Procedural

This conference resolves to adopt the below standing orders, expanded from the set adopted on the 31 May:

Participation (voting & speaking) is granted on the basis of agreement with the initial points of unity adopted by Members’ Charter signatories (see Appendix).

All decisions of the conference shall be taken by a simple majority vote of those voting, using either a show of hands, or a digital poll initiated by a chair or moderator of the conference, issued to all participants. Abstentions do not count toward vote totals.

Any show of hands will remain open for at least ten seconds, or as long as necessary to ensure no new hands are being raised.

Any digital poll will remain open for at least thirty seconds, or as long as necessary to ensure no new votes are being cast.

Each conference participant is entitled to one vote. Participants may not join on multiple devices to obtain multiple votes, and may be barred from the conference if found to have done so. There will be one vote per online account in the online meeting. Participants gathered in one room must join using one account per person, on multiple devices if necessary, to each be allocated a vote. All online vote totals will be screenshotted and shared to all participants, within and after the conference, by a member of the admin or moderation team.

The chair is empowered to ensure the agenda, once approved by this conference, is adhered to, and that all contributions are relevant and in good faith. They will maintain a list of speakers, and when choosing speakers may exercise their discretion to:

prioritise speakers who have not already spoken in the conference or session;

prioritise speakers wishing to speak to a proposal that has not already been discussed;

ensure diversity, representation and proportionality of identity and politics.

Unless otherwise provided for in the agenda, all contributions should be two minutes in length. The chair will issue a thirty second warning. The chair may exercise their discretion to move forwards with the agenda if the speaker is unwilling to conclude after their allotted time.

Motions and amendments (items) must be moved and seconded by distinct conference participants to be tabled. If not, it falls. Compositing choices are tabled with the composite containing them. Any conference participant may move or second any item.

The mover will state their endorsement of the item to move it. This may be a brief statement or a speech in favour of the item, taken as the first speech in favour in the debate;

The seconder will state their endorsement of the item to second it, without a speech. They may however be invited to speak in favour in the debate, according to the priorities assigned below.

A composited item consisting of two or more items carried from a previous conference will be taken to be automatically seconded by virtue of its composition.

A tabled motion with no compositing choices or amendments to resolve moves straight to a debate on the motion. Counterproposals (counterposed motions) will be tabled together, then have their amendments and / or compositing choices resolved, before moving to a debate followed by a counterposed vote.

A tabled motion with compositing choices and / or amendments to resolve is handled as follows:

First a motivating speech for the unamended motion is given (with first refusal given to proposers, mover and seconder, in that order).

Then its amendments and / or compositing choices are resolved according to its schedule.

A final summarising speech for the amended motion is given (with first refusal given to proposers, mover and seconder, in that order).

A debate on the motion as amended occurs, followed by a vote. Motivating and summary speeches are taken as speeches in the debate.

Amendments may be friendly or disputed. Disputed amendments are handled as motions, in that they are moved and seconded, then debated, then voted on. Friendly amendments may be incorporated into the target motion without a vote provided all parties agree. In each case where the chair asks a question, if the answer has been given in advance, they may state it instead of asking. The process is as follows:

The chair first asks the proposer(s) of the amendment if it is intended as friendly. Unless all proposer(s) affirm this, the amendment is taken as disputed.

The chair then asks the proposer(s) of the motion if it is accepted as friendly. If any proposer rejects it as friendly, the amendment is taken as disputed.

The chair then asks the conference if there are any objections to its expedited incorporation. If any objection is raised, the amendment is taken as disputed.

If no objections are raised, the amendment is incorporated into the motion without a vote.

A debate consists of at most four speeches of alternating viewpoints. For motions and amendments, this will be at most two speeches in favour and two speeches against. For counterproposals and compositing choices, this will be at most two speeches for each option. Certain speakers will be given first refusal:

The proposers, mover and seconder of the item will be given first refusal for speeches in favour, in that order.

In the case of counterproposals and compositing choices, the proposer of each option will be given first refusal to speak for it.

Debate concludes when there are no more speakers, and is followed by a vote on the item. Where possible, the conference will be shown a fully amended motion before voting on it as amended.

Any member may move a motion to remove the sitting chair which shall be voted immediately after a two minute speech in favour and a two minute speech against.

If the motion is defeated, no further motion to remove that individual as a chair may be heard in the session.

If the motion is carried, the outgoing chair will hand over to another agreed chair of the conference. If no such agreed chair remains, a call for candidate chairs will be made, each of which will give a one minute motivating speech, followed by a counterposed vote between all candidates, with the candidate obtaining the most votes taking the chair.

This conference resolves to adopt the below code of conduct, formalising the working practices from 31 May:

Why this code

This code of conduct rests on our initial Points of Unity — the common basis everyone participating in the conference has already agreed to, whether as a signatory of the original Members' Charter or by registering your interest in the Socialist Federation.

This code of conduct can be considered one early attempt to put those points of unity into practice, within a meeting.

How the meeting runs

A few practical things first:

To ensure smooth running of the meeting, you will not be able to unmute yourself. When you want to speak, indicate to the chair (you can do this by raising your hand using the Zoom emoji bar, typically found in the centre of your screen at the bottom), and the chair will call you in turn. A moderator will unmute you when it is your turn, and mute you again once you have finished. This keeps the floor orderly and makes sure everyone can be heard.

