Re: Fast track, slow track

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

| I have recently had the pleasure of working with some experienced
| high-level parlimentarians (the parlimentarians of the US House of
| Representatives and of the Senate).  Working with them has convinced
| me that there is as much an art to running deliberative processes as
| to any human endeavor, and as in all such art forms experience is of
| great value.

In the U.S., a "parliamentarian" is generally someone who knows
Robert's by heart, and a really good parliamentarian is someone who
knows the difference between Robert's and Sturgis (which isn't much).
The people you were talking to are at a different level, but I don't
know where we can find any of those.

| I would be far more comfortable with the process of inventing new
| committee rules if we could involve an experienced parlimentarian,
| preferably one with experience with professional societies and
| standards setting. Do we have such a person among us?  If not, can we
| recruit one?

Before I realized that we weren't going to be able to use Robert's, I
would have thought that the involvement of the ordinary kind of
parliamentarian was a good idea, but now I think that this would do
more harm than good.  What we really need are people who know enough
about normal parliamentary procedure *and* know about standards
development *and* know about DTD design.  I've already invited the few
people I know who fit this description, and most of them are on this
list.  If you can think of others whose participation would really
benefit this effort, please invite them to join.

Jon