[AFS3-std] Second Draft of Standardisation Document

[Jeffrey Hutzelman]

--On Tuesday, August 26, 2008 10:49:58 PM +0100 Simon Wilkinson 
<simon@sxw.org.uk> wrote:

... a second draft of the standardization document.

This is looking pretty good, but I have a few remaining questions...


>    Chairs are appointed by election.  On the first day of August each
>    year the current chairs send the mailing list a request for
>    nominations.  Each nomination must be accompanied by a proposer and
>    seconder.

Who is eligible to nominate and/or second?  Anyone?  Any eligible voter?
Are the vote-takers allowed to make nominations?
Can you nominate yourself, or second nomination of yourself?

Who is eligible to be nominated?  Anyone?  Any eligible voter?
I believe it is made clear elsewhere that a potential vote-taker can be 
nominated, but then must not serve as a vote-taker.

>    The results of the election would be announced one week after the
>    close of voting, with the new chair taking office from the 1st
>    October

There is no discussion of what happens to fill a mid-term vacancy.  I'd 
propose something like the following:

- If the outgoing chair position becomes vacant on or after June 1,
  but before October 1, then the office remains vacant until October 1,
  at which point it is filled by the winner of the election.
- If the returning chair position becomes vacant on or after June 1,
  but before the start of nominatons for the regular election, then
  the office will remain vacant until October 1, at which point it is
  filled by the candidate with the second-highest number of votes, as
  in the bootstrapping process.
- If the returning chair position becomes vacant during the regular
  election, then the office remains vacant during the election, and
  the incoming chair starts a new election as soon as practical after
  taking office.
- If either position becomes vacant at any other time, the remaining
  chair runs an election as soon as is practical.

When the election process must be started at an unusual time due to a 
mid-term vacancy or when bootstrapping the process, the normal timeline is 
used, subject to the chair's discretion, except that the new chair must 
take office two months after the call for nominations.  The eligibility 
cut-off remains the most recent July 1, as defined above.



>    Eligibility to vote is determined by those who are subscribed to, or
>    have posted to, the standardisation group during the time period from
>    the 1st of June to the 1st July of the appropriate year.

I can't remember if this was discussed, or if so, whether we reached 
consensus.  Should the chairs post the list of eligible voters at some 
point before elections begin?

>    In addition, by submitting this Internet-Draft, to the extent that
>    this Internet-Draft or any portionthereof is protected by copyright

The line above is missing a space.

>    This combination of roles makes it difficult for a single individual
>    to serve as registrar.  Instead, it is proposed to expand the role of
>    registrar to include a number of individuals from the community This
>    group of people would include the current registrar, the current
>    standardisation group chairs, and a number of private individuals.
>    The registrars may determine that set of individuals themselves -
>    appointing additional registrars as required.

I think I commented previously that I don't think there's any reason to 
include the current chairs as registrars.  The bootstrapping section 
describes the initial registrars as being composed of the current registrar 
plus a representative from each of the current implementations; I think 
that's sufficient for bootstrapping, and that the group can be 
self-determining after that.


-- Jeff