possible rule change regarding TC voting

["Abbie Barbir" <abbieb@nortel.com>]

Title: possible rule change regarding TC voting

All,

We are opposed to any changes in the current voting rules, as such we support option a) from the list below (Leaving the rules as currently written).

Please note that none of the suggested changes in options (b,C) will improve the process or make the voting more fair. On the contrary what will happen:

1. It reduce active member participation from active companies in a given TC.
2. Reducing the number of votes per organization will change the political nature of getting your way in a TC into alliances oriented strategies. I wonder if this will or can produce better quality work.

Regarding option b); Capping the votes per a single organization to 1,2 or 3, will mean that those companies will limit their participation to those numbers. If you look at participation patterns, usually proposer companies of a TC will populate the TC at the first few meetings in order to ensure that the Charter and scope stay intact. The participation level then falls down to the members of that organization that really want to move the work in OASIS. I really have doubts that these numbers are much greater than 3. If option b)is adopted, then it will impact the way new TCs are proposed. In our opinion, this will make the set of proposer companies smaller and will eventually lead to standard fragmentation.

Regarding option c); Capping the number of votes per membership class is not a good option. For example if the difference is 1 vote per TC, some companies may consider renewing at a lower class (where do you draw the line on the difference in number of votes ??)

In our opinion, the voting process has worked well so far. Changing the voting process in TCs can eventually change the whole nature of member participation in OASIS and will have an impact on the ability of OASIS to attract new work.

Thanks
Abbie Barbir
Nortel

Dear OASIS Member,

The OASIS Board Process Sub-Committee would like your input
on a possible rule change regarding TC voting.

Currently any person who is a TC member can be a voting member. Since
eligibility is determined on an individual basis, not an
organizational basis, an organization can have an unlimited number of
voters (up to the number of members it has on that TC).  Some
concerns have been raised about this being fair, being a drain on
resources of those organizations, and making it harder to manage
quorum. Other concerns have been raised that reducing voting power on
TCs could reduce participation.

The options we are evaluating include:
(a) Leaving the rules as currently written;
(b) Capping the total number of votes that may be cast by TC members
     from a single organization to 1, 2 or 3;
(c) Capping the total number of votes that may be cast by TC members
     from a single organization based on membership class (e.g., 
sponsors
     might get 3 versus contributors having 2).

The voting rights of individual and associate members in TCs would
not be changed by these proposals.

Please send your comments to:
  [oasis-member-discuss@lists.oasis-open.org] by 20 November, 2006.

Thank you,
   Jeff Mischkinsky, Chair; for the OASIS Board Process Sub-Committee

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