- NOTE:
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The following text describes the precise rules and procedure
for voting and decision making. In general, the behavior
embodied in these rules is part of the "gestalt" of the group,
and the formal use of these processes is not required.
Whenever possible, decisions are made by consensus. Consensus is reached
when both the following conditions are met: a committer indicates that
consensus has been reached, and no committer claims that consensus has not yet
been reached. On any given issue, there is a 72-hour window after a claim of
consensus before the consensus is considered binding, to give people time to
react.
[ gjs: changes can always be reverted, so why a window?
and why is a decision ever "binding"? ]
[ gjs: need some text that describes the use of +/- 0/1 for
talking about changes and their use in deciding whether
consensus has been reached ]
For decisions on which consensus is not reachable or is not attempted,
the group votes, using approval voting:
Each voter is allowed to cast a single vote for each of as many of the
ballot choices as desired -- that is, the voter votes for all choices of which
the voter "approves." Each vote is one of:
- +1 : Yes, agree that the choice should be performed.
- +0 : Seems fine, but I can live without it
- -0 : Doesn't seem right, but I won't argue against it
- -1 : No, I am against this choice being performed.
Choices receiving positive totals may be performed.
When the set of ballot choices cannot be agreed on, the PMC chair decides
the set. If the question of whether consensus has been reached or not is
undecidable (this "can't happen", but who knows), the chair decides whether or
not it has been reached.
Changes to these decision-making procedures may be made by consensus. But,
if such a change does reach the voting stage, then positive votes must
outnumber negative votes by a two-to-one ratio, or greater, for the change to
take effect.
Veto as a vote
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A voter explicitly stating that they veto the decision, providing a
justification of their veto is sufficient to table a vote until the issue is
addressed and the vetoer or those who agreed concur that the the issue is
addressed.
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Voting Procedure Technicalities
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Votes are tallied in the STATUS file, adjacent to the action item
under vote. All votes must be either sent to the mailing list or added
directly to the STATUS file entry for that action item.
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