Although Clubs have an Officer team that handles the day-to-day matters of the club, many decisions that affect fundamental aspects of the club need to be put forward in front of the club membership for approval. This not only protects the rights of all club members but also serves as a learning experience for the officer team.
Voting Mechanics
Premises
The following premises lie at the foundations of the voting rules:
- All active club members should be able to vote.
- All voting decisions should be made without any pressure of any kind
- Voting decisions should be made by informed voters.
- All voting is secret and no vote should be traceable back to any particular member
- Any member should be able to see that his or her vote is counted
Who can vote
Since joining most Agora clubs is a free and quick process, care must be taken to prevent a large number of people from joining a club for the mere purpose of swaying a particularly important vote. For this purpose, only active members are allowed to vote, where an active member is defined as follows:
- For online clubs, a member that is current with whatever club payment fees are due, and has attended at least four meetings during the last four months, and has volunteered for at least two roles (of any kind)
- For physical clubs, a member that is current with whatever club payment fees are due, and has attended at least two meetings during the last four months, and has volunteered for at least one role (of any kind)
Please note that only
volunteering for a role is required, not actually having the role, since the actual agenda configuration for each meeting is managed by the VP of Education and the Meeting Leader. (See the "
Managing Meeting Roles" section)
Eligibility is determined at the beginning of the meeting so that all eligible members can vote on all motions discussed during it, even if the approval of some of these motions might render some members ineligible.
Voting Procedure
Voting may happen either at a meeting, if there's enough quorum, on stretched during a period of time.
Voting during a physical meeting
Voting during a meeting is always done on pieces of paper that must all be opaque and indistinguishable from one another so that the secrecy of the vote and the intractability to the original voter can be guaranteed. Ideally, the ballots have been pre-printed with the set of available options. However, if the vote is an improvised one, then simply blank pieces of paper would do.
The votes must be deposited individually by each voting member to a voting container that's opaque - such as a box or a bag. The voting container should remain visible at all times during the voting process and during the vote extraction for counting.
When voting can take place
Due to the above requirements, there are some restrictions in terms of when voting can take place when it would affect the eligibility of members to vote.
Specifically:
- Any decision that renders part of the members as "non-current" in terms of fee payment (for example, if the membership dues are increased, or if the payment schedule is altered, etc) will require the club to wait for at least one month, or until everyone is current with their payments (whichever comes first) before being able to vote on any other matter.
- For physical clubs, any significant location change of the meetings will require the club to wait for at least one month
To avoid these delays, a club may decide to discuss and vote on several motions during the same meeting.
Defeated resolutions may not be presented again until 6 months have passed since the last vote on them,
Ballot Design
For Online Voting, the system takes care of the correct presentation of all options.
Types of Votes
There are three types of votes that must be taken into account in different forms:
- Regular votes - These are votes that select a valid number of options (where "valid" means that no less than the required minimum and no more than the allowed maximum are selected), and that (for paper-based votes) do not have any added markings
- Blank votes - Blank votes are a special kind of vote that is considered valid for the approval thresholds, but that does not express neither an "in favor" nor an "against" opinion.
- Invalid votes are physical votes that are ambiguous or that contain markings unrelated to the voted options, or that are outside of the areas designated for selecting the options. Online voting assumes that the system validates the validity of every vote, hence invalid online votes do not exist as such.
When the vote is physical, all present members that do not cast a vote (abstain) will be counted as having cast a "blank vote".
Quorum
The Quorum is the minimum number of votes of any kind (this includes invalid votes) that must be cast in order for the outcome of the vote to be considered binding for the club.
In other words, the existence of a quorum guarantees that enough members have had their say, regardless of in which way.
For almost all decisions, the required quorum is 75% of the active members, rounded up. If a club has 45 active members, 75% rounded up are 34 members, so at least 34 votes of any kind must be present for a resolution outcome to be binding.
Null Vote
A Null vote occurs when an external factor prevents the counting of potentially valid votes to proceed. For example:
- The voting server returns an error for a valid vote
- The voting server allows the entering of invalid options.
