Young Greens AGM 2021: Amendments

B10-001: Green Party Executive to Terminate the Appointment of the Policing and Domestic Safety Spokesperson

Raphael Hill (Brighton & Hove) — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 23:57:00 +0200

Motion Text

From line 1 to 2:

‘Green Party Executive to ~~terminate~~Consider Terminating the aAppointment of the Policing and Domestic Safety Spokesperson’.

From line 4 to 10:

According to the Code of Conduct for Spokespeople ‘The Green Party of England and Wales reserves the right to terminate the appointment of spokespeople before the end of their term, subject to the needs and reputation of the party. ‘

We, as the Young Green Conference, call for the Green Party Executive to ~~terminate~~consider terminating the appointment of the Policing and Domestic Safety Spokesperson, Shahrar Ali. We ask for this ~~action~~consideration to be taken once guidance has been given by GPRC to GPEx which establishes a clear process for terminating a spokesperson’s

From line 13 to 20:

This motion provides a non-exhaustive list of instances where we believe Shahrar has not lived up to the ‘highest standard of behaviour’ that is required from spokespeople in the Spokesperson Code of Conduct. This motion seeks to show that some of Shahrar’s public comments do not ‘uphold the policies of the GPEW’. We also do not believe that certain statements do not ‘uphold the ethical principles and political values of the GPEW.’ This motion focuses on two instances of this.This motion focuses on two instances of where we believe the values of the Young Greens and the policies of the GPEW are in conflict with Shahrar Ali's online statements. The first instance is Shahrar’s claim that it is unprofessional to wear a badge advertising your sexuality in a “patient

Delete from line 81 to 83:

~~Firstly, being open about your sexuality in any workplace is in no way unprofessional. This includes in the context of providing care work.~~ The image by the Care Quality Commission had a man with some buttons on his lanyard

Insert from line 91 to 92:

with a clarification’ and that in his mind you should not ‘advertise your sexuality’ if you are a care worker or clinician. Our view is that being open about your sexuality in any workplace is in no way unprofessional. This includes in the context of providing care work.

Delete from line 95 to 99:

under the Equalities Act of 2010 and so the Clinical Care Commission would be wrong to do so. Shahrar is therefore saying that there should be a form of workplace discrimination where individuals in care roles cannot disclose their sexuality because he deems it to be ‘highly inappropriate’. This is contrary to WR321 & HE207.

From line 173 to 175:

whether to terminate the appointment of the Policing and Domestic Safety Spokesperson. We ask that Young Green Co-Chairs when representing the Young Greens on this matter will act in accordance with the views of this motion.
We hope they bear in mind the views of the Young Greens Conference on this matter alongside, the views of the GPEW liberation groups.[Newline]

Reason

1. This amendment is for the purpose of reframe the motion around our core beliefs as Young Greens. This is rather than framing this around the Code of Conduct which is outside of our jurisdiction to decide upon.

2. The title has been edited with consider added to recognise that YG Conference is not the final arbiter on the termination of a spokesperson and accept that normal processes must be followed.

3. It also removes a section that makes an inference because that is unproven on workplace discrimination.

4. There are some textual amendments too.

D2-IS Altering Paper Submission Deadlines: Young Greens Standing Orders 2020/2021

Isaac Searle (Stratford-on-Avon District) — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 00:16:00 +0200

Motion Text

From line 87 to 90:

B3.7.2 Submission for papers shall close at 5pm on the Saturday exactly 4 weeks before the AGM.

B3.7.3 Following this, DAC must post all submissions at the earliest possible moment.~~[Space]~~

B3.7.4 ~~Exactly 1 week~~At 5pm on the Saturday exactly 2 weeks before the AGM, submission of amendments to papers will close.

From line 102 to 107:

B3.10 Emergency motions, defined as being brought due to an event occurring past the original motion deadline, will be accepted up until ~~17.00~~5 pm on the day before the AGM.

B3.11 The text of Emergency Motions should be submitted electronically ~~or by paper copy and the list of proposers by email and/or paper copy, both~~ to ~~the Chair of~~ DAC .

Reason

This would give additional daytime hours to submit papers, but would ensure that there isn't a late rush of paper submission as members are tired - this also means DAC can sort out papers at a reasonable time, not staying up to help with last minute queries and technical issues into the early hours.

