Member Section update and prep for upcoming election

[George Zagelow <zagelow@us.ibm.com>]

On behalf of the Member Section Steering Committee I'd like to
bring you up to date on the status of the Member Section (MS), and
alert you that we have an election coming very soon.  If you are a
voting member of the MS, please take the time to read this note.

As a general update and to provide background, we have recently
been added to the new collaborative portal at OASIS as a "quasi TC".
This gives us many features to help us with the operation of the MS.
You should have received a password for access to the MS members
area. If you haven't already done so, I invite you to visit the site at
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/uddi-ms/.
You will need the "Ballot" facility at this site to vote in the election.

MSs are a relatively new concept at OASIS, so it's taken some work
implement processes to manage the roster, etc.  That work is still
underway, but the roster and management of it have been successfully
transferred to the new portal.

To date, the work of the MS has been done by the Member Section
Steering Committee, which acts like a Board of Directors for UDDI.
As we have only one TC for UDDI, the partitioning of work has been
for the Steering Committee to focus on the nontechnical aspects of
progressing UDDI.  The UDDI Spec TC has done a fine job with the
technical aspects of UDDI, recently completing the work to have
UDDI V2 advanced to OASIS Specification. To better understand to MS
and Steering Committee the best source is the Rules of Procedure at
http://www.uddi.org/governance/rules_of_procedures.html.

For the upcoming election, I expect that I will get approval to open a
short nomination period after our Steering Committee call on Friday
13 June, after which we will have a period for the actual election.  We
encourage all member organizations to consider making a
nomination to the Steering Committee so as to ensure their vision of
our future is reflected in the board.  By serving on the Steering
Committee, members can have a significant impact on the
advancement of UDDI.

The Steering Committee is comprised of seven members. For this
election, members will serve for either one or two-year terms, to
establish a basis for staggered two-year terms in subsequent annual
elections.  This will allow us to preserve management continuity
while providing the opportunity for flexibility in consideration of the
evolving scope of UDDI.

This year, all seven seats are up for election.  Because of our  small
number of voting members, I expect an abbreviated schedule, which
I hope to set at our Steering Committee call Friday.

Please feel free to ask any questions about the process, and start
preparing your nominations.

Thanks much.

Regards, George

Chair, OASIS UDDI Member Section Steering Committee
Managing Director, UDDI Operators Council
Web Services Strategy, IBM Software Group
1-408-463-4041 or 543-4041, FAX 3319
zagelow@us.ibm.com