Decision-Making Process

How decisions get made in RMMAN

In order to make a change within RMMAN, go through the following steps. You will need an account on Loomio, learn more about Loomio here.

Overview

• Start a thread on Loomio to express the idea and gather input from the RMMAN community.

• Draft a “work-in-progress” proposal in the thread, and enlist other people to give suggestions and help shape the draft.

• Post the final draft as a “proposal” in the thread.

• Test for consent. Voting will be open for at least one week and end on a Sunday at 9pm.

• The following conditions must be met by the closing time in order for the proposal to pass and be implemented:

  1. No reasonable objections are raised.

  2. More than half of the active Loomio users participated in the vote.

  3. The Coordinator(s) did not end the proposal before the closing time.

1. Start a thread on Loomio to express the idea and gather input from the RMMAN community.

• Maybe all that is needed is a poll(s) to get a feeling of receptance to the idea and suggestions.

• Otherwise, if a proposal is needed move on to the next step.

2. Draft a “work-in-progress” proposal in the thread, and enlist other people to give suggestions and help shape the draft.

3. Post the final draft as a “proposal” in the thread which should contain the following elements:

Option	What to do
Title
Details	This section should contain the following information: Purpose (optional): A brief statement to explain what this proposal will do and why. Who will be affected Background (optional): To give context, information, and history of the proposal. Text to be Implemented: This is the actual language of what is being proposed. It should be clear, simple, and concise. Coordinators: This names the person(s) responsible for taking the proposal through this decision-making process, communicating it to potentially affected people for their input, communicating it to members of RMMAN who are not on Loomio for their input, and initializing its implementation if the proposal is consented. Detailed Description and Reasoning (optional, it can instead be posted as a comment on the Loomio thread): This is to explain the details of why the “Text to be Implemented” is the way it is.
Options	Consent, Abstain, Objection
Work in Progress	No
Closing	This is the date and time when testing for consent will end. This will be 9pm on the second Sunday (including the day the proposal is posted) after the proposal is posted on the Loomio thread.
Send a Reminder to	(optional)
Who can vote?	Anyone
Anonymous Voters	(optional)
Hide Results until Closed	No

4. Test for consent. Voting will be open for at least one week and end on a Sunday at 9pm.

A voter will have the following options

Position	Meaning
Consent	The voter is ok with the proposal being implemented.
Abstain	The voter feels neutral or uninformed on the subject but does not have a concrete objection.
Objection	The voter is not ok with the proposal being implemented because it might cause harm. For an objection to be considered reasonable: The voter must provide a reason and work with the Coordinator(s) to find a resolution.

• A reasonable effort is made by the Coordinator(s) to share and gather feedback from affected people, whether they are on Loomio or not.

• The Coordinator(s) may end the proposal before the closing time to make revisions to the “Text to be Implemented” and go back to Step #3 to be posted in the thread and tested for consent. However, they may revise any of the other “Details” without ending the proposal, or if the revisions to the “Text to be Implemented” are to fix grammar errors and typos.

5. The following conditions must be met by the closing time in order for the proposal to pass and be implemented:

• No reasonable objections are raised.

• More than half of the active Loomio users participated in the vote.

• The Coordinator(s) did not end the proposal before the closing time.

If it doesn’t pass

1. The Coordinator(s) should reach out to those who objected and try to get suggestions on how to rectify those objections. The revised proposal will go back to Step #3 to be posted in the thread and tested for consent.

2. Otherwise, the Coordinator(s) may abandon the proposal or pass it off to a new person(s) to make revisions and be the Coordinator(s).

If it does pass

The Coordinator(s) will be responsible to communicate the consented decision to the RMMAN community and initialize the proposal’s implementation.

This decision-making process will automatically expire on Sunday, Sep 5, 2021 at 9 pm (or sooner if it is replaced).