Re: Establishing TCs: Food for Thought

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

[laura.walker@oasis-open.org:]

| >       a. If what's desired is a true steering committee (a
| > 	 committee that can impose its will on the TCs being
| > 	 coordinated), then our off-the-shelf mechanism is a
| > 	 single TC that forms subcommittees and manages the work
| > 	 of those subcommittees.  However, such subcommittees have
| > 	 to be formally created according to the traditional
| > 	 model.  In particular, their members must be appointed by
| > 	 the TC that creates them (though their membership is not
| > 	 limited to members of the TC).  Within that limitation,
| > 	 any TC can recursively create subcommittee structures of
| > 	 any desired depth; this feature of the traditional system
| > 	 is available now and will continue to be available under
| > 	 the augmented system we're designing.
| 
| This helps, immensely. Thanks for the clarification.  One further
| question: would or could the primary TC also be an Advisory
| Committee?

Under the revised rules, TCs are a new and separate committee type
on a par with advisory committees but not reporting to the board.

| The TC would not be hiring or managing employees. Rather, the TC
| (or AC) would recommend to the Board that X number of dollars be
| solicited from the appropriate members, and subsequently would
| advise the Board on the spending of that funding.

Mmm... I don't see anything procedurally wrong with this.  But we
should probably give TCs the power to make such recommendations
just to be on the safe side.

| My questions also relates to the formation of Member Sections.
| I'm curious as to whether the PAC has thought about how Member
| Sections relate to TCs and and ACs.

| >    2. How to authorize a TC to hire and manage employees such as a
| >       project manager or subject matter expert is, I believe, a
| >       completely new question for us, and one that I'm not sure we
| >       should be considering.  The bylaws place all business
| >       decisions in the hands of the board.  Amending the bylaws to
| >       allow autonomous TCs to make decisions that can create legal
| >       or financial obligations for OASIS seems to me beyond the
| >       present scope of the PAC.
| 
| The TC would not be hiring or managing employees. Rather, the TC
| (or AC) would recommend to the Board that X number of dollars be
| solicited from the appropriate members, and subsequently would
| advise the Board on the spending of that funding.

Ah.  OK, I've just added the following to the PAC issues list:

  MT 19. TCs should be empowered to recommend the solicitation
	 of funds from their members and to advise the board on the
	 disbursement of such funds.

I don't think that there is anything to prevent existing
committees from doing this already.  However, there may be
antitrust gotchas in how exactly this has to be structured (it
might be illegal to require the members all to contribute, for
example).  I would check with counsel on this one.

| My questions also relates to the formation of Member Sections.
| I'm curious as to whether the PAC has thought about how Member
| Sections relate to TCs and and ACs.

I don't know what member sections are; you will have to explain
this.

Jon