The Constitution of Harmony Party UK

"Articles" means this Party's articles of association
"Party Secretary" means both "director" and "member" of the Society, with the meanings as given in section 112 of the Companies Act 2006; also a member of the Secretarial Committee
"Document" includes, unless otherwise specified, any document sent or supplied in electronic form.
"Hard copy form" has the meaning given in section 1168 of the Companies Act 2006.
"Ordinary resolution" has the meaning given in section 282 of the Companies Act 2006
"Participate" in relation to a meeting of the Secretarial Committee, has the meaning given in article 10.
"Special resolution" has the meaning given in section 283 of the Companies Act 2006.
"the Membership" at all times refers to the body of those persons who pay a subscription fee to the Party in return for the right to democratic participation in that Party and does not carry the meaning given in section 112 of the Companies Act 2006.
"Member" at all times refers to a person who pays a subscription fee to the Party in return for the right to democratic participation in that Party, and does not carry the meaning given in section 112 of the Companies Act 2006.
Any reference in this constitution to any act or matter relating to the Secretarial Committee shall, at any time there is only a single Party Secretary, be construed in terms that the single Party Secretary has the powers stated for multiple Party Secretaries. Accordingly any provision requiring a particular number of Party Secretaries shall be considered to be satisfied by a single Party Secretary.

Part 2: Establishment and Purpose of the Party

This document establishes the Harmony Party as a political party and,

establishes as its purpose the maintenance and organisation of the Harmony Party as an organisation that seeks the election of persons with Party Membership to both local and national government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (hereafter referred to as "the Nation"), and,

establishes the primacy of Party Consensus in the governance of the Party in the framework laid out in this document, while asserting that Party Consensus may only be sought in the precise manner laid out in this constitution, and,

establishes an end to socioeconomic inequality, or "class society" as a constitutionally obligated policy of the Party without binding Party Consensus in any fashion as to the method of implementation of that goal beyond that established in the Ethical Kernel of this constitution (Part 3).

Part 3: The Ethics of the Party and Consensus ("The Ethical Kernel")

This document binds the Party and all forms of its Consensus in these ways:

firstly, all Consensus of Assemblies and all Party Consensus must seek to be guided in all things first by compassion, then by the pursuit of justice, and never the other way around, and
secondly, all Consensus of Assemblies and all Party Consensus must seek never to take a decision which will result directly in unavoidable injury to a human being, and must not, through inaction, allow human beings or humanity to come to harm, and
thirdly, the Party must act transparently, so both the Membership and the Public may understand its workings and purposes, and
fourthly, Party Officials must always act in accordance with the Consensus of relevant Assemblies and Party Consensus, except where such action would conflict with this Part, the "Ethical Kernel".

The Party is founded upon principles elaborated from the proponents of socialism, communism, and anarchism, and is in perpetuity socialist, and in perpetuity in support of the principles of mutual aid, and the right to both a just value upon and a fair say with regards one's own labour; we commit in perpetuity the Party to democracy by consensus decisionmaking.

Both Members and Officers of the Party must not:

Engage in any behaviour that is prejudicial, racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, transphobic, hateful, anti-socialist, or which constitutes bullying or harassment, and must further not engage in inducement or incitement towards any of the preceding. Any such behaviour will be reviewed for harm by the Committee of Resolutions in accordance with this constitution and may result in expulsion from roles or the Membership. If the Secretaries of Resolution rule in initial consideration that the breach would be of high harm if true (which is not an indication of guilt itself), then the Member will be suspended until the end of the investigation by the Party. Please see the Annexe for specific guidance on disciplinary proceedings.

The entirety of this Part (Part 3) of the Constitution are hereby declared the only portion of the Party to be utterly permanent, for as long as the Party exists, and any change here that is not in addition not just to the letter but the spirit of the intentions of the articles is to be assumed a dissolution of the Party. To be clear: no mechanism exists for changing the Ethical Kernel, but mechanisms do exist for expanding its scope and raising its bar.

Any living human individual may donate to the Party, but they may not donate more than £500 per calendar year. Any individual who is found to pass money to another individual to circumvent this limitation will be subject to expulsion after fair application of the Party disciplinary process.

Organisations, societies, and corporations are ordinarily barred from donating to the Party except with the express exceptional permission of the Membership as a result of a Party Thing. Foreign organisations (being those which are not registered in the Nation) are expressly forbidden from donating, as are individuals who are non-dom status in relation to the Nation.

Part 4: The Membership of the Party

The Membership shall lead the Party by way of consensus, and the structure of the Party defined in this constitution shall lay out the means by which consensus of the Membership is obtained.

Members shall pay a subscription fee, the lowest possible extent of which is to be determined by the Treasury Working Group, but which shall never be greater than a reasonable percentage more than the cost of taking the fee, and, should the cost be zero, the lowest subscription shall be nought pounds and one pence. If no specific minimum fee is set, it will default to £2 per quarter or £8 per year. This article should and can freely be edited whenever the Financial Working Group modifies the minimum fee, but only the values of the minimum fee.

Fifty percent of the subscription fee (after any incurred fees) shall be allocated to the Political Fund, and fifty percent to the Cytgord Cymru Mutual Aid Fund. Should the member paying the subscription be from a constituency with a constituency assembly, the 50% going to the Political Fund will be divided equally between the national fund and the constituency assembly provided that the assembly has elected as secretary and appointed a treasurer.

Members are asked to sustain and promote the decisions of Party Consensus, but the principle of reasonable free speech pertains, and they must not be abridged by the Party or Party Officials in any way.

Membership of the Party is broadly incompatible with membership of or affiliation with other political parties, but it is not prohibited by the Party. However, members of other political parties may not hold Office in the Party, and are barred from candidacy under the Party banner. It is noted for clarity that most other political parties do not allow co-membership.

Members may only be individuals; only individuals may be Members. Organisations and societies are not viewed as individuals for the purpose of Party Membership - they are forbidden to join. Their own members, however, are free to join as individuals.

The Party may, by Consensus, elect to prevent members of certain organisations from joining the Party

if those organisations are believed by Party Consensus to be formed for the purpose of spreading hate or violence, regardless of the nature of that hate;
observed to be repeatedly hostile to the Party, rendering cross-party cooperation impractical until de-escalation has occurred;

either the Secretarial Committee or the Committee of Resolutions may trigger a Party Thing to determine whether an organisation should be proscribed under this constitution, on the above bases alone.

Part 5: The Structures of The Party

The Party is composed of:

the Membership, who form Consensus by decisions of Assembly and Party;
- in turn composed of the Assemblies: being the Committees and Working Groups detailed in this constitution, as well as those formed ad-hoc by decisions of Consensus;
the Officers of the Party, being the Secretaries of the Working Groups and Committees, who are responsible for supporting the organisation of those bodies,
the Secretarial Committee, being composed of the Party Secretaries, who are also Officers of the Party, who aid in the execution of the decisions of Party Consensus, supporting the organisation and if necessary formation of the Working Groups and the Committees, and own the Company in Trust for the Membership and which shall be:
- the general secretaries,
- the Secretary of the Committee for Resolutions,
- the Secretary of the Operational Working Group,
- the Treasurer,
- the Secretary for the Constituency Societies,
- the Secretary of the Media Working Group,
- the Secretary for the Constructive Activism Committee;
the affiliates of the Party, who may be any kind of organisation, club, company, cooperative, society, or indeed political party which agrees to the Ethical Kernel of the Party as a guiding principle (and therefore refutes hate). Affiliates of the party are not required to donate (though they are free to do so), but they do not have voting rights as organisations: they may (within limitations determined by the current recorded body of Ongoing Consensus, as recorded by the Operational Working Group, and published by the Media Working Group) however be invited to, and seek to be invited to, send representatives to speak at both Assembly and Party Consensus decisionmaking events.

