Re: [alac] revised draft for internal procedures

[Esther Dyson <edyson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think overall it is way too early to get so detailed and procedural. The 
ALAC should evolve (bottom-up) and ultimately determine its own rules.  We 
are the *advisory* committee, not the exec committee.  As much as possible, 
we should work by consensus rather than these too-formal procedures.  We 
should structure ourselves in a way that will *give way* to a more formal 
structure when the new members arrive.

We were not elected or even appointed "bottom-up," and therefore I think 
the major mechanism for us to be accountable should be transparency rather 
than arbitrary voting mechanisms.  Clearly, any committee member who feels 
that his opinion has been ignored should complain. we're a small group and 
I think so far we have worked together okay.

Also, I think *all* members of the committee should feel free to talk to 
the public, and *all* members should  carefully make the distinction 
between their own opinions and those of the committee.

finally, I think the role of staff is a little broader than outlined here 
(until committee members are willing to undertake much more of the 
burden!).  In reality, "staff" is capable, a good spokesperson for the 
group - along with its formal members - and is and should be more active 
than described.  The issue is that staff should work *with* the ALAC (as it 
does) rather than independently.... Finally, the document process is 
unfortunately not as swift as you envision in reality (3 days' 
turnaround....).  Both decision-making and document production are 
essentially collaborative processes.

Esther

At 06:01 AM 4/8/2003, Vittorio Bertola wrote:
> I have revised Thomas's draft about internal procedures. Main changes
> are:
>
> - terms of officers expire after Annual Meeting (so that the newly
> appointed ALAC members can immediately elect the new officers);
>
> - votes to be held at physical meetings or during telephone calls must
> be announced in advance and require a quorum (to avoid that people who
> cannot afford to be present at physical meetings or conference calls
> are excluded from the decision-making process);
>
> - a mechanism for private voting (mandatory for appointments) has been
> provided, with a public mechanism to solve challenges.
>
> Please expose any objections or comments as soon as possible.
> --
> vb.                  [Vittorio Bertola - vb [at] bertola.eu.org]<---
> -------------------> http://bertola.eu.org/ <-----------------------



Esther Dyson                    Always make new mistakes!
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