As of 6/28/23: Our Standing Rules are in transition. The first set of Standing Rules below are included in the revised chapter bylaws. The Local Political Committee will review previous Standing Rules and adopt them as necessary.
All resolutions up for debate at a General Meeting must be submitted to the LPC at least fourteen days prior to the meeting. The LPC will make sure that the resolution is in order with Roberts Rules, the Local’s Bylaws, and the Local’s Standing Rules.
Only resolutions with five or more co-sponsor signatures shall be considered at a General Meeting.
No fewer than eleven days prior to the meeting, the LPC shall inform resolution authors if their resolution is out of order. The authors shall have two days to resubmit their resolutions to bring them in order. The LPC will make sure that the resubmitted resolution is in order with Roberts Rules, the Local’s Bylaws, and the Local’s Standing Rules
A General Meeting packet shall be published seven days prior to the meeting.
Amendments to resolutions should be submitted to the LPC at least four days prior to the meeting. The LPC will make sure that the resolution as amended is in order with Roberts Rules, the Philly DSA Bylaws, and the Philly DSA Standing Rules.
The full General Meeting packet with all business planned for the memberships' consideration shall be published no fewer than 48 hours prior to the meeting.
Enabling resolutions for campaigns must specify a (a) specific, winnable political goal related to the purposes of the Local (b) a plan to reach that goal, specifying the role of the Local (c) a termination date for the campaign (d) a proposed budget, and (e) a recruitment plan. Enabling resolutions should specify how the campaign will strengthen the Local and advance its purposes.
During debate members are asked to be respectful and comradely towards each other. Please confine comments to the merits of the matter being discussed.
The chair will introduce resolutions to be debated as laid out by the order of the agenda with full title and number so that members may follow along in the packet. The chair will introduce a new resolution as a main motion and introduce an author of the resolution to present its content. The author will then have three minutes of speaking time. After this the body will move into debating the resolution.
All speakers whether in debate or from the floor should state their name.
In the event that there is an amendment to the resolution, immediately after the main resolution is introduced, the chair will call up an author of the amendment to speak about its content. The author will have two minutes to introduce their amendment. The body will then move directly into debating the amendment. After a vote is taken on the amendment, the body will move directly into debating the main motion.
Any motion that requires debate will be allowed to have three speakers for and against. After three speakers for each side, the chair will ask for points or motions, at which time members can motion to extend speakers for and against (by a definite number of speakers), call the question, etc.
If the meeting is approaching the scheduled adjournment time, the chair will ask the membership if it would like to refer agenda items to the LPC for a vote or table agenda items for the following General Meeting.
Requests for agenda items: A member can request to add an item to the LPC agenda. Such requests must be sent no fewer than 72 hours ahead of the LPC meeting or they are not guaranteed consideration.
Last amended 11/4/2021
Online voting should be avoided and used only for noncontroversial matters that require a rapid response. When a decision is raised in committee for a vote online, members have at least 24 hours to respond. If during that time two or more members of the committee request via email to hold off on the vote pending further deliberation and/or online discussion, the online vote is null and void, even if a majority of the committee has already voted.
Each year and/or within three months of the committee’s establishment, the committee chair will meet with the chapter treasurer to discuss their anticipated budgetary needs. The treasurer will then deliberate with the steering committee, which will vote to determine the committee’s annual budget.
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