Re: [MACCAWS] Day twelve - Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.

On Sunday, July 21, 2002, at 10:39 PM, Tony Crockford wrote:

> So can we, as a group of 130 or so talented individuals, come together
> and make the following decisions:
>
> 1. Do we elect all the nominees to the committee?

I would advise that they be elected en banc. They seem to possess 
adequate experience to do their jobs and obviously possess the 
desire. Those are the most important things.

I really think questions about 'what they plan to do for the group' 
are superfluous. From what I've read and gathered from discussion, 
the group is very focused: develop persuasive arguments 
developers/designers/etc. can use to promote standards within their 
organizations or to their clients. That doesn't leave a whole lot 
of room for ideology, AFAICT.

It is more important that progress be made now so people remain 
engaged and involved than that every little ideological detail be 
hashed out to the satisfaction of each person here.

> 2. Shall we give them three months or six months before we put them up
> for re-election?

I think elections that often might be a bit too much overhead, no?

Maybe I've profoundly misunderstood the purpose of the group, in 
which case you should ignore me entirely, but the focus is pretty 
narrow and there is an achievable goal. With that in mind, I think 
it is entirely likely that the group will have served its purpose 
after 12 or 18 months. At that point, there may be another project 
to tackle (and elections could be held, if necessary) or it may be 
time to declare victory and move on.

Either way, I think a 12 month term would be the shortest 
appropriate, with the caveat that troublemakers or ineffective 
members could be asked to resign and new members invited based on a 
majority vote of SC members.

> 3. Can they make the final decision on items that have been put before
> the group on this list and the Wiki for feedback for 3 days?
>
> i.e. to make a decision on something in the next three/six months, the
> steering committee must table it in the form of an email and post the
> same on the Wiki.  After three days the committee make a decision based
> on their perception of the groups wishes.

IMNSHO, three days should be plenty of time. If you can't get 
around to answering a question in that time, then you need to ask 
yourself whether you realistically have the time to devote to the 
project. If not, one can still contribute to discussion or effort 
on an as-able basis, but really, if you can't devote 15-60 minutes 
to a question over 3 days you just don't have time to be effective.

And yes, I understand there are extenuating circumstances. In case 
of illness or vacation or whatever I really feel one should trust 
one's fellow participants enough to let them make the decision.


chris.kaminski { functionNewMedia :: <http://www.function.de> }