C. Council Procedures

C. Cloyne Council and Meeting Procedures

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1. Council

  1. House Council is the governing body of Cloyne. All decisions made at Council are official and affect all aspects of living at Cloyne, as long as they are internally consistent, and consistent with BSC policy and any applicable laws.
  2. All members currently holding a contract at Cloyne have the right to and are encouraged to participate in Council meetings. Central-level boarders are considered full members and are empowered to fully participate in house Council and elections. Quorum at any Council (including the Summer) must constitute at least 25% of contract-holding members in residence, rounding up (30 present of 101 total members constitutes quorum).
  3. All house council meetings will be run under the BSC’s “Pool Rules” parliamentary procedure, unless Council decides otherwise.
  4. The President is the facilitator of Council meetings and must schedule and hold house meetings weekly during each UC Berkeley semester. As facilitator they must, to the best of their ability, allow for open exchange and conversation between house members, act in an unbiased manner to ideas brought by house members, and strive to allow all members space to participate fully in house decision-making.
  5. The President must provide reasonable advance notice of all meetings and reasonable opportunity for all members to put items on the agenda.
  6. With 25% of the house present and consent of 2 additional major coordinators, the President may call an emergency council meeting without prior notice. All decisions made in emergency council meetings are official (effective immediately), but must be reviewed and approved by simple majority at the next regularly scheduled council meeting.
  7. The President is responsible for assuring that adequate minutes are taken at all house council meetings in accordance with central level policy IV.I.1. Within 72 hours after a given meeting, those minutes must be posted online on Cloyne’s website. 
  8. As the facilitator of council, the President is responsible for assuring that other house coordinators abide by the decisions of council

2. Motions and Voting

  1. A motion is any proposal sponsored by a member and brought to a vote before the house council.  
  2. An agenda item is an item submitted for discussion at council.  It must be submitted to the president at least 54 hours before council.  A motion may be attached to an agenda item to be voted on at council with the reasoning behind the motion. If money is involved, you must include which account you wish to use, and detail how the money will be spent.
  3. If a motion involves a budget request larger than $150, then a hand vote must be conducted on the motion rather than a voice vote.
  4. If a motion involves a budget request larger than $500, then a detailed project proposal including a timeline, project leadership and research must be submitted for review at the coordinator meeting preceding the vote. The management team may require a meeting with relevant BSC staff, such as the Head of Central Maintenance, or the Operations Manager before the project proposal goes to a vote at house council.
  5. Council may decide, by a 2/3rds majority of votes cast, to forgo the 54 hour prerequisite for bringing a motion to council. The President must make all efforts to provide rationale to house members not present at council if such action is taken.
  6. Any motion to amend the bylaws must be passed by supermajority (66%) at two consecutive meetings of council. Section 2.b.ii. above may still be used to waive 48 hours notice of the first discussion and vote on a bylaws change, however the second discussion must be held at a regularly scheduled meeting with at least 48 hours’ notice.
  7. A motion can be passed at council by a simple majority, which is simply more yes votes than no votes. Any motion involving more than $500 requires a supermajority (66%) in order to pass. 
  8. A motion that passes funds from any house account is “live” for four months.  In other words, the funds must be spent for the designated purpose within four months, unless otherwise stated in the motion.
  9. if a house members requests, the house shall move to a heads-down vote, with two independent verifiers of the vote: the President and the House Coordinator.
  10. If any member calls into question the impartiality of any independent verifier of a vote, that member may call for another coordinator to count.  If no coordinator is deemed impartial by said member,  a member may be chosen  (with a 2/3 majority vote counted by two members excluding the member who brought it to question) to count the vote.
  11. Moving Items to online vote with simple majority (50% +1) of people voting in agreement to move online. All online votes shall be conducted as indicated in the elections procedure below, with approval thresholds adjusted to reflect the levels established in the bylaws for those motions. Any motion moved online must have its text available to all members.

3. Motion Update Procedure

  1. After a motion is passed at council that involves spending any amount of house funds to purchase a specific item(s) for the house, the sponsoring member must update the house on the motion’s progress in accordance with bylaw below.
    1. For the purpose of this bylaw, the “sponsor” of a motion is the individual who originally brought the motion to council or the individual who agreed to be responsible for making and installing the proposed purchase.
    2. The member who sponsored the motion must update the house (via listserv or announcement at council) once the purchased item has arrived and been installed at the house.
    3. If the purchased item has not been installed (according to the scope of the original motion) within one week of the motion’s passing, the sponsoring member must provide a status update to the house 7 days after the motion was first passed. The status update must include an approximate timeline of when the plan described in the motion will be carried to fruition. The sponsor must provide another update to the house when the plan is complete.
    4. This procedure applies to discretionary coordinator budgets when the budget includes plans to purchase specific items.
    5. It is the duty of the president to enforce this bylaw by issuing email reminders to sponsors when they fail to update the house.

