[Community] summary of today's (12/13) call

[Eugene Eric Kim]

Thanks to the participants of this morning's call: Peter Davis, Victor
Grey, Eugene Eric Kim, Joaquin Miller, Dale Olds, Drummond Reed, Mary
Ruddy, and Paul Trevithick.

We covered the following policy points this morning:

  * Mandatory discussion period prior to votes
  * Dissolving Working Groups
  * Stewards Council Chair
  * Questions about legal structure

= MANDATORY DISCUSSION PERIOD =

We reviewed the possible options discussed two weeks ago:

  http://mail.idcommons.net/pipermail/community/2006-November/000787.html

and we quickly converged on the following:

  When a call for vote is put forward, the Stewards Council Chair will
  have the option of increasing or decreasing the discussion period prior
  to vote.  If the Chair exercises this option, other Council members
  will have 48 hours to raise an objection.  If no one objects, that
  discussion period will hold.  If someone raises an exception or if the
  Chair does not exercise this option, there will be a mandatory
  discussion period of two weeks prior to a vote.

As a best practice, the Chair will be discouraged from exercising this
option except under exceptional circumstances.  Peter Davis also
encouraged us to capture best practices for when this might happen more
explicitly, so that Working Groups understand the ramifications.

= DISSOLVING WORKING GROUPS =

Eugene expressed concern over having too many inactive Working Groups and
suggested we need some minimum standard of activity, with emphasis on
minimum.  We agreed on two standards:

  * We will require Working Groups to report-out once a quarter on their
    activities.  The report-out does not have to be too formal; a blog
    entry will do.  This will not only serve as a standard for whether or
    not to keep a Working Group around, it will bring a regular awareness
    of the Working Group's activities to the community at large, which
    will encourage cross-fertilization and collaboration.

  * We will encourage Working Groups to include a "sunset clause" in
    their charters, which describe when a Working Group's activities and
    existence should be considered complete.  The Stewards Council will
    then use this clause as a standard for whether or not a Working Group
    is remaining active enough.

Stewards Council will evaluate each Working Group once a quarter.  Call
for dissolution will work under the standard voting procedures: Two-week
discussion period following a Call For Vote, followed by the vote itself.

= STEWARDS COUNCIL CHAIR =

We agreed that there should be a Stewards Council Chair, although we also
cautioned that we must be concrete in defining the Chair's role.  The
Chair's role will mostly be facilitator of the Stewards Council.  The
Chair will rotate yearly, and no Stewards Council member may be Chair for
two years in a row.  The Chair will be selected under standard voting
procedures: nominations, followed by a two-week discussion period,
followed by a vote.

We also discussed the need for other positions.  Treasurer and Secretary
seem to be obvious ones, although we didn't come to any final conclusions.

= QUESTIONS ABOUT LEGAL STRUCTURE =

Eugene asked whether being a Swiss nonprofit will affect our ability to
get donations.  Drummond responded that it shouldn't be a problem for
business, because they can write donations off as an expense, but it may
be an issue for individuals.  The group decided to pose the question to
our resident legal experts, none of whom were on the call.  (Consider it
posed.)

= OTHER UPDATES; NEXT STEPS =

Paul thanked Fen Labalme for setting up various Wikis and mailing lists
for various Working Groups on the idcommons.net domain, and he encouraged
us to encourage everyone else to migrate their sites onto our domain.
Paul is also picking up the costs for logo development, and he will
submit candidates to the community for evaluation when they're ready.
(Thanks, Paul!)

We agreed to have everything resolved and move on the legal creation of
the organization by January 31, 2007.

Our next phone call will be next Wednesday, December 20, 9am PT.

=Eugene

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Eugene Eric Kim ................................... http://xri.net/=eekim
Blue Oxen Associates ........................... http://www.blueoxen.com/
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