- The chain of custody of physical votes is broken.
- During the physical voting process, someone spills liquid over part of the votes, washing the ink out.
- During the physical voting process, some votes are lost.
If any circumstances such as the above happen, all the votes cast must be destroyed, and the vote must be repeated.
Determining Approval
Different parts of the club governing documents refer to different kinds of majority for considering a proposal approved. Unless specified otherwise, the following definitions apply:
Majority or "Simple Majority"
If any part of the governing documents requires approval by the "Majority of the members" or by a "Simple majority of the members", this means the following:
- A quorum of at least 75% (rounded up).
- More valid votes in favor of the proposal than valid votes against the proposal.
Example.
A club has 59 members. 48 members vote as follows: 21 in favor, 16 against, 7 blank, and 4 invalid votes. Does the proposal pass if a simple majority is required?
1. 75% of 59, rounded up, is 44. A minimum of 44 votes must be received. 48 were received, so this condition is met
2. More valid "in favor" votes than valid "against" votes. Valid in favor were 21, valid against were 16, so this condition is met
The proposal is approved
Absolute Majority
If any part of the governing documents requires approval by an "Absolute majority of the members", this means the following:
- A quorum of at least 75% (rounded up).
- At least 50% + 1 of the valid votes must be in favor of the proposal.
Example (same as the previous case).
A club has 59 members. 48 members vote as follows: 21 in favor, 16 against, 7 blank, and 4 invalid votes. Does the proposal pass if an absolute majority is required?
1. 75% of 59, rounded up, is 44. A minimum of 44 votes must be received. 48 were received, so this condition is met
2. 50%+1 of the valid votes must be in favor. Valid votes are all those that are in favor, against or blank. Therefore, a total of 44 valid votes were cast. 50%+1 of those votes are 23 votes, so 23 "in favor" votes are required for the proposal to pass. Since only 21 votes were "in favor", this condition is not met.
The proposal is not approved
3/4 Majority
If any part of the governing documents requires approval by 3/4 of the members, this means the following:
- A quorum of at least 75% (rounded up).
- At least 3/4ths (75%) of the valid votes must be in favor of the proposal.
Example (same as the previous case).
A club has 59 members. 48 members vote as follows: 21 in favor, 16 against, 7 blank, and 4 invalid votes. Does the proposal pass if a 3/4ths majority is required?
1. 75% of 59, rounded up, is 44. A minimum of 44 votes must be received. 48 were received, so this condition is met
2. 3/4ths of the valid votes must be in favor. Valid votes are all those that are in favor, against or blank. Therefore, a total of 44 valid votes were cast. 3/4ths of those votes are 33 votes, so 33 "in favor" votes are required for the proposal to pass. Since only 21 votes were "in favor", this condition is not met.
The proposal is not approved
Quick Reference - Approval Majorities Required
The following table summarizes the different approval majorities required for the different aspects of club operation:
| Type of Majority Required |
|---|
| Concept |
Type of majority required for approval |
|---|
| Changing the club type (e.g.: from Public to Restricted) |
3/4ths |
| Changing any parameter of the club related to its identity (name, logo, etc.) or the rules of attendance, participation, and visitors' roles |
Simple Majority |
| Imposing new limitations on Speech Content (includes the case of introducing limitations on speech content where there were none before) |
3/4ths |
| Removing limitations on Speech Content |
Absolute Majority |
| Officer Election |
Simple Majority |
| Term Budget Approval |
Absolute Majority |
| Spending of more than 1/3rd of the club funds, as detailed in the Rules for Club Finances. |
Absolute Majority |
| Increasing the club fees (includes the case of introducing fees where there were none before) |
3/4ths |
| Decreasing the club fees (includes the case of removing fees altogether) |
Absolute Majority |
| Dissolution of the club |
3/4ths |
| Un-affiliation of the club from Agora Speakers International |
3/4ths |
| Removal of a member for disciplinary causes |
Absolute Majority |
| Other decisions |
Simple Majority |