10. A. Standard Resolution Procedure

These rules apply to communal decision-making by committees and plebiscites, where stated above.

10.1 A.1. Proposal

The formal procedure begins when a draft resolution is proposed and sponsored, as required.

10.2 A.1 Discussion and Amendment

1. Following the proposal, the resolution may be discussed. Amendments may be made formal by being proposed and sponsored according to the requirements for a new resolution, or directly by the proposer of the original resolution.

2. A formal amendment may be accepted by the resolution's proposer, in which case the formal resolution draft is immediately changed to match.

3. If a formal amendment is not accepted, or one of the sponsors of the resolution does not agree with the acceptance by the proposer of a formal amendment, the amendment remains as an amendment and will be voted on.

4. If an amendment accepted by the original proposer is not to the liking of others, they may propose another amendment to reverse the earlier change (again, they must meet the requirements for proposer and sponsor(s).)

5. The proposer or a resolution may suggest changes to the wordings of amendments; these take effect if the proposer of the amendment agrees and none of the sponsors object. In this case the changed amendments will be voted on instead of the originals.

6. The proposer of a resolution may make changes to correct minor errors (for example, typographical errors or inconsistencies) or changes which do not alter the meaning, providing noone objects within 24 hours. In this case the minimum discussion period is not restarted.

10.3 A.2. Calling for a vote

1. The proposer or a sponsor of a motion or an amendment may call for a vote, providing that the minimum discussion period (if any) has elapsed.

2. The proposer or any sponsor of a resolution may call for a vote on that resolution and all related amendments.

3. The person who calls for a vote states what they believe the wordings of the resolution and any relevant amendments are, and consequently what form the ballot should take. However, the final decision on the form of ballot(s) is the Secretary's - see 7.1(1), 7.1(3) and A.3(4).

4. The minimum discussion period is counted from the time the last formal amendment was accepted, or since the whole resolution was proposed if no amendments have been proposed and accepted.

10.4 A.3. Voting procedure

1. Each resolution and its related amendments is voted on in a single ballot that includes an option for the original resolution, each amendment, and the default option (where applicable).

2. The default option must not have any supermajority requirements. Options which do not have an explicit supermajority requirement have a 1:1 majority requirement.

3. The votes are counted according to the rules in A.6. The default option is "Further Discussion", unless specified otherwise.

4. In cases of doubt the Project Secretary shall decide on matters of procedure.

10.5 A.4. Withdrawing resolutions or unaccepted amendments

The proposer of a resolution or unaccepted amendment may withdraw it. In this case new proposers may come forward keep it alive, in which case the first person to do so becomes the new proposer and any others become sponsors if they aren't sponsors already.

A sponsor of a resolution or amendment (unless it has been accepted) may withdraw.

If the withdrawal of the proposer and/or sponsors means that a resolution has no proposer or not enough sponsors it will not be voted on unless this is rectified before the resolution expires.

10.6 A.5. Expiry

If a proposed resolution has not been discussed, amended, voted on or otherwise dealt with for 4 weeks the secretary may issue a statement that the issue is being withdrawn. If none of the sponsors of any of the proposals object within a week, the issue is withdrawn.

The secretary may also include suggestions on how to proceed, if appropriate.

10.7 A.6. Vote Counting

1. Each voter's ballot ranks the options being voted on. Not all options need be ranked. Ranked options are considered preferred to all unranked options. Voters may rank options equally. Unranked options are considered to be ranked equally with one another. Details of how ballots may be filled out will be included in the Call For Votes.

2. If the ballot has a quorum requirement R any options other than the default option which do not receive at least R votes ranking that option above the default option are dropped from consideration.

3. Any (non-default) option which does not defeat the default option by its required majority ratio is dropped from consideration.

a. Given two options A and B, V(A,B) is the number of voters who prefer option A over option B.

b. An option A defeats the default option D by a majority ratio N, if V(A,D) is strictly greater than N * V(D,A).

c. If a supermajority of S:1 is required for A, its majority ratio is S; otherwise, its majority ratio is 1.

4. From the list of undropped options, we generate a list of pairwise defeats.

a. An option A defeats an option B, if V(A,B) is strictly greater than V(B,A).

5. From the list of [undropped] pairwise defeats, we generate a set of transitive defeats.

a. An option A transitively defeats an option C if A defeats C or if there is some other option B where A defeats B AND B transitively defeats C.

6. We construct the Schwartz set from the set of transitive defeats.

a. An option A is in the Schwartz set if for all options B, either A transitively defeats B, or B does not transitively defeat A.

7. If there are defeats between options in the Schwartz set, we drop the weakest such defeats from the list of pairwise defeats, and return to step 5.

a. A defeat (A,X) is weaker than a defeat (B,Y) if V(A,X) is less than V(B,Y). Also, (A,X) is weaker than (B,Y) if V(A,X) is equal to V(B,Y) and V(X,A) is greater than V(Y,B).

b. A weakest defeat is a defeat that has no other defeat weaker than it. There may be more than one such defeat.

8. If there are no defeats within the Schwartz set, then the winner is chosen from the options in the Schwartz set. If there is only one such option, it is the winner. If there are multiple options, the elector with the casting vote chooses which of those options wins.

Note: Options which the voters rank above the default option are options they find acceptable. Options ranked below the default options are options they find unacceptable.

When the Standard Resolution Procedure is to be used, the text which refers to it must specify what is sufficient to have a draft resolution proposed and/or sponsored, what the minimum discussion period is, and what the voting period is. It must also specify any supermajority and/or the quorum (and default option) to be used.