(!) (!) (!) (!) WORK IN PROGRESS - this is not a policy in Effect (!) (!) (!) (!)

This policy idea is a proposal in the context of the propsal for Policy on Heads of Power short: HoP.

Link to start of discussion on below policy proposal on Policy Group

(!) Attention: Currently the proposal is only an idea, it has to be re-structured to better match the structure of other policies. Current discussion should be focussed on the included ideas (!)

The proposal is from Eva Stöwe at 2017-03-05.

Cabinet Organisation Policy

1. Members of the Cabinet

1.1. General

  1. The Cabinet consist of
    1. 3-5 members chosen by the membership - "regular cabinet member"
    2. critical teams may send 1 speaker as their representative
    3. legal entities may send 1 representative
  2. Any cabinet member can only be a cabinet member as long as they are community members. A cabinet member may resign at any time.
  3. Active arbitrators are excluded from role of Cabinet. If not fixed in policy or ruling, Policy Group and Arbitration Group may each declare a grace time after leaving cabinet, during which members may not become active as arbitrators. This may not be longer than 2 years. The longest such grace time is binding for all members.

How critical teams and legal entities select their representative is up to them. They may nominate a second person (for example as replacement), who will be informed likewise. But it will be always only one vote per such group.

1.3. Special roles, internal organisation

The cabinet organises itself. It may delegate some jobs (chairing of meetings, preparation of business, documentation, invitations to meetings, management of execution of a decision, representation before arbitration, ...) to one or more of their members (or if sensible other members). For this they may define specific (internal) roles.

Cabinet is encouraged to create a handbook with best practices.

2. Decisions of the Cabinet

  1. Each cabinet member (regular member or representative of critical teams or legal entities) has one vote.
  2. The quorum for decisions is 3.
  3. Votes are carried with the majority of votes, if not successfully vetoed.
  4. Abstains do not influence the result, they are not counted for majority.
  5. In the case of equality, the motion is not carried but may be re-done after further discussion, an updated wording is encouraged.

  6. A decision is not carried if the representatives for the critical teams AND legal entity first vote against AND both declare a veto afterwards. [or one?]

  7. In theory a cabinet member could be chosen by membership and/or critical team and/or legal entities, in that case that cabinet member would only have 1 vote but would also have the according veto right

3. Transparency

3.1. Public performance and documentation

  1. Cabinet has to perform its business in public. There should not be a private mailing list or the like.
  2. Meetings should be invited publicly about 48h in advance. The agenda should be included and should name the respective business clearly even for non-cabinet members.
  3. If a representative of critical teams or legal entities cannot participate at a meeting, that representative may ask that votes for single items are either voted on “offline” after the meeting, or deferred to the next meeting. This has to be requested as soon as possible and if possible before the meeting.
  4. Any community member should have the option to voice opinions or ask questions about any decision. As long as this is ensured as such, cabinet may restrict voicing rights for non cabinet members partially for technical or comparable reasons, or if else it would become impossible to follow the discussion in a sensible manner. The reasons should be announced and documented.
  5. The conduction of business by cabinet has to be documented. Minutes for each meeting should be published without delay and have to include all business in a manner that can be understood even by normal members.
  6. Any vote including its result and any veto has to be documented, publicly.

3.2. Exceptional private handling of business

  1. For privacy reasons, the handling of single business may be conducted privately on request of the affected member or if an according wish of the affected member can be assumed for good reasons. This should be the exception. It may not be conducted privately against the will of the affected member as long as there is no other (overwhelming) reason to handle the issue privately (which could be the privacy of another member).
  2. On request of a critical team lead or on request of the critical teams representative (both are bound to Security Policy) business may be conducted privately for security reasons.
  3. On request of a legal entity based on specific named legal requirements either from their local law or based on the governing law, cabinet may decide to handle business privately.
  4. If ordered by the Arbitrator of a duly filed case, business has to be conducted privately.
  5. The decision of private handling has to be documented, at least the nature of the reason for private handling has to be named.
  6. Any final decision of the conducted business has to be documented, publicly. Only if necessary, the reasoning behind the decision may remain private.
  7. If the cabinet believes that there is a legal or other overwhelming requirement that forbids publication of the above required documentation the question about need for documentation may be placed before the Arbitrator via dispute. Until the decision of the Arbitrator the documentation may be kept private.
  8. In any case the decision of the Arbitrator about private handling or documentation of business has to be followed.

