Adopted by the Membership Meeting of January 23, 2022
Article 5.4 amended by the Membership on January 28, 2024.
ARTICLE 1: NAME
The name of this organization shall be the Green Socialist Organizing Project.
ARTICLE 2: PRINCIPLES AND PURPOSES
What We Believe
1. Ecological Socialism: We support social ownership and democratic administration of the major means of production and distribution in order to meet everyone’s basic needs within ecological limits.
2. Anti-Capitalism: We oppose capitalism because it is a system that is structurally driven to ecologically destructive endless growth, increasing inequality based on exploitation, wars bred by international competition, and oligarchic rule based on concentrated private wealth.
3. Anti-Oppression: We oppose discrimination and oppression based on race, color, nationality, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, or disability.
4. Internationalism: We oppose imperialist domination and wars by the US and any nation and act in solidarity with people fighting for their democratic rights and socialism across the world.
5. Independent Politics: We support building a dues-paying mass-membership party for green socialism based on oppressed and exploited working people that is independent of and in opposition to the two-corporate-party system of capitalist rule in the US.
What We Do
1. Party Building: We help build independent, well-organized local and state green socialist parties.
2. Election Campaigns: We help green socialist candidates run credible and, where possible, winning electoral campaigns.
3. Issue Campaigns: We participate in campaigns to advance green socialist policies.
4. Political Education: We produce materials and hold forums for popular political education on ecosocialism, independent politics, policy issues, and organizing skills and strategies.
5. Mass-Membership Green Party: We support transforming the Green Party of the United States from a federation of state parties with indirect representation of individual supporters in the national party into a dues-paying, mass-membership party where individual members have democratic membership rights in the national party and have the responsibility to support the party with dues scaled to their ability to pay.
ARTICLE 3: MEMBERSHIP
Any person may become a member of the Green Socialist Organizing Project by affirming their support for the principles and purposes defined in Article 2 and paying dues as determined by the membership.
ARTICLE 4: MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS
1. Authority: The Membership Meeting shall be the highest governing body of the Green Socialist Organizing Project.
2. Voting: Each member of the Green Socialist Organizing Project shall have one vote.
3. Meetings: The Membership Meeting shall meet no less than at least once every three months.
4. Notification: Notice shall be given to every member electronic notice least five (5) days prior to the meeting.
5. Agenda: The Executive Committee shall prepare the agenda, subject to approval by the members at the beginning of their meeting.
6. Quorum: A quorum for Membership Meetings shall consist of members who attend a properly notified meeting.
ARTICLE 5: EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
1. Authority: The Executive Committee shall carry on the work of the Membership Meeting when it is not in session.
2. Composition: The Executive Committee shall consist of a Chair, a Vice-Chair, a Secretary, and a Treasurer and any number of at-large members the Membership Meeting shall decide.
3. Elections: Competitive elections for Executive Committee positions shall be conducted by single
transferable vote, with separate elections for the Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer, and collectively for any at-large members.
4. Term: All Executive Committee members shall be elected at the first Membership Meeting of each even-numbered year and shall serve a term of two (2) years, or until their successors are duly elected as provided herein or, if a vacancy occurs, by the next properly notified Membership Meeting.
5. Voting: Each member of the Executive Committee shall have one vote. There shall be no proxy voting. Voting on any issue before the Executive Committee may be conducted through electronic methods or written ballot.
6. Quorum: Quorum shall consist of a majority of the members of the Executive Committee.
7. Vacancies: Vacancies on the Executive Committee shall be filled by the Executive Committee on an interim basis until an election to fill the vacancy at the next Membership Meeting.
ARTICLE 6: OFFICERS
1. Chair: The Chair shall coordinate the work of the Executive Committee and proper notification and agenda preparation of Membership Meetings.
2. Vice-Chair: The Vice-Chair shall assist the Chair and take the place of the Chair in their absence.
3. Secretary: The Secretary shall keep a record of decisions made by the Executive Committee and Membership Meeting.
4. Treasurer: The Treasurer shall keep a record of receipts and expenditures.
ARTICLE 7: PROCEDURAL RULES
1. Parliamentary Authority: Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised shall govern all meetings of the Membership and Executive Committee insofar as they are applicable and not inconsistent with these
rules.
2. Single Transferable Vote: The Green Socialist Organizing Project shall use the following procedure for the single transferable vote in internal elections as provided for in these rules. Voters shall cast their votes for each candidate in order of preference: 1, 2, 3, and so on. The threshold for election shall be determined by the following formula: [Votes Cast / (Seats + 1)] + 1 vote, rounded down to the nearest whole number. An STV election shall proceed according to the following steps:
(1) Any candidate who has reached or exceeded the threshold with first preference votes shall be declared elected.
(2) If a candidate has more first preference votes than the threshold, that candidate’s surplus votes shall be fractionally transferred to other candidates according to the next preference listed on each ballot. The surplus fractional vote shall be expressed as a percentage of that candidate’s total votes: surplus percentage = (number of votes – threshold) / (number of votes).
(3) If no one new meets the threshold after the transfer of surplus votes, the candidate with the fewest votes shall be eliminated and that candidate's votes shall be transferred to the next preference listed on each ballot.
(4) Steps 1, 2, and 3 shall repeat until either a winner is found for every available seat or there are as many seats as remaining candidates.
(5) In County Committee elections of members of the State Committee that require at least one- half of all elected members to be female, if during the count the number of elected women and remaining women candidates would drop below 50 percent (50%) with the elimination
of one more woman candidate, then those remaining women candidates shall not be
eliminated.
ARTICLE 8: AMENDMENTS
These rules may be amended by a majority vote of the Membership Meeting.
Dues Policy for Green Socialist Organizing Project
Adopted by the Membership Meeting of January 23, 2022
Regular dues shall be $10 a month payable by an automatic electronic monthly deduction,
which can be cancelled at any time.
Low-income dues shall be $5 a month payable by an automatic electronic monthly deduction,
which can be cancelled at any time.
A waiver of dues may be granted upon request by the officers, subject to review by the Membership Meeting.
Members unable to make electronic payments may pay their dues by check payable to Green
Socialist Organizing Project, P.O. Box 562, Syracuse, NY 13205.