11th Legislative District Democrats Special
Rules
Definition: The 11th
Legislative District Democrats
(11th LD Democrats)
Policies
and Procedures Committee was created by the
11th LD
Chair to develop special rules to facilitate
the
process of
district endorsements, resolutions
and acceptable terms of use for the
electronic and
written
communication of the district.
The 11th LD
Democrats approved by-laws supersede all special
rules and rules of
conduct.
Any questions or
concerns regarding these
special rules
may be
addressed
to any Executive Board Member or the Policies and
Procedures Committee Chair, Alene
Brede.
Purpose: The purpose
of these
special rules is to
provide information to members and interested
parties of the 11th Legislative District Democrats
(11th LD Democrats)
policies
on endorsements,
resolutions and communications. It
is the
committee’s intention
that the development and
posting of these special
rules will facilitate an
efficient process for interested parties seeking
to
propose resolutions or to
receive an endorsement from the 11th LD
Democrats.
In addition, - the committee - has
established
communications
terms of acceptable use
to assist the district’s members and interested
parties in understanding the
terms of use of the
district’s website, forum
and listserv.
Endorsements
Rules of
Conduct
The 11th LD
Democrats by-laws are the
final governing authority
and are available for
viewing on the 11th LD
Democrats website and at all general membership
meetings.
The 11th LD
Democrats membership
prefers to make informed
decisions when considering
the
endorsement of candidates. The rules of
conduct
herein were developed to assist both the membership
and qualified
candidates in gaining successful
endorsements from
the 11th LD Democrats
membership.
Any
candidate seeking the endorsement of the 11th LD
Democrats should notify the
11th LD Democrats Chair
with their request for
endorsement
consideration.
During the election process,
the 11th LD
Democrats will utilize the findings and
completed
questionnaires submitted
to the King County
Democrats
when considering endorsement requests. All
candidates should fill out the questionnaire and
participate in the
endorsement
process provided by
the King County Democrats. The
11th LD
Democrats
website will
provide links to any completed applications posted
on the King County Website, for the membership to
review prior to any
regularly
scheduled membership
meeting where candidate
endorsements will
be
considered.
The 11th LD Democrats Chair or -
a designee shall
notify the candidate the date of
the general
membership meeting when their
request for
endorsement will
be considered. It is strongly encouraged that
either
the candidate or their designee attends the
11th LD
Democrats
membership meeting at which their
endorsement shall be considered. The
district will
provide
reasonable table space at general membership
meetings for candidates to place flyers and other
informational
brochures.
Petitions for any
exception to the rules above must be
brought to the
11th LD
Democrats Chair for consideration.
Resolutions
Rules
of
Conduct
The 11th LD Democrats by-laws
are the
final governing authority and are available
for
viewing on the 11th LD
Democrats website and at all
general membership meetings.
The 11th
LD
Democrats membership
prefers to make informed decisions when
considering
resolutions. The rules of conduct herein
were
developed to
assist both the membership and the
interested party proposing a resolution
in gaining
successful
resolutions by the 11th LD Democrats membership.
Proposed resolutions must be submitted to
the 11th LD Democrats
Chair in
writing or by email
at least 10 days prior to the
-General
Membership
meeting.
Resolutions that are provided in electronic format
will be posted to the district’s website for review
by the membership
within 3
days of receipt. In order
to substantially increase
the
possibility for
support of
a resolution, it is recommended that proposed
resolutions are submitted prior to the 11th LD
Democrats Executive Board
meeting The Executive
Board
may research, advise and recommend action on
any resolution to the
membership in accordance with
the district’s bylaws.
The 11th LD Democrats
Chair shall notify the individual proposing
the
resolution of the date of
the general membership meeting the
resolution will
be considered. It shall be the
responsibility of the
individual proposing a
resolution, to provide a sufficient number of
copies
to the membership at
the meeting. It is recommended that the
resolution’s
author or designee be present at the
meeting to make
a short
presentation on the topic,
make the resolution motion and answer as
required
the membership. The
district will provide reasonable table space
at the
general membership meeting for resolution
copies,
flyers and other
informational
brochures.
Petitions for any exception to
the
rules above must be brought to the 11th LD
Democrats
Chair for
consideration.
Communications
Rules of Conduct
The 11th
LD Democrats shall maintain a website as a
communication tool to publish
current event
information,
Executive Board contact information, precinct
and
caucus locations, approved district by-law
information and any other
information that the
Executive
Board or 11th LD Democrats Chair or
District Webmaster deems
relevant or necessary to
the political process of
the 11th LD Democrats.
The 11th LD Democrats Chair shall appoint a
District Webmaster in
accordance with the 11th LD
Democrats by-laws. It is
recommended that the
District
Webmaster submit the name of a district
member for to serve as a
Backup Webmaster for
approval by the 11th LD
Democrats Chair. This will
ensure website continuity in the case of
illness,
vacations or other
absences of the District Webmaster that would
cause
the district website to not remain current or
up-to-date. All
current domain
passwords,
registration information and hosting
information
shall be made
available to the appointed 11th LD
Democrats Chair,
District
Webmaster and Backup
Webmaster.
The District Webmaster may develop
a listserv as a communication tool to be available
to those that wish to
communicate with members of
the 11th LD Democrats via email. In addition,
the
District Webmaster may
institute and maintain a Community Discussion
Forum
which shall be an open forum for community
discussion. The District
Webmaster shall institute
and
publish terms of acceptable use of these
communications tools and
publish them on the website
for review by the
district’s membership. All terms
of acceptable use shall be approved by
the 11th LD
Democrats
Executive Board.