Part 6: Committees and Working Groups

Committees are defined as either permanent or ad-hoc combinations of Working Groups. Committees have one Secretary and may elect up to three Deputy Secretaries who may assume the role of the Secretary at the discretion of the Secretary, or in the absence of the Secretary during necessary assembly of the Committee. Membership in the assembly of a Committee requires membership of a Working Group that forms that Committee. Members may join the assembly of more than one Committee, provided they are an active member of an appropriate Working Group.
Working Groups, whether defined in this document as permanent or not, are ad-hoc assemblies of Members with specific remits, with responsibility for organisation of the assembly and responsibility for ensuring the democratic process partially resting in a Secretary elected by the assembly of that Working Group (and any interested Members), but also in the assembly of the Members within the Working Group itself.

The means of decision-making for Working Groups shall be, with certain exceptions, Assembly Consensus.

Where those exceptions apply (as detailed elsewhere in this constitution), the only viable alternative is Party Consensus. Working Groups may choose (by Assembly Consensus) to appoint Deputy Secretaries to aid the Secretary in organisational matters but the Secretary may not make such appointments unilaterally.

The Secretary of any Committee or Working Group is responsible for recordkeeping.

The Secretaries of the Working Groups and Committees are obligated to create and maintain a digital working document as a means of recording the details of the meeting. They may delegate elements of that task to a Party Participant or Member who is also present at the meeting provided there is no objection from the meeting participants. They may delegate this responsibility so long as the delegation does not result in dereliction.

There shall be permanent and defined Committees and Working Groups, but the Membership is free to form further Working Groups and Committees as per Party or Assembly Consensus; as such Working Groups may create new Working Groups as per their own consensus, but those Working Groups exist only in the Party context as long as they are active and operating. Ad-hoc Working Groups are subject to the same rules as permanent Working Groups. Working Groups may be formed at the discretion of Members. It is suggested that 4 is enough to form a Working Group.

Working Groups may also agree, through a Thing (a meeting of multiple assemblies), whether to form a permanently co-operating Committee if it is agreed that those Working Groups have a strong intersection of interest.

The permanent Working Groups are:

the Financial Working Group, which supports the Treasurer and provides a forum in which to discuss the financial workings of the party openly and transparently; all members of the Party are always members of the Financial Working Group;
the Operational Working Group, responsible for maintaining and upholding the Constitution of the Party (and therefore referral to the Committee for Resolutions), enforcing the Constitution of the Party (as a step prior to the Committee for Resolutions), and supporting the other Working Groups organisationally by way of providing expertise, data, and other non-financial administrative and IT resources;
the Media Working Group, responsible for external Party communications, both responsible for the hiring of, and co-operating with & oversight of any staff that the Party may hire for this role ("the Media Team");
the Constituency, Regional, and City Assemblies, which are geographically organised, and into which all Members are sorted upon joining the Party.

The permanent Committees of the Party are:

The Committee for Resolutions, comprising the Operational Working Group, the Financial Working Group, and the Party Secretaries, but never to be chaired by a Party Secretary. The Committee shall when necessary appoint three of its assembly (who are not otherwise Party Officials and who have not within six months held the role) to the role of Secretary of Resolution, who shall relinquish those positions after six months or when there is no active caseload, whichever occurs first. The Secretaries of Resolution shall chair all Party disciplinary hearings unless one or more must recuse under this constitution. Should two recuse, they must step down and be replaced.
the Foundational Committee is a Committee comprised of the Operational Working Group and the Financial Working Group. It provides a means of collaboration between the Operational and Financial "wings" of the Party, but it also bears responsibility for creation of new assemblies. More specifically, the Foundational Committee verifies that new assemblies do not encroach on existing remits held by other assemblies, and verifies that new assemblies are in keeping with the Constitutution of the Party, particularly the Ethical Kernel.
the Party Policy Society is a Committee which handles communication for, as well as supporting the ad-hoc Policy Working Groups ecosystem with organisational effort and labour;
the Constituency Societies Committee is a Committee supporting and comprising the Regional, City, and Constituency Working Groups, and is responsible for organising the establishment of Constituency and City Working Groups for any UK constituency or city which lacks one;
the Constructive Activism Committee is a Committee supporting and responsible for forming Constructive Activism Assemblies (sometimes called "Societies"), which will campaign on whatever issues their consensus selects;
the Committee for Presentation of Policy comprises the Policy Society, the Constituency Societies Committee, and the Media Working Group; it organises collaboration between all three of these to ensure good communication of both efforts to obtain, and the results of efforts to obtain, Consensus - to the Membership and the Public, in turn through the Media Working Group.

Part 7: Party Secretaries

Subject to this constitution, where necessary, the Party Secretaries are responsible for the day-to-day management of the Party in trust of the Membership of the Party, in line with their roles as Officers of the Party, but they must seek to delegate Party work to the Membership via the Working Groups and Committees insofar as this is feasible or advisable.

An individual Party Secretary may not delegate their power as a Party Secretary to another person except by proxy or by the appointment of an alternate Party Secretary as provided for in the Party Constitution.

The Party Secretaries may instruct any person to take any action in agreement with Party Consensus and thus is in the interest of the Membership of the Party so long as this is neither in breach of this document or the law of the Nation. However, any Party member or participant may refuse such an instruction without prejudice to their membership or participation.

The Party Secretaries may invite the attendance of any person to a meeting of the Party Secretaries and to address the meeting.

The general rule about decision-making by Party Secretaries is that any decision of the Party Secretaries outside of their role as Secretaries must win a vote at a meeting (following the rules for votes in Part 9 of this document), or be provably as a direct consequence of a decision arising from a qualifying Assembly Moot or Party Thing.

Decisions are always presented in the form of a digital working document signed by way of participation of the Party Secretaries. If required, a physical copy of any such document may be produced with physical signatures.

A decision may not be taken in accordance with this article if the eligible Party Secretaries would not have formed a quorum at such a meeting.

A decision of the Party Secretaries on any contractual matter not in direct accordance with established Party Consensus must be ratified by the passing of a special resolution of the Party Secretaries in a Secretarial Committee meeting, whether physical, postal, or digital. The Treasurer must always be present and holds the deciding vote in case of a tie in such decisions regardless of other provisions in this document. It should be understood that this is an emergency decision, and should it be taken without the presence of an emergency, participant Party officers are in breach of the letter and spirit of this Constitution.

Any Party Secretary may propose a written resolution by giving written notice to the other Party Secretaries. This should be made publicly available within the Party's digital communications platforms.

