# RSE-AUNZ Steering Committee Dispute Resolution

# Motivation
This document contains the process with which a decision can be made by the RSE-AUNZ Steering Committee when there is no consensus among the committee members. The guiding principles behind the outlined steps is to facilitate consensus and keep democratic processes to the maximal possible extent.

# When does this document apply
This document should be followed when there is no unanmimous consent regarding any decision that needs to be made by the RSE-AUNZ Steering Committee. The decision could be either for internal (i.e. within the RSE-AUNZ community) or with external agencies (e.g., ReSA, OLS etc)

## Decision flowchart
The flowchart below should result in a decision. Each instance within this flowchart is a distinct round of voting. While 1-2 instances of votes may be done in one sitting after discussion, the committee should go away for at least a week before taking the next round of vote.

1. 100% consensus within SC
2. 2/3 of the entire SC agree
3. Both co-chairs agree and >50% of remaining SC
4. One chair and >50% of the remaining SC agree
5. More than 50% of SC agrees
6. Get a community vote on the decision
7. Both co-chairs agree. If only one chair's opinion can be meaningfully accessed, then that chair's decision stands
8. NZ co-Chair is the final tiebreaker

## Non-responsive SC member
Depending on the seriousness of the task involved (i.e., financial vs non-financial, strategic vs operational etc), if an SC member becomes non-responsive to email/text/slack etc, then the remaining SC members can decide whether sufficient effort has been expended to get opinion from the non-responsive SC member.

For prolonged non-response (say 1-2 months) from a SC member without prior information, that SC member may be assumed to have effectively resigned from the SC. From that point on, the non-responsive member will effectively be removed from voting and for purposes of counting the number of SC members.