D2-IS Altering Amending Amendments: Young Greens Standing Orders 2020/2021

Isaac Searle (Stratford-on-Avon District) — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 00:04:00 +0200

Motion Text

Delete from line 91 to 93:

B3.7.5 Amendments may not substantially change the intention of the paper ~~and nor may they require changes to another section of the Constitution or Standing Orders~~.

Reason

Sometimes, an amendment can be perfectly valid in achieving the purpose of the original amendment, but simply requires a change to another part of the ruling documents, for example, another area where the main topic of the original substantive amendment is referenced.

D1-IS Record of Structural Procedures: Young Greens Constitution 2020/2021

Isaac Searle (Stratford-on-Avon District) — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 23:56:00 +0200

Motion Text

Insert in line 214:

7.6 The YG RoOS should be publicly available.

Article 8: The Young Greens Record of Structural Procedures

8.1 There shall be a Young Greens Record of Structural Procedures (hereafter YG RoSPs) that contains a record of the following:
8.1.1 All rulings of the Democracy and Accountability Committee.
8.1.2 The text of all passed Motions of Censure and Commendations, alongside accompanying vote numbers and outcomes.
8.1.3 All records of successful Votes of No Confidence, and motions of the same effect, anonymous vote results, and vote outcomes - all information shall be anonymous.
8.2 The Democracy and Accountability Committee may add items to the YG RoSPs.
8.3 Entries may be removed by a simple majority vote of a motion submitted to Convention. All statements added between Conventions are to be reported to the following Young Greens Annual General Meeting by DAC and recorded in the next quarterly DAC report.
8.4 The YG RoSPs shall be available to all Members of the Young Greens.

Reason

There should be a record of accountability procedures.

D2-RR Electors of Liberation Officers: Young Greens Standing Orders 2020/2021

Rosie Rawle (Oxfordshire Green Party) — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 23:39:00 +0200

Motion Text

Insert from line 314 to 315:

E4.1 Every Young Green is eligible to vote at the Annual General Meeting and associated elections where they have 1 vote, except in the case of the elections for Liberation Officers and Officers representing a Special Interest Group on the Executive Committee, where only members of a those relevant groups may vote for their representative officer.

Reason

The purpose of Liberation Officers is that they represent the members of these groups on our Executive, bringing these voices to the centre of decision making in our organisation. Likewise, where we have Officers representing Special Interest Groups, (such as the Under 18s officer), it is important that these individuals represent the voices of their membership base. It is therefore important that these officers are elected by their relevant memberships, and held to account by those same members.

This motion seeks to make it clear that members of a liberation group or special interest group are the only members who can vote for their relevant representative officer.

D1-IS EC Quorum and Delgation: Young Greens Constitution 2020/2021

Isaac Searle (Stratford-on-Avon District) — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 23:22:00 +0200

Motion Text

In line 283:

1.7 The quorum for EC decisions is ~~50% + 1~~an absolute majority of all EC members.

1.8 An absolute majority of the Executive Committee may delegate authority, responsibilities, and powers over a set area to a set subset of the Executive Committee for a set period.

Reason

EC should have this flexibility to delegate authority, but it should always be approved by an absolute majority of EC.

D2-IS DAC Members in Elections: Young Greens Standing Orders 2020/2021

Isaac Searle (Stratford-on-Avon District) — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 22:40:00 +0200

Motion Text

From line 187 to 194:

[Newline]
E1.3 Members who hold a position on the Democracy and Accountability Committee ~~may not be candidates~~who stand as a candidate for any ~~position~~role in the Annual Ballot, other than ~~Member of DAC, except for~~ a Democracy and Accountability Committee role, must in every case recuse themselves or be recused from all business involving Annual Ballot Internal Elections.

E1.4 Members must in every case recuse themselves or be recused from all business involving an Affiliated Group ~~roles, until~~in which they nohold or play an active role.

E1.5 The Electoral Returning Officer and the Deputy shall assume the role of the Democracy and Accountability Committee in the case that all Members are recused with regards to the Annual Ballot.

longer hold a position on DAC. Members of DAC with an active role in an affiliated group must recuse themselves from business involving that affiliated group.

