Fw: Re: AIS E-mail Quorums--Motion

[Jill Bonino <aistreas@earthlink.net>]

Attached below are the original email from Bob Pries and my lengthy reply
for the benefit of those of you are who on AISDiscuss but not
AISConfer...

I would like to "tweak" my original recommendation and make a formal
motion to amend the Standing Rules for Electronic Communication as
follows:

Once a motion has been made and seconded electronically, email motion
discussion will be allowed for a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 14
days.  In the interest of prompt action on AIS business, if after 7 days
there have been no more than 3 emails discussing the motion, the General
Secretary will place the motion on AISVote.  The voting period will be 14
days unless otherwise specified by the AIS President.  Once the voting
period has been completed, the AIS General Secretary will post the
official results of the voting on AISDiscuss. 

I am putting this out of AISDiscuss as that is our current policy for
motions and seconds prior to being put on AISVote, even though it
originally started with voting members and Board nominees elect only. 

I am making no motion to change the current email voting quorum of 12
positive votes. 

I am requesting a second.

Thanks,

Jill

  -----Forwarded Message-----
  From: Jill Bonino
  Sent: Jul 31, 2008 11:13 AM
  To: Robert Pries , "Epperson,Roy" , "Keisling,Judy" , "Plank,Jeanne"
  Cc: "Ludi,John" , "Carson,Louise" , "White,Gary" , "Sutton,George" ,
  "Poling,Joyce" , "Morris,James" , "Keup,Bob" , "Kasparek,Brad" ,
  "Gossett,Paul" , "Gormley,Rita" , "Coates,Jerry" , Judy Nolin ,
  Cheryl Deaton , Ken Waite , Hal Stahly , Dave Niswonger , Clarence
  Mahan , Ron Mullin , Terry Aitken , "James,Donna" , Robert Pries
  Subject: Re: AIS E-mail Quorums

  Hi All,

  I have been fighting earthlink the last week trying to get my email
  to stay up more than 10 minutes at a time, so hopefully I can get all
  of this written before it crashes...

  First of all, I agree we need to discuss and make clarification of
  our email voting rules in addition to how we use AISConfer and
  AISDiscuss.  And I think we need to do it now since we have had a
  number of questions brought up about this procedure recently. 

  For purposes of this "e mail quorum" topic, this probably should go
  to AISConfer as our policy exists now, BUT I also think it is a good
  idea to include "Board Members Elect" in this discussion (who
  technically cannot be put on AISConfer at this point).  

  That said, as a starting point, I looked up the last approved policy
  of the Standing Rules from the July 2003 Bulletin, pages 83-84 that
  addresses the issue of an "e mail quorum" and email voting.

  #2, approved email motion discussion to 7 days from initial call for
  discussion.

  #5. approved transmission of electronic vote within 7 days unless
  otherwise specified by the AIS President. 

  #7 states that "Approval of a motion discussed and voted on by
  electronic mail shall receive a minimum of 12 positive votes (based
  on 18 voting members--the President votes in a tie only).       

  NOW, in the Jan 2004 Bulletin, the Board amended the Standing rules
  as far as the amount of time allowed for e mail motion discussion to
  14 days AND voting to 14 days each because people are not always able
  to check their email...(see page 101)

  This is the Board's current policy and I think our best place to
  start discussion.

  In my own opinion,  I think the email quorum should be based on the
  maximum number of voting members, which currently is 18.  At any one
  time, we cannot control who is available to vote as we can at a
  regular Board meeting.  Now, 12 positive votes for email is 2/3
  majority of the total of 18.  I seem to recall that when we discussed
  this policy originally, we felt that we wanted  more than just a
  simple majority of email voting to be sure we had consensus of the
  Board on the issue.  I still agree with that.  

  Also, I still agree with the 14 day voting period to allow people who
  are out of town or otherwise unavailable to email to vote...In the
  case of of our most recent vote on the BIS Silver Medals (of which I
  was too late also to vote even tho I seconded the motion!), there
  were 12 positive votes which made any further voting technically moot
  as far as our policy is concerned...which I don't like either...Every
  person should have their vote counted if it is timely filed within
  the 14-day period.

  SO, my recommendation would be to  amend our Standing Rules as
  follows:

  " Once a motion has been made and seconded,  email motion discussion
  will be  allowed for a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 14 days. 
  In the interest of prompt action on AIS business, if after 7
  days there have been no more than 3 emails discussing the
  motion,  the General Secretary will place the motion on AISVote.  The
  Secretary will email the official results of the voting  on
  AISDiscuss at the end of the 14-day voting period."

  I think the current 12-vote positive vote for passage of an email
  vote should remain the same.

  In addition to the complete motion, who made it and who seconded it,
  I suggest that the Secretary include a copy of the current Standing
  Rules for voting with the  AISVote email that opens voting. 

  Hope I got most of you to hang in there for this long...its too hot
  to weed and the Angel/Yankee game doesn't start until 4 PM  so ...

  Jill 

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Robert Pries
    Sent: Jul 31, 2008 9:58 AM
    To: "Epperson, Roy" , "Keisling, Judy" , "Bonino, Jill" , "Plank,
    Jeanne"
    Cc: "Ludi, John" , "Carson, Louise" , "White, Gary" , "Sutton,
    George" , "Poling, Joyce" , "Morris, James" , "Keup, Bob" ,
    "Kasparek, Brad" , "Gossett, Paul" , "Gormley, Rita" , "Coates,
    Jerry" , Judy Nolin , Cheryl Deaton , Ken Waite , Hal Stahly ,
    Dave Niswonger , Clarence Mahan , Ron Mullin , Terry Aitken ,
    "James, Donna" , Robert Pries
    Subject: AIS E-mail Quorums

    "I am sending this e-mail to only voting board members of AIS
    because they are the ones who are directly involved with the
    point I would like to discuss. I have included past presidents
    who use e-mail and presumptive new directors who will take office
    in the fall. I would like to limit the discussion to this single
    point. It would seem necessary to resolve this before any further
    votes.

    The issue is; bwhat constitutes a quorum for voting by e-mail
    on AIS vote?b. At present we do not have a rule in place that
    would govern a situation where less than half the total possible
    votes are cast yes or no. For example if at a meeting, 7 votes
    were cast in favor, and 4 votes were cast against, then the
    motion would pass, because a quorum would have been present at
    that meeting. But what constitutes a quorum on the internet? We
    know in a room how many people are present, but how do we know
    how many people read an e-mail. If we set a deadline for a vote
    then what would happen if we had only a 7 to 4 vote by the end of
    the time period. We need to have established rules before such a
    situation arises. It is inconceivable to me that a dynamic
    organization would always wait until spring or fall to do
    business. There are great many issues about how and where e-mail
    motions and votes are made, but I would like to ignore all those
    peripheral issues since this one issue needs resolution first.

    I asked Bob Plank for his take on the legal aspect. It is my
    understanding that we can resolve this problem by making a
    predetermined rule. As a national organization the laws of fifty
    states have not yet provided guidance on this. Presently phone
    meetings require a conference call where everyone can be heard at
    the same time. We need to set our own rules for how long a vote
    is put up on e-mail and do we need an absolute majority of all
    possible votes or only a majority of those voting within the time
    period. Does a voting member who will be out of communication for
    longer than two weeks need to relay that to the board? At present
    our major officers have done this as a courtesy. Should differing
    rules apply to different types of votes?

    There are motions presently waiting for presentation that can not
    wait till the fall meeting. I have asked that they be delayed
    until we can reach an agreement on what constitutes a quorum.
    Please answer by using repy to all sine this is not Confer or
    Dscuss.

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