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LegalXML TC and Member Section Membership

From: Roger Winters
To: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:09:00 -0000

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Subject: LegalXML TC and Member Section Membership

From: "Winters, Roger" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 08:11:58 -0700

STEERING COMMITTEE: The following is an exchange I had with Scott McGrath of OASIS, where each presented his ideas on how TC and Member Section membership should/could be related to one another. We have not reached a conclusion - I am hoping Scott will be on today's call so he can tell us what does and doesn't work for OASIS.

Roger

From: [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 1:58 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: 'Dee Schur'
Subject: LegalXML Membership in Member Section

Hi, Scott,

The Steering Committee for the LegalXML Member Section has a conference call meeting on Tuesday at 10 Pacific time One of the agenda items is likely to be to ask what we've concluded about what makes people members of the Member Section Can you advise me where you think we are on that issue? (I was on vacation the last two weeks and I haven't remembered yet that we reached a final determination, so I'm assuming we haven't)

Thanks for any help you can give on this I'm probably going to be called on to report on the subject

Roger

Roger Winters

Program and Project Manager

and

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Coordinator

King County Department of Judicial Administration

516 -609 MS: KCC-JA-0609

V: (206) 296-7838 F: (206) 296-0906

[email protected]

From: Scott McGrath [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 2:49 PM
To:
Cc: 'Dee Schur'
Subject: RE: LegalXML Membership in Member Section

Roger,

is out, so I don't know what you folks have dialogued on, I believe she has looked at the TC rosters and the MS to see how divergent we are now Failing that input, until Monday, here is my brain dump Some of this may seem like stating the obvious, but I'll try to cover it all, while not being too verbose First the policies and guidelines, then the implementation (Yup, taking on the easy stuff first)

To be a Voting Member of the MS, one must be a representative of an organization (or perhaps also an Individual member, depending on your RoP) who is contributing funds

There is no reason why any OASIS member can't be an Observer in the MS

The OASIS norm is all mail lists are opt-in, except our Member list which is opt-out-as we use this as a one-way (low traffic) list to make formal announcements that all members need be aware of

BUT, I also see where having all participants in the various LegalXML TCs in the MS would benefit the MS and probably the participants

Therefore, I'd like to float the following straw man (knowing that this should be vetted with LegalXML SC and OASIS staff before we consider implementing) you'll see the central theme of these ideas to be that members ought to be self-determinant in these areas

Option A

LegalXML MS SC votes to approve the action of TC Chairs to encourage all TC participants to join the MS, via the "Join Group" link on http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/legalxml-ms/

Option B

LegalXML MS SC votes to approve the action of adding all participants in LegalXML TCs to the MS list as Observers, unless they are already there in another capacity This could/should? be followed by a vote of endorsement at each TC so added

Implementation considerations:

Option A is easy and may get you real close to where you want to be

Option A wins on the scale of Members are Self-Determinant

We, staff, could sit in on each TC concall where Option A is discussed and do a walk-through demo of "how to use the new TC sign-up tools" thus encouraging real-time participation and sign-ups

I have no way to support automation of Option B Following the vote, we could do the manual additions, but that will quickly go out of date We will be resigned to manual updates at a time and frequency determined by attention, time, resources etc

With either option, I recommend we modify the TC members homepage with either advice to join the MS or advice that they will be added at some time, without their tacit consent

How does this fit with your thinking?

Scott...

From: [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 3:28 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: 'Dee Schur'
Subject: LegalXML Membership in Member Section

Thanks, Scott, for your explanation and ideas. What follows are my views, but I don't pretend to know whether the ROP or anything presently supports or contradicts what I'm suggesting. I think once we have an acceptable concept we would follow up by proposing the appropriate amendments to ROPs to make it happen.

My view all along has been that if one is a member of a TC that is affiliated as one of the LegalXML Member Section TCs, one should automatically be enrolled as a member in the Member Section. (Observer status, because it does not imply active commitment, should not result in voting power in the Member Section.) There's no intention that the Member Section would be an active e-mail list. One would still do the work and have the most dialogue in the TCs one works with. However, by forming or joining a Member Section, our TCs, in effect, delegate their power to the Member Section (which is directed by the Steering Committee) to recommend use of OASIS resources generated by the whole Member Section. On the principle of "no taxation without representation," our Member Section is composed of one representative elected by each TC PLUS three representatives at-large elected by the whole Member Section. How can one be "represented" by the at-large people unless you are able to vote in Member Section at-large representative elections? By leaving joining the Member Section optional and requiring that one take steps to make it happen (and most of our people are, like everyone, very busy people for whom such a little thing might seem "easy" from our point of view, but it's a detail one has to stop and deal with, read about, and perform), we would in effect disenfranchise those who won't or can't find time to sign themselves up.

I agree with your desire that people should be self-determining - that's an important principle. However, the key thing about self-determination is to know what you're getting into. So long as TC membership (not observership) is defined in our rules as constituting one's relationship to and rights within the TC PLUS being a member of the Member Section in which the TC is a part, members of the TCs will know what they are doing when joining a TC. Perhaps they could "opt out" by requesting that their listing on the Member Section be switched to "no-contact" or something, or by just not paying attention to messages from that level, refusing to vote, etc. However, enrolling them in a list that gives them an enhanced say in deciding how resources are used in the OASIS group within which their work is being done does not harm them or enslave them or impress them into service against their will - it gives them power they are at risk not to have if left to their own devices. Unless it's an automatic enrollment (a member of a TC automatically becomes a member of the Member Section), the busy people or the ones who have trouble following directions will be excluded, in effect.

To implement my proposal, we could perhaps have something automatic happening or, if need be, we could have the Secretary of the Member Section (me) or someone (an officer of each TC) check the TC membership list monthly and reconcile any discrepancies. A check could also be made prior to a vote, to ensure all will be able to participate.

(My graduate degree was in political philosophy - one thing I learned is that concepts like "consent" and "freedom" are not clear-cut and unambiguous. In practice, there can be the APPEARANCE of freedom when in fact there is none. Remember the 100% turnout for elections in the ? How much more democratic were they than the , where participation in voting is perhaps closer to 50% of those eligible?)

So, unless it would create a problem for OASIS of which I'm unaware, I hope that we will find a way to make TC membership something that includes the additional influence that comes from being part of the Member Section.