Bylwas Revision: COMMITTEES

This is the beginning of the discussion for the committee article of the
bylaws. Here are some basic principles which I feel should apply to the
committees.

- they should take care of most of the day to day operation of SPI
[this takes the workload off the BOD]
- their rights and responsibilities should be completely described in
their charter
- they should be governed by the board of directors
[what does this really mean? I'm not sure yet... but that's who they
should 'report' to]
- the BOD should be able to issue charters (i.e. create committees)
[I'm thinking that if the consensus is that a new committee is needed,
the BOD can issue a charter. The membership should definitely have some
input here though. how? By helping write the charter.]

QUESTIONS:
----------
- how are leaders appointed? I'd say by the BOD, possibly the membership.
- how are members appointed? BOD? Leader? Membership?
- should non-contributing members be able to serve on committees?
[incidentally, that would automatically make them contributing
members...!!]
- what do we do if a committee is no longer necessary? disband it. How?
BOD vote?

I'm sure there are other issues here that I'm not addressing... please
bring them up if you think of them! As I think you can see, this
discussion is one step closer to the voting discussion, as this will bring
up a lot of issues regarding who controls what and why. I think that when
we're done with this discussion, the voting discussion will be a lot
easier because the political infrastructure will be in place.

Enjoy...
Nils.

--
Nils Lohner Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
E-Mail: lohner(at)spi-inc(dot)org PO Box 1326
Board Of Directors <board(at)spi-inc(dot)org> Boston, Ma. 02117 USA