A Party Secretary's written resolution is adopted when all the Party Secretaries who would have been entitled to vote on such resolution if it had been proposed at a meeting of the Party Secretaries have:

signed one or more copies of it; or
otherwise indicated their agreement to it in writing.

A Party Secretary's written resolution is not adopted if the number of Party Secretaries who have signed it is less than the quorum for Party Secretaries' meetings.

Any Party Secretary may call a Party Secretaries' meeting by giving notice of the meeting to the other Party Secretaries.

Notice of any Party Secretaries' meeting must indicate:

its proposed date and time;
where it is to take place; and
if it is anticipated that Party Secretaries participating in the meeting will not be in the same place, how it is proposed that they should communicate with each other during the meeting.

Written notice of a Party Secretaries' meeting must be given to each Party Secretary.

Notice of a Party Secretaries' meeting need not be given to Party Secretaries who waive their entitlement to notice of that meeting, by giving notice to that effect to the Party not more than three days before the date on which the meeting is held. Where such notice is given after (in good faith that it could not have been given before) the meeting has been held, that does not affect the validity of the meeting, or any of the business conducted at it, unless a Party Secretary should appeal that they have been unfairly excluded; this appeal should be lodged with the Comittee for Resolutions at the earliest possible date.

Subject to the articles, Party Secretaries participate in a Party Secretaries' meeting, or part of a Party Secretaries' meeting, when:

the meeting has been called and takes place in accordance with the articles, and
they can each communicate to the others any information or opinions they have on any particular item of the business of the meeting.

In determining whether Party Secretaries are participating in a Party Secretaries' meeting, it is irrelevant where any Party Secretary is or how they communicate with each other.

If all the Party Secretaries participating in a meeting are not in the same place, they may decide that the meeting is to be treated as taking place wherever any of them is.

At a Party Secretaries' meeting, unless a quorum is participating, no proposal is to be voted on, except a proposal to call another meeting.

The quorum for Party Secretaries' meetings may be fixed from time to time in Secretarial Committee meetings of the Trustees except that a quorum must never be less than two, and unless otherwise fixed it is two.

If the total number of Party Secretaries for the time being is less than the quorum required, the Party Secretaries must not take any decision other than any decision required to enable the election of the appropriate Party Officials by the Membership and the assemblies of the appropriate Working Groups.
The chair of Party Secretaries' meetings shall be a General Secretary of the Party, elected as indicated by the Party Constitution.

The person so appointed for the time being shall be known as the chairperson, for the duration of that meeting.

If the chairperson is not participating in a Party Secretaries' meeting within ten minutes of the time at which it was to start, the participating Party Secretaries may appoint one of their number to chair it.

In the event of equality of votes for and against a resolution, the chairperson shall not have a casting vote. Instead, a Party Consensus decision-making event will be called on the matter.

But this does not apply if, in accordance with the articles, the chairperson or other Party Secretary is not to be counted as participating in the decision-making process for quorum or voting purposes.

If a proposed decision of the Party Secretaries is concerned with an actual or proposed transaction or arrangement by the Party in which a Party Secretary is interested, that Party Secretary is not to be counted as participating in the decision-making process for quorum or voting purposes.

Last previous sub article shall not apply in any one of the following circumstances, that is to say when:
the Party by ordinary resolution dis-applies the provision of the articles which would otherwise prevent a Party Secretary from being counted as participating in the decision-making process; or
the Party Secretary's interest cannot reasonably be regarded as likely to give rise to a conflict of interest.

For the purposes of this article, references to proposed decisions and decision making processes include any Party Secretaries' meeting or part of a Party Secretaries' meeting.

If a question arises at a meeting of Party Secretaries as to the right of a Party Secretary to participate in the meeting (or part of the meeting) for voting or quorum purposes, any business of the meeting relevant to the participation shall be adjourned for no longer than to allow sufficient time for the secretary to give notice of the adjourned date. The first business at the adjourned meeting shall be as to the entitlement of those present to vote on the adjourned question.

If at the adjourned meeting the question remains unresolved, the Party Secretaries shall call a Secretarial Committee meeting of the Party, for the purpose of resolving the issue.

The Party Secretaries must ensure that the Party keeps a record, in soft copy, for as long as the Party remains extant, of copies of all resolution, minutes of all proceedings of Secretarial Committee meetings and of every decision taken by the Party Secretaries.

A person ceases to be a Party Secretary as soon as:

that person ceases to be a Party Secretary by virtue of any provision of the Companies Act 2006 or is prohibited from being a Party Secretary by law, or their term in their Secretarial Role comes to an end and they either do not seek re-election or fail to be re-elected, and when
that person is inactive without explanation for longer than a period of 30 days and fails to respond to a request for clarification from the general secretaries (or from members of their assembly) for another 21 days. Either period may be shortened to half where the remaining Party Secretaries are in agreement that quorum is difficult to achieve due to the absence. “Inactive” is here defined as failing to attend meetings or respond to requests for information relating to failure to attend meetings, or failure to respond to requests for information from relevant Assembly members.
a registered medical practitioner who is treating that person gives a written opinion to the Party stating that person has become physically or mentally incapable of fulfilling their duties as Party Secretary and may remain so for more than three months (confirmation being at the discretion of the Secretaries of Resolution);
notification is received by the Party from the Party Secretary that the Party Secretary is resigning from their Secretarial Role, and such resignation has taken effect in accordance with its terms;
it is found by consensus of the Party's Committee of Resolutions, or by judgement of a disciplinary hearing by the Secretaries of Resolution, that a Party Secretary be removed as a Party Secretary with immediate effect.

By default Party Secretaries shall not receive remuneration of any kind other than expenses from the Party as a result of their role as a Party Secretary. However,

the Financial Working Group may, by consensus of that assembly, overrule this article with the approval of the Committee of Resolutions (by consensus of that assembly in turn), and order the Secretarial Committee to pass a resolution awarding remuneration provided the Treasurer also approves. The wording of that resolution shall be determined by consensus of the Secretaries of Resolution.
the Party may re-imburse a Party Secretary for payments reasonably made by them in the course of discharging their responsibilities to the Party; all such expenses must be reported to the Financial Working Group in whatever format the Financial Working Group requires. The Committee of Resolutions is empowered to view such documentation at any time, without question, immediately.

Every Party Secretary has the right to speak at a Secretarial Committee meeting.

The General Secretaries or chairperson of a Secretarial Committee meeting may declare that the subject matter of a Party Secretary's speech is not relevant to a matter on the agenda and may refuse to allow that person to continue to speak, but this may be nullified by quorum after a vote called by any Party Secretary other than the speaker.

The Party Secretaries may make whatever arrangements they consider appropriate to enable those attending a Secretarial Committee meeting to exercise their rights to speak or vote at it, including making arrangements for postal or electronic voting.

Two or more persons who are not in the same place as each other attend a Secretarial Committee meeting if their circumstances are such that if they have (or were to have) rights to speak and vote at that meeting, they are (or would be) able to exercise them.

Notice of every Secretarial Committee meeting must be given to every Party Secretary, and such documentation must be equally available to Members of the Party, and accordingly the provisions of section 313(1) of the Companies Act 2006 shall not apply to the proceedings of the Party.

