Re: Resolution 2003-10-14.iwj.1c

Hi,

I have made some changes to clause 20;

Resolution 2003-10-14.iwj.1.ms.1

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 13:43:33 -0400 (EDT), David Graham <cdlu(at)railfan(dot)ca> said:

> I have made more changes, and submit this as 2003-10-14.iwj.1b, and
> would like to withdraw 2003-10-14.iwj.1b:

> Resolution 2003-10-14.iwj.1c
>>
>> WHEREAS
>>
>> 1. The Board memberships of Ian Jackson and Martin Schulze
>> have reached the end of their 3 year terms as directors and Manoj
>> Srivastava has resigned from his position as director and the board
>> now consists of only 7 members;
>>
>> 2. The membership of the board of directors must remain
>> between 8 and 12 in accordance with the constitution;
>>
>> 3. Software in the Public Interest Inc.'s by-laws require the
>> Board of directors to be accountable to the membership;
>>
>> THE BOARD RESOLVES THAT
>>
> 4. The Board of Directors calls an election of the contributing
> membership for two seats on the board of directors.

> 5. The election shall be organized and overseen by the SPI board's
> secretary or his designate.

> 6. The voting period shall begin as soon as possible, no later than
> 21 days after this resolution is passed. The position paper
> period must begin within 7 days of the passage of this
> resolution. The voting period shall be 14 days.

>>
>> 7. Candidates shall be SPI contributing members. Candidates must
>> declare their intention to run by submitting a position statement
>> to the SPI secretary by a date before the beginning of the election
>> and determined and publicly announced by the secretary;
>>
>> 8. The voters shall be SPI contributing members;
>>
>> 9. The voting shall take place on the Software in the Public
>> Interest web site using the Condorcet election method;
>>
> 10. The results of the election will be verified and announced by
> the web site's voting software immediately upon completion
> of voting.

> 11. The two most preferred candidates, as determined by the method
> stated above, are hereby appointed to the board of directors
> of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. 7 days after the
> announcement of the results.
>>
>> 12. While the board may repeal paragraph 11 before the appointment
>> takes effect, the board resolves to do so only if there are
>> problems with the conduct or integrity of the election.
>>
> 13. At the start of voting, no new Contributing Membership
> applications may be accepted until the results have been
> released.

> 15. Any SPI contributing member may stand as candidates in the
> election according to paragraph 7 above, regardless of
> whether they have served on the board in the past.
>>
>>
>> FURTHERMORE, WHEREAS
>>
>> 16. The ad-hoc organisation of this election is less transparent
>> and
>> democratic than ideal;
>>
>> 17. The bylaws reform effort appears to have stalled;
>>
>> 18. These problems are in significant part attributable to the
>> Board;
>>
>> IT IS RESOLVED THAT
>>
>> 19. The Board apologises to the Membership and the Bylaws committee
>> for its failure to work more proactively to help reform the bylaws.
>>
20. The Board shall undertake the work necessary to present a set of
by-laws to the membership at large for ratification as soon as
the election is complete. There exists a recommendations of the
By-Laws Committee to serve as a starting point for such a
recommendation.

> Clauses 4 and 11 have 'three' replaced with 'two'. It is my strong
> opinion that a 9 member board is more appropriate to SPI's ability
> to conduct business due to the quorum being 6/9 instead of 7/10.

> Clauses 5, 10, and 11 takes the onus off the secretary for handling
> the election and asks that the results be automatically announced at
> the end of voting.

> Clause 6 makes this resolution the call for the election, not the
> actions of any single person.

> Clause 13 is addressed by the election itself. I do not believe we
> need to appoint temporary board members. If we do, I would strongly
> suggest that a single Advisor be temporarily promoted to the board
> until the elections are over.

> Clause 13 now states that membership is closed until the end of
> elections.

> Clause 14 did not exist.

> Clause 15 is more generally worded, and no longer needs to come
> under a separate header.

> Clause 20 forces the issue of the by-laws amendments, implict in
> that is that by next summer we will have our first constitutionally
> mandated election, assuming the by-laws are passed.

I have modified Clause 20 not to supersede the boards
authority by the By-Laws Ctte, the committee was appointed by the
board to come up with a set of By-Laws, and was subordinate to the
Board, which shall continue to have oversight. The Ctte's
recommendations have, of themselves, no authority to trump the boards
decision making ability.

Any contributing member can present their own variant to the
membership if they do not like the Boards proposal.

manoj

--
Ladles and Jellyspoons! I come before you to stand behind you, To tell
you something I know nothing about. Since next Thursday will be Good
Friday, There will be a fathers' meeting, for mothers only. Wear your
best clothes, if you don't have any, And please stay at home if you
can possibly be there. Admission is free, please pay at the door. Have
a seat on me: please sit on the floor. No matter where you manage to
sit, The man in the balcony will certainly spit. We thank you for your
unkind attention, And would now like to present our next act: "The
Four Corners of the Round Table."
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta(at)acm(dot)org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
1024R/C7261095 print CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C