----- Original Message ----- From: "Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 3:27 PM Subject: Brin-L Constitution
> Reading all the stuf in this thread, my feelings are that for people > who are so totally against any kind of government interfearence and > who are also so totally against any kind of regulation, by any kind of > official body for all kinds of different issues discussed untill now, > that it is surprising to see how awfully quick the same people are to > draw up rules to regulate something concerning the list. :o/ > I think one thing may help in developing such an understanding. The purpose of a constitution is to limit the arbitrary power of government. If you will, the listowners are the unelected government of the list. They have the power of banishment. The purpose of a constitution is to ensure that that power is not used in a capricious manner. Think of the US constitution, which limits the power of government, even when it has the support of the majority. This is not atypical. I'm an elder in the Presbyterian church. We are supposed to use Roberts Rules of Order in our session deliberations. When we all agree on what we want to do, we are not very strict in their use. But, when things become highly contentious, they are followed to the letter. The reason for this is that they are written as an aid to running the meeting in a manner that minimizes the chance of someone ramming their ideas through the session without due deliberation. An example of this is the call for "the question", or an immediate vote. For a hotly debated topic, we vote on the question, then vote on the motion. If its not hotly debated, someone says "question" everyone looks around and says yea, sure, and we vote once. Dan M.
