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I had a thought while reading the description of the new process. If a TC
operates via electronic ballots, and someone loses voting status after missing
two consecutive ballots, surely they regain status after participating in two
consecutive ballots... Oh. Hmmm, that ain't gonna work.
OK, it was late, I was tired. But it amused me.
-----Original Message-----
From: Philpott, Robert
[mailto:rphilpott@rsasecurity.com]
Sent: Fri 12-Aug-05 0:48
To: James Bryce Clark; chairs@lists.oasis-open.org
Cc:
Subject: RE: [chairs] Simplified TC attendance
rules
Hi
Jamie,
I’d like to thank you
for helping deal with this matter in an expeditious manner. It’s good to
see the organization listening to its members and working with them to make
things operate more efficiently. But I have a question.
Is this change
effective immediately? If not, what is the effective date of the new policy?
It wasn’t quite clear from your message. The last time changes were made
to the process, there seemed to be a pretty formal process where the TC
process committee submitted proposed text back to the board which edited and
approved the new process on 23-Mar-05, and set the effective date of the new
policy at 15-Apr-05. But that was a pretty major change to the process and I
am not sure whether this change has already been approved by the board or
whether it has to go back to them for approval.
Oh, and BTW… The old
TC process (i.e. 2003 version) included ballot voting in the voting status
rules of all TC’s. As of the 15-Apr-05 process, ballot votes now only count
against status in TC’s that have a standing rule to “conduct
business only by electronic ballot” (note the
“only”). I have assumed this to mean that if the TC uses BOTH meeting
votes and electronic ballots, then if a Voting Member fails to cast an
electronic ballot, it will have no impact on their voting status. But,
when setting up an online ballot, there is a box checked by default for
whether the ballot is an “Official Ballot”. I’ve been meaning to ask
whether leaving this checked for our TC (which uses both meeting and online
ballots), affects the voting status of members? Or should we always be
unchecking this box?
And 2 nits re:
electronic ballots:
1) on the ballot
page, there is a typo: “Is this ballot is an official
organization ballot?”; there is an extra
“is”.
2) the help page for
setting up a ballot does not describe the “Official Ballot”
field.
Thanks,
From: James
Bryce Clark [mailto:jamie.clark@oasis-open.org]
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 11:36
PM
To:
chairs@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [chairs] Simplified TC
attendance rules
After the 15 April 2005 TC Process
revisions were posted, we received significant feedback from TC chairs and
others that the revised rules for TC attendance in Section 2.4 -- which govern
when voting rights are acquired and lost -- were not easy to administer.
We try to make only infrequent changes to the TC Process, but our Board of
Directors took this feedback to heart and re-examined the rule. At
their last meeting, they directed the Board's TC Process Committee to simplify
the rule. The new text is set out at the bottom if this message.
Note:
-- A TC member who fails to attend may
lose their *voting* rights as a result, but their *membership* does not expire
due to absences.
-- Most felt that the "2
out of 3" and "3 out of 4" formulations we've discussed were easy to
misinterpret. So we built the revised rule around "2 consecutive
meetings": members will lose voting rights by missing 2 in a row, and
regain them after attending 2 in a row.
-- A
simple rule should be easier to administer. This is important because we
rely on volunteer TC chairs and secretaries to mind attendance. Our next
task will be to make the database-driven TC rosters and attendance tracking
functions more user-friendly.
-- We did also consider,
but declined, giving TC chairs discretionary power to waive the attendance
rules. There were a range of opinions here. More focused on the
risk of inconsistent or inappropriate use of the waiver. A person with a
planned absence still can employ the leave of absence rules.
The Board delegated the power to change this rule
to the TC Process Committee, so that we could amend immediately instead of
waiting another month. We enacted this change on Tuesday, effective
immediately upon posting, and will post it to the [members] list and the
official TC Process page shortly after this announcement to you. Our
thanks to the TC leaders and participants who flagged this issue for us and
suggested solutions. The revised test of the rule follows.
REVISED TEXT:
2.4 TC Membership and
Participation
TC membership is per person, not per
organization, and is not transferable from person to person.
Observer
An Eligible Person may become an
Observer of a TC by registering as an Observer using the electronic
collaboration tools provided by OASIS. If the Eligible Person is an employee
or designee of an OASIS member organization, the Primary Representative of
that organization must be notified that the person has requested to become an
Observer. The Observer is not a Member of the TC so has no attendance or
participation requirements to maintain this status, other than to remain an
Eligible Person.
Member
Any time after the first
meeting, an Eligible Person shall become a Member of an existing TC by
registering as a Member using the electronic collaboration tools provided by
OASIS. If the Eligible Person is an employee or designee of an OASIS member
organization, the Primary Representative of that organization must confirm to
the Chair and to the TC Administrator that the person may become a Member of
the TC. Upon receipt by the Chair of confirmation by the Primary
Representative the Member may begin participating, but shall not have voting
rights. A Member shall become eligible to vote in the TC when the requirements
below are met.
Voting Member
After the first
Meeting of a TC, a Member shall gain voting rights at the close of the second
consecutive Meeting attended by the Member or 60 days after the person becomes
a Member, whichever comes first.
A Voting Member must
be active in a TC to maintain voting rights. In TCs that hold Meetings, a
Voting Member who is absent from two consecutive Meetings (as recorded in the
minutes) loses his or her voting rights at the end of the second Meeting
missed. If a TC has adopted a standing rule to conduct business only by
electronic ballot, without Meetings, then a Voting Member who fails to cast a
ballot in two consecutive Specification Ballots loses his or her voting rights
at the close of the second ballot missed.
A Member who
has lost his or her voting rights shall regain them for a TC that holds
Meetings by attending two consecutive Meetings (as recorded in the minutes),
thus regaining voting rights after the end of the second Meeting
attended. A Member of a TC that does not hold Meetings may regain voting
rights by making a request to the chair(s) to regain them, effective 60 days
after the request.
Voting Members who lose their
voting rights remain 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.
END
Regards Jamie
~ James Bryce
Clark
~ Director, Standards Development, OASIS
~
jamie.clark@oasis-open.org
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