Policies & Guidelines

1. A CL will propose an idea and either post it in the RF CL Forum provided for that purpose, or e-mail it to the liaisons to be posted. 

2. The proposal must be seconded within 48 hours. During this time up to 2 alternative proposals for achieving the same goal/handling the same issue may also be proposed and seconded. (A liaison may second an idea proposed to them in e-mail and indicate this when posting it). If there are too many alternatives proposed, the liaisons will table the issue to meet and develop a compromise within a week. 

3. There will be no "nulling" of proposals. 

The proposal and any alternatives will be posted in the voting booth for one week, (7 days). Discussion of the issue may occur during this time. At the close of the vote, the Audit team will email the final tally, along with a list of voters. Implementation will depend on the issue but will generally be supervised by the liaisons. 

Every 6 months, two months after liason elections, all teams are put up for a vote of confidence whereby the general satisfaction of the CL's with the perfomance of that team will be judged. 

If, by vote of 50% plus 1 it is determined that the CL electorate is satisfied with the team, it will continue operations as normal. Otherwise, the membership of the team will be put up for election. 

By this means, working teams face minimal interruption, non-working teams get renovated, and all teams get identical treatment.

1. An "Abstain" vote will count towards the number of votes received to determine whether a majority of CLs participated in the vote, but will not influence the outcome of the vote. 

2. A vote for CL elections will be carried if 51% of the votes are in favor. 

3. CL applications will be posted in the Voting Booth by the VB liaison on Monday, contingent upon applications being received in the Queue. 

4. A re-vote will not be called for unless 

(a) specifically requested by the majority of CLs, 
(b) an error was made in posting, or 
(c) technical problems are encountered during a vote.

1. A majority vote of 51% of all CLs is required for all CL policy issues. When this type of vote is called for the liaison will CLEARLY identify the issue as: "IMPORTANT! MAJORITY VOTE REQUIRED", or something similar. 

2. A quorum consisting of at least 15 Cls is sufficient for the election of new CLs. 

3. The final results of the votes are announced via email by the Audit Team, and include the final tally, and names of those CLs who voted via the electronic Voting Booth. 

DURATION OF VOTING PROCESS: 

1. Issues and Proposals involving  major policy will be 10 days. 

2.  CL applications, and team elections will be 7 days.

The electronic Voting Booth was adopted by the CL majority as the RF's official method of voting. The Voting Booth is accessible by password only, and does not reveal how a CL has voted.  It does, however, provide each voter's IP number (Internet Provider) to help confirm voter identity, and voting history. 

The Voting Booth is managed by the liaisons, with one liaison delegated to oversee maintenance and operation.  This responsibility alternates among the liaisons as they deem necessary. 

HOW IT WORKS: 

• CL applications are automatically submitted to the VB queue. An auto email acknowledgement is also sent to the applicant.
• The VB liaison reviews the queued applications, scans the applicant's website with the liaison tool to insure against major infractions, and posts the application to the VB.
• The VB liaison sends an auto-email from the VB to each registered RF CL reminding them to vote.
• At the end of each voting period, the VB closes the vote, and sends an auto email to the applicant advising them if their application was accepted, or denied. 
• The Audit Team compiles a list of voters for that session, updates the auto-response email to include the new list of voters, and sends the auto tally to the registered CLs. 

A separate roll call will NOT be held.  Voting replaces the need for a separate roll call. 

Excused "Leave of Absence" is excluded from this determination. The liaisons MUST be informed of any leave that is longer than one week. An "Away" icon will be posted on the block assignment page for the respective CL. 

PROCEDURES 

1. At two missed votes, the VB liaison will email the CL a kind note on the order of, "just checking in".  At 4 missed votes the individual will receive a warning notice with a deadline of less than one week in which to reply. 

[Note:  the VB generates a Voting History that the liaisons use to determine voting activity] 

2.  If a reply is not recieved, the VB liaison will remove the CL's name from the Block Assignment page,  and report the missing CL to the Community Manager as inactive to be placed on suspend status.  The CM will remove the missing CL's name from the leader.html page.  The missing CL will also receive an auto generated email from the Community Manager advising of the suspension.  The suspended CL can be re-instated easily at any time by contacting the liaisons, or the CM. 

3.  The liaisons are authorized to request the temporary suspension of any CL for whom they have received bounced emails.  That CL's name will be removed from the leader.html page until an alternative address is located. 

