Re: [chairs] Re: Quorum required for good standing

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

| > That may be true in theory, but in the practice, when in a 20 person TC
| > an email vote elicits 2 yes votes and 1 no vote and the rest either
| > send "I abstain" messages or none at all, people are quite reluctant
| > to consider the matter settled in favor of the motion. Most would say,
| > and have said, that the vote doesn't and shouldn't count.
| 
| If everyone else abstains or can't be bothered voting, doesn't that 
| mean they don't care about the result of that vote? So why shouldn't 
| it count?

That's how it's supposed to work, and that's how in f2f meetings
it actually does work.  This is called a majority vote (p. 395):

   Majority Vote -- the Basic Requirement

   As stated on page 4, the basic requirement for approval of an
   action or choice by a deliberative assembly, except where a
   rule provides otherwise, is a _majority vote_.  The word
   _majority_ means "more than half"; and when the term _majority
   vote_ is used without qualification -- as in the case of the
   basic requirement -- it means more than half of the votes cast
   by persons legally entitled to vote, excluding blanks or
   abstentions, at a regular of properly called meeting at which a
   quorum is present.

This works fine for everyone else.  Why are we screwing around
with the basic concept of a majority?

Jon