1. For a motion to pass, a majority of voting members must either vote or
acknowledge receipt of the ballot. If not initially achieved, the chair
may extend the voting period and recontact non-responders.
2. If a voting member does not respond to two successive ballots, he or she
will be listed as a non-active participant. These individuals will
not be counted for purposes of determining a quorum. They may be
reinstated as voting members at any time, even during a ballot, by making a
request or by casting a ballot.
Jim,
I
distinguish letter ballots as those of the type I receive from IEEE for region
representatives and IEEE officers. Enclosed I find a ballot and narrative
describing the position of each candidate or bylaw question - I rarely know
the candidate and have never seen the question. Such ballots are sent to the
entire IEEE membership and no quorum is defined for determination of results
because indeed achieving the quorum is not practical. It is kind of like going
to the polling place to vote for public officials but in that
case physical presence is required except for special personal
situations.
However, in this present case, I consider us to be
participating in a meeting with open discussion and presentations. We are
doing everything we would do in a face to face situation - it is just extended
in time. We established a means to identify voting members and now a quorum of
those members is necessary to validate a vote. You seem to think that to carry
a motion requires a majority of the voting members to affirm and that is
incorrect. We have not established a majority of voting membership to
carry rule. The following is required: YES+NO+ABSTAIN>Voting_Members/2 with
YES>NO. I think we have the interest of enough voting members to achieve a
response to the question call of 45 voting members. If someone has
endured this effort for this long and responded to your inquiry regarding
voting membership, I'd consider that an sign of active voters. We use an open
voting period and ballots are not secret. You could post an ongoing total and
ask non-voters to exercise their participatory obligation - we are voting
members because we have voted in the past or are showing current
interest. State the quorum needed, call the questions and let's get on
with the vote.
Cheers,
Richard
Bob,
You say my interpretation is
incorrect and you quote these other IEEE sources, but you don't explain what
a quorum means in terms of an email ballot. Do you mean a majority of
voters must vote YES? The directives below don't say anything like
this. Even in an in-person meeting, a majority must only be present,
not actually vote, or vote YES.
So, please, explain to us
how a quorum would work in an email ballot. We're sending this to
everyone, except for a few who we haven't reached yet. Do you want to
see a majority acknowledge receipt? I did that previously and
will do so again. If you think a majority must vote YES, please
provide your basis for this. But I ask, with about 88 voting membes,
what if 44 drop out? How can the others proceed?
Jim
In response to Pat Cassidy on 5/23/03 Jim Schoening wrote:
Patrick,
Some RRO clarifications on rules:
1. A quorum is only required for in-person meetings, to prevent a
minority of voting members from making decisions. Email ballots are
similar to letter ballots, which are sent to all voting members, so all
(except those who have lost touch) have a chance to vote.
2. There is no requirement for a certain percentage of voting members to
cast ballots. A vote could pass with YES=1, N0=0, ABSTAIN=0, and 85
people not voting.
3. You do not need to vote to retain voting rights. The only voting rule
we adopted was the 6-month waiting period.
4. Your idea for subgroups is good, but they would work via consensus or
informal votes.
Please correct me, anyone, if I'm incorrectly interpreting RRO.
Jim Schoening
Jim,
Your interpretation
of the nature and requirement for a quorum is incorrect.
On
Dec 10, 2001 the Manager of IEEE-SA Governance sent a message to you
advising you
that by unanimous vote:
The IEEE-SA BOG considered the
inquiries of the IEEE 1600.1 working group
and the opinion of 7
November 2001 offered by Dorsey and Whitney and
concurs with and
reaffirms the opinion stated.
...
Further, the IEEE-SA BOG
encourages the IEEE-SA Standards Board to instruct
the IEEE P1600.1
working group on the principles of consensus in the
working group
processes.
A part of the opinion referenced was
the response from the IEEE Corporate Governance Office to
questions
regarding (among other topics) a quorum. Lyle Smith,
IEEE Institute Parliamentarian wrote:
I have reviewed your questions
with IEEE Legal counsel Robert Dwyer of
Dorsey & Whitney, and
Director Emeritus Eric Herz who is commissioned by
the IEEE President
to be the liason with governance and legal
issues.
The following questions about
parliamentary procedure for the SUO were answered by the Parliamentarian:
(6) What is
the size (percent) of a quorum (assuming no parliamentary procedures -
e.g. bylaws - other than
RRO)
Answer. A majority of voting members, (Specified in Ny Statute
and IEEE Bylaws).
(7) Is a quorum
required to pass a
motion?
Answer. Yes, unless a quorum had been established, some members
have left and nobody has questioned whether a quorum still exists It
is then presumed to
exist.
(8) May the chair declare that a
quorum is
unnecessary?
Answer. NO
(9) May the
rules on voting or quorums be changed
without
(a) a
vote
(b) a
quorum
(c) a two thirds vote in favor of the
change(s)
Answer. No, no, and no. A quorum is established by law, or by
Certificate of Incorporation, or in the IEEE
Bylaws
Jim, none of this is new news to you.
You have been specifically instructed on these matters and you are
bound by those instructions.
Bob Spillers