What are the guidelines for members of the Ethics Council?
The meeting minutes from any convened “Ethics Council meeting” shall be released to the Executive Council within 14 days of the meeting.
The Executive Council reserves the right to reject or accept the meeting minutes and documented reviews of this council.
Open Constitution Governance Framework:
Muellners Foundation runs itself with a decentralized governance model. Ethics Committee works with the other Council members with respect to the Foundation’s ethics, social values in Foundation's initiatives and projects.
The Executive Council ratifies the Ethics Council’s Resolutions.
The Independent Board then ensures ratification of any amendments to this constitution, governance and steering of the Foundation, based on Executive Council’s public reports.
The chair of Ethics Council may also get elected to an Open Tribunal, registered on Open Constitution Governance System for arbitrations between disputing members of the Foundation.
Consideration:
Appointment to this Ethics Council is pro bono and voluntary in nature. Appointments are generally made for an election period of atleast 1 year and atmost 3 years.
Appointment, Nomination, Removal and Resignation:
Appointment:
Following members can officially nominate a new or existing member of the Foundation to the Ethics Council:
a. An elected member of the Executive Council or of the Ethics Council or of the Advisory Council.
b. A non Council member can also request a nomination, in the form of community proposal. The Nomination action shall be officially initiated by the only members mentioned in above “a”.
Self nomination by an existing member of one of the Open Council bodies for his/her/their appointment to the Ethics Council is not acceptable.
Self nomination by a non Council member of the Foundation, for his/her/their appointment to the Ethics Council is not acceptable. Please read more. 6.3 Once the nomination is accepted by the Nominee, Nominee or the member nominating the nominee, shall file supporting documentations 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.
Appointment to the Ethics Council is published on the public facing records of the Muellners Foundation.
Removal:
Members of the Executive Council or of the Ethics Council can only officially nominate removal of a member from the Ethics Council.
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 Muellners Foundation’s governing policies and directives must be provided by member(s) initiating the resolution, to support the Council resolution “Vote OUT”.
Community Referendum: Final removal of a member from the Ethics Council is subject to a community referendum on the passed Council resolution “Vote OUT”, stated above.
Community Referendum is generally accessible by all members of the Muellners Foundation - both Council, its CWC members and non Council 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.
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:
A Member's resignation from the Ethics Council is a voluntary action.
A member may resign from the Ethics Council by stating the reasons for resignation. The announcement of resignation can be done via electronic email on the Council’s mailing list.
Miscellaneous:
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.
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 complete Ethics Council and initiate constitution of a new Ethics Council.
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.