4.  In the event of vacations, or uncontrollable circumstances which prevent access to the internet, leaders are encouraged to contact their liaisons and request vacation status in order to avoid suspension.  If a CL is unable to access the net, another leader may request it for them. 

5.  Liaisons may use a roll-call for appropriate purposes; however, the results of such a roll call must be used in the spirit of the above procedures. Roll call cannot be used more than once per quarter, must have some purpose other than head count, and cannot be used as more than a single missed vote in terms of determining inactive status.

The VB liaison will maintain a monthly CL Activity Report at the cl_only pages of the community website for all CLs to review. The activity report will contain the voting history of each CL. 

CLs deemed to be "Inactive" according to the above definition will be indicated as such in the Activity Report. 

• Please note that the purpose of recording the "Inactivity" status of a CL is NOT to punish but to help highlight possible problems where vote requests may not be reaching a CL, or there are potential problems in the voting booth.

1. The RF Mentor Team Chair submits names of accepted CL applicants to the GC Training Team, and coordinates training activities for the RF. 

2. Mentoring activies are overseen by the RF Mentor Team, however, one of the liaisons is delegated as the Training Contact liaison to oversee activities in the GC Training Program.  This responsibility alternates among the liaisons as they deem necessary. 

3. CL applicants undergo approximately 2 weeks of GC Training by GC/RF mentors, and must pass an exam and evaluation before they are graduated as official Community Leaders. 

4. The delegated Contact Liaison submits the names of CL graduates to the CM who then issues an "official" GC welcome. 

5. The RF Liaison who oversees the "Welcoming Committee" sends the new graduates a "Congratulatory/Welcome" email which includes all necessary passwords. 

6. The RF Mentor Team Chair also sends a Welcome email with the url to the cl_only section, and RF Orientation pages.

Betty, Klingfree 
Term 04/19/99 - 10/19/99

Janie and Amber 
Term 02/09/99 - 08/09/99

Heavensent
Term 05/25/99 - 11/25/99
 

Betty (earthwave)
Janie (garden angel)
Amber (tigers'_lady)
Dave (klingfree)
Jennifer (heavensent)

Current Responsibilites: 

Garden Angel 

• Block Assignments
• GC Mentor/Training
• Liaison Tool - Jungle

• CL Directory
• Project Teams
• Liaison Tool - Andes

• State Of RF Message
• Community Website
• GC Mentor/Training
• Liaison Tool - Vines

• Voting Booth
• Chats/Forums
• Liaison Tool - Canopy

• MIAs
• Community Website Interactive
• Liaison Tool - RainForest

1. The date for commencement of liaison elections shall be coordinated in conjunction with the respective terms, and agreed upon by all active liaisons. The opening of nominations shall be announced to the group as IMPORTANT: LIAISON ELECTION via email, and posted to the RF CL Forum by the primary communicator liaison.  

2. There will be a 7 day duration for nominations, seconds & acceptances.  Actual voting shall also last 7 days. 

3. The RF CL majority shall elect one liaison for each burb, (currently 5 burbs) all sharing equal responsibilities, and alternating duties among themselves at reasonable intervals. 

4. There will be no rank among liaisons, however, an individual's tenure (total time as a CL) in the RainForest should be respected.

5. Liaisons will be nominated and the nomination seconded at BOTH the RF CL Forum, and via email to all current liaisons.

6. Liaison nominees will post their acceptance to the RF CL Forum, and via email to all current liaisons.  Acceptance will include geoname, real name, and email address along with a brief bio for inclusion in the Voting Booth.

QUALIFICATIONS 

1. A community leader must be 18 or older to run for the liaison position. 

(Age restrictions are GeoCities' policy, and non-negotiable.) 

TERM 

1. The term for liaison shall be 6 months with unlimited re-election. 

2. An election will also take place if one of the current liaisons steps down from the position.

REMOVAL 

1. In the event there is significant disagreement among CLs over a liaison's actions, the CLs will advise the Community Manager, and try to resolve the problem through appropriate measures. 

2. In the event of misconduct by a liaison, CLs aware of the misconduct will contact the Community Manager and/or Senior Community Manager with factual information. 

NOTE: the removal of a liaison between elections is non-negotiable, as GeoCities does not allow a liaison to be removed by CL's only.  This same process is used for removing a community leader from the CL program.