No business other than the appointment of the chairperson of the meeting is to be transacted at a Secretarial Committee meeting if the persons attending it do not constitute a quorum.

The quorum for Secretarial Committee meetings may be fixed from time to time by an ordinary resolution, except that: a quorum must never be less than two, unless there are fewer Party Secretaries currently appointed than that number, and unless otherwise fixed it is two.

If there is a General Secretary, then a General Secretary shall chair a Secretarial Committee meeting if present and willing to do so. In the event of no General Secretary being in role, then either the Secretary of the Committee for Resolutions or the Secretary for the Society of Policy shall act as the chair.

The person chairing a meeting in accordance with this article is referred to as "the chairperson of the meeting".

The chairperson of the meeting may permit any other person who is neither a Member of the Party, nor otherwise entitled to exercise the rights of a Member in relation to a Secretarial Committee meeting, to attend and speak at a Secretarial Committee meeting, but any such individual must not be present, and must not take part in, any direct decision-making or vote.

If the persons attending a Secretarial Committee meeting within half an hour of the time at which the meeting was due to start do not constitute a quorum, or if during a meeting a quorum ceases to be present, the chairperson of the meeting must adjourn it.

The chairperson of the meeting may adjourn a Secretarial Committee meeting at which a quorum is present if either:

the meeting consents to an adjournment, or
it appears to the chairperson of the meeting that an adjournment is necessary to protect the safety of any person attending the meeting or ensure that the business of the meeting is conducted in an orderly manner.

The chairperson of the meeting must adjourn a Secretarial Committee meeting if directed to do so by the meeting.

When adjourning a Secretarial Committee meeting, the chairperson of the meeting must:

either specify the time and place to which it is adjourned or state that it is to continue at a time and place to be fixed by the Party Secretaries, and
have regard to any directions as to the time and place of any adjournment which have been given by the meeting.

If the continuation of an adjourned meeting is to take place more than 14 days after it was adjourned, the Party must give at least 7 clear days' notice of it (that is, excluding the day of the adjourned meeting and the day on which the notice is given):

to the same persons to whom notice of the Party's Secretarial Committee meetings is required to be given, and
containing the same information which such notice is required to contain.

No business may be transacted at an adjourned Secretarial Committee meeting which could not properly have been transacted at the meeting if the adjournment had not taken place.

Any resolution originating from Party Consensus will simply be accepted by the Party Secretaries and passed unanimously, in line with their duty to operate the Party in Trust of the Members.

An ordinary resolution to be proposed at a Secretarial Committee meeting may be amended by ordinary resolution if: notice of the proposed amendment is given to the Party in writing by a person entitled to vote at the Secretarial Committee meeting at which it is to be proposed not less than 48 hours before the meeting is to take place (or such later time as the chairperson of the meeting may determine), and
the proposed amendment does not, in the reasonable opinion of the chairperson of the meeting, materially alter the scope of the resolution.

A special resolution to be proposed at a Secretarial Committee meeting may be amended by ordinary resolution, if:

the chairperson of the meeting proposes the amendment at the Secretarial Committee meeting at which the resolution is to be proposed, and
the amendment does not go beyond what is necessary to correct a grammatical or other non-substantive error in the resolution.

Part 8: Rules for Secretaries

Secretaries are responsible for the organisation of their Working Group or Committee. They are elected. The manner of their election shall be a Assembly Consensus of the assembly of their own Working Group or Committee (plus all interested Members), except in the case of

the General Secretaries (of which there shall ideally be two), being elected by Party Consensus, for terms of two years;
the Secretaries of Resolution, being elected by Party Consensus, for terms of three years;
the Secretary for the Party Policy Society, being elected by Party Consensus, for a term of two years;
the Treasurer, being appointed by the General Secretaries;
the Representative of Local Government Officials, appointed by election of all local government officials whom are Party Members;
the Commons Representative of the Harmony Parliamentary Party, being elected by Party Consensus if no Selected Party Member is a Member of Parliament.

Secretaries are afforded some leeway as to the specific approach of organisation of their own specific working group. However, in so doing, they must at all times adhere to

the Ethical Kernel of this document;
the same standards required of Party Secretaries with regards transparency and recording of meetings, decision-making, and all Party-related discussions. Secretaries may delegate these duties as they see fit to Members of the Party in their Working Group or Committee's assembly;
any further resolutions on ethics passed by the Secretarial Committee on the direct recommendation of consensus of the Committee of Resolution, or further resolutions on ethics passed by the Secretarial Committee on behalf of Party Consensus, which must be added to an annexe to this document in a timely fashion (and require no confirming vote of the Membership provided there is no objection within 7 days of any non-suspended Party Member).

Rules for Secretaries may be added to a special Annexe ("Extra Rules for Secretaries") by decision of a Party Thing.

Part 9: Party Democracy: Consensus

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 Secretaries 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 Secretaries 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.

Part 10: Administrative Arrangements

Subject to the articles, anything sent or supplied by or to the Party under the articles may be sent or supplied in any way in which the Companies Act 2006 provides for documents or information which are authorised or required by any provision of that act to be sent or supplied by or to the Party.

Any notice, document or information (including a Trusteeship form) which is sent or supplied by the Party shall be delivered by hand or sent by first class post or recorded delivery or by e-mail.

It shall be deemed to have been delivered:

if delivered by hand: on the day of delivery;
if sent by post to the correct address: within 72 hours of posting;
if sent by e-mail to the address from which the receiving party has last sent e-mail: within 48 hours if no notice of non-receipt has been received by the sender.

In proving such receipt it shall be sufficient to show that such notice, document or information was properly addressed and, in the case of post, pre-paid and posted.

The accidental failure to send, or the non-receipt by any person entitled to, any notice of or other document or information relating to any meeting or other proceeding shall not invalidate that meeting or proceeding.

Subject to the articles, any notice or document to be sent or supplied to a Party Secretary in connection with the taking of decisions by Party Secretaries may also be sent or supplied by the means by which that Party Secretary has asked to be sent or supplied with such notices or documents for the time being.

A Party Secretary may agree with the Party that notices, documents or information sent to that Party Secretary in a particular way are to be deemed to have been received within a specified time of their being sent, and for the specified time to be less than that provided in this article.

Except as provided by law or authorised by the Party Secretaries or an ordinary resolution of the Secreterial Committee, no person is entitled to inspect any of the Party's accounting or other records or documents merely by virtue of being a Member. However, the Committee is urged to be reasonable and apply transparency wherever that will not harm the Membership, and the Committee of Resolutions is authorised to override the decisions of the Secretarial Committee if advised to do so by the Secretary of the Financial Working Group or any other Treasury member.

Part 11: Early Steps, Mandatorily Editable Early Provisions, and Provision for Expansion and Modification (or Replacement) of the Constitution of the Party

There are currently unwritten, and there are surely components later to be written, of the Constitution, and in the event of modifications whereby those components do become or are written, this Part shall be displaced onwards as necessary in the order of the document.

