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Subject: RE: [chairs] Individual members representation?
Am I correct that indie members currently have no vote on: a) OASIS board members, or b) OASIS specifications? On these two fronts, it would make sense to find some way for indie members to have some voting representation. This is an extension of the principle that strong indie participation in OASIS is a good thing, and I can't see any reason it wouldn't be. =Drummond -----Original Message----- From: Daniel Greenwood [mailto:dang@mit.edu] Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2003 10:44 AM To: Eduardo.Gutentag@Sun.COM; david@drrw.info Cc: chairs@lists.oasis-open.org Subject: Re: [chairs] Individual members representation? Eduardo, you mentioned "As to 'reports back from the board', below: are you implying that company members receive reports back from the board? If so, you're mistaken. If you want to receive reports from the Board, you can read, like anybody else, the Board minutes." I think the reality is that people who serve on boards like this are reps of their companies on an important level. Time spent on boards of industry associations that I have served on are always considered part of my scope of work - I didn't/don't (and assume you and other do not) take vacation days to serve - true? And I got/get reimbursed for travel, etc from the company that is has lots of say re: my job description, my deliverables, my professional priorities, etc, etc. And as such, performance reviews, strategy sessions and general activity reports all reflect and support the contention that on a "real politik" level, industry employee reps are reps of their corporation and serve the interests of (and report back to) the principal for whom they are an employed agent of. This does not mean copmanies in general get reports, but it does suggest a model that may be useful for indie members. There is nothing wrong with any of the above - in fact, it is helpful to have balanced representation from the key big industry players (and as you said, people vote with that in mind). The legal technicalities (vote for individuals, etc) you mentioned are interesting, but don't tell the full story of how the power and politics work. Given that, why not have some representation for indie members specifically? - Dan =============================== | Daniel J. Greenwood, Esq. | Director and Lecturer | The MIT E-Commerce | Architecture Program (ECAP) | Massachusetts | Institute of | Technology | 77 Mass. Avenue, Room 7-231 | Cambridge, MA 02139 | http://ecitizen.mit.edu | or http://www.civics.com | Mobile: 617-851-0412 | Desk: 617-868-1746 | dang@mit.edu ================================ -----Original Message----- From: Eduardo Gutentag <Eduardo.Gutentag@Sun.COM> Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 10:27:44 To:David RR Webber <david@drrw.info> Cc:Chairs OASIS <chairs@lists.oasis-open.org> Subject: Re: [chairs] Individual members representation? Interesting ideas, but more in the assumptions they reveal than in their reflections of reality. Board members are elected as individuals, not as representatives of companies. At least that's how theoretically things should be. I'm not sure, of course, whether that's the reality or not, (how many voted for me as myself or as an employee of Sun?) but we Board members are supposed to think in terms of OASIS's interests *above everything else* when functioning as such. Because Board members are elected as individuals, there is in fact no constraints on whether a BoD member is a company employee or an individual member, so if any individual member wants to run for BoD membership, go ahead. In fact, BoD members don't even have to be OASIS members. As to "reports back from the board", below: are you implying that company members receive reports back from the board? If so, you're mistaken. If you want to receive reports from the Board, you can read, like anybody else, the Board minutes. Also, how any of your proposals would help towards working better with ISO et al. is a mystery to me. David RR Webber wrote: > As we are approaching year end some retrospective thoughts and > looks ahead occur. > > Would it make sense to add a Board member who represents all > the individual members? > > Clearly there are large numbers now contributing to every OASIS > team. But only corporate members get to vote and nominate > board members. > > Do we need balance, and would input from individual members help? > Would this help toward working with groups such as ISO in the > future? > > Some ground rules would be needed - and also OASIS would need > to cover expenses for the person - as obviously they do not have > a corporate sponsor. If the person subsequently joined a corporation > would this automatically trigger a new appointment - or could it > be discretionary? > > We could certainly also have a meeting room and feedback area > for individual members via Kavi as another resource. > > Personally as an individual member I would definately value reports > back from the board from an independent member there. > > OK - so I've taken the lid off a large can of worms here, but this > was an itch so I thought I'd better scratch it! > > What are the pro's and con's? Is this workable? > > DW. -- Eduardo Gutentag | e-mail: eduardo.gutentag@Sun.COM Web Technologies and Standards | Phone: +1 510 550 4616 x31442 Sun Microsystems Inc. | W3C AC Rep / OASIS BoD
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