[STDS-802-16] IEEE 802.16 Member Information!
To: 802.16 WG Members [via Bcc:]
cc: 802.16 Reflector
Dear New and Experienced IEEE 802.16 Member:
I am writing to remind you of the obligations of membership and the retention rules:
<http://ieee802.org/16/involve.html>
<http://ieee802.org/16/membership.html>
Please note that "Membership shall be lost if two consecutive, or two of any three consecutive, Working Group letter ballots for which the member was eligible are not returned or are returned with an abstention other than for 'lack of technical expertise'."
The following clarifying rules of WG Letter Ballots (LBs) are important:
*WG Letter Ballots are announced to the 802.16 reflector. Typically, I copy the members, and I often send reminders. However, I don't promise to always do so.
*LBs make use of a report web page; see, for example:
http://ieee802.org/16/tgc/C4/ballot18/report18.html
*LBs are announced with a formal procedural document; e.g.,
http://ieee802.org/16/docs/05/80216-05_016.pdf
*LB recirculations are not mandatory! If you voted in the original ballot, participation in the recircs is not going to affect your membership. If you are thinking of sending the same "Approve, No Comments" vote in a recirc that you submitted in an earlier round; don't bother. It will be easier on both of us if you just let the old vote speak for itself.
*If you declined to participate in the original ballot round, you are welcome to participate in the recirc, but it won't help you on membership retention.
*The ballot group for each LB is fixed at the start of the initial ballot. For instance, if you became a member during Session #38 and were not a member of the LB#18 Ballot Group, you are still not a member of that Ballot Group and will never be.
*We currently have no new WG Letter Ballots in the works. It may be awhile until we have another. Nearly all LBs regard the forwarding of a draft to Sponsor Ballot. The next two drafts that may be coming up for ballot are P802.16g and P802.16h. However, neither is on the near-term horizon.
*I suggest you make use of the IEEE 802.16 Project Development Milestones page, which I strive to keep up to date at <http://ieee802.org/16/milestones_active.html>. Currently, nothing is in green because we just wrapped up the session. However, things will green again soon, so we can keep an eye on the deadlines.
*Remember that participation in IEEE Sponsor Ballot is completely unrelated to WG membership. For details on SB, see <http://standards.ieee.org/db/balloting/mbfaq.html>.
I have been evolving our processes recently to higher levels of automation so I can survive the huge boom in membership (which currently stands at 343 people). Some things will continue to change. As I try to make the process easier on me, I always try to make sure it's easy for you too. However, if you don't take the time to read the instructions and learn the basic rules and procedures, we will all struggle. A democratic system like we have relies on educated participants. Be try to be one of those.
If, due to change of interest or any other reason, you would prefer to not be a Member, you may send me a note resigning your membership and I will remove you from the roster.
I look forward to working with each of you in the challenging and exciting projects ahead of us.
Cheers!
Roger
--
Dr. Roger B. Marks <mailto:marks@nist.gov> +1 303 497 7837
National Institute of Standards and Technology/Boulder, CO, USA
Chair, IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access
<http://WirelessMAN.org>