What are the Articles of association of the Advisory Council of the Open Constitution?

The members self constitute an Advisory Council which works with following articles of association and mentioned guidelines:

Meetings:

1. The Advisory Council shall meet the Executive Council on an ongoing basis: 1.1 Generally recorded on a monthly basis through an electronic meeting with the Executive Council, either exclusively or through Open Convention. 1.2 When recorded through the member’s presence in the Foundation’s monthly Council meetings, or 1.3 When participating through the Independent Board's private mailing list on any Council vote, atleast once in a month.

Advisory Council plays a central role in advising, advancing and promoting Foundation's advocacy of its guiding principles. Therefore, a vote of confidence may be scheduled to register attendance of the Advisory Council members.

2. The Advisory Council members may choose to meet the Executive Council or other members through an electronic meeting, in addition to the monthly Council meetings, to contribute to their roles and responsibilities.

3. Advisory Council can convene an electronic meeting, inviting all the Open Council members or all the Foundation's members, to conduct an independent documented audit or review of the Foundation’s projects and initiatives.

The meeting minutes from any convened “Advisory Council meeting” shall be released to the Executive Council within 14 days of the meeting.

The Executive Council reserves the right to reject or release the meeting minutes and documented reviews of this Council to the other members of the Foundation.

Open Constitution Governance Framework:

4. Foundation runs itself with a decentralised open governance system. Each open governance decision shall be recorded on the Open Constitution ledger.

The primary function of the Advisory Council is to work with the other Council members in highlighting advisory on the Foundation’s projects.

The Executive Council ratifies the Advisory Committee’s Resolutions.

The Independent Board then ensures ratification of any amendments to this constitution, governance and steering of the Foundation, based on Executive Counsel’s public reports.

The chair of Advisory Council may also get elected to an Open Tribunal, registered on Open Constitution Governance System for arbitrations between disputing members of the Foundation.

Consideration:

5. Appointment to this Advisory Council is pro bono and voluntary in nature. Appointments are generally made for an election period of atleast 1 year and atmost 3 years.

After a member has served on this Council in the preceeding year, community should appoint the former Advisory Council member to the Observation Council, subject to its electoral proceedings, but for an indefinite period of time, instead of the fixed time period, as stated in the Observation Council's protocols.

Appointment, Nomination, Removal and Resignation:

Appointment:

6.1 Nomination: Following members can officially nominate an existing member of the Foundation to the Advisory Council:

6.1 a. An elected member of the Executive Council or of the Advisory Council.

6.1 b. An individual member may also request a nomination, in the form of community proposals. The Nomination action shall be officially initiated by the only members mentioned in above 6.1 “a”.

6.2 Self nomination by (an already elected) member of one of the bodies of the Open Council for his/her/their appointment to the Advisory Council is not acceptable.

Self nomination by an individual member of the Foundation, for his/her/their appointment to the Advisory Council is not acceptable. Please read more. 6.3 Once the nomination is registered by the Nominee, Nominee or the member nominating the nominee, shall file supporting information such as nominee's literature, publications, demonstration of social activities on Foundation's Membership Registry.

A Council Resolution "Vote IN" is then scheduled on the Council's mailing list.

Electoral Process for "Vote IN" is conditional to a quorum.

a. Quorum is achieved when a minimum of half of all the Open Council members, participate in the Council Resolution - "Vote IN". b. A decision is received in favour of the Council Resolution - "Vote IN", when majority of all the participating members of the Open Council, vote "+1". E.g: Let's say there are 21 Open Council members.

Atleast 11 members shall participate in the Council Resolution for the "Vote IN" to achieve quorum. This is the qualifying state for the Council Resolution to be logged on Open Constitution public ledger. For the appointment to be electorally approved, the "Vote IN" should receive atleast half of the total votes(required for quorum), in the favour of this Council Resolution. So, in this example, six (+1) votes of the participating 11 Council members will do the job.

6.4 Appointment to the Advisory Council is published on the public facing records of the Foundation.

Removal:

7.1 Members of the Executive Council or of the Advisory Council can only officially nominate removal of a member from the Advisory Council.

7.2 Open Council Resolution - “Vote OUT" is considered to be active on the Open Constitution system, once it is initiated on the Council’s private mailing list.

Electoral Process for "Vote OUT" is conditional to a quorum.

a. Quorum is achieved when a minimum of half of all the Open Council members participate in the Council Resolution "Vote OUT".

b. A decision is received in favour of the "Vote OUT", when majority of all the participating members of the Open Council, vote "+1". E.g: Let's say there are 21 Open Council members.

Atleast 11 members shall participate in the Council Resolution for "Vote OUT" to achieve quorum. This is the qualifying state for the Council Resolution to be locked on Open Constitution public ledger. For the removal to be electorally approved for next stage, the "Vote OUT" should receive at least half of the total votes(required for quorum), in the favour of this Council Resolution. So, in this example, six (+1) votes of the participating 11 Council members will do the job.

A strong reason for violation of Foundation’s governing policies and directives must be provided by member(s) initiating the resolution, to support the Council resolution “Vote OUT”.

7.3 Community Referendum: Final removal of a member from the Advisory Council is subject to a community referendum on the passed Council resolution “Vote OUT”, stated in 7.1 & 7.2 above.

Community Referendum is generally accessible by all members of the Foundation - both Council, CWC members and individual members.

Quorum on the Community Referendum for the Council Resolution - "Vote Out" is achieved when 33% (more than 1/3rd) of all the voluntarily organised subscribed members participate. Of the minimum participating members, the Community Referendum stands as Decided when majority of the quorum populace votes in favour of the stated Council resolution “Vote OUT”.

E.g: Let's say there are 1000 Foundation members.

A minimum of 333 members are required to participate in the Community Referendum to achieve quorum. The decision of the Community Referendum depends on a majority(167/333) in favour of, or against the subject of the Referendum. This is the qualifying state for the Referendum to get locked on Open Constitution public ledger.

1. A member may serve on more than one Open Council bodies. Each Council body membership reserves additional voting rights.

If a member happens to serve on two Open Council bodies, then this effectively means that two votes are counted for the same member for the Foundation’s Council Vote based decision proceedings, including but not limited to the governing protocols for appointment of members or their removal to the Open Council.

Resignation:

1. A member's resignation from the Advisory Council is a voluntary action.

A member may resign from the Advisory Council by stating the reasons for resignation. The announcement of resignation can be done via electronic email on the Council's mailing list.

Miscellaneous:

10. The Independent Board reserves the right to update the terms and conditions, statutes from time to time, in compliance with the existing rules and regulations of the association, including reserving the right to terminate the appointment to this Council at any time, without notice and without the due electoral process of removal, in the following scenario:

If the member is found convicted of criminal, civil and financial crimes, in any court of competent jurisdiction, across the world, where Foundation has an active presence, either through a legal body representation or an affiliate network.

Read more on the guiding principles & diversity statement of the Foundation here.

Read more about the Foundation’s Code of Conduct here.

11. The statutes of the Foundation and terms and conditions governing its functioning can be found here.

The Independent Board reserves the right to dissolve the whole Advisory Council and initiate constitution of a new Advisory Council.

12. The Foundation members communicate via cryptographic electronic communications systems, and technology tools. In connection to the electronic meetings, convened by members of this council, Foundation’s IT infrastructure shall be used.

If the meeting took place outside the Foundation’s communications infrastructure, then the meeting minutes must be brought back to the notice of the Executive Council.

Upon a successful nomination and having received a passed Council Resolution "Vote IN", a new Open Council member should file their supporting documents to Open Constitution Membership Registry. A private link is generated by Open Constitution system.