Re: Voting/Decision making guidelines

On Tue, 25 Jul 2000, Chris Nandor wrote:

> I suppose it can't hurt anything as long as we don't take the voting too
> seriously; but if we aren't going to take it too seriously, what's the
> point?  If we do take it too seriously, it seems to me that it will harm
> more than help.  "We voted on such-and-such but so-and-so is doing
> something else instead."

When you formally solicit someone's opinion (especially when it's voting
or something that looks like voting) you can't not take it seriously. The
person who votes certainly will, and if we don't it will cause problems.
(I've got kids and seen it firsthand--trust me on this)

Reasonable proposals, rough consensus, and a working implementation are
the best way to go forward, I think, with the working group heads (or
someone) getting the final in/out decision.

I think it is important that someone is actively responsible for saying
yes or no to something. If that responsibility is abused then they ought
to be replaced, but having a living, breathing human with (presumably) the
respect of the community making the hard decisions when need be is the way
to go. Best if the working groups make that themselves, but we will
inevitably have something pop up (or likely two different but functionally
equal things) that need someone to decide things.

					Dan