The Waltham Greens

About Us

10 Key values
Bylaws

Grassroots Democracy
Ecological Wisdom
Social Justice and Equal Opportunity
Nonviolence
Decentralization
Community Based Economics
Feminism
Respect for Diversity
Personal and Global Responsibility
Future Focus and Sustainability

For Discussion
Below is a proposal for bylaws for the Waltham Greens. If you have suggestions you can email them to Dan and I will also post them on this website.
Following that are five sets of bylaws from other Green groups for comparison. Please read them and reflect.

Proposal for Waltham Greens Bylaws Revision 1.0 7/8/01

ARTICLE I. Name and Icon

1.1 The name of this Green local political organization shall be the Waltham Greens.

1.2 The Waltham Greens may from time to time adopt an icon, or logo, to foster group recognition.

ARTICLE II. Purpose, Values, Methods, Practices

2.1 10 Key Values
The purpose of this organization shall be to work toward a Green Society, locally, statewide, nationally and globally by promoting the Ten Key Values of the Greens: see above.

2.2 Methods
This organization may use any and all methods of non-violent social change which include but are not limited to rallies, demonstrations, boycotts, citizen's initiatives, civil disobedience, direct action, building alternative institutions, electoral politics and campaigns, issue campaigns, ballot initiatives, and their related strategies and tactics.

2.3 Green Movement
This organization shall participate in the larger Green Movement, sharing ideas, experiences, and other forms of support and fellowship with Greens and other organizations which stand for Green Values.

2.4 Respect and Decorum
We recognize that while we are working together towards a Green Society, all members of the Waltham Greens are free-thinking individuals and may not always agree on everything. In this recognition, all members will strive to respect each other and preserve decorum, so that we can all learn to deal with disagreement on issues, methods, and tactics, as separate from the person who we disagree with. This goal will further each and every member towards true respect for each human.

2.3 The activities of this local shall be carried out in keeping with the Green Political Practices as stated in the current Greens/Green Party USA bylaws. These Political Practices include: accountability to membership base, immediate recall, imperative mandate, freedom to speak and caucus around political views, affirmative action, rotation of delegates, democratic decision rules, freedom of information, strategic diversity, membership and process standards, and membership review process.

ARTICLE III. Membership

3.1 Open Membership
Membership in the Waltham Greens is open to all, regardless of age, race, color, national origin, spiritual belief, gender, sexual orientation, or physical challenge, who affirm the Ten Key Values, the bylaws of the Waltham Greens, and is a resident of Waltham or attending one of its schools or are a resident of a bordering town with no Green local.

3.2 Registered Green Voter
While any person may become a member of the Waltham Greens, it is important to recognize that the Waltham Greens are also looking for a Greener future in the electoral agenda. Therefore, a person may not become a member or remain a member of the Waltham Greens and be registered to vote in any other political party other than the Massachusetts Green Party.

3.3 Registered to Vote
Seeing as democracy begins at home, all persons who become members of Waltham Greens must be registered to vote, except in the case of persons who are not eligible to vote. Waltham Greens will have plenty of Voter Registration cards always handy for new members.

3.4 Dues
There are a number of dues categories to accommodate all who want to be Waltham Greens members.

	Wealthy		Dollar-A-Day	$365.00/year
	High Income	Quarter-A-Day	$91.25/year
	Regular		Dime-A-Day		$36.50/year
	Student/Senior	Nickel-A-Day	$18.25/year
	Low Income	Penny-A-Day	$3.65/year
	No Income*		Thought-A-Day	$0.00/year

	* No Income membership must be approved... how?

3.5 Membership Rights
Those members who are current in paying dues to the Waltham Greens will be members in good standing (as determined by the Treasurer) and eligible to vote in all matters presented at Waltham Green meetings and to hold office.

3.6 Membership Recall
Any member who is found not to be acting in a manner consistent with the responsibilities as outlined in the bylaws may be put up for the membership review process as outlined in the GPUSA bylaws.

3.7 Mascots
In acknowledging our non-human companions, a human may choose to have a non-human companion be recognized as a Waltham Greens Mascot. Mascot dues are whatever the human companion wants to give. Suggested amount is the same as the human member is paying.

ARTICLE IV. Officers

4.1 Officers
The following is the list of officers and their responsibilities:

4.1.1 Two Co-chairs
The two co-chairs gather, organize, and prioritize the agenda for all meetings, coordinate facilitation of all meetings, deal with publicity, and are responsible for maintaining the flow of information and news to and from regional, state and national Green Parties. It is preferred to have one male and one female co-chair.

