Complaints, Particularly about the Reflector
Gentle People,
You should bring complaints to Jim Hughes and or Serge Plotkin. If they do not satisfy your complaints, or the complaints are about them, bring your complaint to me. If it is about me, then to Kathy Land, VP for Standards in the Computer Society, and chair of the Standards Activity Board which sponsors IASC and SSSC. IASC and SSSC jointly sponsor P1619, with IASC having the lead. Kathy's address is susan.land@ngc.com. The working group reflector is not the place to bring complaints repeatedly. That is not the business of the reflector or of the working group (wg). No one on the list except the IEEE officers (wg chair, wg vice chair sponsor chair) can help a wg member with a complaint.
WRT complains about the stds-p1619 reflector offered by IEEE: Read the IEEE AUP. It states that the list is presented as is; use of the list is privilege, not a right; there is no guarantee of privacy associated with its use on the part of subscribers; and no liability accrues to the IEEE or its officers because of anyone's subscription. The AUP may be read at http://eleccomm.ieee.org/email-aup.shtml, and this link should be sent to every new subscriber automatically. At present, Jim Hughes (a volunteer) is the list owner, and the only person who can configure it within the bounds set by the IEEE administrator (paid staff).
If you are unhappy with the list or the consequences of your subscription, the obvious choice is to unsubscribe. You are free to do that without asking anyone and without assistance from anyone.
Go to the "subscribers corner" at http://listserv.ieee.org/cgi-bin/wa or unsubscribe by sending an e-mail to listserv@ieee.org <mailto:listserv@ieee.org?&body=subscribe%20stds-p1619> with the body containing the following string: "unsubscribe stds-p1619" (do not include the quote marks).
The obvious choice if IEEE is dissatisfied with the behavior of a subscriber is for the IEEE is to begin moderating that subscriber's postings. If that becomes too much of a burden, then to turn off the subscriber's ability to post to the list while leaving on the ability to receive postings of others. The right to be heard does not bestow a right to dominate a communications channel by email or in meetings nor does it bestow a right to air complaints through any but the recognized channels mentioned above. Mentioning a complaint to the refelector once is acceptable because others may be having a similar problem. But if no others have the problem of which you complain, then take the complaint offline as described. The procedures established for this group and others organizational units in IEEE vary a little from each other, but all establish the means to retain control of the process by which discussions take place in order to keep these focused on the purpose at hand. In t!
his case, development of a draft standard. Even though much of this effort is supported by volunteers, the need to be as business-like as possible remains.
Very Respectfully,
Jack Cole, Chair IASC