Re: [chairs] TC attendance rules

[Thomas Studwell <studwell@us.ibm.com>]

I'm inclined to change it to 3 out of 4 because it is too easy to miss 2 weekly meetings if on vacation. As others, I see little value in the Notice. The person is either active in the TC or not, if they are not aware of their own attendance slip I don't see why OASIS should remind them. They will be getting constant reminders (via meeting minutes etc) of TC activity through their email. I'm not sure what additional value the Notice brings.

I would prefer automatic requeuing of any member who has lost their voting status. This is common in other organizations and I don't see the value in taking the extra step of re-applying. In my experience, TCs run normal mtg to mtg operations without the need for formal votes so lost voting rights with automatic requeuing seems the least disruptive to the standards development process.

Thomas W. Studwell
Senior Technical Staff Member, Autonomic Computing Architecture
IBM Software Group
B140/Bldg 500
4205 S Miami Blvd, Durham, NC 27703
(919) 254-7574 Fax: (919) 254-7628 Mobile: (919) 619-1038
studwell@us.ibm.com

"The optimist sees opportunity in every danger; the pessimist sees danger in every opportunity."
Winston Churchill, Sir (1874-1965)
James Bryce Clark <jamie.clark@oasis-open.org>

James Bryce Clark <jamie.clark@oasis-open.org>

06/03/2005 09:19 AM

To	chairs@lists.oasis-open.org
cc
Subject	[chairs] TC attendance rules

One area where we have some clear early feedback on the April 2005 TC Process revisions is in the area of meeting attendance. Under the current rule -- omitting the special case of TCs who have no meetings, and only count ballots -- a TC member can lose their voting rights by missing meetings:

A Voting Member must be active in a TC to maintain voting rights. In TCs that hold meetings, the Voting Member must attend two of every three Meetings, with attendance recorded in the minutes. * * * Voting Members who do not participate in two of every three Meetings * * *shall lose their voting rights but remain as Members of the TC. A warning may be sent to the Member by the Chair, but the loss of voting rights is not dependent on the warning. * * * [1]

We're actively discussing two changes in response to early feedback.  

     First, the new rule -- which takes away voting rights after two proximate absences without an explicit notice -- is harsher than the prior rule [2], which included a notice prior to the status change.  Several have suggested this is too harsh.  Possibilities include 
    -- reinstating the notice (that is, you cease to vote after 2 misses out of 3 PLUS a notice), or 
    -- lowering the bar (such as, you cease to vote after 3 misses out of 4).  
The Board's process subcommittee is reviewing this issue in June, and your comments are welcome.   

    Second, instead of requiring that a person who has lost voting rights explicitly re-apply, we are considering making the simpler default assumption that anyone who loses their vote should be automatically re-queued to re-gain it.   That would allow us to simply the rosters, and delete the superfluous role "probationary voting member".  All TC members would either be "voting members", or simply "members" who will reacquire their vote when their attendance again merits it.  Again, your comments are welcome.  

    Regards JBC

~   James Bryce Clark
~   Director, Standards Development, OASIS
~   jamie.clark@oasis-open.org

[1] http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process.php#2.4
[2] http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process_2003.09.18.php#termination