RE: [802SEC] Proposed Alternative to changing the rules for WGme mbership
Tony,
You are correct about my intent.
I disagree with you about the impact of the change to the rule on gaining membership. There are very large numbers of casual attendees who attend two 802.3 meetings. Requiring attendence of three meetings to gain voting rights filters out casual attendees. Granting voting rights for those who attend just two meetings could make it difficult to close ballots or get quorums.
David Law could provide actual numbers, but I would say it isn't unusual for 802.3 to have 30 to 50 people per plenary cycle who have attended two meetings but don't attend the third.
Pat
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Jeffree [mailto:tony@jeffree.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 1:48 PM
To: Mike Takefman
Cc: stds-802-sec@ieee.org
Subject: Re: [802SEC] Proposed Alternative to changing the rules for
WGme mbership
Mike -
There are 2 types of interims in current practice; 1) Those that are
intended to be full WG meetings, which, if properly announced and quorate,
can conduct any aspect of WG business; and 2) Those that are convened as
Task Group or Task Force meetings, intended to advance the work on one or
more projects within the work of the WG, but that are not empowered
(whether quorate or not) to conduct other WG business.
Historically, the majority of 802.1 & 802.3 Interim meetings have been of
type 2); in these meetings, anyone that can fog a mirror (to quote Howard)
can vote, but any such votes are not binding on the Working Group, and
would therefore require to be ratified at a subsequent Plenary. In other
WGs, the majority of Interims are of type 1).
I believe it was Pat's intention (please correct me if I'm wrong, Pat) that
the rule be based on 2 out of 4 Working Group meetings (i.e., Plenary
meetings and Type 1 interim meetings), and that the current substitution
rule would still apply for Type 2 interim meetings. This would mean that,
if 802.1 or 802.3 continue their current practice, there would be exactly
zero change in the effective membership rules for those groups. They could,
of course, choose to vary their current practice, if they felt so moved,
and constitute their interims as full WG meetings.
So, I think with the clarification that the 4 meeting window is based on
duly constituted (plenary or interim) Working Group meetings, and that the
substitution rule that currently states "One duly constituted interim
Working Group or task group meeting may be substituted for one of the two
Plenary meetings" would change to "One duly constituted interim task group
meeting may be substituted for one of the two Working Group meetings", I
think the algorithm below looks just fine.
I would note that your algorithm does imply an additional change from
current rules - currently, once you satisfy the 2 out of 4 rule, you don't
get to vote until the start of the next Plenary that you attend. What this
further change loses in protection against giving voting rights to the more
casual attendee, I think it gains in making the establishment & retention
rules more symmetrical.
Regards,
Tony
At 15:31 25/09/2002 -0400, Mike Takefman wrote:
>My $0.02
>
>In talking with some members of my group, there was a feeling that
>a 4 month meeting cycle for losing membership (whether it is
>2 of 2 or 2 of 3) is a little too fast.
>
>Our current rules allow membership as fast as 4 months if
>people hit the right phase and 8 months if they are out of
>phase.
>
>I agree with Tony on having equivalent rules for gain or
>loss. And the suggestion that has made the most sense to
>me up to this point is a window of 4 meetings, be they
>plenary or *properly* announced interims. This makes the
>window a consistent 6 months for those groups that
>meet every two months. If an interim is not properly
>announced, then it cannot be used for loss, but I believe
>it can be used for gaining rights. This rewards those
>people who can make it to a meeting, but does not
>penalize people who could not make it due to lack of
>warning.
>
>The algorithm is as follows. After a meeting has adjourned,
>the chair looks backwards at attendance for a window of
>4 meetings. With the closing meeting being the start
>of the window.
>
>Gaining rights: If a person has attended 2 meetings with
>75% attendance at each, they are elligible for gaining
>their voting rights if they so inform the chair. Their
>voting rights start after the meeting hence they are
>elligible for any ballots that occur between the meeting
>that just ended and the next one.
>
>Losing rights: If a person has not attended 2 meetings with
>75% attendance at each, they lose their membership and their
>voting rights end immediately after the meeting. As before
>the discretion of the chair can be used to grant membership.
>
>If you do the math, someone can maintain their rights by
>coming to every second meeting, or by attending 2 meetings
>then having a 2 meeting gap and attending on the 5th meeting.
>This does allow someone to be on leave for up to 6 months
>and return without losing their rights (of course they then have
>to go to the two meetings in a row)
>
>Comments ?
>
>mike
>
>--
>Michael Takefman tak@cisco.com
>Manager of Engineering, Cisco Systems
>Chair IEEE 802.17 Stds WG
>2000 Innovation Dr, Ottawa, Canada, K2K 3E8
>voice: 613-254-3399 fax: 613-254-4867