+1

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 1:55 PM, Thejas M Nair <[email protected]> wrote:

> +1
>
> -Thejas
>
>
>
> On 10/5/10 1:15 PM, "Alan Gates" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Comments inlined.  However, I feel like we're getting stuck in a
> rathole on this one issue of consensus and 2/3's votes.   So I would
> like to ask two questions now:
>
> 1) Are there any other issues besides voting we feel should be
> discussed before we move to a vote?
> 2) For those who have expressed concern about the voting, are these
> concerns enough to make you not vote for these bylaws, or can you live
> with it as is?  I am concerned that this discussion could go on with
> point and counter point ad infinitum.  I'm more interested in having
> bylaws than in having perfect bylaws.  We can amend them as necessary
> as we go.
>
> Alan.
>
>
> On Oct 4, 2010, at 9:28 AM, Thejas M Nair wrote:
>
> > The bylaws look good, but I would like to raise two issues -
> >
> > Shouldn't the majority requirement for changing the bylaws be more
> > strict
> > than those required by the actions in bylaws ?
> > For example, the bylaw for removing a committer requires a
> > consensus, but
> > for changing this by-law requires only 2/3rd majority. Ie,
> > effectively,
> > 2/3rd majority can remove a committer !
> > Should changing the bylaws should require consensus as well?
>
> I don't want to make it consensus to change the bylaws, as that would
> make changing bylaws _very_ hard.  I want removing a committer to be
> _very_ hard.
>
> And, in defense of having changing procedure require a lower vote than
> the procedure, I would invoke the practices of the US Senate.  A
> simple majority vote would suffice to remove the need for 3/5 majority
> (60 votes) for cloture, yet even when one party has 50 but not 60
> votes (as has been common lately) neither has removed it for fear of
> having it used against them later.  See
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloture#United_States
>  for details.
>
> >
> > Should we consider another unlikely situation ? - What if two
> > committers are
> > unable to communicate for long duration for some reason (stuck on some
> > lonely island without internet!)? Actions that require consensus
> > approval
> > would not be possible. (you can't remove a inactive voter and then
> > have
> > another consensus vote because two voters are missing).
> > Should we have a maximum duration for casting votes that require
> > consensus ?
> > (2 months ?)
>
> My attempt to deal with the Lost scenario was the addition of the
> sentence saying that votes should not be called when we knew members
> would be unavailable.
>
> Also, I want to clarify the difference between inactive committers/PMC
> members and members being removed.  Moving to emeritus status is
> automatic upon inactivity.  ("A PMC member is considered 'emeritus' by
> their own declaration or by not contributing in any form to the
> project for over six months. An emeritus member may request
> reinstatement to the PMC, which will be sufficient to restore him or
> her to active PMC member.")  Also, moving to emeritus status is not
> considered a bad thing.  It simply reflects that the person is no
> longer able to be a part of the project on a regular basis.  Removing
> someone by vote is a bad thing, akin to being voted off the island (to
> switch island TV show analogies), is certainly not automatic, and
> should only happen in extreme circumstances.
>
> Alan.
>
>
>
>

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