This document does not govern any future Parliamentary Harmony Party and this is deliberate, obliging the Committee for Resolutions to find consensus on the subjects of:

The nature of the Code of Conduct for Members of the Party who are either Candidates and Elected Officials, or both
and any directly related Parlimantary Party or local government matters which the Membership may see fit to regulate, which decisions shall be be added to this document, as an Annexe, once appropriate consensus is obtained on the matter by Party Thing to be organised by the General Secretaries after an appropriate period of debate involving appropriate Assembly Moots as organised by the Officers of the Party in support of the General Secretaries and the Membership; the additional Annexe is to be written and agreed by the Secretarial Committee with the approval of all of the Secretaries of Resolution on the basis of the determinations of Party Consensus.

However, once the preceding goal is achieved, any articles and sub-articles between "this document does not govern any future Parliamentary Harmony Party" to the end of this article are also to be removed.

This Constitution may only be modified at the express will of the Membership, which except where stated otherwise in specific elements of the document, shall require or be as a result of
signed petitions including the signatures of at least 5 Officers of the Party, and 45% of the membership, or be as a result of a deliberation of the Operational Working Group or Committee for Resolutions resulting in a Party Thing at which the decision was made to modify this document.

However, this document must not be modified in any way which alters the spirit of the intention of the document, effectively meaning "in no way which conflicts with the Ethical Kernel."

The Party Membership may choose to entirely replace this document provided that there is a complete constitution on offer in replacement, true to the Ethical Kernel of this one, and containing the Ethical Kernel in its current format, and

the vote achieves 40% turnout and at least 60% of the highest votes are allocated to the victor in the final round.

Annexes which have binding-until-challenged-by-Consensus status may be added to this document by decision of a Party Thing. They may be challenged (and edited, replaced, or removed in part or whole) by a successive Thing with a contrary result.

Annex A: Rules for Safeguarding & Disciplinary Proceedings

This Constitution is not the sole document governing safeguarding within the Party. The Safeguarding Assembly of the Party and the Safeguarding Assembly referred to by the WhatsApp Safeguarding Policy Document are constitutionally held to be the same Assembly, governed by the same processes as found in that document, with the WhatsApp Safeguarding Assembly specifically a member working group of the Safeguarding Assembly, which is a committee.

The WhatsApp Safeguarding Policy Document shall be considered an annexe to this constitution.

The Committee for Resolutions is permanently and exclusively composed of all current Party Members.

The Committee for Resolutions should refer all operational decisions to the Safeguarding Assembly, or to a relevant advocacy assembly.

The Safeguarding Assembly (or the relevant advocacy assembly) has the core remit for making safeguarding determinations and ensuring safeguarding within the Party.

The Safeguarding Assembly has the right to require the Committee for Resolutions "rerun" any decision which is perceived to be contrary to safeguarding standards, and if referred to the relevant advocacy assembly, that assembly may specify outcomes to that decision which are undesirable, which must then be avoided by the Committee for Resolutions when "rerunning" the decision.

Upon development of the Constituency Societies (ie once they have grown sufficiently in size and complexity), it is anticipated that each Constituency Society should establish special localised assemblies organised according to the requirements laid out in this Annexe with regards the greater Committee for Resolutions. These assemblies will also be members of the larger Committee for Resolutions assembly.

Non-geographical assemblies may also establish special "Resolutions assemblies" in the future. These assemblies will also be members of the larger Committee for Resolutions assembly.

The Secretaries of Resolution (numbering three) are permanent positions, limited to terms of no longer than 3 years. The Secretaries of Resolution are to be elected exclusively by the Consensus of the Committee for Resolutions (ie the Party Membership). The Secretaries of Resolution are to assist the Secretary of the Committee of Resolutions in organising disciplinary proceedings.

The Secretaries of Resolution principally act as secretaries: they provide labour to the Mavens in concert with the Secretary of the assembly. However, in the event of an appeal, they will, with three freshly appointed Mavens, form a "Council of High Resolution". A Council of High Resolution is not, however, empowered to make a final decision on an appeal; that, again, is reserved to the membership of the Committee for Resolutions. Instead, any Council of Resolution should provide a strictly advisory judgement, which can either be accepted or rejected by Consensus.

There shall also be temporary officers, referred to as "Mavens" (or "Mavens of Resolution"). In the event of a disciplinary proceeding, there shall be three Mavens appointed. The Mavens of Resolution shall be appointed on a case-by-case basis, and their term shall be limited to the time required to conclude the specific case they are appointed to give their labour to.

The Mavens shall be appointed by the assembly with greatest relevance to the case they are assigned to. For example, in a matter relating to ableism, the Disability Activism Society would be responsible for appointing the three Mavens. The Mavens must hold expertise on the topic in question; their role is to advise and inform the development of Consensus on disciplinary issues.

If no such assembly is currently extant, then a joint session of the Operational Working Group, the Committee for Resolutions, and the Safeguarding Assembly may, by Consensus, select three Mavens. It is required that that Consensus decision should follow the spirit of this Annexe as closely as possible, and any perceived failure to do so will be considered clear grounds for a future appeal.

Mavens must be Party Members, and they cannot be paid staff (ie they must not be in receipt of a wage from the Party). The Secretary for Resolutions must make themself available to support Mavens with time and labour.

In the event that any three assigned Mavens unanimously perceive that achieving Consensus on a disciplinary issue is deeply unlikely, they may request permission from those participating to break that deadlock. That permission should in turn be provided by Consensus, or, in the event of another deadlock, via STAR vote, following the usual party procedure for such ballots.

The Secretary of the Committee for Resolutions may also call for permission from the Committee for the Mavens to seek to break a deadlock at any time they perceive the attempt to reach Consensus on a disciplinary issue to have fully stalled.

In the event of a deadlock preventing achievement of Consensus on a disciplinary issue, the relevant Mavens may by generating consensus of their own break that deadlock (ie any decision ought to be unanimous among the Mavens).

The following is henceforth defined as the standard disciplinary process in the Party:
1. A disciplinary matter is referred to the Safeguarding Assembly.
2. The Safeguarding Assembly refers the matter to the Committee for Resolutions, and must begin the process of considering whether any constitutional changes need be advised to the Operational Working Group in the event of a potential "yes" Consensus decision on whether there has been a breach.
3. The Committee for Resolutions informs anyone impacted by the referral (including any accused individuals, and, via the supporting labour of the Media Working Group, the public), opens the disciplinary case, and requests that the relevant expert assembly appoints three Mavens to the case.
4. The relevant expert assembly appoints three Mavens, who gather research materials & educational information in preparation. They may request the support of the Research Working Group via the Secretary of that assembly, but the Research Working Group must ensure operational security, and must not allow any volunteers to provide labour who are connected to the case in any way.
5. The Secretary of the Committee for Resolutions, after consulting the Mavens, sets a time & date for the (potentially first) hearing on the matter.
6. The hearing must be accessible to all, and may be run asynchronously, as well as both online & in person, if necessary to achieving that goal. The hearing must be in public.
7. At the hearing, the Mavens must first provide background information as they deem relevant.
8. The Secretary for Resolutions must then present to those gathered at the hearing the disciplinary matter precisely as it was referred to the Safeguarding Assembly.
9. Questions may be asked at this point by anyone gathered, whether of the Mavens or of anyone accused of wrongdoing in the matter referred to the Safeguarding Assembly.
10. If the case is deemed of sufficient complexity by both the three Mavens & the Secretary of the Committee for Resolutions, then the Secretary may call for a pause in proceedings & set a second date for a second hearing.
11. If Consensus takes a long time to develop, then the Secretary may call for a pause in proceedings & set a second date for a second hearing. The Secretary may repeat this as necessary to achieve Consensus.
12. However, if there is clear deadlock, then the Secretary or the Mavens or both may request permission from the Committee for Resolutions to refer the matter to the deadlock-breaking unanimous decision of the Mavens.
13. If such permission is not given, then the entire process must be restarted from the beginning. New Mavens must be appointed in this instance.
14. If there is not deadlock, and Consensus is achieved, then the Consensus of the Committee for Resolutions is binding.
15. Appeals may be made on an operational basis: if procedure is not properly followed, or if information provided to the hearing(s) later proves not to be factual, then the case must be re-heard by a Council of High Resolution composed of three (fresh) Mavens & the three permanent Secretaries of Resolution.
16. The adhoc Council of High Resolution will, upon reexamination, present its findings to the Committee of Resolutions at a meeting of that body. However, the Committee for Resolutions is not required to agree with the findings of the adhoc Council of High Resolution.

