PAC: Proposal for Joint Committees

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

To: workprocess@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: PAC: Proposal for Joint Committees

Here's the first draft of a description of joint committees.  The
design is based on the only structure I can think of that will not
require the specification of yet another big chunk of procedure.
If this works, we will not only have succeeded in collapsing
"coordination committees" and "joint subcommittees" into a single
structure, we will have been able to do it with a maximum reuse of
generic language applying to TCs.

In the design I'm proposing here, a joint committee, once formed,
operates almost exactly like a normal TC and can therefore use all
the ordinary TC procedures, but the part of the JC that is visible
to each of the TCs cooperating in the JC appears to them to be one
of their own subcommittees, so everything attending that
subcommittee and its doings falls under the traditional system and
requires no further specification.  The dual aspect is a bit
unusual, so I would ask reviewers of this draft to give it a
couple of reads through before forming definite opinions.

Jon

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JOINT COMMITTEES: OVERVIEW

A joint committee (JC) is a special kind of TC consisting entirely
of liaison subcommittees appointed by other TCs.  Within the JC,
the members of these liaison subcommittees appear as individual
members of the JC, and once they have become members of the JC,
their appointment by a participating TC is of interest only in
judging whether a TC is contributing to the work of the JC.

A Motion to Connect is a version of the Motion to Commit that when
passed by a TC creates a liaison subcommittee, the members of
which are then qualified under the OASIS bylaws to become
individual members of a particular JC.

A JC is defined by its stated purpose and by the number and type
of TCs cooperating in its work.  Changing these basic parameters
requires the formal approval of all of the cooperating TCs.  A JC
that falls out of compliance with its own description or no longer
enjoys participation from all of its cooperating TCs ceases to
exist.

Like any TC, a JC has the power to appoint a liaison subcommittee
to participate in some other JC, and some of the TCs cooperating
in a JC can themselves be JCs.  Thus, JCs can form coordinative
structures of arbitrary complexity.

JC PROCEDURE IN DETAIL

For purposes of this section, the term "TC" shall be interpreted
to include JCs as a proper subset.

The formation of a JC shall begin with the preparation of a JC
proposal.  A JC proposal must meet all of the criteria for a TC
proposal, and it must in addition contain (a) the date and time of
the first meeting of the JC, such date to be no less than 45 days
and no more than one year from the date of submission, (b) a list
of all the TCs that will cooperate in the work of the JC, and (c)
the name of at least one member from each of those TCs who is
committed to the purpose and meeting schedule of the JC.  No
individual named in the proposal shall be allowed to represent
more than one TC in meeting this requirement.

Within 14 days of its submission, OASIS shall convey the proposal
to the chairs of all the TCs named in the proposal and shall in
addition copy the proposal to the mailing lists of those TCs.
Each of the TCs shall then have until 30 days before the date set
in the proposal for the first JC meeting to appoint a liaison
subcommittee the members of which are thereby empowered to
participate in the JC described in the proposal.  The appointment
of liaison subcommittees shall be governed by the same rules that
apply to the appointment of ordinary TC subcommittees.

Upon the appointment of liaison subcommittees by all of the TCs
named in the proposal, OASIS shall create a mailing list for the
new JC and shall announce its formation to the membership, but for
informational purposes only and not as a call for participation.

The voting members of a newly created JC shall be those OASIS
members who (a) have been appointed to a liaison subcommittee
created for this purpose by one of the TCs cooperating in the JC,
(b) individually register their intention to attend the first
meeting of the JC by sending mail no later than 14 days preceding
the meeting to the chair of the JC, and (c) attend the first
meeting of the JC.

The first meeting of a JC shall not be called to order until at
least one member from each liaison subcommittee proposed to
participate in the JC is present at the meeting.  If this
requirement is not met by the end of the time scheduled for the
first meeting, then the JC shall cease to exist, and OASIS shall
close its mailing list.  No person shall be counted as
representing more than one TC for purposes of this requirement.

