previous set of procedures have been replaced by the new ones and which ones remain in effect. Otherwise there remains some potential for confusion.

[Beathan]

Pat --

The new procedures, except where flatly contradictory to the old procedures (such as in the provisions giving the RA more ability to control the agenda from the floor), were meant to supplement, not supplant, the old procedures. I think the old procedures are, except where displaced, still in place.

My gripe with the old procedures (again, except with regard to LRA control), were not that they were bad, but that they were insufficient. I called them a rule sketch, rather than rules, for a reason. They were not BAD rules; the problem was that they were not YET rules. The new rules should fix this problem.

I agree that the rules we now have are too restrictive and inflexible. My goal there was to get the RA used to discipline -- and the kind of impersonal discipline that comes from rules rather than by personal control. After that, we can relax the rules with the hope and expectation that the discipline will continue.

Beathan

[Jamie Palisades]

What a excellent question, Pat.

I have a bit of parliamentary experience, which led me to similar skepticism. However. approval of these rules were in process when I joined the RA, so I felt it best to give them the benefit of the doubt, and voted with the group. We'll find out, by using them. :)

Generally, in interpreting statutes under the maxims of Western legal traditions, one ought to regard no statutory provision as repealed unless it is either explicitly repealed, or its meaning is contradicted clearly by a later statute. So, like Beathan, I suspect that all prior uncontradicted rules also apply.

Having said that, I note that historically the RA, like the SC, *frequently* has only complied mildly and intermittently with its own rules of procedure. So the gravity of our situation may not be overwhelming. Still, we should do better. On that, please see my next post on this thread. regards JP

[Jamie Palisades]

I feel we need one. There are a *lot* of rules. I do not think it requires a rule amendment, but rather, would be feasible simply if (a) the LRA were to ask someone to serve, and (b) the RA has no objection to the LRA having an expert available for advice during meetings.
Of course we could write legislation to do this, instead. But I am not a member of the Complexity Party.
Any thoughts? I may propose it at next week's RA session. Regards JP

[Justice Soothsayer]

Thanks again, Jamie, for posting the summary of the rules. I've noticed one possible concern, which is the use of the term "table". As Wikipedia notes,

In parliamentary procedure, table as a verb has two contradictory meanings, one in use in the United States and the other in the remainder of the English-speaking world. In the United States, the motion to table (or "lay on the table") is a proposal to suspend consideration of a pending motion, while in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, to "table" a motion (or "place on the table") is the means to commence discussion on a proposal.

The new RA rules seem to use the US sense of the word, but some clarification is probably in order, especially for those not familiar with US-style parliamentary procedures. CDS government officials need to be sensitive to these sorts of possible cross-cultural misunderstandings. I suspect this might also be why some non-US folks think that the use of Roberts Rules of Order can unintentionally cause difficulties.

[Beathan]

Justice --

Thanks for pointing this out. As an American, I am most used to the American usage. When a matter is considered, it is taken up -- when it is to be set aside, the chair puts it back on the table. Thus, when I use the term "table" (as I did in the rules) -- I mean to set something down and aside, not to take it up.

Beathan

[symokurka]

Perfect, Jamie, still actual,and very efficient. Though tightly finalized to voting.
I just ask you all oldies to suggest me where in agenda and how much max time per session could we dedicate to information not strictly finalized to immediate vote. Eg i might wish that an advisor publicly informs RA on specific "hot" items (eg market trends in SL, Cds population trends, specific polls results etc). This because (sorry to say that) i sometimes noticed in the past ppl voting without having a good knowledge of why they were voting pro or con. Yes, you'll answer we have forums for that, and that's ok. But a quick sum up of data and infos in world could just enhance our democracy.

[Brian Livingston]

Archived on the CDS Portal at: http://portal.slcds.info/index.php?id=281

Or, from the main page: CDS Portal / Government / Branches of Government / Representative Assembly / Representative Assembly Rules of Procedure

--Brian

[Patroklus Murakami]

Can we have the following set of RA rules of procedure which, as the discussion above demonstrates are still in effect, archived to the portal as well? They are currently on the wiki here.