Annex B: Extra Rules for Secretaries

The Central Party Treasurer is an executive officer of the Party as a Party Secretary and as such must not set policy.

For example, the Central Party Treasurer is not responsible for making funding decisions; that would rest with the consensus determinations of the Financial Working Group. However the Central Party Treasurer nonetheless has the final decision on actual spending; if the Central Party Treasurer denies spending, then it may be assumed that consensus for the action remains, but fundraising must occur before it can continue.

The Central Party Treasurer must carry out the will of the Financial Working Group so long as that will does not conflict with either Party constitutional or wider legal requirements and does not interfere with the Central Party Treasurer's role as Treasurer.

The Central Party Treasurer is primarily responsible for keeping clear and accurate records of the Party's accounts to show the true financial position of the Party. The Central Party Treasurer may request the support of members of the Financial Working Group in fulfillment of these duties, and should seek to do so via the Secretary of that Working Group. The Central Party Treasurer must further always make accounts data freely available to:

the Operational Working Group
the Financial Working Group, at request
the Committee for Resolutions
the Foundational Committee
the Constituencies Society

The Central Party Treasurer is also responsible for:

Making sure that any loans and donations that our Party receives are checked, recorded and reported where appropriate. This includes reporting donations and loans to the Electoral Commission where appropriate.
Taking all reasonable steps to make sure that these donations and loans can be accepted, including coordinating with the Financial Working Group to ensure that the Party has access to banking facilities.
Coordinating with the Operational Working Group to ensure the security of accounts information.
Sanitising all accounts information.
Financial data GDPR compliancy.

If the Financial Working Group so decides, the Central Party Treasurer may coordinate the creation of accounting units for specific Party Assemblies, and may, with Financial Working Group oversight and Secretarial Committee support, oversee the appointment of such accounting unit treasurers.

The Central Party Treasurer must notify the Electoral Commission when any of the following changes:

the name or address of any Party officer who is registered with them, including any accounting unit officers.
the address of the Party's headquarters or any accounting unit.
the name of any accounting unit.

The Central Party Treasurer must also send notification to the Electoral Commission annually confirming the Party's details.

If the Central Party Treasurer should decide to stand down, or for any other reason there is no Central Party Treasurer in post, then the Financial Working Group shall:

either automatically designate the first Deputy Secretary of the Financial Working Group as the Interim Party Treasurer,
or, if no such Deputy Secretary is in post, designate a Party General Secretary as Interim Party Treasurer.

In either case the general secretaries and the Financial Working Group shall aim to complete the appointment of a new permanent Central Party Treasurer within three months of the prior treasurer standing down.

Annex C: Additional Officer Roles of the Party

The Consensus Envoy, Party Envoy, or Envoy shall be understood to mean "Party leader" or "leader of the Party" as the Envoy will be registered with the Electoral Commission as such. However, the "Party Envoy" is an officer of the Party who functions as a non-executive representative of the will of the Membership, and they shall have no power to create Party or Assembly policy or processes.

They shall nonetheless in no way have their rights as a Member of the Party abridged, nor their duties in any other held role diminished.

It is reaffirmed that the actual leader of the Harmony Party is the consensus of the Membership. Therefore the Party Envoy holds the position of "leader" in symbolic trust of the Membership.

The Envoy is primarily responsible for being the public face of the Party. They must coordinate with any Media Officer, the Media Secretary, the Media Working Group, and the Society for Presentation of Policy to help provide a singular face to the efforts of all of the preceding.

Secondarily, the Party Envoy acts as Secretary of the Society of Speakers. The Society of Speakers is a special body, which shall be composed of either Secretaries or Deputy Secretaries of the Policy Societies. Each Policy Society will send one Secretary or Deputy Secretary. Each member of the Society of Speakers is a "Speaker", and is assigned the duty of speaking on their Policy Society's remit.

The Envoy is also responsible for:

cultivating good working relationships with members of the media, and with members of other political parties and organisations.
media appearances.
presenting policy and supporting and participating in the production of media accordingly.

At all times the Envoy is constrained to speak within the understood established Consensus of the Party. Should they breach this duty, they may be immediately recalled. This may occur either by:

a vote of the Party Membership following the unanimous request of the Secretaries of Resolution. The Secretaries of Resolution must both individually and collectively provide reasoned arguments for their decision and these must be provided to the Party Membership in good time ahead of the vote.
a vote of the Party Membership following a petition of at least 30% of the Party Membership; the petition must be presented to the Secretarial Committee, or, if there is any conflict of interest (in the opinion of anyone on the Committee or of the submitters of the petition), to the Secretaries of Resolution.

If the Party Envoy should decide to stand down, or for any other reason there is no Party Envoy in post, then the Secretarial Committee shall:

either automatically designate the first Deputy Secretary of the Policy Society as the Interim Party Envoy,
or, if no such Deputy Secretary is in post, designate a Party General Secretary as Interim Party Envoy, unless there is either no Party General Secretary or they decline the position;
should the Party General Secretary decline the position of Interim Party Envoy, the most senior elected member of the Harmony Party - defined as holding office for the longest time - shall be appointed Interim Party Envoy;
if there are no Members in elected office, then the seniormost Deputy Speaker of the Media Working Group shall be appointed Interim Party Envoy;
should there be no Deputy Speaker of the Media Working Group, then the seniormost Deputy Speaker of the Policy Society shall be appointed Interim Party Envoy;
should there be no Deputy Speaker of the Policy Society, then the Deputy Speaker of the Society for Presentation of Policy shall be appointed Interim Party Envoy;
should there be no Deputy Speaker of the Society for Presentation of Policy, then the Secretary of the Media Working Group, or the Media Officer, in that order, shall be appointed Interim Party Envoy.

In any case the Secretarial Committee shall execute an election for the office within three months of the prior Envoy standing down. Should no candidates be forthcoming, the election should be delayed until at least two candidates step forward.

The Nominating Officer has overall responsibility for arranging the nomination of candidates and approving the party identity marks used on nomination forms and ballot papers at elections. These marks must be consistent with those determined by the consensus of the Media Working Group and as submitted as part of the Party's registration with the Electoral Commission, with the latter taking precedence over the former.

Annex D: Rules & Processes for Candidacy Selection

The Operational Working Group has responsibility for modifying the selection process, while the Society for Elections has the responsibility to support execution of it.

Constituency Societies have direct responsibility for selection in their area, unless there is overlap between two constituencies or the Society is ill-prepared to carry out those responsibilities. In either event, the City, or Regional Society for that area shall assume selection responsibilities.

Selection is mandatory and occurs for every seat contested by the Party at every election contested by Party candidates.

Selection application forms (HPSAF) must always meet certain minimum Party requirements. They must
clearly bear the Party name and/or the Party logo, and clearly identify the authoritative Assembly governing the selection process in question. Constituency Assemblies must declare themselves on all of their own forms and those forms must

bear the date of printing, the date upon which the form must be returned to the Assembly, and request the date of completion
bear the Ethical Kernel, in full, and request agreement by the applicant that they will seek to adhere to the Four Principles if elected as a candidate for the Party, and make clear that failure to do so may result in mandatory reselection
require the applicant to agree to follow Party Consensus if elected as a candidate for the Party, and make clear that failure to do so may result in mandatory reselection.

In addition, the forms must

make clear that all forms will be read by Party volunteers in the Research Working Group, and others in their own Constituency, City, or Regional Society
further make clear that
request the full name of the applicant (and where differing, both preferred name and legal name)
request the date of birth of the applicant
request at least one phone number for the applicant, preferably home and mobile, plus the primary address of the applicant
request current employment of the applicant & history thereof
request that the applicant prove either significant local links (as agreed by the relevant Constituency, City, or Regional Society) or residence in the appropriate area for an interval determined by that same Society
request disclosure of public social media account names & platforms
request disclosure of existence of private accounts, and explicit binding promise to retain privacy status of those accounts henceforth while an applicant, candidate, or once elected to office. It must further be made clear that breach RE private accounts could result in reselection.

All applicants must apply via the appropriate local variant of the official Party selection form for the election in question (at any level the Party is contesting), and all forms must be received by the appropriate Assembly Secretary or Deputy.

All applicants must be Party Members.

Receipt may be digital or physical. Physical proxy submission is acceptable but should be verified such as but not only by voice call.

From receipt of form, clear chain of custody must be maintained regardless of the medium of receipt, and the responsibility for this record falls to each specific individual involved & the Assembly Secretary and any Deputy or Deputies.

Applicants must apply by the deadline established by their relevant Secretary, which cannot be beyond the final cutoff date determined centrally by the Society for Elections. This date must be clearly included in any advertisements regarding selection candidacy applications.

Applicant data is to be verified by the Research Working Group, with support from the relevant Constituency, City, or Regional Society.

Social media accounts are to be checked for hate speech, incitement to violence, abusive behaviour, and similar things which might impact the decisionmaking of the selecting Society.

Where such breaches are marginal or difficult to gauge, or broadly open to interpretation, or where the applicant has already or is willing to issue a clear & frank public apology when challenged, applications should not be immediately rejected but instead placed into a "reserve" status. The relevant Assembly in these cases should also pass the matter onto the Committee for Resolutions for any relevant disciplinary action.

Where such breaches are regarded as requiring escalation to disciplinary action at a Party level, it is strongly recommended that the application be immediately tossed, although in the case of exceptional candidates (such as again those willing to publicly address the issue with a full apology) these applicants may be placed into the "reserve" status. The relevant Assembly in these cases should also pass the matter onto the Committee for Resolutions for any relevant disciplinary action.

Where such breaches should be reported to relevant authorities, the application should both be immediately rejected, and information passed on as ethically required. The relevant Assembly in these cases should also pass the matter onto the Committee for Resolutions for any relevant disciplinary action.

Private social media accounts are not to be checked - either openly or surreptitiously. All workers are workers.

The Research Working Group will, having collated the required information (making applicants rejected, reserved, or passed), pass its files back to the various Constituency, City, and Regional Societies, ideally digitally.

Should a Constituency Society and its Regional and/or City Society lack the required organisational capacity to handle selection, the Society for Elections is expected to support or carry out those duties.
All relevant Societies participating in selection should produce an Interview For Applicants Form (HPIFAF) for each kind of election being contested; the Society for Elections will each cycle produce a base template for Societies to work from.

The HPIFAF should be a series of interview questions decided by the individual Societies. These can be as long or as short as the Societies desire.

These questions must avoid in any way inciting, supporting, or calling for

hate speech
inciteful or aggressive speech
risk creating undue negative discrimination
endorse or perpetuate stereotypes
and Societies should use to the best of their collective abilities rational discretion to avoid racism, ableism, homomisia, transphobia, antisemitism, and other forms of bigotry, stereotyping, or stigmatisation.

It is for individual Assemblies initially to determine whether these lines, or others of concern, are breached. If individual members of those Assemblies disagree with consensus, they may escalate to request unification by the Society for Elections, and, from there, escalate in turn to adjudication by the Secretaries of Resolution, should they be in office. Where they are not yet in office, contended questions will necessarily be excluded from forms until unification is complete.

The HPIFAF can be received either digitally or physically. Physical proxy submission is acceptable.

The HPIFAF deadline should be at least 6 weeks before the relevant election date.

Once the deadline arrives, HPIFAF forms are to be published to the Party Membership, locally.
Where there is only one applicant, local members are free to raise objections. Where these carry (by standard decisionmaking methods), the applicant will be disqualified.

Where there are more applicants than potential seats, STAR ballots should be arranged by the appropriate Society Secretary or Secretaries. These ballots should take place no more than 1 week after IFAF forms are submitted. Objections to any of these applicants should be raised as part of the electoral process.

Only Members may vote in STAR ballots on Harmony Party UK candidacy.

The deadline for objections is also 1 week. This should be reevaluated annually.

Where there are no objections, the applicant is approved by the Consensus of the Membership.

When an applicant wins a STAR ballot for candidacy, the applicant is approved by the Consensus of the Membership.

Where there are no applicants or all others have been disqualified, the relevant Assemblies are free to consider "reserve" applicants. Standard decisionmaking can be used to determine whether this is an acceptable - and ethical - course of action or not. Where approved, the applicant is approved by the Consensus of the Membership.

Rejected applicants must be contacted & informed respectfully and politely, but there is no requirement to inform them of reasoning. Instead, they should be informed that no-one is informed of the reasoning for rejection as this is a private matter for the Members.

Applicants whom are approved by the Consensus of the Membership immediately become Official Party Candidates.

Annex E: Defection Policy

Defection here refers to any transition of a sitting official, whether from independent to Harmony, or from any other party to Harmony, at any level, from parish councils up to the Commons.

The Defection Form will be produced by the Operational Working Group. It must:

clearly bear the Party name and/or the Party logo
bear the date of release
bear the Ethical Kernel, in full, and request agreement by the applicant that they will seek to adhere to the Four Principles if elected as a candidate for the Party, and make clear that failure to do so may result in mandatory reselection
require the applicant to agree to follow Party Consensus if their defection is accepted.