4.1.2 Secretary
The Secretary is responsible for the minutes at the meetings, records of legal (state, IRS, municipal, etc.) files of correspondence, documents, etc.

4.1.3 Treasurer
The Treasurer responsible for financial records and reports, membership dues, donations, checking account.

4.2 Election of Officers
Officers are elected at the Annual Meeting of the Waltham Greens. Any member in good standing may run for any of the officer positions. Any member may run for more than one position (this may change in the future). Terms are one year with a suggested two years of sequential service followed by at least one year off. It is also suggested that incumbent officers give other members a chance by stepping down if two or more members other than the incumbent officer are running.

4.3 Removal of Officers
Officers may be removed for failure to follow through on their duties, or for other reasons that cause their duties to not be performed, such as moving away from Waltham. To remove an officer, a vote at a regular meeting needs to have at least 3/4 of the members who vote, vote to remove the officer. Removed officers should be replaced by an election at no later than the following monthly meeting.

4.4 Delegation by Officers
Officers may delegate to volunteer members, or other officers, from time to time for a particular task, but are responsible for overseeing that the delegated task or responsibility is being met.

4.5 Other Officer Responsibilities
The following are a list of other responsibilities to be performed by officers. Once officers are elected, they will decide as a group who will take on the responsibility.

Membership and Contact Database (using eBase)

ARTICLE V. Meetings

5.1 Annual Meeting
There will be a special meeting of the Waltham Greens held annually in April in stead of the regular meeting. The annual meeting is where the elections are held for the officers. WHAT ELSE?

5.2 Regular Meetings
There will be regular meetings once a month, except for the month that the Annual Meeting takes place. Regular meetings are where the regular monthly business takes place. Reports from working groups (aka committees) may be heard, new business brought up, decisions made, etc.

5.3 Minutes
Minutes must be recorded at all meetings and should be made available to all members by email or web site no later than two weeks after the date of the meeting. Minutes will be read, amended, and approved as necessary at the following meeting.

5.4 Open Meetings
All meetings will be open to the public.

ARTICLE VI. Decision Making Process

6.1 Consensus Decision Making
Except where specified in the bylaws, all decisions will use consensus decision-making, as outlined in ŇOn Conflict and Consensus: Formal Consensus Decision-makingÓ (www.consensus.net).

6.2 Blocked Consensus
When consensus is blocked on a particular decision, a member can propose to vote to move to a non-consensus decision making process. To move to a non-consensus decision-making process, 3/4 of the members who vote must vote to move to a non-consensus decision-making process.

If the move to non-consensus decision-making is passed, the decision in question now must now use one of two methods for non-consensus process (see 6.3).

If the move to non-consensus decision-making is not passed, the subject of the decision is put into a special committee made up of volunteers of at least two members for each differing view of the major controversy (or controversies) that prevented consensus. That committee will then decide what to do and report back at no later than the next meeting.

6.3 Non-Consensus Decision-making Process
Two different processes will be used depending on if the vote is binary (eg. voting for or against one proposal or one candidate) or non-binary (eg. the vote is to select one proposal from two or more proposals or one candidate from two or more candidates)

6.3.1 Binary
If the decision is a binary decision, then a decision is passed by a 2/3 majority of the members who vote on the decision.

6.3.2 Non-Binary
If the decision is a non-binary decision, then a decision will use instant runoff voting.

a. Each voter will rank the proposals or candidates and need not include all of the proposals or candidates

b. The votes are initially counted using the first item ranked on each ballot. In the case of electing co-chairs the first two candidates on each ballot will be used.

c. If no item receives a 2/3 majority then the item receiving the fewest number of votes loses its votes and those votes are redistributed using the second item ranked on each ballot.

d. If still no item receives a 2/3 majority, then step (c) above is repeated but moving to the third, forth, etc, ranked item for ballots that are redistributed, until there are no more ballots to redistribute.

It is possible that no proposal or candidate will receive a 2/3 majority and in this case no proposal will be passed or no candidate will be elected.

ARTICLE VII. Working Groups (aka Committees)

7.1 Working Groups, also to be known as Committees, can be formed around any issue, project, or action, as the membership sees fit. Proposals for working groups and their area to work on are put on the agenda for members to discuss and decide on.

7.2 Lifetime of Working Groups
The lifetime of a working group must be included in the proposal and is either term limited as short term projects are, or ongoing as long term projects are. Proposals can be put forth to turn term limited projects into long term projects.

7.3 Working Group Structure
Any member can join a working group. If more than three members join a working group, then they will use Waltham Greens decision-making process to select one person as the chair of the working group.

