Re: stds-802-16: Meeting schedules

["Roger Marks" <r.b.marks@ieee.org>]

[Notice: It is the policy of 802.16 to treat messages posted here as non-confidential.]

Jerry,

Your comments are based on several misconceptions.

* There was no "interim" meeting in Dallas on April 12. Due to the
confluence of several participants, an informal gathering was held there. I
had hoped that my announcement ("This is not an official 802.16 meeting. No
decisions will be made.") would have gotten this point across. This
"get-together" primarily served to educate some potential new participants
attending the conference at which it took place.

* There will be no "interim" meeting in Dallas before May 12. There is no
802 rule against individual participants contacting each other or meeting
with each other, and I would not consider it exceptional for two or more
people to jointly develop and submit a contribution. (In some cases, those
two or more like-thinking individuals may be from the same company.)

* I am willing to entertain an objection to the use of the email reflector
to promote informal gatherings as running contrary to the reflector's
limitation to "the Group's official business." However, when the Chair
attends a meeting where 802.16 issues are addressed, I believe it is
appropriate to announce that meeting, making clear that it is open and
unofficial, so as to avoid any appearance of decisions being made in the
dark.

* 802.16 will indeed be meeting in Montreal in July along with the 802
Plenary. Like every active 802 Working Group, we will meet at each 802
Plenary. These take place in March, July, and November, not quarterly.

* In addition to the Plenary Meetings, 802 rules provide for the Chair to
call, with 4 weeks' advance notice, additional Interim Meetings. Active 802
Working Groups typically hold at least one such meeting between each pair of
Plenary Meetings. At the March meeting, I announced tentative plans to hold
the Boulder meeting and heard no objection. On March 19, I emailed the
tentative times (which have since become official). On March 31, the day
after the reflector was turned on, I sent out detailed information. On April
6, I made an official announcement.

* 802 rules provide that attendees of the first official meeting of a
Working Group become voting members of that Working Group (and retain that
status as long as they comply with the voting rights retention rules). At
the March 802 Sponsor Executive Committee (SEC) meeting, I was asked to make
sure that the first official meeting, for the purposes of determining
initial voting rights, was in July. I replied that I had the same intent and
that I therefore planned for the May meeting to formally be a meeting of our
Task Groups but not of 802.16 as a whole (note that the web site
announcement reads accordingly). I was told to call it an 802.16 meeting but
make clear that it is not the first official meeting for voting rights
purposes and that any votes taken will be tentative.

* The May Interim Task Group Meeting is duly constituted, and I will proceed
on this basis with the understanding that any decisions are tentative. For
example, if the Coexistence Task Group is able to complete a draft PAR and
approve its submission, I will submit it to the 802 SEC in time for
consideration at the July Plenary. 802.16 will of course have an opportunity
to revise the draft and finalize the submission decision in July.

* Future duly-constituted Interim Meetings will be proper venues for binding
votes. For your advance information, you might take note that I have already
informed all 802.16 participants that I am planning to call an interim
meeting for August 5-6 at the Denver Marriott Southeast in Denver, Colorado
to take advantage of co-location with the 1998 IEEE Radio and Wireless
Conference, which is providing free meeting space and featuring a
significant technical program in broadband wireless access.

* If you believe that a schedule including interim meetings is too rigorous,
you are welcome to make that opinion known. However, I would prefer that you
avoid questioning the integrity of the process without good cause.

Roger Marks
Chair, 802.16

----------
>From: Jerry Woodard <JerryW@wytecinc.com>
>To: "'stds-802-16@ieee.org'" <stds-802-16@ieee.org>
>Subject: stds-802-16: Meeting schedules
>Date: Wed, Apr 14, 1999, 1:57 PM
>
> Folks -
>
> Let me see if I have this 802.16 schedule straight:
>
> (1) We have a regular quarterly meeting scheduled in Montreal starting July
> 5.
> (2) We have an interim meeting scheduled in Boulder starting May 10.
> (3) There was an "interim" interim meeting held in Dallas on April 12.
> (4) There is yet another "interim" interim meeting desired to be held in
> Dallas before May 12.
>
> I understand that anything that is "decided" at these ad hoc meetings will
> not become official until "voted on" at the main meeting.
>
> I object.
>
> This process is a charade that disenfranchises most of the 802.16 study
> group.  It is expensive and disruptive for most of us to stop work on our
> employer's assigned tasks and fly off to attend a series of hastily
> contrived volunteer committee meetings.
>
> I see that there are two possible choices for 802.16:
> (1) A couple of you folks just go ahead and make the decisions, write the
> documents, and then ask the rest of us to mail in our votes so that there is
> an appearance of a consensus, or
> (2) Limit the meetings to the quarterly gatherings at which times an open
> discussion can be held on all topics with no preconceived outcome.
>
> Jerry Woodard
> Wytec, Inc.