Over the past few months we've been holding regular meetings, open to members to help us review our ruling documents and bring a new fit-for-purpose constitution to our AGM. The ruling documents that we've been reviewing are:

• The LGBTIQA+ Greens Constitution
• Our Code of Conduct
• Management Group Terms of Reference
• Our Elections Regulations

As we approach our AGM we'd like to get the input of more of our members on some of the main changes to our ruling documents, in particular our constitution. This isn't a vote, just an indication of support for each of the current proposals to support the completion of the current changes.

PROPOSAL ONE: Define Membership

Current Situation: Membership of the LGBTIQA+ Greens is determined by email subscription status and current membership of the Green Party of England & Wales. This means that we have no idea of the true number of members, and cannot effectively target our comms. This increases the cost of our comms, and internal elections.

Proposal: Membership of the LGBTIQA+ Greens will be defined in the constitution, with two levels of membership available:

• Full Member: With Voting Rights
• Associate Member: With No Voting Rights

Additionally, we will define "Supporters" as any individual who is not a member of GPEW, but is subscribed to email updates from the LGBTIQA+ Greens. Supporters will have no voting rights.

PROPOSAL TWO: Changes to the Committee

Current Situation: The current LGBTIQA+ Greens committee is made up of two independently elected co-chairs, a treasurer, a secretary, and five members' representatives, without portfolio.

Proposal: We propose removing the positions of members' representatives and creating roles with portfolio. These roles may change, but to give you an idea of how the committee could look here are the current proposed roles:

• Two independently-elected co-chairs.
• Treasurer
• Secretary
• Liberation Officer
• Digital Comms Officer
• External Comms/Press Officer
• Membership Officer
• Elections Officer
• Policy Officer
• Campaigns Officer
• International Officer

PROPOSAL THREE: Limit Co-Options

Current Situation: Should a vacancy arise on the LGBTIQA+ Greens committee, remaining members of the committee may co-opt somebody into this role.

Proposal: As repeat co-options during a committee term can result in a committee far-removed from that voted on by members we propose limiting the number of co-options that can take place during a committee term. This would mean that once that co-option limit had been reached any further vacancies would need to go to a full-member vote.

PROPOSAL FOUR: Define Quoracy & Votes for Job Shares

Current Situation: At present it is not defined if committee votes are per-person, or per role. For example, should the Treasurer position be held by two people as part of a job share it is not clear if each post-holder can vote, or if one vote is available per position.

Proposal: We believe it's important to define this within our constitution to reflect the hope that the committee will grow. We propose defining the number of votes allocated to a job-shared position, and similarly defining quoracy of committee meetings to clarify if quoracy is based on individuals present, or roles represented.

PROPOSAL FIVE: Regional representation

Current Situation: We have loosely organised regional sub-groups of the LGBTIQA+ Greens. None have submitted a constitution to the LGBTIQA+ Greens.

Proposal: We hope that as these regional groups grow they will adopt consitutions and be recognised by the LGBTIQA+ Greens. We propose that a representative for each of these regional groups be given a place on the LGBTIQA+ Greens committee to ensure regions are adequately represented.

Our current proposal does not make clear if these regional representatives will be voting or non-voting members of the LGBTIQA+ Greens committee. It may be that they are non-voting, until all regions are represented.

PROPOSAL SIX: Define Number of Nominations Required

Current Situation: At present the number of nominations required for each committee position is equal.

Proposal: We propose defining the number of nominations required for each committee role, potentially with a higher threshold of valid nominations needed for some positions. For example:

• Co-Chair: Five
• Treasurer: Five
• All Other ROLES: Two

The above is an example only, and may not be representative of the number of required votes.

What Next?

Members of the LGBTIQA+ Greens will be able to vote on the changes to our ruling documents at our AGM on November 19th 2022. If you'd like to get involved with the LGBTIQA+ Greens, have any questions, or are considering standing for a committee position please give us a shout on info@lgbtiqa.greenparty.org.uk, or keep an eye on your inbox for opportunities to get involved.