Membership in a JC after its first meeting shall be governed by
the same rules governing membership in a TC, with the added
requirement that any prospective member of a JC must first be a
member of a liaison subcommittee appointed for this purpose by one
of the cooperating TCs.

Except as provided in this section, all of the provisions for
meetings, membership, termination of membership, and leaves of
absence that apply to members of TCs shall apply equally to JCs,
with the added requirement that warnings of termination of
membership shall be copied to the chair(s) of TC(s) contributing a
member to the JC as well as to the affected member.

The membership of a person in a JC shall terminate if that person
resigns from the JC, fails to meet the generic participation
requirements of JCs and TCs, or ceases to be a member of any of
the liaison subcommittees participating in the JC.

If termination of membership in a JC causes a TC's contribution of
voting members to that JC to fall to zero, the chair of the JC
shall, within 14 days following the termination of membership,
notify OASIS and the chair of the formerly participating TC that
the TC is in breach of its obligation to contribute to the work of
the JC.  The TC shall have 90 days following this notice to
appoint a new liaison subcommittee, whose members shall become
prospective members of the JC.  If none of those prospective
members fulfills the requirements for participation in the JC, the
attempt to create a liaison subcommittee shall be declared a
failure.  If a TC in breach of its obligation to contribute to a
JC fails to appoint a liaison subcommittee within the time stated,
then OASIS shall end all activities and mailing lists of that JC
until its successor, if any, can be organized according to the
provisions for starting a JC.

A TC shall have no obligation to abide by any decision arrived at
in a JC to which it contributes membership.  The business of a JC
to which a TC contributes membership shall be imparted to the TC
through reports from the chair of its liaison subcommittee.  Such
reports shall have the same force and shall be made, received, and
acted upon in the same manner as reports from any other
subcommittee of the TC.

A TC shall be added to or removed from the set of TCs contributing
to a JC only upon joint resolution of all of the participating TCs.

[REMAINING WORK: Specific procedures for adding and removing
liaison committees go here.]

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Note 1: Cooperative efforts with organizations outside OASIS

Currently lacking from the proposal above is an ability to easily
engage in joint efforts with bodies outside of OASIS.  I think we
can handle this by instituting the concept of a Recognized Formal
Standards Body and saying that, once an outside organization has
been recognized as a whole by OASIS as an organization, then any
OASIS TC can engage with a working group at the same level of the
other organization to form a joint committee across the two
organizations.  The recognition of an outside organization as a
standards body would include, among the satisfaction of other
criteria, the finding that the outside organization is capable of
forming liaison subcommittees under its native code of procedure.
Since just about any formally organized body is capable of
creating committees and subcommittees, this requirement should be
fairly easy to meet; but this is for a different discussion.

==================================================================

Note 2: Termination of membership

The proposal for joint committees above takes care of an issue
left over from CS 2, TC Membership:

   [It is assumed here that membership in subcommittees is covered
   by the traditional process set forth in Robert's that we
   inherit from the current bylaws.  We'll have to embroider on
   this in discussing Issue CT 6, coordination committees, and the
   whole subject of how TCs communicate with each other.  One
   important question will be whether loss of membership in a TC
   also ends membership in joint committees to which that TC is a
   party.  Resolution of this question is deferred until we
   consider the creation and operation of joint committees.]

In the design proposed above, the use of normal subcommittee rules
for the formation of a liaison subcommittee within a TC answers
the question posed in the note: since it's a requirement that
every member of a JC be a member of at least one liaison committee
of a TC cooperating in the JC, and since loss of membership in a
TC automatically ends membership in all of its subcommittees, a
person who is no longer a member of at least one TC cooperating in
the JC cannot be a member of the JC.

The basic principle working here is that no one not actively
involved in the work of a TC should be allowed to attempt to
coordinate the work of that TC with other TCs.