CZ Talk:Editorial Council Rules of Procedure

I'm going to use this page to summarize the many & various requests for clarification of these rules, as well as explain how I plan to edit the rules to satisfy the requests. Thanks to Supten S. for a start on this summary. Comments below are all from Larry Sanger.

Comments and replies

Quorum

J Dennehy wrote: "Should there be some quorum for voting. Perhaps some fraction of editors needs to approve of proposals before they are implemented."

Changed before submitting for public discussion. Quorum set at 40%; I'm open to debate on the exact number. Robert's Rules says that 50% is the usual number.

Committees

Robert Winmill wrote: "A combination of a parliamentary procedure and hierarchy system will be needed. The combination would be structured into a matrix with the structure of overall editorial policy on one axis and the structure of subject matter areas on the other axis. Each intersection of this matrix at some defined level would be considered a specific "editorial working area"."

Actually, I think that the other end of the axis is not "subject matter areas" (i.e., workgroups), but individuals; and I still would like individuals talking to individuals to be by far the most common way to make decisions. There should only be an "escalation path" whereby one can go to workgroups and after that to the Editorial Council (or other body; it depends).

I think we will have to have a procedure for creating committees. Such a procedure is provided for in Robert's Rules, but it should be explicit in our own rules.

RW again: "Another thought would be to use the logic of "inheritance" used in object oriented programming, and integrating this into a hierarchy of voting for editorial topics that will be needed at many levels."

Sounds too complicated.

Length of time for votes

Anthony Argyriou: "Second: timing - consider requiring a minimum 72 hours for most major things, unless you're going to forbid 24-periods from starting on fridays or weekends. Some people will have schedules which make participation on weekends or evenings or particular days of the week highly inconvenient."

I'm highly sympathetic to this point, but first let me make an important theoretical observation. The way that digitized parliamentary procedure must work, if it is to be asynchronous (i.e., everyone isn't online and available to talk at the same time), is that some people may be unavailable when important business is conducted. This is unavoidable. There is another way to proceed, of course. Short of doing a conference call, we could do a giant "chatroom"-type chat, and then standard parliamentary procedure could be followed much more closely. But in such a case, we cannot fit everyone's schedule--indeed, it seems obvious that even fewer people would be able to participate in such a case. I think that in the long run, we will be able to accomplish more, and include more people, modelling parliamentary procedure in an asynchronous system.

We have to walk a narrow line between allowing enough time to vote (or make motions) and taking so much time that the whole process moves like molasses. The hope is that by treating several resolutions at once, even if any one resolution takes some time to get through the system, we can make stead progress on setting policy.

I guess I have to agree that we need at least 24 (or 30, see below) hours during the standard five-day work week in which people can vote.

Motions to extend

Anthony Argyriou: "Third: timing, again. On the unilateral extension of discussion time, perhaps a limit of ad extra 7 or 15 days would be useful, so that a proposal can't be killed by extending discussion indefinitely."

Good point. The limit should be two days, and then we vote on more time.

Tracking motions

John Moffett: "There should be a specific web page or forum section dedicated to this function. Having one location where all business takes place will make it easy for editors to keep up to date on the current agenda. So if each proposal is going to have its own location (wiki page, forum section, whatever), they should all be grouped together under one main heading and listed chronologically."

I agree. There should be a log that lists all motions chronologically and links to resolution pages and Why didn't I think of that?  :-) Ultimately, all this bookkeeping could end up being rather arduous. So, clearly, we need a secretary. But since this is a wiki and work is done asynchronously, it is better to spread the work around. We should, I think, have a rules committee, and this committee also has the responsibility of enforcing proper form and recordkeeping--I would see these people all playing the role of parliamentarian.

JM again: "All editors should be notified by e-mail when a new proposal is added to the queue, rather than expecting all editors to check the agenda page several times a day."

I think it is simpler and better for participants if we make all motions on the mailing list (where there is a permanent record of them), and then track those motions on the Web page.

Edits/additions to make

• Add language specifying that a resolution concerning some dispute is discouraged if no attempt to settle a dispute has made, and particularly if there is no pressing policy issue that underlies the matter.
• Clarify rules for creating committees.
• Make rules to the effect that the minimum designated time for a type of vote must take place outside of the weekend (taking into consideration that the weekend is longer than two days because of 24 time zones).
• Limit automatic motions to extend to two.
• Make a chronology of all motions.
• Establish a rules committee; this committee also has the responsibility of enforcing proper form and recordkeeping.

The exact time allowed for discussion and/or voting may be debated, especially if periods of vacation/festival intervenes. The exact majority required to pass a resolution may be defined. Will the discussions end only on the basis of time or some other method may be adopted for more serious concerns? Whether all the final decisions be taken by a single person (Council Chair or EIC or Chief Constable) or a majority view of 3 designated members? How to optimize between sufficient amount of discussion and quick implementation?