4. Elections

i. Calling Elections

The method for electing coordinators is in accordance with BSC Bylaws III.A.10, and all elections are conducted by the house president unless otherwise determined by council.

  1. At the end of the spring UC Berkeley semester, for summer and for the following fall  semester.
  2. At the end of the fall UC Berkeley semester, for the following spring semester.
  3. At the end of the summer UC Berkeley semester, filling vacancies for the following fall semester.
  4. Nominations must be opened by the president by the end of week 11 of the contract period.
  5. Every semester, the President must conduct special elections to fill vacant officer positions if an officer resigns, is incapacitated, or is recalled; nominations open immediately. If a position is vacant at the start of a semester, nominations open on move-in day.

ii. For All Elections

  1. The president must post a nomination sheet on the day that nominations open.
  2. Nominations must be opened at least five days before candidate speeches and public discussion take place at the next council meeting; Nominations close after that council meeting.
  3. Nominees have 12 hours after the council meeting, in which election speeches and public discussion occur, to accept their nomination.
  4. If the Nominee accepts the nomination within the 12 hour window, and ballots were already released, the President(s) must notify the house and add the nominee to the ballot.
  5. The president must run all elections with more than three nominees using the runoff method to prevent a tie.
  6. The president must open the election at a council meeting, with elections open within 12 hours of the meeting’s conclusion.
  7. The President must close the election between 5-10 days later or when quorum is reached, whichever comes second.
  8. The President must remind members frequently during the polling period to vote.
  9. Results must not be tallied until the election is closed.
  10. The President must post the results within 48 hours after the election closes.
  11. The election results are valid only if the number of cast ballots (including blank ballots) meets a quota. The quota is majority of the Cloyne residents and boarders.  A simple majority of Cloyne residents must vote in order for the election results to be valid.
  12. Every election will be run with a none-of-the-above option (and an abstain option).  If “none-of-the-above” achieves the highest number of votes, no candidate will be elected into the position until another election is conducted.
  13. During the nomination process, the cap on the number of people that can fill a coordinator position can be temporarily overridden. This is achieved through a supermajority vote of 75% in favor during a major manager meeting or a simple majority vote during a council meeting with quorum, whichever occurs first. If there is any disagreement over the decision made, the nominees or any member may request a vote during council. The result of a council vote will supersede the decision made at a major manager meeting.

iii. Running Elections

  1. All special and regular elections must be conducted by electronic ballot.
  2. By a ⅔ majority vote of council, the regular election process may be expedited for replacing coordinators more than halfway through the term.  This vote must be put on the council agenda before the deadline for submitting council agenda items.
    • In an expedited election, nominations are made at council, speeches are given, question and answer is conducted, an open discussion among the membership without the candidates present is conducted, and a hand vote is conducted to elect a new coordinator by simple plurality.
  1. By a ⅔ majority vote at council, council may vote to not fill a non-centrally mandated coordinator position more than halfway through the term. This vote must be put on the council agenda before the deadline for submitting council agenda items.  

5. Votes of Confidence

  1. Quorum for VOCs shall be 1/2 of the house membership.
  2. Cloyne will have two rounds of Votes of Confidences (VOCs) during each contract period (Summer semesters are expected to complete at least 1 round of VOCs and 2 rounds when deemed necessary by the members). 
  3. The method by which Cloyne conducts its VOCs is ultimately dictated by BSC Policy III. A. 6. Unit Level VOC Policy.  If any individual numbered item below contradicts this policy, that item alone shall be considered null.

i. Fall or Spring VOCs

  1. The first round of VOCs is to be completed by the end of week 7 of that contract period. The first round of VOCs must, at minimum, allow each member to give written feedback on each coordinator’s performance and allow each member to vote for a recall on each coordinator and explain their reasoning why if they do vote for a recall.  If a simple majority of the members that filled out VOCs vote for the recall of a coordinator, the result will be reported to Central Office immediately, and Central Office will initiate recall proceedings. 
  2. The second round of VOCs will be completed at least seven days before the results must be submitted to the Central Office (by the end of Week 12 as of 2/4/2016)

ii. Summer VOCs

  1. Two rounds of VOCs will be conducted during the summer.  The first round will be completed by the fourth week of the first contract period, and the second round will be completed by the third week of the second contract period.

iii. Conducting VOCs

  1. The House President will administer VOCs for all Cloyne coordinators. Council may appoint a separate Cloyne coordinator to conduct the VOCs for the House President by a simple majority vote. 
  2. Votes of Confidence will be conducted through Central Office’s online VOC system (or other modes deemed appropriate by the house—often Google Forms).