If you are a Community Party member and you’re seeing this, congratulations! You’re an important part of the bylaw writing committee. You can contribute to crafting our Party’s national bylaws below.
Head back to the main document, and feel free to practice your democracy by contributing to the Party’s Party Platform, Homepage, History, and FAQ!
What are bylaws and why are they important?
Bylaws are a set of procedures and guidelines used to orchestrate responsibilities, help solve conflict, and address certain needs across an organization. They’re the ultimate guidebook for handling our internal affairs. To cover all our bases and to establish trust, solidarity, and efficiency, our bylaws should have the following components (and maybe more):
- The Party’s mission and ultimate goals
- The criteria, rights, responsibilities, and structure of our membership
- The formation, duties, and powers of committees
- The holding of meetings
- How meeting agendas are determined
- When and how meeting notes are shared with whoever
- How and when to notify people of a meeting’s occurrence
- The creation of Party chapters (by population, region, etc.)
- The duties, definitions, and terms of elected Party positions
- Election procedures themselves
- How to establish quorum (a quorum is the minimum number of representatives or Party members needed to conduct official actions like a vote, proper meeting, etc.)
- How to handle nominations to certain positions
- Voting rights and methods
- How to count and certify the votes
- How to handle disputes, office vacancies, and special elections
- How position transitions should be conducted
- Management of finances
- How to budget
- How funds should be used
- How to handle audits and other potentially burdensome things
- How and when to notify people of a meeting’s occurrence
- Procedures for amending the bylaws