[adhoc] majority vote

Dear John,

you are right, we have not made it clear in the governance protocol how voting should be made. From this, however, it does not follow that (a) the chair should state the rules and (b) the rules (whatever they are stipulated) cannot be altered. I strongly support discussion and mutual understanding in order to avoid misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and lack of confidence which any unilateral step might create. I think we should excercise a lot of restrain if we really wish to achieve the goals envisaged in the past years. My objection to the assumption that majority vote was achieved by 50% of the votes is well founded: if we proceed following this logic, a single vote can decide an issue in the absence of any further votes. I am pretty confident nobody wants such a situation.

The fact that I have been pretty active in the discussion process may, as I hope, give my words some credibility and you will take them as a sign positive about our common goal and an expression of some worry about and for our future. The regrettable lack of sufficient responsiveness should prompt us to encourage participation and dialogue before resorting to measures unsupported by the (at least virtual, if not active) majority.

Since I believe there is nothing in the governance protocol how majority vote is to be calculated, let me suggest the following:

"Majority vote means at least three out of the four votes."

I hope we can vote on this as soon as possible, but I also hope that it will be preceded by a real discussion.

Having said all this, I hope you and the rest of the committee as well as all on the list are convinced that I share our main goals and that I share some of your worries. However, I do not want to sacrify these goals by making decisions without gaining the much needed support of all concerned.

With best wishes,

Laszlo
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Received on Tue Apr 12 2005 - 15:00:04 EDT