4. Conflicts of Interest

  1. All cabinet members have to name any internal or external Conflict of Interest (CoI).
  2. General CoI have to be documented publicly and permanently in an easy to access overview.
  3. Any Conflict of Interest in context of a specific decision has to be voiced before the decision. This has to be done for any present member any time where the business is discussed and before the decision. The conflict and the declaration of conflict has to be documented.
  4. A conflicted cabinet member should not participate in the discussion to that item as cabinet member. They may do so in another appropriate role, if this is declared and accepted. (E.g. if they are candidate for a role they may answer to questions as candidate)
  5. Being a member of a critical team is not a CoI for the critical teams representative as such. But it can be in specific situations, for example where the specific team or the team lead of that team is discussed.
  6. Being a member of a legal entity is not a CoI for the legal entity representative as such. But it can be in specific situations, for example where the specific legal entity is affected.
  7. A conflicted cabinet member may only participate in the according vote via abstain and only to ensure quorum.
  8. A conflicted representative of critical teams or legal entities may hand over the right to veto to another cabinet member, who may not already carry the other veto. This has to be done as soon as the conflict becomes known (if possible before the discussion starts), before the vote and has to be documented. If done too late, the veto is forfeit.

5. Policy Secretary and Dispute Resolution Chair

Policy Secretary and Dispute Resolution Chair are no members of the cabinet in that role but always have

Regarding business which is handled privately, this right should be dealt with in a reasonable manner, depending on the business.

This rights may only be excluded by arbitration ruling or policy.

6. Arbitration

  1. While any decision and activity of the cabinet as well as the selection of its members may be reviewed by arbitration this is especially the case regarding
    • conflicts of interest of cabinet members
    • quorum, correct invitation to cabinet meetings
    • public / transparent handling of business and according documentation
    • private handling of business
    • selection of cabinet members
  2. The Arbitrator is encouraged to award financial remedies against members who act intentionally or abusively regarding the named topics or if negligence unreasonably and gravely accumulates.
  3. The Arbitrator is encouraged to award financial remedies against members who abuse the right to get decisions or actions of the cabinet reviewed by arbitration.
  4. In no way should this be understood as a limitation for the Arbitrator regarding the choice of remedies in either way.
  5. Rulings of the Arbitrator are always final and binding for cabinet and its members.

7. Election of Regular Cabinet Members

7.1. Reason for election

  1. The election of regular Cabinet Members has to be done regularly once per 2 calendar years [or 1 ?]
  2. There has to be a new election for the rest or term
    • if number of regular cabinet members drops below 3
    • after a veto from the legal entities over the first election

    • on request of [number of assurer] send to support@c.o, forwarded to Arbitration Group or comparable means

    • on request of two out of
      • 2 critical team leads
      • Policy Secretary OR majority vote on Policy Group
      • Dispute Resolution Chair OR majority of active arbitrators
    • on arbitration ruling

7.2. Conduction by Arbitrators

The election is conducted by one or more arbitrators, chosen by Arbitration Group, or if Arbitration Group does not decide, Policy Group. The specific rules used for the election meeting are defined by the conducting arbitrator(s).

7.3. Participation in Election

7.3.1. Eligible to Vote

  1. Any adult human assurer (ability to provide CARS) is eligible to vote in the election meeting.
  2. Other community members are eligible to vote on decision of chairing arbitrator.

7.3.2. Eligible to Candidate

  1. Assured (50 points) human community member who declares full acceptance and binding effect of CCA, DRP, principles and other policies can be candidate.
  2. Arbitrators may not become a candidate, as long as they are active as arbitrator.

7.3.3. Acceptance of Rules

All members who participate in the election (candidates, nominating, seconding and voting members) have to accept that

Any dissent with this acceptance has to be declared. The conducting arbitrators may decide to exclude a dissenting member partly or completely from the election.

