Trusted User Bylaws

This document describes the bylaws of the Trusted User group, its mission, and duties.

The Trusted Users (TUs) serve the following purposes:

The bylaws are written to be consistent with the mission of the TUs, and to ensure that TUs continue to be Trusted in the future. They are also written with the intent to keep the TU organization a thriving one, fulfilling its purpose.

Standard Voting Procedure (SVP) describes the formal procedure used by TUs to accept or reject proposals regarding TU affairs.

SVP begins with a proposal, for example the addition of a TU or an amendment to the bylaws. The proposal should be clear and concise and it must be posted on the aur-general mailing list (aur-general). The proposal must also be worded unambiguously, such that a YES or NO answer may be given.

The discussion period begins when the proposal is posted on aur-general. The duration of the discussion period shall be 5 full days UNLESS otherwise stated in a section of the bylaws pertaining to the proposal. Official discussion shall take place on aur-general. During the discussion period, votes shall not be cast.

The voting period begins when the discussion period ends. The duration of the voting period shall be 7 full days UNLESS otherwise stated in a section of the bylaws pertaining to the proposal. During the voting period, TUs may vote YES, NO or ABSTAIN. Votes shall be cast under the Trusted User section of the AUR website. At the end of the voting period, all votes shall be tallied.

The proposal is accepted if EITHER

UNLESS otherwise stated in a section of the bylaws pertaining to the proposal.

The proposal is rejected if EITHER

UNLESS otherwise stated in a section of the bylaws pertaining to the proposal.

A rejected proposal may not be presented again before a waiting period has passed. The duration of the waiting period shall be 3 full months UNLESS otherwise stated in a section of the bylaws pertaining to the proposal. The waiting period begins at the end of the voting period.

If quorum is not established by the end of the voting period then the proposal is neither accepted nor rejected. A second SVP shall begin to establish the status of the proposal. If the proposal is not accepted at the end of the second SVP then it shall be rejected.

Quorums ensure that all matters decided by vote are representative of the TU group. All TUs are expected to participate in all votes and the preceding discussions whenever possible.

Quorum shall be 66% of all TUs and participation shall be measured by the sum of YES, NO and ABSTAIN votes, UNLESS otherwise stated in a section of the bylaws pertaining to the proposal. The total number of TUs is recorded at the beginning of the voting period.

The addition of a TU may occur at any time.

In order to become a TU, one must first find two sponsoring TUs following the guidelines outlined below, and arrange privately with them to announce their candidacy on the aur-general mailing list. Following the announcement, standard voting procedure commences with a discussion period of 14 days, a quorum of 66%, and a voting period of 7 days.

If a candidate is rejected by SVP, they may not reapply to become a Trusted User for a period of three months.

The removal of a TU may also occur at any time.

A motion for the removal of a TU must be made by at least 2 TUs. The motion must be sent to aur-general, and contain a detailed and valid reason why the TU in question should be removed. Following the motion, standard voting procedure commences with a discussion period of 7 days, a quorum of 75% of all TUs except for the TU being considered for removal, and a voting period of 7 days.

The TU brought up for removal may defend themselves during the discussion period, but may not vote on the proposal.

These bylaws may be amended at any time.

A TU must motion for an amendment by sending an announcement to aur-general.

The message must either contain, or have attached, a Git-formatted patch against this document which accomplishes the suggested change. The patch should be based on the master branch of the official tu-bylaws repository and should be sent "inline" (i.e. using git send-email) so that other TUs can easily comment on specific parts. The strings [PATCH] and [tu-bylaws] should be included in the subject. git send-email --annotate can be used to edit a patch before sending it to the mailing list.

Sending multiple patches is generally discouraged and should only be done if no more than one of the patches are subject for debate (the remaining patches might be formatting changes or minor wording changes). If multiple patches are sent as part of one proposal, a cover letter describing the changes must be included. The --cover-letter option of git send-email can be used to achieve this.

SVP is commenced at the time of the motion, with a discussion period of 5 days, a quorum of 75%, and a voting period of 7 days.

If the amendment fails, the same amendment may not be motioned for a period of three weeks.