E1.46 Candidates must have two nominees, who are members of the Young Greens in accordance with Article 1 of the constitution, and may provide a candidate

From line 196 to 197:

E1.57 Members of the Young Greens may not: be a nominee for more than one of the following positions at any one time; nor hold more than one of the following

From line 199 to 220:

E1.57.1 Any EC role

E1.57.2 Democracy and Accountability Committee

E1.57.3 Green Students Committee Co-Convenor

E1.68 Members of the Young Greens may put themselves forward as a job share for any of the following posts within the Young Greens annual ballot:

E1.68.1 Treasurer

E1.68.2 Elections Officer

E1.68.3 Digital Communications Officer

E1.68.4 Press Officer

E1.68.5 Campaigns Officer

E1.68.6 Events Officer

E1.68.7 International Officer

E1.68.8 Equality and Diversity Officer

E1.68.9 Activist Training and Political Education Officer

E1.68.10 Liberation Officers (from each formerly constituted Liberation Group)

E1.68.11 Under 18s Officer

E1.68.12 Member of the Democracy and Accountability Committee

E1.79 Should one part of the job share resign or be removed from their position for whatever reason, their counterpart(s) will be able to either:

E1.79.1 advertise to co-opt a replacement for the exiting part of the job share

E1.79.2 continue to carry out their role without the exiting part of the job share, without replacing them E1.7.3 resign from their role

Reason

It's important that DAC members can't use admin rights and behind-the-scenes insight to further their election prospects. It's also important that DAC members shouldn't have to resign in the busiest period, the leadup to Convention if they wish to run for another role.

D2-RR Censure and Commendation at AGM: Young Greens Standing Orders 2020/2021

Rosie Rawle (Oxfordshire) — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 22:25:00 +0200

Motion Text

Insert in line 57:

B3.1.5 Emergency Motions, as outlined in B3.10

B3.1.6 Motions of commendation and motions of censure

From line 72 to 73:

B3.3 Annual reports detailed in B3.2 must be submitted to DAC at least ~~1 week~~2 weeks before the AGM.

In line 87:

B3.7.2 Submission for papers shall close exactly 4 weeks before the AGM, aside from submission for motions of commendation and censure which shall close 1 week before the AGM.

Reason

At the moment, our Autumn General Meeting has a specific accountability session that allows the membership to question elected officers, and crucially, also gives them the power to pass motions of censure and commendation.

This motion seeks to bring Convention into line with the AGM, and makes sure that members have similar powers to make official statements on their approval or disapproval of certain actions or decisions made by elected officers.

This is important because for example, in the case of 'censure' the membership should be able to hold our executive to account and deliver official sanctions that don't necessarily have to go as far as removing someone from elected office. On the other hand, the membership should be able to officially commend and celebrate the successes, signalling to the membership it's approval of a certain direction of travel etc.

The motion moves that it will be possible to submit motions of censure and commendation at the same time as all other papers, but that close of submissions is a little later. The timeline would be that these need submitting one week before the AGM, so that there is one week to read reports from officers before submitting if people choose to wait to see them first. (This means that I have also moved the report submission date forward a bit to two weeks before the AGM which I believe is a pretty neglible difference).

D2-RR Removing Second Convention Hustings: Young Greens Standing Orders 2020/2021

Rosie Rawle (Oxfordshire Green Party) — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 19:07:00 +0200

Motion Text

Insert from line 298 to 299:

video hustings will take place for all roles elected at Convention, which all candidates for these roles are invited to take part in. This will be recorded and made available to all members.

Delete from line 304 to 306:

E3.9 A further in-person hustings shall be held at Convention; each candidate has the right to participate in these as well as to submit a statement in advance.

Reason

Currently we are required to run an online hustings event for our internal elections two weeks ahead of when voting opens - and then another duplicate event with the very same candidates in person at Convention. The latter is usually on the closing day of voting when most people have already made up their minds, or watched the online hustings - or a recording of the online hustings.

This motion seeks to remove the mandatory hustings event at Convention since it duplicates work, time and isn't accessible to people who cannot attend. Doing this will free up time at the in person event for proper scrutiny of former officers, for motions and debates, and political events, talks and workshops.

This motion also seeks to mandate that the online hustings is recorded and made available to the wider membership since this isn't explicitly the case at the moment, but is often done in good practice.

D1-NH GSC Clauses Technical Alterations: Young Greens Constitution 2020/2021

Nick Humberstone (Lewisham) — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 21:17:00 +0200

Motion Text

From line 31 to 35:

2.4 There will be a Green Students Committee consisting of two Co-Convenors and five Non-Portfolio Officers, defined in Byelaw 43.

