Re: PAC: MT 10 (voting by mail)

[Jon Bosak <bosak@boethius.eng.sun.com>]

| | A TC may resolve during a meeting to authorize its chair to
| | conduct the vote on a particular question by mail or, by adopting
| | a standing rule, to conduct specific kinds of routine business by
| | mail.
| | 
| | A TC may resolve during a meeting to authorize its chair to word a
| | resolution regarding a particular issue or set of issues, to put
| | such resolution to the members of the TC by mail, and to conduct
| | the vote on that resolution by mail.
| 
| I think those resolve to the same thing (unless the lanugage of
| the question has been fully worded in the meeting).  The description
| of "the issue" or "specific kinds of routine business" is the nub.
| You could break it out into 3:  fully worded, routine business
| (with description), and particular issue (with description, the
| chair to word).

By "a particular question" I meant "question" in the parliamentary
sense, as in, "Are you ready for the question?"  -- that is, as
Terry says, "fully worded."  So these are in fact two distinct
things.  The first part of the first paragraph says what we think
that Robert's already says (I now realize that I am contradicting
a position that I just took in answering Ken... oh dear).

Say, here's a different approach; suppose we replace both
paragraphs quoted above with this one:

   A TC may adopt a standing rule authorizing its chair to word
   resolutions, to put such resolutions to the members of the TC
   by mail, and to conduct votes on such resolutions by mail.

This would take care of the edge case where there's a power
struggle with the chair (or where the chair simply can't be
trusted): the TC has to license the chair to operate this way, and
it can (by the 2/3 vote that applies to standing rules) take that
license away if it's not working out.  The TC can also authorize a
mail ballot on an already worded question, as already provided in
Robert's.  How's that?

| | The period allowed for voting by mail shall be five days, unless
| | the TC specifies a different voting period in the resolution
| | authorizing the vote or in standing rules governing mail ballots.
| 
| "mail" should be "e-mail" passim.

We've been interpreting "mail" in Robert's as including email; I
think that we should continue to do so.

| The voting period should not be shorter than 5 days, or whatever
| span is chosen.

If 2/3 of the members think that the TC can operate within a
shorter voting cycle, why not allow them to adopt a standing rule
that lets it do so?  (Maybe specifying a minimum of, say, two
business days below which they can never go.)

Jon