SUO: Frank's Farance's actions are his own

["Schoening, James R CECOM DCSC4I" <James.Schoening@mail1.monmouth.army.mil>]

ATTN IEEE Leaders,

    Please don't confuse the actions of Frank Farance with mine or with the
SUO WG.  He is acting on his own.  He has been informing me of his actions,
but I am not collaborating with him on these actions, I am unfamiliar with
this 'audit for cause' he speaks of, and I am not taking a position on his
actions. So, please do not allow your dealings with Frank to impact our
efforts to resolve the matter before us.

	I am only trying to work through proper channels (Lowell Johnson) to
resolve the issues at hand. 

Jim Schoeing
Chair, P1600.1 SUO WG 

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Farance [mailto:frank@farance.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2002 11:16 PM
To: Robert Grayson Spillers; Lowell G Johnson; Lowell Johnson
Cc: 'Standard-Upper-Ontology '; Jim Schoening; Judith Gorman;
e.herz@ieee.org; Lyle Smith; Robert Dwyer
Subject: Re: SUO: IEEE SA Board of Governors resolution


At 19:47 2002-01-20 -0800, Robert Grayson Spillers wrote:
> 
> Lowell,
>  The purpose of this note is to ask for your confirmation of two results
of the legal opinion and the unanimous resolution of the IEEE SA Board of
Governors.  The two results (specifically stated in the legal opinion and
BOG resolution) are:
>  1.  It is clear that the vote taken in mid August regarding the SUMO
failed.  The SUMO enjoys no special status within the SUO WG as a result of
that vote. 
>   
>  2.  The interpretation of the IEEE Corporate Governance Office of
Robert's Rules of Order is the interpretation that is required to be used by
the SUO WG. 
>   There may be other results from this opinion and resolution but the two
listed above are unambiguous.

While this may be the opinion of IEEE BoG, it appears that they have acted
improperly.  Now that I have received official notification, I will follow
up with an Audit for Cause at ANSI.  Apparently, there following have
occurred (among other things):

        (1) significant process errors,
        (2) due process and fairness were not followed (Bob, why are you
only allowed to argue your side of the case and the rest of us ignored?),
        (3) unfortunately, the firm of Dorsey and Whitney (and IEEE-SA's
attorney Tom Wettach) gave poor/incomplete legal advice (they said, in
essence, no specific statues apply ... had they simply search for voting in
NPCL they'd have found an appropriate citation),
        (4) the IEEE staff (Judy Gorman, Sue Tatiner) are untrained in the
processing of appeals (they didn't follow the rules),
        (5) Lyle Smith and Eric Herz appear to lack competence in Robert's
Rules (the were unable to cite Robert's, which provides a clear answer), and
        (6) Lowell Johnson appears to lack appropriate knowledge in the
processing of appeals (he is only aware of technical appeals, not other
kinds, as described by IEEE-SA and CS P&Ps),
        (7) Judy Gorman, Sue Tatiner, and Lowell Johnson require training on
IEEE-SA ... they are unaware that the Computer Society has P&Ps on these
topics
 
> It appears Jim wishes to continue to dispute the legal opinion of Dorsey
and Whitney (the IEEE Institute's outside counsel) and continue to debate
the interpretation of Robert's Rules of Order as given by the IEEE Corporate
Governance Office in September.  
 
Yes, this is still in dispute and our company will pursue it, too ... not
because of any particular support of Teknowledge per se, but because the
IEEE opinions are faulty (which affect our company's activites here and
elsewhere).

The legal opinion from Teknowledge is similar to the analysis that my
company's attorney did around September.  Effectively, IEEE and IEEE-SA
don't know how to do legal research, Lyle and Smith and Eric Herz lack the
competence to provide excertps from Robert's Rules, and Judy Gorman, Sue
Tatiner, and Lowell Johnson are unfamiliar enough with P&Ps to cite any that
are relevant.  The Teknowledge memo makes all the citations that any
competent person would make ... unfortunately, none of the IEEE and legal
people acted competently in this matter.

Thus, this will now move to ANSI.

-FF
_______________________________________________________________________
Frank Farance, Farance Inc.     T: +1 212 486 4700   F: +1 212 759 1605
mailto:frank@farance.com        http://farance.com
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