Steering Committee – Internal Procedures

Article I Facilitation Guidelines
Section 1-1 Preparation
Section 1-2 Agenda Management
Section 1-3 Decision-making
Section 1-4 Rotation Schedule

Article II On-line Voting Procedure

Section 2-1 Scope
Section 2-2 Proposals
Article III Legal Matters
Section 3-1 Seeking Legal Opinions and/
or Advice
Article IV. Web Posting Protocol
Section 4-1 GPUS Committees
Section 4-2 Steering Committee
Article V. Job Description Posting Practice 


Article I Facilitation Guidelines

Section 1-1 Preparation

1-1.1 Facilitators shall facilitate Steering Committee meetings with the goal of helping create a productive, respectful and efficient working environment.

1-1.2 Facilitators shall be familiar with the SC Rules, Policies & Procedures and GPUS Bylaws and Rules & Procedures as they affect the Steering Committee.

1-1.3 Facilitator shall be sent the draft agenda at same time as the National Committee and shall make an effort to familiarize themselves beforehand with what items are agendized, for how much time and who is scheduled to present. But facilitators are not required to read actual content of the proposals themselves. The Secretary shall be available to answer questions from the Facilitator(s) about the preparation of the draft agenda.

Section 1-2 Agenda Management

1-2.1 Facilitators shall facilitate the agenda amendment process at the beginning of each SC meeting as described in the SC Rules, Policies & Procedures.

1-2.2 During the meeting, the facilitator may seek the agreement of the SC to extend the time of an item currently under discussion and/or voting, including at the request of a proposal’s sponsor.

1-2.3 The facilitator will be notified of any Observers who have requested in advance to be added to the agenda. The facilitator will call upon any such Observers for participation in stack order as they request to speak.

Section 1-3 Decision-making

1-3.1 Proposal sponsors shall be called upon first by the Facilitator to present their proposals. Facilitators shall then call for clarifying questions and give the sponsors the opportunity to respond, then call for concerns and affirmations and give the sponsors the opportunity to respond.

1-3.2 Once the process in 1-3.1 has occurred, the Facilitator shall ask whether there are any outstanding concerns. If no, there is consensus. If yes, the facilitator asks whether the person(s) holding them are willing to stand aside. If yes, their concern will be stated and recorded in the minutes and there is consensus. If no, their outstanding concerns shall be stated and recorded in the minutes. The sponsor may then ask for a vote or withdraw the proposal. If the proposal goes to a vote, the facilitator shall ask the Secretary to call the roll.

Section 1-4 Rotation Schedule

1-4.1 Each SC member will have a turn to Facilitate.

1-4.2 Upon agreeing to this internal process, the SC will determine whether to do the rotation based on Last Name, or some other criteria.

1-4.3 Each SC member when it is there turn can pass. Although it would be considerate to alert the next person in the rotation, so that they can prepare to Facilitate.

1-4.4 This rotation is only operative if no outside Facilitator has been obtained.

Article II On-line Voting Procedure

2-1 Scope

This procedure shall apply to proposals relating to the regular business of the Steering Committee, as defined in the GPUS Bylaws, Rules and Procedures and the Steering Committee Rules and Procedures, except that it shall not apply to endorsements made by the Steering Committee as governed by GPUS Rules and Procedures Article VI Steering Committee Endorsement Process/Endorsement for Time Sensitive Requests.

2-2 Proposals

2-2.1 In order to be placed for an on-line vote, proposals should contain a title, sponsor(s), background and text of what is being proposed.

2-2.2 A proposal may only be posted to the Steering Committee email list for an online vote by one of two methods:

2-2.2(a) A majority vote at a Steering Committee teleconference or in-person meeting. In such cases, a 48 hour voting period shall commence the day following the teleconference or meeting and the proposal shall be posted to the Steering Committee email list with the subject header SC ONLINE VOTE: [TITLE].

2-2.2(b) When sponsored by at least two Steering Committee members. In such cases a 48 hour discussion period shall commence the day following the day the proposal is posted and seconded, followed by a 48 hour voting period, and the proposal shall be posted to the Steering Committee email list with the subject header SC ONLINE DISCUSS/VOTE: [TITLE].

Article III Legal Matters

Section 3-1 Seeking Legal Opinions and/or Advice

3-1.1 It shall be a standard practice of the Steering Committee, that when seeking a legal opinion and/or advice in performance of its responsibilities under GPUS Bylaws and Rules & Procedures, that the Steering Committee shall first approve a proposal to do so, that includes what information is requested and what background information be provided. When the opinion and/or advice is rendered, it shall be shared with the entire Steering Committee, unless in the extreme case that there is legal reason not to do so.

Article IV. Web Posting Protocol

Section 4-1 GPUS Committees

GPUS committee co-chairs or other(s) designated by each committee, shall be able to update their committee web pages, under the following conditions:

4-1.1 A general template is established for committee web pages, such that the committee members and officers shall appear visible at a minimum to National Committee members and links to the committee’s Rules, Policies and Procedures and other such relevant rules and procedural documents be included.

4-1.2 Have any person designated by their committee to update their committee’s web pages demonstrate their basic competency to the GPUS Webmaster as needed, before being given posting access to their committee portion of the www.gp.org site.

4-1.3 Retain quality control oversight by the GPUS webmaster.

4-1.4 Retain right to remove access, upon direction by the Secretary and Portfolio Manager to the Webmaster, with review by the Steering Committee at is next meeting. The decision of the Secretary and Portfolio Manager may be overturned by a majority vote of the Steering Committee.

Section 4-2 Steering Committee

That the Steering Committee designate members who are authorized by the Steering Committee to update the Steering Committee page on the condition that any change they make is to be factually accurate, that it be reported to the Steering Committee ‘s email
list before the change is made, and that any changes that are substantially beyond housekeeping should be held for Steering Committee discussion on a conference call or email list.

Article V Job Description Posting Practice

5-1 It shall be a standard practice of the Steering Committee, that after the Steering Committee approves of job descriptions for GPUS staff and independent contractors, that the Secretary shall post them to the National Committee votes list and the Webmaster shall post them to the gp.org web site, in a place to be determined by the Steering Committee.