012. Criteria for voting membership

[Jon Bosak <bosak@boethius.eng.sun.com>]

The following is a straw man intended to make concrete the kind of
mechanism I have in mind for TC membership.  I don't think that the
particular criteria I've chosen matter nearly as much as the idea that
this is how we keep committees functioning properly.

This only addresses membership once a committee has been formed.
Initializing the membership is a separate question; I think that it
works through board approval of an initial list of committed
participants submitted along with the committee charter during the
previous phase.  A basic assumption is that the committee must meet in
person at least four times a year as required by the current OASIS
process for committees; notice how important this rule becomes.

Jon

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Any OASIS member or employee of an OASIS member organization can
attend the face-to-face meetings of any OASIS TC as an observer
provided notice is given the chair of the TC [insert some procedure
about notice here].  Observers cannot vote or participate in committee
deliberations, though they may answer direct informational questions
put to them by the chair.

A prospective voting member of an OASIS technical committee shall
attend at least one face-to-face meeting of the committee as an
observer and shall reaffirm interest in the work of the committee at
the end of that meeting.  The prospective voting member then becomes
entitled to participate in the committee's email list and telephone
conferences (if any), but cannot cast votes until voting status is
confirmed through attendance at the next regularly scheduled
face-to-face meeting.

Voting membership is conferred upon an individual after physical
attendance at two consecutive regularly scheduled face-to-face
meetings of the committee and becomes effective after adjournment of
the second meeting so attended.  A prospective member who fails to
attend the second regularly scheduled meeting returns to observer
status at the next regularly scheduled meeting and loses the right to
participate in the committee's mailing lists and telephone conferences
upon adjournment of the missed meeting.  The requirements for
certification as a voting member of a technical committee apply to
individuals and cannot be met through the substitution of individuals
representing the same OASIS member organization.

To maintain voting membership in an OASIS technical committee, each
member must attend at least two out of every three successive
face-to-face meetings and telephone conferences (if any) and must also
respond in a timely manner to at least 80 percent of all ballots
conducted through regular and electronic mail closing during any
calendar quarter (with the exception of properly arranged leaves of
absence as specified [somewhere below]).  In the case of individuals
representing OASIS member organizations, this requirement can be met
through the action of another individual representing the same
organization, but only if that individual has separately qualified as
a voting member according to the procedure specified above.

[Procedure for notifying members that they are in danger of losing
voting status goes here.]

[Procedure for actually terminating a voting membership goes here.]

[Procedure for transferring an institutional membership goes here.]

[Procedure for requesting a leave of absence goes here.]