Rules Committee Internal Procedures

Last updated on 2022-09-15.

Each section on this page is a Rules Committee fiat.

By intention, every section, sub-section, sub-sub-section, etc. of these procedures can be directly linked to by a URL that (again, by intention) will never change. Those URLs are structured similarly to those for the Standing Rules but start with "www.nesfa.org/rules/procedures.html#pr".

Most procedures are followed by annotations in square brackets and italics [like this] giving their date of passage or other pertinent historical information. These annotations are not themselves part of the procedures.

1 Whenever any file <name>.<extension> in the "rules" directory of the NESFA website (the one which contains the ByLaws and Standing Rules pages) is modified, a copy of the new version of the file will be saved in the "rules/archive" directory with the name <name>-asof-YYYYMMDD.<extension> (where YYYYMMDD is the current date). If a file is changed more than once on a given day, only the latest copy will be saved. [4/18. 8/22, moved from Standing Rules section 1.6(8).]
2 Whenever an item affecting the Standing Rules is published in Instant Message or otherwise brought to the attention of the Rules Committee it will be added to the SR-pending.txt page in the "rules" section of the NESFA website as an item to be perfected by the Rules Committee. Items from Instant Message will be quoted exactly unless they are known to have been reported inaccurately. Comments and/or a proposed perfected version may be included. When the Rules Committee has perfected the item it will be moved to the "ready to be reported to the Membership" section of SR-pending.txt. After it has been reported to the Membership it will be integrated into the Standing Rules web page and deleted from SR-pending.txt. [4/18. 8/22, moved from Standing Rules section 1.6(9).]
3 The procedure for processing items in SR-pending.txt is:
  • Whenever there are items in SR-pending.txt which are neither already perfected nor already under discussion, the process manager shall send them individually to the rules-committee mailing list starting with the oldest — except that no more than half-a-dozen should be under discussion on the list at any time.
  • For each item under discussion online:
    • any committee member may call for a face-to-face meeting to resolve an item which they feel cannot be dealt with online, and may retract any such request if they change their mind.
    • each initial message shall include the full text of the item and should include a proposed "perfected" version (if different from the original text) or a recommendation to discard this item as not belonging in the Standing Rules.
    • discussion should be general comments not requiring a vote, approval of the proposed perfected text, a proposal of an alternate version of the perfected text (which will be voted on as an amendment), approval or disapproval of a proposed alternate version of the perfected text, or a vote to discard this item.
    • SR-pending.txt should be updated with any important comments, proposals, etc.
    • if all committee members have voted on an issue and there is no ongoing discussion of its merits, discussion of that issue terminates immediately.
    • otherwise discussion by email will continue until one week after the last substantive posting regarding that item or amendment — except that the period will be extended if any committee member is temporarily unable to participate in the discussion. A vote with no discussion does not extend the deadline for discussion.
    • the process manager shall post as necessary to make it clear what issue(s) is/are under discussion for each item.
    • the process manager shall post a warning one day before the end of the discussion period giving the exact time when discussion will end. If this posting is delayed, the discussion period is extended until one day after the warning is posted.
    • When discussion of an item or amendment ends, if a majority of the votes cast for or against are in favor, that action will be taken. An amendment fails if a majority of those votes are against; otherwise the item or amendment will be dealt with at a face-to-face meeting. The process manager will post a message stating that discussion has ended and the action to be taken.
[4/18. 8/22, moved from Standing Rules section 1.6(10).]
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