The chat is an important part of the meeting. Use it for procedural questions, points of order, and relevant contributions. The moderation team will be watching the chat throughout — they will answer procedural questions and surface anything the chairs need to see.

Comradely debate

We are here to agree on things, but also to disagree well. That is the point of a conference. The rules of comradely debate are simple:

Argue with ideas, not with people. Disagree as sharply as you like with a proposal or an argument — never with the worth of the comrade making it.

No personal insults or personal remarks. If you find yourself describing a person rather than their position, stop.

Respect the chair and the floor. The chair manages the speaking queue and the timing. Please accept their direction, wait your turn, and keep to set time limits — they exist so that everyone gets a fair share of the floor.

The chat

The same comradeship applies in the chat as on the floor — it is part of the meeting, not a side channel where ordinary standards lapse. Indeed, because there is nothing stopping anyone from posting in the chat, we have to exercise more self-discipline there. Please remember not everyone reads at the same speed. This means the more contributions in the chat, the steeper the bar for entry. That’s not to say you shouldn’t have your say. But:

Keep it relevant. The chat is for procedural questions, points of order, and contributions to the matter in hand — not for off-topic chatter, spam, links to unrelated websites or personal projects, or repeated messages that seek to drown others out. There will be a “scratchpad” (a shared online document) that participants can use as a more informal space, to deliberate on the conference and share relevant links to events, initiatives, networks etc.

Do not derail. Please don't use the chat to run a parallel argument that pulls focus from the speaker the chair has called. We will tolerate nothing abusive. Do not post insults, hateful content, or links to either.

A safe and inclusive space

This is a safe and inclusive space and we will make it so together. To achieve that, we will ensure that there is no place here for harassment, intimidation, slurs, dogwhistles, or discrimination of any kind — including on grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other characteristic by which people are oppressed.

Aggression is never acceptable. Overtly or covertly violent language — including slurs and personal threats — has no place at our conference. Everyone here has the right to take part without being made to feel unsafe or unwelcome.

In the interest of accessibility, please do not turn on Zoom backgrounds. – blurred backgrounds are reasonable, backdrops and effects are not. They can aggravate certain sensory perception conditions, causing disorientation and / or overstimulation. Whilst we strongly recommend that videos be turned on to enhance communication, this is not required.

Recording and privacy

The conference will be recorded by the Federation for the purpose of minute-taking and the official record. We will tell you when recording starts and stops. Participants may not make their own recordings, screen-captures, or screenshots of the conference, or of one another, without authorisation. Doing so is a serious breach of this code of conduct and a basis for removal from the meeting and exclusion from the Federation's events. People speak more freely when they trust the room; protecting that trust protects all of us.

Likewise, do not post or share personal contact details within the chat, and understand that if you choose to share any of your own details, this is at your own risk.

If the rules are broken

We would always rather have a quiet word than a confrontation, and most things never get further than that. The moderation team escalates properly (politely), promptly, and proportionately — the response fits the offence, and minor matters will be met with a light touch.

For ordinary lapses — rudeness, getting heated, drifting off-topic — you can expect a graduated response:

A first, gentle reminder — a simple nudge to keep things comradely.

A second, clear warning — naming the problem directly and asking you to stop.

A final warning — a plain statement that the behaviour must end now, with the warning that you will be removed if it continues.

Removal from the meeting if it still does not stop.

These steps are not always taken in order. Serious breaches — slurs, hateful content, threats, unauthorised recording, or anything that makes the space unsafe — can mean immediate removal, without the earlier warnings. Hateful content will also be deleted from the chat.

Above all else we will seek to be proportional. If you have thoughts about this Code of Conduct, you can share them with us via socialistfederation@memberscharter.org.

In brief

This is a comradely, inclusive space, on the basis of our Points of Unity, which we have all agreed to.

To speak, you should raise your hand using the Zoom emoji bar, which is in the middle at the bottom of the screen on most devices. You will be unmuted by a moderator when the chair calls you, and muted again afterwards. Use the chat for procedural questions, points of order, and relevant contributions.

Please make an effort to argue with ideas, not people. We will not tolerate personal insults, on the virtual floor or in the chat. There will be no harassment, slurs, dogwhistles, or discrimination. The space must be safe for everyone and we will ensure it is.

The Federation records the conference (as it states at the start of the call) and we will produce a report following it; please do not make your own recordings or screenshots without the consent of participants. Permission given to the Federation to record the conference is not permission given to participants to record each other. Consent matters and we value it.

Moderators may warn and, if necessary, remove anyone who breaks these rules. Serious breaches mean immediate removal.

We resolve to adopt the following running order, comprising the agenda and chairs:

We note that the following principles were adhered to when drafting the below schedules:

In the first instance, the order is given by its position within the motion, i.e. working from start to finish;

Amendments that delete sections are taken after those sections are amended;

Amendments that amend compositing choice options are taken before the choice is resolved.

We resolve to adopt the following amendment and compositing choice schedules, which establishes the order in which they are tabled: