Having a say

How a group decides things, and how you hand your vote to somebody you trust for as much or as little as you choose.

What this is

A group decides things together. This page explains the shapes a decision takes, and what happens to your vote when you are not there.

What you see

Three things get raised inside a group, on its Governance tab, and gathered for you under Voice.

A proposal is a yes or no question. You answer Yes, No or Abstain.

A poll offers a set of answers. You pick one, on the group's own Governance tab.

An issue is something raised for discussion before anyone votes. It carries comments rather than votes.

Every open decision shows what share is in favour, how many votes there are, and how long is left. A deadline reads as no deadline, closes today, a number of days left, or closed.

A proxy hands your vote to somebody else. Every proxy names a scope, and a scope is either a whole group or one category of decision inside a group.

What you can do here

• Know which of the three you are looking at. See Tell a proposal, a poll and an issue apart.
• Give somebody your vote on one kind of decision only. See Hand over only one kind of decision.
• Take it back. See End a proxy.

How to

Tell a proposal, a poll and an issue apart

1. Open Voice under Manage.
2. Read the Decisions to vote on panel. Each row is labelled Proposal or Poll.
3. A proposal shows Yes, No and Abstain on the row. Answer it there.
4. A poll shows a button reading Answer poll. Press it to answer on the group's own page.
5. Read the Issues and proposals panel for what is still being discussed. Press the filter reading Issues to see only those.

Hand over only one kind of decision

1. Open Voice under Manage.
2. Press Manage proxies.
3. Find the form headed Delegate a scope.
4. Choose the Group.
5. Set Scope to One category. This choice appears only when the group has filed categories.
6. Choose the Category. That is the one kind of decision you are handing over.
7. Choose a Duration: until you take it back, seven days, thirty days, or ninety days.
8. Press Find a proxy, search for the person, and press Choose.
9. Press Delegate.

Your vote on every other kind of decision in that group stays yours.

End a proxy

1. Open Voice under Manage.
2. Press Manage proxies.
3. Find the proxy under Active, or under Waiting on an answer.
4. Press Take back.
5. A note confirms your vote is yours again.

What changes for you

A proxy starts as a request. It carries nothing until the other person accepts it. Until then it sits under Waiting on an answer.

You can vote yourself on any decision, even one you delegated. The row shows who carries it and a button reading Vote anyway. Pressing it reveals the ballot without choosing for you. Your own answer replaces the proxy for that one decision, and the proxy stays in place for everything else.

A narrower scope beats a wider one. If you gave one person your whole group and another person one category, the category person carries that category.

You can hold only one proxy per scope. Take the old one back before making a new one.

A proxy cannot loop back to you, and a chain is limited to three steps so everyone can see where a vote ends up.

A proxy carries your weight, not the weight of the person holding it.

An accepted proxy the holder never uses moves nothing. It counts as an abstention, not as a yes.

Either side can end a proxy. The person carrying your vote can hand it back.

Whether a decision needs a minimum turnout is set by whoever raised it. There is no Rivr-wide number.

You can only delegate a vote you are eligible to cast, and only to somebody eligible in the same scope.

Where this connects

• Voice is the page all of this happens on.
• A group's page carries the Governance tab where a decision is written.
• Flow Planning lists the open decisions in your groups alongside your agreements.