How we make decisions about OurActionStation campaigns
We democratise decision making with the help of super volunteers
OurActionStation is a new platform launched by ActionStation that allows members of the community to start, run and deliver campaigns that align with ActionStation’s values.
When we made the decision to launch OurActionStation in late 2015, it was important to us that decisions about which campaigns would be hosted on the site were made by our members. It is also important that members of the community understand the purpose of this site, and the process by which petitions are approved (or not approved).
What is OurActionStation?
OurActionStation was not intended to be a values-neutral petition platform. It was launched as a way to give more campaigning power to members of the ActionStation community to run campaigns that would help advance our movement’s shared vision, which is “to promote peace and human rights, deepen democracy and create a more just, fair and sustainable society.”
What this means is that anyone can submit a campaign to OurActionStation, but while they go live immediately, they need to be approved before they will appear on the list of campaigns on the homepage.
We want the campaigns on this site to represent the values of the ActionStation community — who better to represent and stand up for those values than ActionStation members themselves!
How we keep true to our values
So we created the Member Review Panel — a group of ActionStation members who us the collaborative decision-making platform Loomio to read and review every campaign submitted to OurActionStation.
The Panel is made up of ten active ActionStation members who volunteered for this role from a pool of sixty of ActionStation’s most active community members. These members were invited based on the commitment they had demonstrated to the broader mission of ActionStation (as opposed to support for a single campaign or issue), either by taking part in a broad range of our campaigns, by being a core supporter of the movement or by running campaigns with us previously.
How does it work in practice?
Each campaign posted on the site is sent to the Panel for review, and they approve or disapprove the campaign based on whether they collectively agree that it meets community guidelines.
You can use our website to create campaigns that aim to promote peace and human rights, deepen democracy and create a more just, fair and sustainable society and which do not promote hatred, violence, discrimination or stereotypes including those based on race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, or religion. Our website is non-partisan and cannot be used by or on behalf of a political party or to promote any business or commercial purpose.
If the Panel decides that a campaign is not consistent with these guidelines, the campaign will be taken off the OurActionStation site and the petition starter will be given the reasons why the Panel decided not to approve their campaign.
Where staff feel that a campaign breaches those guidelines they are able to immediately hide an OurActionStation petition from the site — that decision will then be sent to the Panel to urgently review.
The purpose of the Member Review Panel is to be the kaitiaki or guardians of ActionStation community values. We engage with all campaign creators to make sure they understand decisions made by the Panel. If you would like to know more about our processes feel free to get in touch via email to info@actionstation.org.nz
