Membership Criteria, Dues, and Protocols for Removal

The current draft for deliberation and amendment: Tiers of membership: Member, Non-voting Board Member (NVBM), and Voting Board Member (VBM). Membership dues or time bank equivalent. Processes for removal. Code of Conduct. Circles and Roles.

Member: Privileges include optional attendance of open meetings; early notice of all NoVASEN events; prioritized feedback; invitations to all open NoVASEN events. Responsibilities include abiding by general code of conduct; some level of activity on an annual-basis (communications, event attendance); if possible, offers services pro-bono or heavily discounted to members of NoVASEN network. To become a member: submit written request for membership to any voting or non-voting board member; respond to request for information (a basic questionnaire; membership granted; added to NoVASEN member listserv and sent a welcome email. Procedure for Removal: submit written request to hold a vote is submitted by a voting or non-voting board member along with at least one other board member to the Team Leader. The Team Leader then adds the vote to the agenda in a reasonable amount of time from the date of submission; the request must be in writing and state how the member failed to meet expectations and formally request for their removal; the request is read during a closed meeting and a plurality of combined voting and non-voting of members vote in-favor of removal. If the vote fails a minimum of 6 months must pass before another vote can held before another vote is held for the same person (with Team leader discretion to make exceptions).

NVBM: Privileges include participating in meetings, like VBMs except for consent/objection (during sociocracy experiment) or voting portion of a proposal; Responsibilities include optional attendance of meetings; abide by general code of conduct; attend >25% of meetings (every two months, assuming bimonthly meetings). To become a NVBM: must be an existing member; submit written request to be non-voting board, stating name and desire for consideration; Team Lead adds the request and vote to the next or the following meeting; in that meeting, the candidate will share their background and motivations for joining; majority of board members at that board meeting (assuming Quorum) vote yes to the request; added to our NoVASEN board member listserv. Procedure for Removal: submit written request to hold a vote is submitted by a voting or non-voting board member, along with at least one other voting or non-voting board member, to the Team Leader. The Team Leader then adds the vote to the agenda in a reasonable amount of time from the date of submission; the request must be in writing and state how the member failed to meet expectations and formally request for their removal; the request is read during a closed meeting and a simple majority of members vote in-favor of removal. If the vote doesn’t pass, a minimum of 6 months must pass before another vote is held the same person (with Team Leader discretion to make exceptions).

VBM: Privileges include full meeting/sociocracy participation privileges and non-sociocracy-based voting privileges; can submit agenda items for review by Team Leader; can petition for funds from NoVASEN; Responsibilities include attendance of the majority of meetings in the year since joining; complete their action items in a timely fashion as determined by Team Leader; abide by general code of conduct. To become a VBM: must be an existing member or NVBM; submit written request for voting board membership; Team Leader adds the request and vote to the next or the following meeting; in that meeting, the candidate shares background and motivations for joining; majority of board members at that meeting (assuming Quorum) vote yes to the request; added to board member listserv. Procedure for Removal: written request to hold a vote is submitted by a voting board member along with at least one other voting board member to the Team Leader. The Team Leader then adds the vote to the agenda in a reasonable amount of time from the date of submission; the request must be in writing and state how the member failed to meet expectations and formally request for their removal; the request is read during a closed meeting and a super-majority of members vote in-favor of removal. If the vote fails, a minimum of 1 year must pass before another vote on the same member can be held (with Team Leader having discretion to make exceptions). *If the Team Leader is being called on for their removal and refuses or is otherwise incapable to add the agenda item to the following meeting for longer than 4 weeks from submission, the proposing Board Member(s) may host a meeting without them so long as a super majority (2/3) of members are present.

Membership Dues: Voting board members are expected to pay $10/mo (or time bank equiv.); Non voting board members are expected to pay $5/mo (or time bank equiv.); Members are encouraged to pay $1/mo (or time bank equiv.). Treasurer is assigned and in charge of dues collection. Dues will be used for events, mutual aid work, and operational expenses, and allocated by participatory budgetining of VBMs.

Code of Conduct: Don’t be an asshole: no ableism, ageism, racism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, homophobia, or harassment in or outside the group.

Circles: Housing Task Force; femSEN, General Circle (Board members, voting and non-voting), Tech (aka RABT), Food Sovereignty, and SECOSOL

Roles - at any given time, there should be a voting board member assigned/fulfilling the following: Team Lead; Scribe (note-taker); Knowledge Organizer; Facilitator (frequently rotating); Treasurer