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IRC Meeting Rules

 Statement of Purpose

This document addresses the rules and procedures governing computer conference meetings of organizations of the Green Party of New Jersey. Since by philosophy the Green Party of New Jersey is a "grass roots democracy" organization of volunteers, GPNJ is seeking ways to make participation in party activities less onerous for volunteers statewide. Computer conferencing is one way to minimize the negative environmental impacts of the extensive automobile travel generated by state-level face-to-face meetings, as well as to show respect for volunteers’ time and effort.

Definition

An "Internet Relay Channel" or "IRC" meeting refers to any session during which multiple meeting participants "talk" in near realtime using typed messages via some arrangement of computers and networking. Since the most commonly used technology supporting this type of conferencing is currently the Internet Relay Channel technology, for the sake of expedience that terminology will be used to refer to the entire universe of online computer conferencing technologies.

Standing of IRC Meetings

IRC meetings will have the same standing as traditional face-to-face meetings. IRC meetings may be substituted for regular or special meetings of any permanent or ad hoc committee of the Green Party of New Jersey. IRC meetings may also supplement regularly scheduled meetings of any local chapter of the Green Party of New Jersey. In the interest of stimulating "walk in" access to grass roots democracy, IRC meetings should not be substituted for regularly scheduled local chapter meetings except in the case of physical emergency or in the case of specifically constituted "cyber chapters".

Any business normally valid to conduct within a face-to-face meeting of the committee or chapter, including votes to recommend or approve positions, activities, rules governing the group meeting via IRC will be considered valid unless that activity requires a secret ballot per the Green Party of New Jersey bylaws. Since the current technology for IRCs does not support secret balloting, those votes requiring a secret ballot will not be valid during an IRC. This restriction will be lifted if and when the technology is in place for an audited secret ballot. Typically this only applies to the election of officers.

Provisions for Technology Support

IRC meetings should not result in the exclusion of those who do not own or otherwise have access to personal computers. Any committee or chapter choosing to meet via IRC should provide support including, but not limited to the following:

"Magnet sites" are locations—members’ homes, local libraries, cyber cafes, etc.—which can host participants who do not have their own computers. These sites should be locations such that access is relatively convenient for the entire constituency of the meeting body.

Many members have the resources to "get online" but do not have the expertise or comfort level required to get started. Members of the committee or chapter who have some technical facility should assist those who do not. If no one within the group has the appropriate expertise, the group chairperson can request assistance from the Communications Committee. The Communications Committee will maintain a list of resources to provide assistance for each local region.

All meeting minutes and other proceedings will be available in paper copy via US Mail or via fax upon request.

Adequate Notice

Official committee or chapter meetings to be held via IRC should be announced sufficiently in advance and in appropriate venues to allow all eligible participants to arrange IRC access. In most cases, that simply means posting the time and network location of the meeting as well as the location of any magnet sites (see IV. A.) where and when the time and physical location of a conventional meeting would be posted. Typically, this means including regularly scheduled meetings on the GPNJ Website and announcing upcoming meetings at the preceding meeting of the committee or chapter. In the case of ad hoc or emergency meetings, this may be supplemented with telephone calls, faxes and emails.

Identification of Participants

At the opening of each IRC meeting, all logins will be polled to identify the participants at each login. Especially at magnet sites, multiple participants may be using the same login. During the poll, each participant at a multiple participant site shall indicate how their interactions will be "tagged" to indicate who is ‘speaking’. It is recommended that a one or two character "call sign", usually an initial, preceding an input from a multiple participant site be used as a "tag." This is useful in discussion and required during voting.

Rules of Order

A facilitator will be chosen by public vote at the beginning of any IRC meeting. Typically, this will be the committee chairperson or coordinator, but the role may be delegated to any participant. It is useful, but explicitly not required, that the facilitator have good keyboarding skills. The facilitator will have the responsibility for maintaining reasonable order in discussion and for ensuring that all dialogue is clarified as needed. This recognizes that the time-lag caused by keyboarding may cause some confusion during discussion.

The facilitator has the authority to remove ("kick") participants from the IRC if they do not observe reasonable courtesy (allowing others to ‘speak’, refraining from profanity, etc.) within the meeting. The facilitator may also explicitly bar individuals from joining the IRC if they have previously violated the above conditions or if they are not qualified to attend the meeting by other by-laws of the NJGP. The decision of the facilitator in these matters shall be promptly executed by the individual who is currently "ops" for the IRC at the direction of the facilitator, unless the facilitator has "ops" status.

Voting

Voting within an IRC will be one vote per participant (not one vote per login). When a vote is called, all other discussion will cease. All votes from multiple participant sites will have a separate vote entry for each participant with that participant’s tag. It is not required that each voter physically type their own response, just that the response represent the voter’s view accurately. If a voter wishes to physically enter their own vote, they will be provided with keyboard access.

Definition of "Physical Emergency"