Our existing rules across a number of documents have been put into a single proposed national rules document.
The project was first proposed by the National Digital Hui in December 2019 and endorsed in a January National Coordination Team meeting. The purpose of this document is to reflect what we’ve already agreed, not what we want to include. In other words, its a “warts and all”. This would make it easier to find rules as well as make any future changes. The original purpose was not to create a legal constitution or entity.
A distinction has been made between “rules” and “policies”. Rules are fundamental binding agreements (i.e. demands and principles) and the framework of our self-organising system. Policies are agreements made by working groups. Rules are changed by our National Council and require a higher agreement than Policies, which are changed by Working Groups / Teams.
Simon Oosterman agreed to coordinate this work with the support of Matt (Whangarei), Bruce (CEE Inc) and Rachael (Manawatu).
The original source documents are:
- International Affiliation Policy 2018 – what we agreed to when we affiliated (i.e. international rules)
- National Council Rules 2020 – how constitutional decisions are made
- Working Group Policy 2019 – what constitutes a working group (rules) as well as what working groups existed at that time (policies)
- National Coordination minutes
- Custom and practice – agreed ways of which haven’t been written down
A number of administrative changes – things that don’t change the meaning of the document – were made to ensure the document made sense.
Matt (Whangarei), Bruce (CEE Inc) and Rachael (Manawatu) scrutinised the document to ensure it reflected what was already agreed. They agreed this was the case.
A number of additional matters were identified after the document was finalised, including our political independence which isn’t reflected in the document. This was never put in a policy document, but was agreed at a National Coordination meeting. These matters will be raised through a separate process which will likely include a recognition that they are existing agreements to separate it from new proposals.
What happens to this document will be decided by a process currently before the National Coordination team.
What you can do
- Notice something missing from the original documents? Share in the Structure Mattermost Channel or email Simon at [email protected]
- Have ideas on new rules? Share in the Structure Mattermost Channel
