[Pgi-wg] OGF PGI - Review of notes of OGF30 sessions on 26 October 2010 - Counting votes for requirements

[Andre Merzky]

Hi Balasz, all,

I don't want to bog you down into procedure technicalities, but I hope
it helps to clarify some things.  In general, we rarely had the need
to apply strict procedures in any group - most are running (or
stumbling) along on their own, and we (GFSG) are generally fine with
that.  There were exceptions though, and in general, a stalling group
can profit from a clean procedural approach.

On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Balazs Konya <balazs.konya at hep.lu.se> wrote:
>
> For the vote, the group should define which group members have a voting right(s).


Every group member should have the right to vote.   It is the *Open*
Grid Forum :-)

One could argue that this leaves the process open to gaming the vote:
a project/group/... could send many people to the group
meeting/mailing list, and thus influence the vote unduly.

Well, that argument misses the purpose of the voting process.  The
general aim of the group is to reach rough consensus on the way
forward.  To decide if, and which, rough consensus is achieved is the
task of the *chairs* of the group.  Usually, chairs are able to
determine that easily - but not so in situations like yours.  A vote
can *help the chairs* to find out if rough consensus exists, and which
alternative it favors.  Again: the vote is a tool chairs can employ to
judge rough consensus.

Thus, it is solely up to the chairs to interpret the results of the
vote.  That is a very simple safeguard against vote gaming.  Remember:
you all elected your chairs (by rough consensus ;-), so one can assume
that there is a certain amount of trust that the chairs themself will
fairly represent the groups interest.


> And all this process should be done in a transparent relaxed manner, giving
> enough time to people to digest the thing they supposed to vote about. Otherwise
> the group will run into similar problems Etienne had just discovered.

Again, I don't want to complicate matters further by heavy processes!
But if you have questions about the processes OGF *recommends* (not
'enforces') for stalled groups, please let me know.

Best, Andre.


-- 
Nothing is ever easy...