ESB:Convention/Fundamental Issues - Merging Policies and Bylaws into Rules/voting

	Convention Archive The following convention discussion has been discussed and is now marked as resolved. The page has been protected and now serves as an archive. Do not edit this page. Date Resolved: April 12, 2019 Result: Passed.

Instructions

This page is the voting stage of this discussion: "Fundamental Issues - Merging Policies and Bylaws into Rules."

With all concerns from the concern stage of this discussion having been resolved and taken into account, the proposal located in the "Proposal" section above has been created and moved to voting. To join the voting, you simply use buttons located in the "Voting" section of this page and fill the resulting page.

Have a happy voting!

Proposal

It has been over a year since we introduced "bylaws" - a set of rules that were meant to be stable and not change on a whim from week to week, but instead, during one period of the year designated for the convention. We have had success, and have not changed such rules very often, as we solidify our policies/rules/bylaws, increasing the stability. After gathering feedback over the past year, Spongebob456 and I agreed to placing all "policies" and "bylaws" into one document referred to as "Rules." The process by which this will work is as follows:

• 1. Move all policies at ESB:Policies to ESB:Bylaws and renumber articles accordingly.
• 2. Rename "bylaws" to "rules" in both the title of the article and within the document.
• 3. Clarify that all rules changes is done through the convention process.

Policy changes

The following is the proposed merger and order of the policies and bylaws into the rules:

Part A: Consolidation of Policies/Bylaws into Rules

• Article I: Name
• Article II: Statement of Purpose
• Article III: Definitions [move policy "I. Definitions" to here]
• Article IIIIV: Content
• Article IVV: Sources
• Article VVI: User conduct
• Article VIVII: Communication
• Article VIII: Signatures [move policy "XI. Signatures" to here]
• Article IX: Chat [move policy "XII. Chat" to here]
• Article VIIX: Discussions
• Article VIIIXI: Voting
• Article IXXII: Roles
• Article XXIII: Promotions
• Article XIXIV: Demotions
• Article XIIXV: User Rights Reviews
• Article XIIIXVI: Blocking
• Article XIVXVII: Content dispute
• Article XVIII: User of the Month [move policy "XV. User of the Month" to here]
• Article XIX: Article of the Month [move policy "XVI. Article of the Month" to here]
• Article XX: Deletion [move policy "XVII. Deletion" to here]
• Article XXI: Unprotection [move policy "XVIII. Unprotection" to here]
• Article XXII: Contests [move policy "XIX. Contests" to here]
• Article XXIII: Games [move policy "IX. Games" to here]
• Article XVXXIV: Advertising and affiliation
• Article XVIXXV: Amendment of bylaws rules

Part B: Modification of Discussions policy

Here, it will be clarified that changes to the rules shall be done through the convention process to maintain the aforementioned stability of solid rules that barely change.

Article VII: Discussions

• A. General

• 1. All additions or changes to rules, policies, guidelines, and granting of additional user rights must be discussed and voted upon with an official discussion.
• 2. Discussions outside of the designated discussion areas such as message walls and forum threads are not valid places to make major decisions and/or policy changes. They can be used to bring up important issues that can be put up for official discussion, as long as they follow the rules.
• 3. Official discussions regarding additions or changes to the rules must done through the amendment process of the rules outlined in Article XXV [LINK].
• 4. Official discussions regarding new policies may be done so at ESB:Proposals, as long as it does not conflict with the Rules. All new policies shall be placed at ESB:Policies and may be integrated with the Rules during a convention. Those new policies may be modified through a Proposal as long as it is not yet part of the Rules.
• 4.5. Official discussions regarding changes to policies and guidelines must be done so in the form of a proposal (at ESB:Proposals) and must follow the procedures outlined in Section B of this article. Any other official discussion not related to changes to policies, guidelines, and granting of additional user rights may be conducted in the same manner.
• 5.6. Official discussions regarding granting of additional user rights must be done so in accordance with Article X.

Part C: Modification of Amendment procedures

Changing from "bylaws" to "rules" and clarifying the procedures for amendments.

Article XVI: Amendment of bylaws rules

• A. Bylaws (ESB:Bylaws) Rules (ESB:Rules)

• 1. The bylaws rules shall only be amended during the annual convention, which shall occur starting on July 15 of each year and ending when business is concluded.
• 2. The bylaws rules may be amended outside of the annual convention period if any such amendment is submitted to the bureaucrats and a majority of bureaucrats agree that such a discussion should occur.
• 3. All amendments to the bylaws rules require a 70% majority in favor of the amendment, not including neutral votes.
• 4. All proposed rules additions or changes must contain the exact text to change, using the {{PolicyProposalBegin}} / {{PolicyProposalEnd}} templates, inserting new language in bold, and striking out language proposed to be removed. Any policy proposal that does not contain the language to be changed by the time the voting stage is reached, it will be closed as invalid.

• B. Policies (ESB:Policies)

• 1. The policies shall may be added to or amended at any time during the year, as long as such does not conflict with the Rules.
• 2. All proposed policy additions or changes must contain the exact text to change, using the {{PolicyProposalBegin}} / {{PolicyProposalEnd}} templates, inserting new language in bold, and striking out language proposed to be removed. Any policy proposal that does not contain the language to be changed by the time the voting stage is reached, it will be closed as invalid.

Voting ends Wednesday, April 10, 2019 at 4:45 p.m., eastern time. — AMK152 (Wall • Contrib) 20:39, April 3, 2019 (UTC)

Voting

Choose your input: Support • Neutral • Oppose • Comment

• Support - — AMK152 (Wall • Contrib) 20:40, April 3, 2019 (UTC)

• Support -  Figmeister ^(W•C•E)  21:05, April 3, 2019 (UTC) 

• Support - TheKorraFanatic ^{(Talk Page) (Contributions) (Guestbook)} 21:08, April 3, 2019 (UTC)

• Support -  Anthony2306 ^{(W•C•L•E)}  21:30, April 3, 2019 (UTC) 

• Support - •кσσℓкιттү <мεssαgε ωαℓℓ> (=^ ◡ ^=)• 23:43, April 3, 2019 (UTC)

• Support - Chickenkrispies^{W C E}   06:30, April 7, 2019 (UTC)