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.
