Changes to OASIS TC Process Policy

[Mary McRae <mary.mcrae@oasis-open.org>]

On 31 July 2009 the OASIS Board of Directors approved a set of revisions to the TC Process. The effective date of the new Policy is 1 September 2009 and can be seen here: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process-2009-07-30.php. A change-marked PDF copy is available upon request and will be available on the TC Process Policy web page on or before the effective date.

The major changes are as follows:

1. Persistent Non-Voting Member. A new role has been defined, allowing a TC Member to declare their non-voting status. The process by which a Member makes such declaration as well as revoking it is established. (See Definitions: x. as well as Section 2.4.3)

2. Charter submissions. Charter submissions must now include statements of support from the Primary Representatives of Organizational Members listed as co-proposers. They will also be notified if the Charter submission is amended in any way. (See Section 2.2)

3. Schemas, XML instances, etc. associated with a specification. The Process now explicitly states that if a discrepancy occurs between the plain text file and the specification document, the definition in the separate file prevails. (See Section 2.18)

In addition, some smaller changes were made in an attempt to clarify some potentially confusing language:

4. Explicitly state that all notifications to the OASIS TC Administrator must be sent to tc-admin@oasis-open.org rather than any one individual. (See Definitions: v.)

5. Remove language that was inadvertently left in the Process and obsolete (references to Joint Committees and the need to notify the Chair if you have signed up for a new TC but are unable to attend the first meeting).

6. Leaves of Absence - proper procedure for submitting requests. (See Section 2.6)

7. Standing Rules - allowing for amendments and recisions, as well as explicitly stating that they must be posted on the TC web page in order to be enforceable. (See Section 2.9)

8. Clarification with regard to what can and cannot be changed after approval of a Committee Draft, Committee Specification, or OASIS Standard. (See Section 2.18)

9. Clarification of the Designated Cross References language. (See Section 2.19)

10. Clarification of the Appeals process. (See Section 4.2)

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Mary

Mary P McRae

Director, Standards Development

Technical Committee Administrator

OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society

email: mary.mcrae@oasis-open.org 

web: www.oasis-open.org

twitter: fiberartisan  #oasisopen

phone: 1.603.232.9090

Standards are like parachutes: they work best when they're open.