Americans for Representation Bylaws

1 Name and Purpose

The Name of this organization shall be the Americans for Representation (USA4R), a not-for-profit organization. The purpose of USA4R is to empower ordinary people through community organization. The objective of the USA4R is to represent its members’ interests in order to enact political, social, and economic change. The USA4R shall be cooperatively run by its members using democratic principles.

2 Membership

Membership is available for anyone who wishes to apply, pay monthly dues, and abide by the Constitution and bylaws. The USA4R shall have one (1) class of membership.

2.1 Membership contract

Every applicant for membership shall sign a membership contract.

2.2 Membership Expectations

Members are required to vote on a delegate. Members are expected to volunteer at least 10 hours per year, either with the USA4R or other organizations working to advance USA4R’s vision of the future. Members are expected to vote in every possible local, county, state, primary, and federal election. Any member expectation may be waived due to hardship. Members are expected to either attend every meeting, or delegate their authority to another member for a meeting.

2.3 Membership Dues

Members are expected to pay monthly dues of at least $5 per month. The cost of the membership may be changed once a year using the Voting Procedure for Proposals in Section 4. Dues may be waived due to financial hardship.

2.4 Removal of Members

Any member has the right to resign from USA4R.

Membership may be terminated using the voting procedure for resolutions. Membership may be terminated due to failure to pay membership dues.

The member must be given 15 days prior notice of the expulsion, suspension, or termination and the reasons therefor, and the member shall have an opportunity to be heard, orally or in writing, no less than 5 days before the effective date of the expulsion, suspension, or termination by a person or body authorized to decide that the proposed expulsion, termination, or suspension not take place.

3 Delegates

Delegates shall be elected by members in order to represent members at formal meetings. Any member may become a delegate. Delegate voting power shall be equal to the amount of members’ voting power which has been delegated to them. Members may split delegation to more than one delegate. Members may delegate voting power to them self. Delegation may be temporarily revoked when a member wishes to personally vote at a meeting and temporarily become a delegate. No delegate may accumulate more than 33% of total voting power of the members.

3.1 Vote Power

Each member shall have 1 vote power for each meeting held. Vote power may be subdivided into fractional voting power. Vote power may be transferred by the member to a delegate.

4 Meetings

Regular meetings shall be held at least once per month. All delegates are eligible to attend and vote in meetings. Delegates shall receive at least 5 days advance notice of meetings. Meetings shall be used to evaluate and enact proposals.

4.1 Proposals

Proposals & Resolutions can be made to direct activities of the USA4R and the USA4R staff. Delegates may directly vote on meeting proposals. Non-members may vote in meetings if allowed by a 90% rating vote of delegates.

4.2 Electronic Participation

Delegates not physically present at a meeting may participate using electronic communication and deemed present in person. Meetings may be held using solely electronic communication.

4.3 Voting Procedure

Proposals shall be voted on by delegates using scored voting. A total rating of at least 9 out of 10 (90%) is required for immediate passage of a resolution. If a rating less than 90% is achieved, multiple additional re-votes are required for passage, using the procedure below in this section.

The speed of passage shall be determined through the accumulated ratings of the proposal polled across multiple votes of the proposal. A proposal shall be adopted when proposal distance exceeds 1.0. At least 6 days must pass from the last vote in order to re-vote on a proposal. Proposal distance is defined by the sum of all passage-speeds for each vote and revote of a proposal. Proposal distance shall be set to zero if a proposal score falls below 51% for a vote. Passage speeds are determined from the table below.

Minimum Rating	Passage Time	Passage Speed
(%)	(# sessions)	(1/session)
90	1	1.0000
85	2	0.5000
81	3	0.3334
78	4	0.2500
74	5	0.2000
70	6	0.1667
66	7	0.1429
62	8	0.1250
57	9	0.1112
51	10	0.1000

4.4 Bylaw Amendments

The bylaws shall be amended using the Section 4 Voting Procedure. However at least 30 days must pass from the last vote in order to revote on a bylaw amendment. An amendment shall also require one additional re-vote for passage, requiring at least 2 votes.

4.5 Proposal Amendments

A proposal may be amended, without affecting the proposal’s passage distance, if the amendment achieves a higher rating than all previous ratings of the proposal. Otherwise, the proposal amendment must be considered a separate proposal starting at zero proposal distance.

4.6 Quorum

Quorum shall be established by attendance of at least 50% of total delegated voting power.

5 Officers and Staff

Staff may be hired/fired, and officers may be elected, through the voting procedure. Any member of the organization is eligible to hold any office. All staff shall be members of the organization.

6 Committees

Informal committees may be set up.

7 Coercion

Coercion made against other members shall result in immediate loss of voting power, delegation power, and membership suspension, to be reinstated only by vote as stipulated in Section 4 — Meetings. Coercion against other members is grounds for termination following Section 2.4 — Removal of Members.