In addition, the forms must

make clear that all forms will be read by Party volunteers in the Research Working Group, and others in their local Constituency, City, or Regional Society
request the full name of the applicant (and where differing, both preferred name and legal name)
request the date of birth of the applicant
request at least one phone number for the applicant, preferably home and mobile, plus the primary address of the applicant
request current employment of the applicant & history thereof
request that the applicant prove either significant local links (as agreed by the relevant Constituency, City, or Regional Society) or residence in the appropriate area for an interval determined by that same Society
request disclosure of public social media account names & platforms
request disclosure of existence of private accounts, and explicit binding promise to retain privacy status of those accounts henceforth while an applicant, candidate, or once elected to office. It must further be made clear that breach RE private accounts could result in reselection.

The official wishing to defect shall complete the pubicly available Harmony Party Defection Form, submitting it either directly online, or via email/post to the general secretaries of the party.
The data will be passed on to the Research Working Group, who will verify that the application is genuine. Due to the nature of the work, this will involve contacting the applicant directly as well, and doing due diligence on all provided data.

Once complete, sanitised forms will be returned to the local assembly (removing personal contact information) for their consideration of the defection. Should a Constituency Society and its Regional and/or City Society lack the required organisational capacity to handle the defection decision, the Society for Elections is expected to support or carry out those duties.

The local assembly - whether Regional Society, City Society, or Constituency Society - shall have the final say on the defection via the usual decision-making process used by the Party.

They must invite the individual offering to defect to a gathering to fully discuss why they wish to defect and what their intentions are, as well as any other questions the assembly may have. This may take place either online or as a physical hustings. After the hustings, a specific period for decision-making should be declared, minimum of 7 days, in which the assembly may debate and determine. If no consensus exists after that period, then there should be a STAR ballot in line with standard processes.

Only Members may vote in STAR ballots.

When an applicant is accepted by their local assembly, they are considered to have completed the defection process and may refer to themselves as a Harmony Party representative. If they are not already a member, they must immediately become one at this point. Accepted applicants must be reminded that selection is mandatory in the Harmony Party, and that they will be expected to follow the consensus of the Party, while remaining free to express their opinions.

Members are reminded that their conduct matters.

During a hustings to agree a defection, members must not ask questions inciting, supporting, or calling for:

hate speech
inciteful or aggressive speech
or that risk creating undue negative discrimination
or which endorse or perpetuate stereotypes

Participants must be held to the same standards. Anyone breaching these standards shall be subject to disciplinary review by the Committee for Resolutions, and should be prevented from further participating in the hustings - either physically or digitally.

Annex F: The Harmony Mutual Aid Fund

The Mutual Aid Fund - in full known as the "Harmony Mutual Aid Fund", in shortform the "Mutual Aid Fund", and by acronym, "HMAF" or “MAF” - shall source donations into a core fund, the use of which shall be mutual aid actions carried out by Harmony assemblies, as well as for funding those actions by non-members/participants which are democratically agreed by Harmony assemblies.

The broad goal of the fund shall be to improve, materially, conditions in communities across the country. The primary focus to achieve this goal will be mitigation of suffering; the bar for an action must be that suffering is alleviated by the action being undertaken.

If an action is deemed worthy but resources are unavailable, then the action must be considered only delayed, and it is the obligation of the Party and its assemblies to ensure the resources can be sourced to carry out the action deemed worthy.

The HMAF shall operate under dual oversight; decisions of "worthiness of action" belong to the Mutual Aid Society or whichever assembly may propose an action, but the decision to actually fund the action is the preserve of the Financial Working Group, operating with the advice of the Treasurer. The FWG and the Treasurer shall be responsible for all financial planning, and have responsibility for determining the appropriate processes thereto.

The Committee for Resolutions has final oversight on any disciplinary issues relating to the HMAF, and shall also have the role of meditation in the event of any dispute between the components of the HMAF.

To enable the Party to seek funding from as many sources as possible without falling afoul of the limitations of donations to political parties, individual donations must not exceed £500. Organisations based in the UK may donate more than £500 to the HMAF provided that the Financial Working Group, acting with the advice of the Treasurer, confirms acceptance of the donation; all such donations greater than £500 will be reported to the Electoral Commission by the Treasurer.

The principal method of seeking funding will be a single crowdfunder, utilising GoFundMe initially. Donations may also be made directly via the Treasurer, but should not be made indirectly via Party members, as this will make tracking actual donation totals by individuals difficult at best.

Should any legal issues arise relating to the HMAF, the Operational Working Group, overseen by the Committee for Resolutions, and with the advice of the Secretarial Committee, shall have responsibility for governing the Party response.

Annex G: Regulation of Affiliation of Organisations with the Party

This annex concerns the Affiliation of Organisations with the Party.

Organisations seeking Affiliation may do so by making contact with the Foundational Committee. If the Foundational Committee lacks a Secretary, then one (or both) of the General Secretaries may act as the Secretary of the Committee for the purpose of commencing the Affiliation procedure.

The Foundational Committee has responsibility for formalising the method by which Organisations may request Affiliation with the Party.

There must be a physical meeting, or a video call, between at least one officer of the Party, and at least one officer of the Organisation seeking affiliation, in order to confirm the application.

The Research Working Group however has responsibility for verification of applications. The Research Working Group is required to make contact with two verified officers of the requesting Organisation in order to confirm the request.

Once the application is submitted and verified by the Research Working Group, the Foundational Committee or its Secretary must notify the General Secretaries of the Party & the Electoral Society.

The General Secretaries must organise a Party Thing upon verification of the application to form consensus on the matter of the application.

If the Party Thing grants the application, then Affiliation commences. If it is not granted by the Consensus of the Party Thing, then Affiliation may not go forward. The applicant Organisation is entitled to reapply; however, the wording of the refusal resolution may deny that reapplication in advance. If such a "permanent refusal" is put in place, the Operational Working Group is given remit to revoke that refusion (by consensus of the Working Group) to allow another application.

If Affiliation proves undesirable to the Party Membership & Participants, then they may signal their desire to commence proceedings to end that Affiliation by collection of petitions totalling 25% of the total active population of the affiliate assembly. Petitions must be submitted to the Committee for Resolutions. The Committee shall then determine by consensus whether or not to retain or conclude the Affiliation.

When Affiliated with an Organisation, the Party shall commit, at minimum, to:

give solidarity where the consensus of the Members allows
offer mutual aid to the members of Affiliate Organisations where appropriate, useful, and feasible
support advocacy and activism efforts of Affiliate Organisations & where feasible their members
advocate for Affiliated Organisations & their Members in the offices to which our Members are elected
encourage Members & Participants of the Party to engage with the working groups/societies established by affiliated organisations
Organisations that affiliate with the Party must not:
perpetuate or encourage hateful speech
act in breach of the spirit this Constitution's Ethical Kernel
breach their own rules
fail to act on breaches of their own rules
request their Members pay subs to the Party in any way, shape, or form

Organisations that affiliate with the Party will:

form an appropriate Assembly inside the Party which should form a part of their own organisational structure as well, linking the organisations together materially
encourage their Members to participate in the Party & support our mutual objectives

Organisations that affiliate with the Party will not:

pay subscriptions nor donate money to the Party purely on the basis of Affiliation; donations by any Affiliate Organisation must be agreed by the Organisation independently of the Affiliation decision.

End of file.