Listserv Terms of Acceptable Use
The
11th District Democrats have created a listserv
(automated group e-mail)
for
use by our members to
enable the quick dissemination
of information
regarding
important information about Democrat
activities and
for building
the organization’s
membership base.
Membership
Any member or associate
member of the 11th LD
Democrats may join the 11th LD
Democrats Listserv.
Membership in the Listserv may
be limited or suspended at the discretion
of the
11th LD District
Democrats Webmaster, Backup Webmaster or any
Executive Board member if it has been determined
that the member in
question
has violated the 11th LD
Democrats s approved Terms
of Acceptable
Use. All
suspension of privileges on the district Listserv
shall be
presented at the 11th LD Democrats
Executive Board
Meeting for review. A
Listserv member who contests
the removal of privileges may present their
arguments to the Executive
Board for a review of the
decision to revoke
privileges and or request
reinstatement. The Executive Board shall be the
final authority in matters
governing the terms of
acceptable use of the
11th LD Democrats
Listserv.
Posting
and
Participation Rules
The 11th LD Democrats
Listserv is primarily a communication tool and is
not to be utilized for
private
spamming, or
commercial use. The use of Listserv
members’ personal
information for commercial use or
gain is strictly
prohibited.
The
posting of any material
which
is knowingly false or defamatory,
inaccurate,
abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene,
profane,
sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of
a
person’s privacy, or
otherwise in violation of any
law is strictly prohibited.
All posts
in the
11th LD Democrats
Listserv become the sole property of the 11th LD
Democrats. No copyrighted materials shall be
permitted unless presented
and
authorized by the
legal copyright owner in writing
to the 11th LD
Democrats
Webmaster or Backup Webmaster.
The
District
Webmaster,
Backup Webmaster and District
Chair reserve the right to remove any
postings that
are deemed
inappropriate or in any way violate the terms of
acceptable use.
Community Discussion Forum Terms of
Acceptable
Use
The
11th LD Democrats have
created an 11th LD Democrats
Community Discussion
Forum. It
is the intent of the Discussion Forum to
encourage participation in and
the exercise of Free
Speech. It is also
intended to attract members and
keep them involved in the Democratic
process.
Members
No political affiliation
or democrat
membership is required to participate as
a member of
the Community
Discussion Forum however, members that
exhibit behaviors and posts that
indicate that their
participation is solely to act as a “troll”
representative of any
political party other than the
democrats may have
their posting privileges revoked.
Membership in the Community Discussion
Forum may be
limited or
suspended at the discretion of the 11th LD
Democrats
Webmaster, Backup Webmaster or any
Executive Board
member if it
has been determined
that the member in question has violated the
District’s approved terms of
acceptable use. All
suspension of privileges
on the Community Discussion
Forum shall be presented at the District’s
Executive
Board Meeting for
review. A Community Discussion Forum member
who
contests the removal of privileges may present
their
arguments to the
Executive Board for a review
of the decision to revoke privileges and or
request
reinstatement. The
Executive Board shall be the final authority in
matters governing the acceptable use of the
Community Discussion
Forum.
Posting and
Participation Rules
All
posts in the 11th LD Democrats Community
Discussion
Forums become the
sole property of the 11th LD Democrats. No
copyrighted materials shall be permitted unless
presented and authorized
by
the legal copyright
owner in writing to the 11th LD
Democrats District
Webmaster
or Backup Webmaster.
The posting
of personal
information
on this website for the
purposes of defaming another individual or
targeting
another individual
for harassment will not be tolerated. The
Community
Discussion Forum are intended to be
utilized for
issues
important to the 11th LD
Democrats political process and are not intended
to
be utilized as a personal
bulletin board. No member may attempt to
utilize the
Community Discussion Forum as a sales
tool or to
gain personal
information from its
members for the purposes of spamming, identity theft
or commercial interests. Placing multiple posts with
identical or very
similar
content in different
forums or threads will be
considered spam and
will
be
deleted at the discretion of the District Webmaster or Backup
Webmaster.
The posting of campaign events of
candidates is
acceptable as
long as the candidates
have either an affiliation
with the
Democratic Party
or
have “self declared” that they are a Democrat.
The posting of any
material which is
knowingly false or
defamatory, inaccurate, abusive,
vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene,
profane,
sexually oriented,
threatening, invasive of a person’s privacy,
or
otherwise in violation of any law is strictly
prohibited.
The
11th LD
Democrats Webmaster,
Backup Webmaster and 11th LD
Democrats Chair
reserve
the
right to remove any postings that are determined to be in
conflict with generally accepted democrat principles
and platforms or
represent
known political party
affiliations other than the
Democrats.
The
11th LD
Democrats Webmaster, Backup Webmaster and
11th LD Democrats Chair
reserve the right to remove
any postings that are
deemed inappropriate or in any
way violate the terms of acceptable
use.
Private
Information -
Best Practice
Guidelines
It is strongly
recommended
that
members do
not advertise or otherwise list their real names or
personal information such as social security
numbers, addresses, email
addresses or phone numbers
in
any post. Choose a member name that protects
your
identity. Be aware that the Community Discussion
Forum posts are
public and viewable by anyone. As an
example, do not
say anything in this
forum that you would not wanted
posted as the lead story in the local
newspaper.
