Expulsion procedure

Infractions of our Code of Conduct may at times be particularly urgent, egregious, sensitive, and/or damaging to the safety and comfort of participants in our community. The Makers Local 256 Board of Directors has a duty to protect the safety of the members of the space and the integrity of the community we share. To that end, the Board has defined a procedure for handling serious infractions of our Code of Conduct. This procedure allows the Board to act swiftly, and with the confidentiality that serious infractions necessitate.

According to the Makers Local 256 bylaws:

“A member may be expelled from the organization at the discretion of the Board of Directors if he or she fails to observe the responsibilities of a regular member. “

Procedure

The following defines the procedure of an expulsion executing the above:

An email will be sent to the board specifying the person the expulsion is suggested for, the duration of the associated ban, the confidentiality of the expulsion, and the reasons for the suggestion of expulsion.

Public expulsions require that the expulsion and reasons for expulsion be announced if voted actionable. Private expulsions require that the expulsion be announced to only the banned member and any relevant complainants. Discussions of private expulsions should occur via a private and temporary medium of communication (e.g. in person, a private Slack channel for the Board with a limited history) and not via the board’s email list. However, after such a private expulsion discussion is concluded and resolved, a summary shall be submitted to the board’s email list, removing details which might unnecessarily damage the privacy of any accuser(s) or the candidate for expulsion, but including the conclusion of the board and the high-level reason or reasons for the conclusion.

The above are not to be treated as the exclusive options available for confidentiality/publicity, but rather as certain and easy predefined shortcuts.

The Board will vote on a suggestion of expulsion, starting at the receipt of the initiating email by the board list. Two or more nay votes cause a suggestion of expulsion to fail. Yea votes failing to exceed nay votes causes a suggestion of expulsion to fail. If a board member has not voted in a reasonable amount of time, other board members should feel a duty to remind the absent party to vote.

If a condition of a suggestion of expulsion need be modified to be accepted, a resubmission of the same suggestion of expulsion can be made with the necessary modifications, restarting the vote if necessary, but repeated and unpersuasive resubmissions will not be tolerated.