Balance Forum Rules [Updated 3/7/12]

The amount of time they have becomes finite once the first vote has been cast. After that point, if the other members of the council get distracted or otherwise are prevented from voting before that time is up, the change (or no change) goes through with the lack of input from the other council members.

If we changed the system to require a vote from all 3 members before a thread can end, then you could make the system have only 1 stage without concern. Though you'd still have a pseudo "2nd stage" in that once all the votes are cast, if there is disagreement the thread would continue to persist until said disagreement (or discussion about it) had resolved.

Really, there should probably be a requirement for all council members to vote anyway; even if just to say they're indifferent and will leave the decision up to the other members.