Reminder: Roadmap to our standard

["Martin S. Weber" <martin.weber@nist.gov>]

Basically distilled from the OASIS TC process document, section 3, Standards 
Approval Process here:

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process-2009-07-30.php#standApprovProcess

1) Draft => Committee Draft.
  "The approval of a Committee Draft shall require a Full Majority Vote of the
  TC."

2) Committee Draft => Committee Specification

2.1) Public Review Phase #1 : Public Review Draft

  "The decision by the TC to submit the specification for public review
  requires a Full Majority Vote, and must be accompanied by a recommendation
  from the TC of external stakeholders who should be notified of the review.
  (...) The public review must be announced by the TC Administrator to the
  OASIS Membership list (...)"

  "No changes may be made to the Public Review Draft during a review. If
  changes are required the specification must be withdrawn from review then
  resubmitted."

  "The first public review of a specification must take place for a minimum of
  60 days, and any subsequent reviews must be held for a minimum of 15 days."

2.2) Approval of a Committee Specification

  "The approval of a Committee Specification shall require a Special Majority
  Vote. The TC Chair shall notify the TC Administrator that the TC is ready to
  vote on the approval of the specification, and provide to the TC
  Administrator the location of the editable versions of the specification
  files. The TC Administrator shall set up and conduct the ballot to approve
  the Committee Specification."

3) Approval of an OASIS Standard

  "Simultaneously with the approval of a Committee Specification or at a later
  date, and *after three Statements of Use have been presented to the TC*, a
  TC may resolve by Special Majority Vote to submit the Committee
  Specification to the Membership of OASIS for consideration as an OASIS
  Standard."

Reminder about the vote types:
(compare http://docs.oasis-open.org/templates/TCHandbook/OASISTCHandbook.htm 
chapter TC Operations > Voting)

_Simple Majority Vote_: "as long as the meeting is quorate (meaning that 
greater than 50% of the voting members are in attendance), the number of 'yes' 
votes must be greater than the number of 'no' votes."

_Full Majority Vote_: "A Full Majority Vote requires 'yes' votes from greater 
than 50% of all Voting Members. Abstentions are not counted. (...) A Technical 
Committee has the option of using either the OASIS groupware system or email 
to run an electronic ballot. It must be noted, however, that all electronic 
ballots must be open for at least 7 days."

_Special Majority Vote_: "A Special Majority Vote requires at least 2/3 (two 
thirds) of the Voting Members vote "yes" and no more than 1/4 (one fourth) of 
the Voting Members vote "no". Abstentions are not counted. (...) All Special 
Majority ballots must be conducted by the TC Administrator and must be 
conducted electronically. That means the TC approves a motion to submit any of 
the above items to the TC Administrator and request that a ballot be started."

So, let's hope we get our second Committee Draft passed on the next meeting... 
Then with some more progress on the other deliverables hopefully we get to 
vote them CDs, too.

Regards,
-Martin