Candidate to member proposal

Candidate to Member Decision Details Proposal

Proposal to clarify steps for “greenlight to membership” decision process.

This proposal is brought to try and clear up the reigning confusion about the specific steps for the Community, The Liaison, and the Candidate to take.

Note that this is JUST the candidate->member decision; we should also clarify this for Greenlight decisions, but that was beyond the scope of what I wanted to do tonight.

Once a candidate has been greenlighted, they and their liaison wait at least two and up to six months to schedule a membership decision. The liaison, in consultation with the candidate (and potentially considering input from others in the community), is the one to formally initiate the following process.

Step 1) Request to schedule a decision

• This is a decision that is done WITHOUT an interview with the candidate.
• The Liaison requests that this item is added to the agenda
• During this item, (which should be scheduled for about 10 minutes), the facilitator requests that all non-members leave the room.
• Our standard decision process is used to determine whether the body is ready to schedule a membership decision. Since the candidate has been greenlighted, there are two options to choose from:
  • A) Proceed with the membership decision (described below) as soon as is convenient for the community and the candidates
    OR
  • B) Delay the decision for 1 to 4 months, after which this process starts again with requesting to schedule a decision. If this is chosen, the community will agree to a list of issues or concerns that the liaison (or another designated individual) to communicate to the candidate about why the decision was postponed and how the candidate should respond in order to address concerns.

Step 2) Once a decision is approved to be schedules, it is arranged by the Liaison and the agenda planning teams for two meetings, either two consecutive meetings or two meetings not more than two weeks apart.

Step 3) The first of the two meetings is a membership Interview, which should be scheduled for about 20 minutes. At this interview the candidate is asked questions about their candidacy and given a chance to share what their thoughts and feelings are.

Step 4) The second meeting is two parts. This should be scheduled for about 30 minutes.

• the first part is a second opportunity for the community to ask further questions of the candidate
• In the second part, the candidate and all non-members are asked to leave the room, at which point a standard decision making process is used to determine whether to:
  • A) Approve Provisional Membership
  • B) Deny membership
  • C) Postpone decision formally, in which case this process repeats again at step 1 with the request from the Liaison to schedule a decision on membership.

As in step 1, if option C is chosen, the community will give a specific list of concerns and requested responses to the candidate, to be communicated by the liaison or another designated community member.