PAC: Rough language for CM 1-8

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

To: workprocess@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: PAC: Rough language for CM 1-8

As in the case of CT 1-7, this is not yet proposed language but an
attempt to sum up where we seem to be in our consideration of this
section (section D, Committee Maintenance) of our issues list.

Here is section D:

   D. COMMITTEE MAINTENANCE

      CM 1. Creating committees

      CM 2. Disbanding committees

      CM 3. Term limits

      CM 4. Adding and removing voting members

      CM 5. Adding and removing observers

      CM 6. Leaves of absence

      CM 7. Appeal

      CM 8. Requirements for administrative support

In our meeting of 2000.04.27, we noted that we have already
covered CM 4-6 in previous decisions.  We have also put in place
much of what needed to be covered under CM 1; we need here only to
specify the actual procedure for committee formation.

I think I can sum up our conclusions from the meeting on this
subject as follows:

The creation of a TC should be a purely administrative function if
all the formal criteria have been met.

We foresee two TC creation scenarios, one in which a TC is formed
directly upon application to OASIS and another in which a TC
discussion list exists for some period of time before one or more
TCs are formed from its informal deliberations.

1. TC and mailing list created simultaneously

   A group of at least three OASIS members or employees of OASIS
   member organizations submits to the administrative contact
   certain materials as determined previously [CS 1].  These
   materials include details about the first meeting and whether
   it is in person or by phone.  No later than two weeks following
   the submission, the administrative contact provides these
   materials to the membership with a call for participation and
   an announcement of a first meeting.  At the time of the
   announcement, a TC mailing list is started, with the person
   named as chair given control of the list.  The first meeting
   occurs no sooner than four weeks after the announcement in the
   case of a telephone meeting and no sooner than six weeks after
   the announcement in the case of a face-to-face meeting.
   Persons intending to participate in the first meeting must
   register to attend no later than two weeks prior to the event
   with the person named as chair of the new TC.  Every OASIS
   member and every employee of an OASIS member organization
   present at the first meeting of a TC is a voting member of the
   TC.

      (Here's some more along this line that I would like to
      propose:

      To be legal, a first meeting must happen at the place and
      time and in the manner described in the announcement.  Any
      meeting whose time or location is changed and any initial
      phone meeting that fails to grant access to every OASIS
      member and every employee of an OASIS organization
      previously registering a desire to participate is
      potentially invalid; in this case, complaints will be heard
      by a designated administrative contact.  If the
      administrative contact finds a material fault in the outcome
      of the first meeting as the result of a denial of
      participation, he or she may restart the whole process.)

2. Discussion list precedes TC formation

   In this scenario, three or more OASIS members or employees of
   OASIS member organizations, one of whom is designated the
   discussion list leader, submit to a designated administrative
   contact their names, a discussion list name, and a preliminary
   statement of scope.  No later than two weeks following the
   submission, the administrative contact provides these materials
   to the membership with a call for participation in a discussion
   list whose purpose is to form a TC.  Discussion of TC formation
   begins on the list one week after the announcement.  Formation
   of a TC occurs when a group of three or more OASIS members or
   employees of OASIS member organizations submits the materials
   required for the formation of a TC as described in scenario 1;
   in other words, the process is indifferent as to whether a
   submission asking for the formation of a TC comes out of a
   previously existing discussion list or not.  The discussion
   mailing list goes out of existence 90 days after the call for
   participation.

      (In the usual case, we don't care enough about what
      participants do in a mail list after a TC has formed to
      bother with shutting it down, so we do not require the
      administrator to close a list after the first TC is created
      from it, but rather we allow lists to time out
      automatically.  This means that it will be normal for zombie
      discussion lists to exist for a month or two.)

      (Now, the requirement to form a new list every time a TC is
      created, which I believe is implied by this, appears to me
      to confer an important unintended procedural benefit: it
      prevents an unscrupulous faction from running away with a TC
      simply by being the first to submit the final materials
      needed to form a TC, which are presumably the things needing
      discussion by a list before the TC can properly nucleate.
      Allowing lists to continue in existence undisturbed means
      that the scalawags can do no more than steal a choice name,
      because the group that wanted to form a TC in the first
      place can simply continue its formational discussions
      unmolested in the original list.)