Re: Quorum required for good standing; was RE: [chairs] Info forchair setup of Kavi TC areas

[Jon Bosak <Jon.Bosak@sun.com>]

| I think the OASIS process, regularly scheduled meetings, open
| archives and minutes, ability of 10% of membership to veto a
| Standard, has adequate safeguards to keep a small group from
| hijacking a TC.

Just remember that you can't take formal action without a quorum.
The rules provide for this by extending Robert's to allow voting
by email (if the TC votes, in a quorate meeting, to allow the
chair to operate this way).  So the right way to handle a group
that has a hard time achieving a quorum is to adopt standing rules
that authorize email voting and allow the inquorate group to
automatically become a committee whose recommendations can, if
necessary, be submitted to the whole TC by email.

Note that in mail votes (including email), a majority is a
majority of all of those casting a vote -- not necessarily a
majority of the entire membership.  This is exactly the same rule
as when voting in a quorate meeting.  To put it another way (I
don't believe Robert's puts it this way, but I find it a useful
way to think about it), in email a quorum is always present.

Jon