Dear Jim,
Some comments below.
Matthew West
Principal Consultant
Shell Information Technology International Limited
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7934 4490 Mobile: +44 7796 336538
Email: matthew.west@shell.com
Internet: http://www.shell.com
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: jim.s3@juno.com [mailto:jim.s3@juno.com]
Sent: 26 February 2004 13:28
To: suo-policies@ieee.org
Subject: P&P: Fw: Fw: SUO: MSO ballot canceled due to new IEEE voting
rules
SUO P&P,
Here are my ideas on the new IEEE email voting rule.
1. SUO may be in only IEEE standards WG that meets only via
email. Other
WGs probably don't care about the tougher email rule, since they can
simply wait until their next meeting a take a simple majority vote. I
don't agree with the new rule, but I also don't think it's worth the
effort to try to get it changed.
MW: My experience in ISO is that more difficult issues are often handled
by "letter" ballot (conducted by e-mail). On the other hand, I also recall
they use the same vote counting approach for both.
MW: On the other hand I also think it is not worth trying to change. It is
much more important to have certainty in how votes will be counted.
2. As a minimum, we need to educate all voting members. I suggest we
draft a brief explanation, send it out, and ask everyone to
report back
that they read. Any volunteers to write a draft?
MW: Agreed. I am happy to write a draft, but I am quite busy just
at the moment, so there will be a delay.
3. I don't think we can require people to cast votes, but I
do suggest we
express the importance of everyone taking the time to take a
postion and
cast a vote on every ballot.
MW: I think we need to point out that being a responsible voting member
is onerous.
4. In the long run, I don't this rule will matter much. The final WG
step is to send a 'Committee Draft' to IEEE for formal
balloting, which
to pass there usually requires far more than a slim majority
in the WG.
MW: Quite.
I hope we all understand the IEEE formal balloting group will be a
different set of people from our WG. One must be a member of the IEEE
Standards Association, so many SUO WG members will likely not join.
Also, new standards professionals with a stake or interest in the
document will join.
MW: I doubt if this is widely understood.
Jim
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: jim.s3@juno.com
To: suo-policies@ieee.org
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 20:49:11 -0500
Subject: Fw: SUO: MSO ballot canceled due to new IEEE voting rules
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Matthew (Chair) and SUO P&P Group,
Given this new IEEE rule for email votes, request you
review the
current SUO rule for retaining voting rights.
Jim Schoening
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: jim.s3@juno.com
To: standard-upper-ontology@ieee.org
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 14:06:53 GMT
Subject: SUO: MSO ballot canceled due to new IEEE voting rules
SUO Voting Members,
Below is an IEEE announcement of how email votes should now be
counted.
The rule is 'Majority of all voting members,' which equates to
Yes > (No + ABSTAIN + Non-votes).
The rule applies immediately to new votes, but not
prior votes.
I asked an IEEE rep who said it even applies to a vote in process.
As such, I feel I must cancel the current MSO vote
until we can
sort this out and educate all voters to the new rules.
I believe this new rule will work fine, but only if all voting
members take the time to determine their position and cast a vote. As
such, I will ask the SUO P&P group to take another look at
the SUO rules
for retaining voting rights. If anyone wants to join this group,
send the message: subscribe suo-policies
to the address majordomo@ieee.org
Incidently, for in-person meetings, IEEE clarified the voting
rule to be Yes > No, given a quorum.
Jim Schoening
-----Original Message-----
From: d.ringle@IEEE.ORG [mailto:d.ringle@IEEE.ORG]
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 2:03 PM
To: STDS-WG-CHAIRS@listserv.ieee.org
Subject: Message from IEEE-SA Standards Board Chair on Voting Rules
IEEE Sponsors:
I would like to inform you of two IEEE Bylaw changes that
were approved
by
the IEEE Board of Directors in November 2003. Those changes,
which are at
the highest level of IEEE procedures and therefore supercede IEEE
Standards
Sponsor and Working Group procedures, affect the IEEE-SA
Standards Board
and all other IEEE Standards-developing groups (such as sponsors and
working groups).
The first change concerns how abstentions are considered in
any vote held
at a face-to-face meeting or during a teleconference. The
rules now state
that abstentions no longer count toward the total number needed to
approve
or disapprove an action. What is needed is a majority of the
votes cast,
either approve or disapprove, to determine a decision. This change is
given
in IEEE Bylaw I-300.4 (1).
The second change covers votes taken via email. Any email
ballot needs to
receive approval from a majority of voting members (all
official members
of
your group) to allow an action to be taken. It should be noted that
unofficial actions, such as straw polls, do not need to
follow this rule.
This change is contained in IEEE Bylaw I-300.4 (4).
You can read these two bylaw changes here:
http://www.ieee.org/portal/index.jsp?pageID=corp_level1&path=a
bout/whatis
/by
laws&file=i-300.xml&xsl=generic.xsl
These changes are now the official rules, and you should begin to follow
them immediately. Any previous actions taken are not affected by these
rules. Please ensure that your Sponsor or Working Group procedures are
not
in conflict with these revised Bylaws. Remember that you can default to
the
IEEE Bylaws as well.
If you have any questions concerning these new rules, please contact Mary
Lynne Nielsen (m.nielsen@ieee.org) or Dave Ringle (d.ringle@ieee.org.)
Sincerely,
Don
**********************************************
Don Wright don@lexmark.com
Chair, IEEE SA Standards Board
Member, IEEE-ISTO Board of Directors
f.wright@ieee.org / f.wright@computer.org
Director, Alliances & Standards
Lexmark International
740 New Circle Rd
Lexington, Ky 40550
859-825-4808 (phone) 603-963-8352 (fax)
**********************************************
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