Re: Initializing the PAC

[Robin Cover <robin@isogen.com>]

Re:

> Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 00:35:51 -0800 (PST)
> From: Jon Bosak <bosak@boethius.eng.sun.com>
> To: workprocess@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: Re: Initializing the PAC

Thanks, Jon, for your clarifications on several points; thanks
*again* for your extraordinary efforts on this topic.

> I now realize that this whole direction was inherited from a mistake
> in thinking that meetings four times annually were mandated implicitly
> by the bylaws.  With that requirement gone, I think that we can
> accomplish the same purpose through phone conferences.

Recognizing that face-to-face meetings are optimal for getting work
done (especially for solving complex problems) -- it's good to know
that OASIS/XML.org committees won't be required to have four F2F
meetings annually.

Phone conferences seem a good option if access (800/888 numbers,
sufficient lines, congenial times) is guaranteed, but the phone
forum has (obviously) some of the same (old) limitations as the
F2F meeting in a room.

A broader question is whether the committee charters can specify
operational frameworks within which a lot of the hard work is to
be done outside the context of a "convened committee meeting, with
quorum rules, formal motions, seconds, voting, etc."  Of course,
there's a place for this formality when needed: how much of the
time is it actually needed?

I would try to exploit our modern technologies, which 'Roberts'
probably didn't anticipate. For example, a "meeting" declared
to last for one week, to be conducted entirely via email,
and where all current members agree in advance to give their
proxy vote to the [chair | vice president] if they fail to
communicate a required "vote" by the end of the specified
period.  Etc.

People *do* take three-week vacations sometimes, so the machinery
should be set up (1) so as not to put a person in membership
jeopardy if s/he is unavailable for a couple meetings, and
(2) so as not to hamstring the operation of the committee
given the variable schedules of members.  "Man
was not made for the Sabbath..."  I think a creative use of
default proxies, electronic meetings, options for email voting
[by published deadlines] and similar strategies could be used 
to facilitate optimal committee operations without violating
some rule set that's just getting in the way.


-rcc