7.4. Process

7.4.1. Invitation to Election Meeting

  1. The invitation for election is about 4 weeks in advance at least via
    • mailing lists, and published on website
    • mail to all community members who decided to get general informations from CAcert.
  2. The invitation has to include or point to
    • date and "place" of election (e.g. irc + channel)
    • nature of the meeting and reason for election
    • business agenda
    • a reference how to add and view candidates
    • explanation about how the election is conducted, including rules for participation, nomination, candidates, any relevant deadline and explanation that election is conducted and documented publicly
    • name(s) of arbitrator(s) who conduct the election (in which function)
    • the possibility that an arbitrator may check the assurance or assurer status, age or other relevant information regarding eligibility to participate of any participating member
    • known places of discussion about the candidates prior to the election (mailing list, wiki, forum, chat, ...).

7.4.2. Nomination of Candidates

  1. Candidates may be nominated or seconded by any member who is eligible to vote.
  2. The conducting arbitrators may request seconding for nominations by a number of other eligible members. This number has to be named in the invitation and equal for each candidate. Default is two secondments.
  3. The conducting arbitrators may insist on confirmation to stand by the candidate before the nomination is published.
  4. The conducting arbitrators may define a deadline for nominations, which has to be named in the invitation. If such a deadline is set it should be about 1 to 2 weeks before the meeting.
  5. Contrary to the above the conducting arbitrators may not nominate or second candidates until such a deadline is reached. Only if not enough candidates were found, the conducting arbitrators may nominate additional candidates. Candidates nominated by conducting arbitrators do not need to be seconded.
  6. If not enough candidates were nominated, the chair may allow additional nominations at the election meeting.
  7. All relevant steps of the nomination process have to be documented publicly at least for each candidate who accepts the nomination.

7.4.3. Formalities at Election Meeting

  1. The election meeting has to be public, at least any member has to be able to follow it in general. Technical restrictions should be avoided.
  2. The meeting is chaired by one or more of the conducting arbitrators. A member is selected to create minutes over the meeting.
  3. The chair introduces the rules for the election. Members are asked to name any dissent of their acceptance of
    • CCA, DRP, principles, other relevant policies
    • named rules for election
    • authority of chair to decide issues within the meeting.
  4. The conducting arbitrators may perform checks about eligibility to participate on members, may decide to do according checks after the meeting or may refrain to do such checks, this has to be declared during the meeting and the result of the checks has to be documented in the minutes.
  5. The list of candidates is introduced. If possible and/or necessary the chair allows additions to the list of candidates.

  6. Any candidate may be introduced (shortly), known conflicts of interest have to be named. [possible addition: present candidates have to declare their acceptance of CCA, DRP and other policies, if not already done.]

  7. The members discuss the candidates. In general any community member is eligible to participate in this discussion.
  8. The vote is conducted as defined in the invitation.
  9. The result of the election is declared by the chair, it may be preliminary if the conducting arbitrators have to do further check regarding the membership status of participating members or comparable questions.
  10. The final result has to be published.
  11. The former regular cabinet members remain in that position until the new result is final and should help to setup the new cabinet members, afterwards.

7.4.4. Authority of the Chair

  1. The chair may decide
    • any open questions about the rules for the election
    • to terminate the discussion,
    • to exclude individual members from the discussion or the meeting based on damaging actions at the meeting,
    • to adjourn the meeting,
    • anything else in the interest of a sensible and fair conduction of the meeting and in the interest of the membership.
    For grave issues the chair should consult with other conducting arbitrators or comparably neutral senior members, if possible.
  2. In general, the procedural decisions of the chair are binding and final for the meeting.
  3. The chair may choose to decide single questions only preliminary and to leave the final decision open to decide by regular arbitration.

7.4.5. Defaults for Election Meeting

The conducting arbitrators may define other rules, which then have priority to the default, but as long as nothing else is defined:

7.5. Restriction of Participation

Beside of the named restrictions the right to participate in the election in any function may only be restricted temporarily or permanently, individually or general by arbitration ruling or policy.

7.6. General note

The election is conducted by arbitrators who have the power and experience to neutrally rule on disputes. They are excluded as candidates and limited to nominate candidates. All of this ensures as much neutrality as possible. By this we should entrust those arbitrators to do appropriate decisions for the election based on a rule-frame with a likewise authority as if it would be a dispute.

By this, any unforeseen issues should be possible to resolve in the interest of the membership in general.

PolicyDiscussions/CabinetOrganisationPolicy (last edited 2017-03-05 22:59:58 by EvaStöwe)