'Reduce proposal time to 9 days' ratified into bylaws on 12/4/2025

[Brett Neese]

Writing this into the official record for future HSL archaeologists. Lots of boring procedure notes below but the tl;dr is that the discussion period for proposals in the text of the bylaws is now set at 9 days instead of 30.

I am writing in my role as secretary to document the process that was followed, I would request that if you have any questions or concerns to direct them to the board directly, the #bylaws-committee channel on Slack or a seperate Google Groups thread. 

-----

*breaths in* 

A proposal to reduce the discussion period, which was added in the bylaws in March, from 30 days to 9 days was proposed by Luis Montes on 4/21/2025: https://groups.google.com/g/heatsynclabs/c/0ASWjLg9nTc/m/PHg1Twm-DQAJ

Specifically, the text was:

Change these two lines:
"Proposals must be submitted at least 30 days before an HYH meeting to be eligible for voting."
"Proposals are automatically considered at the HYH meeting if they have been discussed for 30 days."
to:
"Proposals must be submitted at least 9 days before an HYH meeting to be eligible for voting."
"Proposals are automatically considered at the HYH meeting if they have been discussed for 9 days."

It passed an HYH on 05/22/2025 with 6 yay, 2 nay, 2 abstain. 

However, it was never discussed for ratification by the previous board. This presented an issue, with a ton of spirited discussion about the right way to move forward in the Slack. Ultimately LJ called for a quorum a couple of times in the #general channel to encourage board members to get on the record. 

There is no documented procedure for the way ratifications and decisions are required to happen, and in the past has happened in a variety of ways. Ultimately board members voted in public with Brett/Shaundra/Arnob as yes's, David Lang as opposed, and Landon as abstain. 3/5 is what is needed to ratify and was reached. This is a tad unusual but was legal per the bylaws and previous practice and justified under the circumstances (this proposal had been sitting for almost 200 days.) As soon as the votes were in, I updated the text in the wiki on 12/4/2025.

*breathes out*

-----

I will note that I have humbly asked the community to try to refrain from putting in too many proposals to tweak the bylaws further until we have a better process into place (I can't prevent but I can ask nicely). There are definitely things we can do to make this process smoother and prevent this kind of issue from recurring while improving clarity for all (and now we only need 9 days to discuss them 😂).

In addition, Moheeb has been trying to do a community-driven multistakeholder rethinking of our governance to try and rebuild trust and update our foundational documents to iron out some of the issues that have arisen over the last couple of years (and the fallout from attempts to fix those issues.) If you're interested, there is discussion here in the Google Groups and the Slack and I encourage you to get involved.

Thanks for your patience and grace as we worked through getting this resolved.

Brett Neese

HSL Secretary

 

[Robert Bushman]

Thank you, Luis!

On 12/7/25 17:59, Brett Neese wrote:
> Writing this into the official record for future HSL archaeologists.

> Lots of boring procedure notes below but the tl;dr is that *the

> discussion period for proposals in the text of the bylaws is now set at

> 9 days instead of 30. <https://wiki.heatsynclabs.org/wiki/
> Bylaws#Proposal_Discussion_and_Refinement_.289-
> Day_Discussion_Period.2C_Lock-In_Rule.29>*
>
> *I am writing in my role as secretary to document the process that was

> followed, I would request that if you have any questions or concerns to
> direct them to the board directly, the #bylaws-committee channel on

> Slack or a seperate Google Groups thread. *

>
> -----
> *breaths in*
>
> A proposal to reduce the discussion period, which was added in the
> bylaws in March, from 30 days to 9 days was proposed by Luis Montes on
> 4/21/2025: https://groups.google.com/g/heatsynclabs/c/0ASWjLg9nTc/m/

> PHg1Twm-DQAJ <https://groups.google.com/g/heatsynclabs/c/0ASWjLg9nTc/m/
> PHg1Twm-DQAJ>

>
> Specifically, the text was:
>
> Change these two lines:
> "Proposals must be submitted at least 30 days before an HYH meeting
> to be eligible for voting."
> "Proposals are automatically considered at the HYH meeting if they
> have been discussed for 30 days."
> to:
> "Proposals must be submitted at least 9 days before an HYH meeting
> to be eligible for voting."
> "Proposals are automatically considered at the HYH meeting if they
> have been discussed for 9 days."
>
>

> It passed an HYH on 05/22/2025 with 6 yay, 2 nay, 2 abstain <https://
> groups.google.com/g/heatsynclabs/c/bDVwvXEhYJk/m/UyMtZopBFwAJ>.
>
> *However, it was never discussed for ratification by the previous
> board*. This presented an issue, with a ton <https://
> heatsynclabs.slack.com/archives/C08KRHRMH8Q/p1763674008833049> of
> <https://heatsynclabs.slack.com/archives/C08KRHRMH8Q/p1763714190186559>
> spirited <https://heatsynclabs.slack.com/archives/C08KRHRMH8Q/
> p1764567428977249> discussion <https://heatsynclabs.slack.com/archives/
> C08KRHRMH8Q/p1764534186857059> about the right way to move forward in
> the Slack. Ultimately LJ called for a quorum <https://
> heatsynclabs.slack.com/archives/C9Z72BBAS/p1764553829519169> a couple of
> times <https://heatsynclabs.slack.com/archives/C9Z72BBAS/
> p1764880310668209> in the #general channel to encourage board members to

> get on the record.
>
> There is no documented procedure for the way ratifications and decisions
> are required to happen, and in the past has happened in a variety

> of ways. Ultimately board members voted in public with Brett <https://
> heatsynclabs.slack.com/archives/C9Z72BBAS/p1764697362306469?
> thread_ts=1764553829.519169&cid=C9Z72BBAS>/Shaundra <https://
> heatsynclabs.slack.com/archives/C9Z72BBAS/p1764889823469629?
> thread_ts=1764880310.668209&cid=C9Z72BBAS>/Arnob <https://
> heatsynclabs.slack.com/archives/C9Z72BBAS/p1764637401378349?
> thread_ts=1764553829.519169&cid=C9Z72BBAS> as yes's, David Lang as
> opposed <https://heatsynclabs.slack.com/archives/C08KRHRMH8Q/
> p1763674008833049>, and Landon as abstain. 3/5 is what is needed to

> ratify and was reached. This is a tad unusual but was legal per the
> bylaws and previous practice and justified under the circumstances (this
> proposal had been sitting for almost 200 days.) As soon as the votes
> were in, I updated the text in the wiki on 12/4/2025.
>
> *breathes out*
> -----
>
> I will note that I have humbly asked the community to try to refrain
> from putting in too many proposals to tweak the bylaws further until we
> have a better process into place (I can't prevent but I can ask nicely).
> There are definitely things we can do to make this process smoother and
> prevent this kind of issue from recurring while improving clarity for
> all (and now we only need 9 days to discuss them 😂).
>
> In addition, Moheeb has been trying to do a community-driven
> multistakeholder rethinking of our governance to try and rebuild trust
> and update our foundational documents to iron out some of the issues
> that have arisen over the last couple of years (and the fallout from
> attempts to fix those issues.) If you're interested, there is discussion
> here in the Google Groups and the Slack and I encourage you to get involved.
>
> Thanks for your patience and grace as we worked through getting this
> resolved.
>
> Brett Neese
> HSL Secretary
>
>
>
>
>
>

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