As I pointed out almost a year ago now, these two sets of rules are contradictory in some regards. For example, the earlier rules give the LRA the right to determine and control the agenda for meetings; the later ones give that power to the RA as a whole. The later ones (posted on the Portal) supercede the earlier ones (posted on the wiki) except where the new rules don't cover something that was there in the older ones e.g. on the right to set up commissions to look at issues in detail.

This is a bit of a mess frankly and, while we have been able to muddle through during the 8th and 9th RAs it becomes more and more untenable to have two sets of rules, some of which contradict each other, as we go on. It would be really helpful if this RA were to commit to producing one, unified set of rules of procedure so there is less potential for confusion.

/me dons flame-retardant suit and ducks

[Justice Soothsayer]

Donning a flame retardant suit of my own, I propose the following draft trying to reconcile the 24 March 2008 rules with the earlier version (both of which are currently in effect to the extent not contradicted by each other).

DRAFT RA MEETING AGENDA RULES

Author’s note: this is an effort to reconcile the RA meeting procedures with the 2008 rule changes, with language drawn from each version as well as additional new proposed language in italics. [Bracketed] language is for ease of reading and not part of the legislation.

1. Agenda
The Leader of the RA (LRA) will determine the proposed agenda for each meeting, and publish it on a notecard and on the forum at least 24 hours before each meeting. It is expected that all members will suggest agenda items, but the LRA will prepare the final draft. If the RA membership feels that the LRA has not brought an agenda item to the meeting that they want, a petition agreed to by a majority of all members can insert an agenda item into the list for the next meeting.

Every agenda for the RA shall be based on a schedule of 2 hours, with no less than a 10 minute open discussion time allowed at the end and no less than 10 minutes of administrative time set at the beginning.

2. Meeting Procedures

[Administrative time first]

During the administrative time, the LRA shall perform administrative business on the RA agenda (such electing and swearing in a Chancellor and swearing in new members) and shall entertain procedural motions from the RA (such as motions to adjust the order of the agenda, extend or adjust time for debate, or to move a item designated as "noncontroversial" to a "consent agenda" in the next session; or to move an item on the "consent agenda" to the end of the agenda for debate) and shall ask the RA to pass the "consent agenda" without debate.

[Time limits for each agenda item]

Each item on the agenda shall be allocated a time for debate by the LRA. If the LRA believes that a proposed piece of legislation shall not be controversial, it shall be allocated not less than 10 minutes for debate. If the LRA believes that a proposed piece of legislation may be controversial, it shall be allocated not less than 15 minutes for debate. All members of the RA and all citizens in attendance at the RA shall indicate to the LRA, before the start of the RA session or during the first ten minutes of the session, whether they wish to speak on an item on the agenda, and which side they wish to speak on.

[Allocating speaking time within an agenda item]

Time for debate shall be allocated as follows: for ten minute matters (3 minutes pro; three minutes con; 2 minutes pro rebuttal; 2 minutes con rebuttal; vote); for 15 minute matters (5 minutes pro; 5 minutes con; 2 minutes pro rebuttal; 2 minutes con rebuttal; 1 minute vote); time longer debates shall be set by the LRA, with each side getting equal time for original statements and for rebuttal, with pro going first, and con going second. The LRA shall divide time for debate between those wishing to speak pro and con, with the provision that half the time for debate shall be reserved for RA members wishing to speak on a matter. Prior to debate, the LRA shall announce the order of speakers and the time allowed for each speaker. Speakers may speak to the issue for the time allowed, or cede their time to another speaker of record. During the time allowed for speaking, the speaker shall not be interrupted by any person in attendance. No speaker shall speak longer than the allocated time.

[RA decision on an action item after debate closes]

Following debate, the RA shall either move to vote on the issue; move for further debate; or move to allow amendments and further debate. If the RA wishes further debate or amendments, no vote shall be held, and the matter shall be tabled until the next session of the RA, at which time the matter shall be considered as a "prior matter of the RA" on the agenda, and shall be considered to be controversial for the purpose of setting time for debate. If the RA has voted to allow amendments, the matter shall be tabled and amendments shall be drafted and submitted to the LRA and posted on the forums at least one day prior to the date on which the LRA is to publish the RA agenda.

2. Citizen input

Any citizen may propose legislation to the RA by: 1. emailing the proposal to the LRA; 2. giving the LRA a proposal inworld on notecard; or 3. posting specifically proposed text in the "legislative discussion" forum in a post that specifically requests that the LRA add the proposal to the agenda.

It is suggested that that member be chosen by the submitter as a supporter of the substance of the bill. Posting the content of the bill on the forum is also strongly suggested, so that public opinion can be gathered. It is highly suggested that the bill contain two parts:

(1) A summary of what is proposed, and
(2) a detailed statement of the proposed action and its implications.

The members AND the public need to know the issues on what will be a wide variety of matters, and those persons must not be assumed to have a complete understanding of the issues. I.E. The bill should be an educational document. Please!

3. Public proceedings.

All meetings of the RA will be public, and all citizens of CDS are welcome to attend and participate. Non-citizens are welcome too, but they should listen only, and not speak. If non-member residents disrupt proceedings, they should be subject to actions which may end in being Teleported Home and Banned from CDS.

RA may, by simple majority vote, enter into a closed session to discuss legal or personnel matters. Although no transcript is kept in closed session, journal entries are kept normally unless the secrecy provision is invoked per Article I of the constitution.

A closed session may be one of four types, to be determined by the RA when the vote to enter closed session:

Members only
Citizens only
Members + invited guests (the LRA determines who is to be invited)
Citizens + invited guests (the LRA determines who is to be invited)

4. Committees.

The LRA can create (or propose for creation) committees of members for the purpose of study and information gathering on proposed topics (bills, agenda items of all sorts). Committees will be formed of volunteers, and the LRA will make efforts to ensure that committees contain a balanced range of faction members and positions.

Committee members can be non-members of the RA. Each topic that a committe receives for attention must be brought back to the RA for action, even if the recommendation is to drop it.

5. Public Access to Proposed Bills.

A notecard dispensor, or, even just an object containing notecards, will be placed in a convenient place in the meeting premises (and elsewhere, if people wish), for the purpose of disseminating the information needed for the meeting. This dispensor will contain the Agenda, a copy of each proposed Bill, and supporting materials which members wish to offer for the efficient of discussion of a topic.

6. Published Proceedings.

All proceedings will be recorded and published in the forum.

7. Recording Approved Bills

The RA Archivist shall publish copies of all approved bills on the portal at portal.slcds.info.

8. Quorum

A quorum for all RA business is equal to a minimum of 50%+ 1 members in attendance. In the absence of a quorum, discussion may be held, but no action can be taken.

[Justice Soothsayer]

After a bit of discussion during and following the last RA meeting, it seems that the rules on allocation of speaking times are a bit too stilted, and haven't really been enforced, so we can do without. The RA majority can always extend the time for debate under Rule 2(B) if needed. So I am proposing adoption of the following at the next RA meeting:

1. Agenda
The Leader of the RA (LRA) will determine the proposed agenda for each meeting, and publish it on a notecard and on the forum at least 24 hours before each meeting. It is expected that all members will suggest agenda items, but the LRA will prepare the final draft. If the RA membership feels that the LRA has not brought an agenda item to the meeting that they want, a petition agreed to by a majority of all members can insert an agenda item into the list for the next meeting.

Every agenda for the RA shall be based on a schedule of a maximum of 2 hours, with no less than a 10 minute open discussion time allowed at the end and no less than 10 minutes of administrative time set at the beginning.

2. Meeting Procedures

A. [Administrative time first]

During the administrative time, the LRA shall perform administrative business on the RA agenda (such electing and swearing in a Chancellor and swearing in new members) and shall entertain procedural motions from the RA (such as motions to adjust the order of the agenda, extend or adjust time for debate, or to move a item designated as "noncontroversial" to a "consent agenda" in the next session; or to move an item on the "consent agenda" to the end of the agenda for debate) and shall ask the RA to pass the "consent agenda" without debate.

