Date: Mon, 13 Mar 1995 18:40:59 -0800
From: dmk@hsmpk14a-91 (David Kahn)
Subject: Item #250: Procedural: rules for email ballot

P1275 Open Firmware Working Group Proposal -- Proposal #250 Ver 1

Title:		Email balloting procedure

Author:		David Kahn

Date:		March 13, 1995

Ed/Tech:	Procedural

Synopsis:	Open Firmware Working Group Email Ballot Procedure

Doc & Version:	n/a

Problem:	Fulfill action item to define email ballot procedure.

Proposal:	


I was tasked with coming up with the process, and here's the process
proposal.  Please comment within 5 days on this email process and we
can try the process with this item first, and as a matter of course,
reaffirm the items and this process at the next meeting:

Create an email ballot administrator, assign the role to the vice chair
initially.

Somebody sends a proposal in and requests email balloting.  Any eligible
member can request email balloting of a properly submitted proposal.

If there are no objections by eligible voters within 5 full business
days, starting the business day after the proposal is posted by the
proposal number generator, the ballot item is eligible for email
ballot.  The administrator declares an item eligible for email
balloting.  The discussion period on an email ballot runs
simultaneously with this 5 day period.

The admin sets up an alias for email balloting. (Publicized by the admin
at the time the voting is opened on a proposal). The alias may be
different for each ballot, to make it easier for the admin to track the
ballot items.

Votes are sent in to this alias and tabulated by the admin who produces
a summary report at the end of the ballot period showing each person's
vote. If you vote more than once, only the last vote you sent in,
determined by the time you sent in the vote, counts. Previous votes are
discarded.  The email headers are used to determine the correct vote.
In the event the admin is notified of header forgery, or header forgery
becomes apparent within one week following a vote, the vote is declared
void.

Eligible voters that "know" they will be on vacation can send in their
vote early to the admin, with specific instructions on their vote.  The
administrator should try to do his/her best to include the vote in the
official tally, but is not required to do so.  If for some reason the
vote cannot be included, the admin will post a message to the email
alias indicating why the vote cannot be included.

One business week minimum from time of ballot start to ballot end.
Ballot end date declared at ballot start time by the admin.

Minimum of 9 "eligible" voters for a ballot to be declared valid, same
rules for passage of an email ballot as a regular ballot. (Attend 2
working group meetings, or sufficent email participation to be
knowledgeable about the proposal makes you eligible to vote.)

All email votes to be affirmed at the next official working group
meeting which has a quorom in attendence, so they make it into the
official working group minutes.  The admin presents a list of
email items and there votes and status at each working group
meeting.  (Note: the intention here is a vote to affirm the
email ballots and results and not to generate technical discussion
of email approved/rejected items at the working group meeting.)

The admin posts the results of email ballots in the proposals area
on playground.sun.com.

The admin can declare certain periods of the year (holiday periods
and periods surrounding official working group meetings as ineligible
for email balloting. Initially, Dec 15 - Jan 7 are declared as
ineligible and the week before and the week of a working group
meeting are declared as ineligible. The admin can appoint a temporary
administrator to handle email balloting for periods the admin will
be on vacation, or declare those periods as ineligible for email
balloting as well. 

-David

[ P1275 Item #250 -- Received: Mon Mar 13 18:41:41 PST 1995 ]