All decisions taken by all Party bodies - whether Working Groups or Committees of any kind - must be decided by Consensus. All Members who are not suspended have the right to participate in all debates and voting, except where that voting is not otherwise restricted by their Office as per this constitution;

however, there is no minimum participation and interested parties must ensure their own participation.

Nonetheless it is required that Officers of the Party do their utmost to ensure that all Members are well informed of all decisions in which they make take an interest and the Media Working Group, the Operational Working Group, and the General Secretary have especial obligation to ensure this and must collaborate to achieve maximum participation in both discussion and decision-making.

Consensus is hereby defined as a process and the result of a process of democratic decision-making that fits into one of two categories, potentially culminating in a ballot utilising the STAR voting system, and no other voting system:

• first, that of a Moot, being the method of arriving at the consensus of an Assembly (being the body of a Working Group or Committee, plus any other interested Member participants);
• second, that of a Party Thing, being the method of arriving at the consensus on some specific issue which is not within the remit of an existing Assembly, and which may be any combination of Assemblies or of the entirety of the Party.

Consensus arising from a Moot may be considered Party Consensus if it is produced by any Working Group which is considered to have primary remit for that decision by its purpose. For example, the Disability Activism Society leads on disability issues in entirety, but if the DAS declines to take the lead on an issue, the Policy Society for Disability may do so instead.

Members may call for either kind of decision-making process ("Assembly Moot" or "Party Thing") by:

• in the case of an Assembly Moot, any gathering which obtains quorum for the assembly (which is 4 , unless that assembly has a population greater than 30 , in which case quorum is either at least 15% of the total active population or whatever quorum has been established by that assembly - which, again, must be at least 15%) shall be considered a Moot, whether online or offline or any combination thereof;
• in the case of a Thing of Assemblies, any gathering which obtains quorum for all of the associated Assemblies (even if they have members in common and those members are present) shall be considered a Thing of Assemblies, whether online or offline or any combination thereof;
• in the the case of calling a full Party Thing, except where indicated otherwise specifically, interested Members (not Participants) must gather in comparison to the total number of the Membership at least 15% percentage of signatures in petition, or
• the undertaking of a Thing or Moot may also arise as a result of the determination of a previous Thing or Moot.

Regardless of the type of meeting, the method for gaining Consensus throughout the Party is the same:

• first, any relevant Officers of the Party, assisted by those Members who may volunteer to do so, collect relevant factual data to the matter at hand;
• second, the relevant Secretary (or, if collaborating between assemblies, Secretaries) should, by Party instruments, inform all potentially interested Parties (the entire Membership) who are eligible to speak, debate, or vote in the Moot or Thing, whether the Moot be an Assembly Moot - for a decision on an Assembly's matter of Consensus, or a Party Thing - for a decision on a matter of Party Consensus. Suspended members are not eligible to speak, debate, or vote at any Thing or Moot;
• third, materials must be prepared - digital or physical depending on the needs of likely attendants and the setting - to aid in the informing of the Members on the planned day of the Thing or Moot;
• fourth, a date must be set for the Thing or Moot. The originator of any petition must be present; as such, the Secretary responsible for arranging the Moot - whether the General Secretary for a Party Moot or a Working Group Secretary for an Assembly Moot must take this into account when setting a date;
• further, the date must not, in the case of a Moot, be further than 14 days away without express explanation of reasoning to the Assembly membership, and
• a Thing (excluding Party Conference) must not ordinarily be further than 21 days from the date when its planning was triggered, and if so planned, there must be express explanation of the reasoning to the Membership.
• fifth, the actual Moot or Thing itself must be held. The event may be wholly digital, or held in a physical space, either indoors or outdoors. Proper provisions must always be made to enable the disabled to attend either physically or digitally. The organising Secretary bears responsibilitiy here but may delegate as necessary to achieve the goal of ensuring the Moot or Thing is accessible (as per the dictates of the Disability Activism Society), with clear communication of time, date, and location with available support materials for those who may struggle to plan routes and journeys.

A Moot, or Thing, shall consist of the following phases once in action:

• First, the discussion phase. This non-adversarial, unstructured phase should be short, but allow people to offer suggestions or solutions, and all such suggestions or solutions should be written down by the responsible Secretary or a Member to whom the responsibility is delegated;
• second, the debate phase. In this phase, people who wish to put forward concrete suggestions, or groups of same, may do so, and argue for or against as necessary. Participants should be encouraged to de-escalate any aggression, and moderating rules (as determined Party-wide by the Operational Working Group) should be clearly prepared and disseminated in advance of the event. This phase aims to:
  • allow the moderator to collate all of the ideas into brief descriptions;
  • offer the opportunity for all positions to attempt to consolidate or compromise with one another to reduce the total options available
  • conclude after a reasonable length of time, accepting that differences of opinion are acceptable and beneficial to the Party.
• in the event of two or more options: the responsible Secretary will prepare ballots. Ideally this should be done on location or digitally if at all possible, but it is permissible to hold two events (with the vote being the second half of the overall event) so long as good provisions are made to ensure everyone may attend (or vote) who wishes to vote;
  • where there is only one option, Consensus is obtained.
• Instructions on how to vote must be provided in simple English, and, where possible, in translations for those for whom English is not a first language.
• In the event of a ballot, the winner of the vote is Consensus.
  • Should there be no clear winner, the debate and vote phases shall be repeated, if necessary at a later date.

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