Feedback: Staff Code of Conduct Amendment

A

Anastasia Wilford

SLEC Member
I am not currently asking for co-sponsors for this motion, just feedback. Please consider the amendment below. I will take feedback for ~48 hours before asking for a co-sponsors and a vote. I know we are approaching Christmas and other winter holidays, so I would like not to drag this out, but would also like to get it finished before 12/25 (the 30 day point for the signature requirement). Find also the Code of Conduct as passed.

Signature Amendment​

All volunteers must read and agree to abide by this Code of Conduct as a condition of their service. By signing below, you affirm your commitment to uphold the values and standards of the Libertarian Party of Texas.All volunteers are expected to abide by this Code of Conduct as a condition of their service. As part of the onboarding process, the LPTexas Policy Manual will be sent to the volunteer by the Secretary or their designee.

Policy Manual​

3.1.4 Onboarding
Within 10 days of the hiring or appointment of a new staff member, the Chair or Vice Chair will
announce to SLEC the new member’s name, email addresses, and phone numbers they will use to conduct party business. and relevant contact information and the Secretary or their designee will send them the following documents:
  • Non-Disclosure Agreement for signature
  • Staff Code of Conduct for review.
Staff members may be assigned LPTexas email address(es) with which to conduct Party business, upon the recommendation of the Department Head and approval by a party officer.

Staff members may be assigned LPTexas forum access in accordance with the “Online Forum” policy, upon the recommendation of the Department Head and approval by a party officer.
 
This may be a good time to start incorporating the XD position into our policy manual where appropriate. In this case the Executive Director actually handles most of the staff onboarding process (and has since I started doing that for Whitney a couple of years ago), so would there be any objection to amending 3.1.4 to read "the Chair, Vice Chair, or Executive Director will announce"?
 
Andrew Amelang said:
This may be a good time to start incorporating the XD position into our policy manual where appropriate. In this case the Executive Director actually handles most of the staff onboarding process (and has since I started doing that for Whitney a couple of years ago), so would there be any objection to amending 3.1.4 to read "the Chair, Vice Chair, or Executive Director will announce"?
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With these kind of process interactions I favor language like "the chair, vice chair, or a designee" and then you just designate the XD since in the future the position may not exist or the name may change. However, if you have strong inclinations on this one it's not a battle I'm going to fight since in this particular circumstance it's adding the XD as an "or" so if we didn't have one then the Chair or VC could pick up the duty.
 
I would prefer language requiring the delegation of authority be done in writing, formally, etc. So as to create a record of that delegation, and so that the delegation of that authority is an affirmative choice made by the chair, rather than a default presumption.
 
Billy Pierce said:
I would prefer language requiring the delegation of authority be done in writing, formally, etc. So as to create a record of that delegation, and so that the delegation of that authority is an affirmative choice made by the chair, rather than a default presumption.
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How would you rewrite that language? How would you interpret the language of "or designee" that would not generate a written record?

I ask because I don't read anything in "or designee" to presume who that designee is and the only ways I know of to designate someone is to announce it here to the body or to announce it at a meeting where it gets recorded in the minutes and generates a record. Same would need to be done by my understanding to withdraw that designation.
 
I'd be open to a recommendation on language or process, but envisioning what you've described so far, that seems to lend itself toward being clunky and burdensome.

I don't have any of these documents memorized, but after a brief reference, I found there are currently 7 instances in the Policy Manual, 1 in the Bylaws of SLEC, and 6 in the LPTexas Bylaws where duties may be delegated to someone's designee, none of which require that the delegation of those duties happen in writing. They often are written (though not formally announced) since so many of us are hundreds of miles apart from each other, but I don't see what purpose formalizing that process serves or what problem it resolves (though if you see a problem this addresses, I'm open to your perspective)
 
Andrew Amelang said:
Maybe we should just circle back to your original fallback position then. Just put in Exec Director as the only other option and it will sort itself out.
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Either way, I don't see that it solves the issue since it doesn't fix the other 7 (maybe soon to be 8) occurrences unless the concern was only for this specific instance and not for example the Treasurer's designee on who can handle the funds. Which would be an odd position to me but oddities are not novelties on this body...
 
Doesn't fix the other instances, but it would solve my problem.... ;)

I'm okay to retract the suggestion, too. I posted dozens of staff announcements as XD and nobody gave Whitney any crap for not being the one to post the announcement. It got done, by someone who reported directly to the Chair, which apparently was good enough.

Overall, though, I think there are places in our policy manual that could be improved if we considered the role of XD and made room for it. I hope we never go back to not having one, but if the policy is well-written then the XD would do the job if we have one, and the Chair/VC would handle it if we don't have one. Self-organizing, as it were.

Let's just retract my suggestion at this point. It's not necessary in isolation here, and I think consideration of how the XD does or does not fit into the Policy Manual is best taken up in the context of a major policy overhaul, which will hopefully get some attention next summer.
 
Andrew Amelang said:
Doesn't fix the other instances, but it would solve my problem.... ;)

I'm okay to retract the suggestion, too. I posted dozens of staff announcements as XD and nobody gave Whitney any crap for not being the one to post the announcement. It got done, by someone who reported directly to the Chair, which apparently was good enough.

Overall, though, I think there are places in our policy manual that could be improved if we considered the role of XD and made room for it. I hope we never go back to not having one, but if the policy is well-written then the XD would do the job if we have one, and the Chair/VC would handle it if we don't have one. Self-organizing, as it were.

Let's just retract my suggestion at this point. It's not necessary in isolation here, and I think consideration of how the XD does or does not fit into the Policy Manual is best taken up in the context of a major policy overhaul, which will hopefully get some attention next summer.
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Yeah, on that note I spoke to bylaws a couple weeks ago when policy manual discussions were coming up, floated the idea of us looking at the policy manual, and nobody on the committee pushed back. Obviously bylaws will be our primary focus but us rules nerds may have some suggestions coming up if we find some time 😉
 
I'll put it on the scratch pad of Policy Manual amendments to consider adding language that's inclusive of an Executive Director while also providing for the instance where we don't have one and being careful to only add that for duties that would reasonably be done by the XD instead of the Chair.

🪙And for what it's worth, I don't tend to like adding "or Vice Chair" to these things since the default job of the VC is to assist the Chair so it's reasonable to me that that's implied in any instance where a duty is assigned to the Chair. 🪙

Scratchpad: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1V-PRw58ukWKs-1zwfNvFPfhLKfuVwf1W?usp=drive_link
Anyone who has changes they'd like to see considered can request edit access and add them to the doc. Please include your name so I know who to reach out to for collaboration.
 
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Officers should be able to designate without the formality. They are still accountable for the work, and are simply spreading it out a bit. Explicitly in the case of VC, and implicitly in XD.
 
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