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pmlaw / The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo

A public repo for legal documents related to The Bitcoin Foundation
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Reduce quorum for membership votes from 2/3 to 1/2 #20

Closed bg002h closed 10 years ago

bg002h commented 10 years ago

SITUATION: The most recent election was not definitive in one round due to failure to achieve approval by a majority of a quorum.

BACKGROUND: Quorum for membership elections is two-thirds. The winner must achieve a majority of this quorum. Quorum serves two purposes: 1) establishes that a sufficient fraction of the membership have been reached with a ballot and 2) a sufficient fraction of the members wish the ballot to be brought for a vote.

However, in the past election we had several voters who wished for the election to be held but did not have a preference for any candidate. While blank ballots achieve establish quorum, blank ballots also raise the bar that a successful candidate must achieve. This is not what quorum is intended to achieve.

ACTION: This is the first of two pull requests. In this request, the quorum requirement is lowered to one-half. A subsequent pull request will describe a method for reducing the "majority of a quorum" requirement to better reflect a majority of a quorum of those that submitted a non-blank ballot.

RESPONSE: Pull request submitted for community and board discussion.

mdhaze commented 10 years ago

This is a very strange change in parliamentary procedures. Generally, minor issues by a Board are handled with a 1/2 vote, and major issues a 2/3 vote. Often certain issues require ALL BOARD MEMBERS to agree. The "1/2 or 2/3" is of course of those voting, which is a quorum as determined by the bylaws.

The very existence of a perceived need for a change like this indicates structural problems underlying, which is a subject that has, in fact, been being discussed.

bg002h commented 10 years ago

I don't follow you. This pull request deals with electing board members, not votes by board members.

mdhaze commented 10 years ago

Isn't that a major case of a vote by board members?

bg002h commented 10 years ago

No.

Perhaps this will help. This is the text of the pull request: -Section 4.7 Quorum: The votes represented in person or by proxy at a meeting of members shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business if the total is equal to or greater than one-half of all possible member votes. Unless provided herein, if a quorum is present in person or by proxy, then any action approved by a majority of the members so present shall be the act of the members. +Section 4.7 Quorum: The votes represented in person or by proxy at a meeting of members shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business if the total is equal to or greater than one-half of all possible member votes. Unless provided herein, if a quorum is present in person or by proxy, then any action approved by a majority of the members so present shall be the act of the members.

The only difference is 2/3 --> 1/2.

bg002h commented 10 years ago

Grr...I put two commits in one pull request. I can't undo the commit to my fork....

bg002h commented 10 years ago

I'm gonna kill this repo and start over with a command line version; the web interface is too klunky