[Community-Discuss] Bylaws changes

ALAIN AINA aalain at trstech.net
Fri Nov 11 14:23:43 UTC 2016


Hello,


> On Nov 11, 2016, at 3:51 PM, Badru Ntege <badru.ntege at nftconsult.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 11/11/16, 10:55 AM, "Alan Barrett" <alan.barrett at afrinic.net <mailto:alan.barrett at afrinic.net>> wrote:
> 
>> 
>>> On 10 Nov 2016, at 02:22, Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> wrote:
>>>> I believe that such policies should not be subject to the usual rough-consensus requirement.  In cases where the community is deadlocked and unable to reach consensus, I believe that it should be possible for the Board to mke a decision that clears the deadlock.  I suggest that only the Members should be able to overturn such a Board decision, by a vote with two-thirds supermajority.
>>> 
>>> I think there is an alternative that is better…
>>> 
>>> In the normal process, consensus of the community is required to enact the policy.
>>> 
>>> In the process where the board has found it necessary to place policy in effect to be reviewed by the community, I believe that a default of “Policy stands as board implemented” with a requirement for consensus to reverse the board decision is a perfectly adequate solution.
>>> 
>>> In this way, if the community deadlocks, the board action stands. Only if there is consensus can the board be reversed.
>>> 
>>> This still leaves the policy development completely in the hands of the stakeholders.
>>> 
>>> IMHO, this is less likely to deadlock than your proposal where it is possible that the membership would oppose the board action by some narrow margin, but the community overall may support it.
>>> 
>>> Does that make sense, or am I misunderstanding the intent here?
>> 
>> I am having difficulty drafting appropriate text.  One of the difficulties is that the rough consensus requirement is in the PDP, not in the Bylaws.
>> 
>> My current feeling is that the Bylaws should be silent about how the community endorses or rejects a policy, but should say what heppens is a policy is rejected (not endorsed).  Here’s suggested text:
>> 
>> 11.5	Endorsement of policy adopted by the Board:
>> (a) Any policy adopted by the Board under the provisions of Article 11.4 shall be submitted to the community for endorsement or rejection at the next public policy meeting.
>> (b) In the event that such a policy submitted by the Board is not endorsed, the said policy shall not be enforced or implemented following its non-endorsement; however, any actions taken in terms of the policy prior to such non-endorsement shall remain valid.
> 
> I do not have suggested changes to (b)  but this would be a problem, in that a policy can be put in place to achieve a onetime objective that might not be supported by community fully aware that the policy will be rejected.
> 
> We might want to think of something like an online quick forum to give community an opportunity to understand the urgent need. This maintains the openness.  And if a reversal is needed at the AGM it does not become an issue.

This is inline with what i suggested  two days ago. keep 11.4 and 11.5 as they are and update the PDP to add  board policy adoption process, bearing in mind that PDP already has a provision for varying the process.  

Section 3.6 of the CPM

====
3.6 Varying the Process

The process outlined in this document may vary in the case of an emergency. Variance is for use when a one-time waiving of some provision of this document is required. The decision to vary the process is taken by the Working Group Chair. There must be an explanation about why the variance is needed. The review period, including the Last Call, shall not be less than four weeks. If there is consensus, the policy is approved and it must be presented at the next Public Policy Meeting.

======

Thanks

—Alain

> 
> Badru
> 
> 
> 
>> 
>> Alan Barrett
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Community-Discuss mailing list
>> Community-Discuss at afrinic.net <mailto:Community-Discuss at afrinic.net>
>> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss <https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss>
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Community-Discuss mailing list
> Community-Discuss at afrinic.net <mailto:Community-Discuss at afrinic.net>
> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss <https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/attachments/20161111/1dbd82ea/attachment.html>


More information about the Community-Discuss mailing list