The original plan for the state caucus page on the conventionusa web site envisioned a place where delegates could discuss ideas, exchange information, offer, debate and vote on motions.
When entering the page the delegate would have two choices: FORUM or MOTION.
If he selects FORUM, he is then given a list of TOPICS under discussion, and an option to create a NEW TOPIC.
If he selects a TOPIC, he will see all prior COMMENTS on that TOPIC and a blank box into which he can
write a comment.
Whenever a new COMMENT on a TOPIC is posted, all delegates who have previously commented on that topic receive an automatic email informing them that a new comment has been posted.
Whenever a NEW TOPIC is created, every member of the caucus should get an automatic email notification and invitation to comment.
If the delegate selects MOTION, he is given a page which has a box for the title of the motion, a box for the text of the motion, and a button to SUBMIT the motion for consideration by the caucus.
When a motion has been submitted, several things occur:
The FORUM is no longer open. When a delegate enters the caucus, he sees the pending MOTION, all comments on it which have been posted, box for him to add a COMMENT, a button to SUBMIT his comment and a button to call for a vote to CLOSE DEBATE.
If he SUBMITS a COMMENT, the CLOSE DEBATE button disappears. An automatic email goes ouT to all members of the caucus.
TO BECONTINUED
To help organize the discussion on the Chairman's vision, please keep comments in this post to the forum part of his proposal.
ReplyDeleteDiscussion on the proposed MOTION construct should be placed in the second post.
I am unsure why the Forum should be required close when a Motion is under consideration. It seems that the Forum represents behind the scenes discussion, while the Motion structure represents the formal action on the floor.
It certainly seems possible for congressmen to walk across the hall and discuss privately an idea unrelated to the current motion on the House or Senate floor.
This seems like the type of that question the Rules Committee should discuss.
The State Caucus Forum, as you describe, is already present. This could be reimplemented using the default behavior of both forum implementations being discussed.
Indeed, these tools would also give delegates the option to receive weekly posting summaries, to reduce the load on there e-mail during heavy conversation. States will also be able to create sub-forums to help organize topics of similar theme, as they see fit. Far more robust text formatting tools would be available for delegates to format text, paragraph breaks alone would be a huge improvement.
In short, the above vision of the Forum Functionality will be expanded and improved with the proposed Forum installation.
Upon the clarification by the Convention USA Chairman,
ReplyDeletehttp://conventionusainternet.blogspot.com/2013/03/from-chairman.html
discussion on the nature of discussion on our State Caucuses has been moved to:
http://conventionusainternet.blogspot.com/2013/03/ive-tried-to-put-judge-brennans-vision.html