2.5 The Executive Committee, Democracy and Accountability Committee ~~and the Green Students Committee Co-Convenors~~ will be elected at the Young Greens Annual General Meeting according to the provisions in Section D of the Standing Orders.

In line 253:

1.1.1 Two Co-Chairs, of which at least one must be not be a self-defining man.

From line 255 to 256:

1.1.~~3 The Green Students Committee Co-convenors, who shall be responsible for the Green Students Committee.~~3 The Green Students Committee Co-Convenors, of which at least one must not be a self-defining man.

Delete from line 319 to 320:

3.1 The Green Students Committee shall be led by two Co-Convenors~~, of which at least one must not self-define as a man~~.

Delete from line 340 to 342:

3.4 Green Students Committee Co-Convenors shall individually provide a quarterly report to the membership, to be published on the members’ website, and an end-of-year report to the Young Greens Annual General Meeting.

Delete from line 345 to 346:

3.6 The Green Students Co-convenors shall be members of the Executive Committee as outlined in Byelaw 1.

Reason

Now that GSC Co-Convenors are on EC, theres a lot of unnecessary extra mentions. DAC cannot use editing powers to remove clauses, so this has been submitted to Convention.

D1-DLC Altering Under 18s Officer Role: Young Greens Constitution 2020/2021

Dylan Lewis-Creser (North Northamptonshire Green Party) — Fri, 21 May 2021 22:17:00 +0200

Motion Text

From line 319 to 322:

3.1 The Green Students Committee shall be led by two Co-Convenors, of which at least one must not self-define as a man.

3.2 The role of Under 18 representative will be up for election as a member of the Green Students Committee, which can only be contested by someone who is seventeen years of age or younger.

3.23 The Co-convenors shall be elected in line with Section E of the Standing Orders following the procedures, timescale and gender balance rules described

From line 324 to 328:

3.34 The aim and responsibility of the Green Students Committee is to:

3.34.1 Ensure that the Executive Committee is kept up to date on issues effective students and to lead campaigning on those issues.

3.34.2 Encourage Young Greens to stand for elected positions in relevant student -led organisations, including but not limited to, their students unions, NUS, or

From line 330 to 341:

3.34.3 Support any Young Greens holding those elected positions in relevant student-led organisations.

3.34.4 Ensure that the Young Greens are involved with campaigns run by the NUS, and other relevant student-led organisations.

3.34.5 Liaise with external bodies that are relevant to student issues and campaigning.

3.34.6 Promote campaigns and organisations relevant to the students movement to the Young Greens membership.

3.34.7 Work with the Executive Committee to support the Young Greens Students Societies and ensure their effective running.

3.45 Green Students Committee Co-Convenors shall individually provide a quarterly report to the membership, to be published on the members’ website, and an end-

From line 343 to 346:

3.56 Vacant positions may be co-opted at any time throughout the year following the procedure outlined in the standing orders.

3.67 The Green Students Co-convenors shall be members of the Executive Committee as outlined in Byelaw 1.

Reason

This is to increase the voice of Under 18s in the wider Young Greens, which the Green Students Committee is a part of. Too often, under 18 members are shut out of education debates due to the Green Students Committee being composed of only those in higher education. As such, this amendment would guarantee at least one spot on the committee for both Under 18s, preventing those in higher education from drowning the Under 18s out.

D2-JMB Changing EC Co-Chair Gender Balancing: Young Greens Standing Orders 2020/2021

Joshua Morris-Blake (Brighton and Hove Green Party) — Fri, 21 May 2021 21:36:00 +0200

Motion Text

Insert from line 340 to 341:

allocated to the remaining candidates from whom the second Co-Chair will be elected, except in circumstances where the remaining candidates are exclusively self-defining men, in which case self-defining men are not excluded from the vote and further preferences are allocated as usual according to the STV method.

Reason

This is to avoid a situation where a position remains vacant due to a lack of non self-defining male candidates. It is undemocratic for a 2nd place candidate to be denied the role of Co-Chair simply because there are no other candidates running for election. It is healthier for the running of the Young Greens for all positions to be filled, than to have a vacant position just because no non self-defining men have nominated themselves.