7.4 Working Group Process
Working groups will meet at their own schedule and do the work that is assigned to them as per the proposal that instantiated the working group. Minutes will be taken and maintained by the working group. Working groups will report back to the general meetings, may present proposals to the general meetings for decisions, and may seek agenda time just for discussion by the meeting for input on ideas and direction.

7.5 Working Groups and the Public
Working groups may not represent Waltham Greens on any issue, idea, fact, etc, unless the working group has been chartered with the ability to speak for the Waltham Greens on particular areas. Even when chartered with the ability to speak for the Waltham Greens, all communications to the public must be reviewed by the two co-chairs and may be vetoed by either of the co-chairs if they see fit, or in the lesser case edited. In the case of a veto by a co-chair, the communication in question will be put on the agenda for the next meeting of the Waltham Greens.

7.6 Recall of Working Groups
As is the case with officers, working groups can be recalled if the working group is not working any more or has violated the bylaws.

ARTICLE VIII. Amending Bylaws

8.1 Notice to Change Bylaws
These bylaws can be amended at any meeting where the membership has had a notice of the proposal to change bylaws for at least 30 days.

8.2 Decision-making Process
Normal decision-making process will be used for changes to the bylaws, as specified in Article 6.

HADLEY GREENS

Massachusetts Green Party By-laws

Proposed By-Laws of the Medford Greens

Some thoughts:
1. I wonder what a Green local is? Should we call it something more definitive—a club, or even political organization?
2. I know the membership business is tricky. We want to have all who wish to join be members. Yet we feel they need to participate in some financial way to do so. How about this, that all who share these values and reside in this area can be members of the party. But, to be a member in good standing (as determined by the Treasurer) one has to pay dues. And only members in good standing can vote. In some sense I would think we would want to encourage those who just sign up as Greens to vote Green to do so, without feeling they have to be dues paying members of this “club.”
3. We need to have a way to terminate membership as distasteful as this might be or seem.
4. I think we need to have one meeting a year that is a special meeting – an “annual” meeting where we have elections for the forthcoming year of officers, etc. also, this would set the “period” for dues. Without that keeping track of who is paying and when “I” last paid, etc., would be confusing and difficult. I propose here that that period begin May 1 st , a great holiday for all of us. We can go out and wrap the May Pole.

Merrimack Valley Greens Bylaws

Bylaws Proposal to the Members of South Berkshire Greens

Mission Statement
South Berkshire Greens exists to promote the ten key values of Grassroots Democracy, Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice, Community Based Economics, Nonviolence, Respect for Diversity, Gender Equality, Personal and Global Responsibility, Decentralization, and Future Focus by means of education and action. The focus is on local community issues with the understanding that the local and global are intrinsically related. All structures of the organization aim to encourage maximum input of every member by the most effective means. Those basic structures are:
The (General) Membership Meeting
1. Serves as a forum for open discussion.
2. Meets quarterly, and as called for special meetings, and requires a ten-day notice.
3. Agenda will be prepared by the Coordinating Committee (C.C.), or an Agenda Committee that reports to the whole, and is mailed not less than 10 days prior to the Meeting.
4. Votes on decisions arising from, or brought to the Meeting.
5. Hears reports from, and ratifies, vetoes or amends decisions and proposals brought from the C. C.
6. Votes by paid-dues membership of at least 30 days standing.
7. Requires a quorum of 51% for voting
8. Decisions are reached by consensus when possible, then by a 2/3 vote. (Abstentions will not be counted in percentages of votes for or against.)
9. Allows voting by absentee or proxy ballots. If unable to attend the meeting a member may inform the Co-chairs or Secretary up to the day before the meeting of proxy vote on Agenda issues.
10 Amendments to the by-laws may be adopted by a 75% vote of the Membership
The Coordinating Committee
1. Serves a clearing–house for the flow of information, news, education and actions of the membership, and between regional, State and National Green Parties.
2. Is comprised of the original un-elected Ad Hoc Group, Co-chairs and representatives from working groups.
3. Terms run for 1 year, with a consecutive 2-term limit. (No limits?)
4. Meets every two weeks, or as called, and is open to all members of the SBG Local
5. Co-chairs are responsible for coordinating the agenda and facilitation of meetings, and notifying members.
6. All SBG members may participate in meetings. Attendance at three (3) consecutive meetings is required for voting.
7. Plans and sets the agenda for the General Membership meetings or may convene an Agenda Committee that includes the two Co-chairs which will report to C.C. Notice of G.M meeting to be not less than 10 days prior to meeting.
8. Requires a quorum of 51% plus one Co-chair for voting
9. May approve requests for funds or other resources by a vote of 75% of C.C. present.