B. [Time limits for each agenda item]

Each item on the agenda shall be allocated a time for debate by the LRA. If the LRA believes that a proposed piece of legislation shall not be controversial, it shall be allocated not less than 10 minutes for debate. If the LRA believes that a proposed piece of legislation may be controversial, it shall be allocated not less than 15 minutes for debate. All members of the RA and all citizens in attendance at the RA shall indicate to the LRA, before the start of the RA session or during the first ten minutes of the session, whether they wish to speak on an item on the agenda, and which side they wish to speak on.

C. [RA decision on an action item after debate closes]

Following the allocated time for debate, the RA shall either move to vote on the issue; move for further debate; or move to allow amendments and further debate. If the RA wishes further debate or amendments, no vote shall be held, and the matter shall be tabled until the next session of the RA, at which time the matter shall be considered as a "prior matter of the RA" on the agenda, and shall be considered to be controversial for the purpose of setting time for debate. If the RA has voted to allow amendments, the matter shall be tabled and amendments shall be drafted and submitted to the LRA and posted on the forums at least one day prior to the date on which the LRA is to publish the RA agenda.

3. Citizen input

Any citizen may propose legislation to the RA by: 1. emailing the proposal to the LRA; 2. giving the LRA a proposal inworld on notecard; or 3. posting specifically proposed text in the "legislative discussion" forum in a post that specifically requests that the LRA add the proposal to the agenda.

It is suggested that that member be chosen by the submitter as a supporter of the substance of the bill. Posting the content of the bill on the forum is also strongly suggested, so that public opinion can be gathered. It is highly suggested that the bill contain two parts:

(1) A summary of what is proposed, and
(2) a detailed statement of the proposed action and its implications.

The members AND the public need to know the issues on what will be a wide variety of matters, and those persons must not be assumed to have a complete understanding of the issues. I.E. The bill should be an educational document. Please!

4. Public proceedings.

All meetings of the RA will be public, and all citizens of CDS are welcome to attend and participate. Non-citizens are welcome too, but they should listen only, and not speak. If non-member residents disrupt proceedings, they should be subject to actions which may end in being Teleported Home and Banned from CDS.

RA may, by simple majority vote, enter into a closed session to discuss legal or personnel matters. Although no transcript is kept in closed session, journal entries are kept normally unless the secrecy provision is invoked per Article I of the constitution.

A closed session may be one of four types, to be determined by the RA when the vote to enter closed session:

Members only
Citizens only
Members + invited guests (the LRA determines who is to be invited)
Citizens + invited guests (the LRA determines who is to be invited)

5. Committees.

The LRA can create (or propose for creation) committees of members for the purpose of study and information gathering on proposed topics (bills, agenda items of all sorts). Committees will be formed of volunteers, and the LRA will make efforts to ensure that committees contain a balanced range of faction members and positions.

Committee members can be non-members of the RA. Each topic that a committe receives for attention must be brought back to the RA for action, even if the recommendation is to drop it.

6. Public Access to Proposed Bills.

A notecard dispensor, or, even just an object containing notecards, will be placed in a convenient place in the meeting premises (and elsewhere, if people wish), for the purpose of disseminating the information needed for the meeting. This dispensor will contain the Agenda, a copy of each proposed Bill, and supporting materials which members wish to offer for the efficient of discussion of a topic.

7. Published Proceedings.

All proceedings will be recorded and published in the forum.

8. Recording Approved Bills

The RA Archivist shall publish copies of all approved bills on the portal at portal.slcds.info.

9. Quorum

A quorum for all RA business is equal to a minimum of 50%+ 1 members in attendance. In the absence of a quorum, discussion may be held, but no action can be taken.

Edited to reflect agenda length of a maximum of 2 hours.

[symokurka]

Every agenda for the RA shall be based on a schedule of 2 hours,

Justice, remind, i proposed "maximum 2 hours"

[Justice Soothsayer]

Right. Edited to so reflect.

[Brian Livingston]

After reviewing the RA transcript of March 01, 2009, it appears that the motion to adopt the aforementioned rules passed unanimously without any amendment. As such, the following portal page has been updated: http://portal.slcds.info/index.php?id=281.

--Brian Livingston