HumanMarkup TC Survival/Final? Meeting

[Rex Brooks <rexb@starbourne.com>]

Dear Fellow Current and Fellow HumanMarkup TC Members or Supporters,

I have scheduled what is probably our most important meeting since 
either our founding or our move to OASIS.

Dial in toll free: 877 950 6921
outside of USA toll: 1 203 277 0324
passcode: 696410
Agenda:	Decide the issue of Closing the TC.

Our TC has reached the life or death decision point. Mary McRae 
contacted me to inform me that we need to make a decision about 
whether or not to keep our TC in business because, by OASIS rules, we 
are failing to field the necessary requirements to maintain our TC:


 From TC Guidelines,

1. Definitions:

k. "Minimum Membership" means five Voting Members of a TC 
representing at least two member organizations.


2.15 Closing a TC

A TC may be closed by Full Majority Vote of the TC, by Resolution of 
the OASIS Board of Directors, or by the OASIS TC Administrator.

The TC Administrator must close a TC that has completed the 
deliverables listed in its Charter if the TC does not add new 
deliverables.

The TC Administrator may close a TC that fails to conduct at least 
one Quorate Meeting or conduct any Specification Ballots during any 
six month period; whose membership falls below the Minimum 
Membership; which has not completed its deliverables within the 
schedule listed in its Charter; or which has failed to show progress 
towards achieving its purpose as defined by its Charter.


I'm sure none of us wishes to see our TC fail, but that is what we 
face, and we must also either recommit and carry on normal business 
despite our busy schedules and other commitments, or we must close 
the TC. Since this also directly affects the charter of the 
non-profit we formed in the hope that we could field resources to 
support this work, I am including some other individuals who are not 
specifically current or former members of the TC per se but who have 
an interest in the work.

There is one point which I think it is crucial to understand in this 
situation. It is much easier to keep a TC alive once it is 
established than to start a new one, but we must have genuine 
commitment, and this, of course, means myself as much as anyone, so I 
appreciate that this is no small matter.

This effort remains important for me and on its own merits, but we 
have never managed to attract the kind of corporate support we had 
hoped to achieve. Unfortunately, this will leave the field open for 
one or another consortium of convenience among the top tier vendors 
who DO have a major vested interested in how control of personal 
information from medical records and employment history to financial 
transactions is determined to write standards for their legal 
convenience, and I think we should all consider that as much as the 
personal pain such a commitment entails.

On a related personal note, I have recently expanded my own efforts 
in the healthcare-emergency management arena, where similar lack of 
time and resources tend to prevent such efforts, but in a couple of 
arenas I have managed to gain some traction that could eventually 
help our TC if we can manage to stay alive. Specifically I now co 
chair the National Center for Ontological Research (NCOR) Committee 
on Ontology for Health Informatics, and I co chair a Working Group in 
the Medical Banking Project (MBP), in areas related to how personal 
records are handled. Neither are funded, of course, but the MBP is, 
at least, picking up my travel to a conference in Nashville, 
Tennessee in late Feb. That is a small step, but at least in the 
right direction.

Regards,
Rex

-- 
Rex Brooks
President, CEO
Starbourne Communications Design
GeoAddress: 1361-A Addison
Berkeley, CA 94702
Tel: 510-849-2309