[statecom] Is: quorum; Was Re: [adcom] Important question Re: credentialing new StateCom reps

[Daniel Melnechuk]

Dear Friends,

People are getting a bit confused about quorum and thresholds. Quorum  
for a virtual statecom meeting is the same as any other statecom  
meeting, 50% seated reps plus 1 rounded down, not the 2/3rds being  
discussed.

So when the responses from a proposal are looked at by the  
facilitator (Jamie) and any others who want to tally at the same  
time, if a quorum of responses are returned with no concerns then the  
item passes, this is with giving a reasonable amount of time to pass  
to allow people to respond seeing as we are not in the same room but  
spread over the state and using email. If we don't get a quorum  
responses, then people must call statecom reps and have them chime  
in. If there are concerns, then as in a meeting the facilitator tries  
to get them addressed.

In the case of a self-imposed obligation by statecom (by virtue of  
the delegate selection plan that statecom approved by statecom) on  
statecom to approve delegates to national presidential convention,  
there are no explicit sponsors to aid in accepting amendments. This  
is actually closer to true consensus process where any proposal is  
actually the proposal from and for the whole group. We have a sponsor  
system that allows the sponsors more power than the rest of the  
individuals in the body to control how a proposal is amended, which  
if we are looking at changing our process is one place i have always  
thought could use reviewing. That said, we do not have explicit  
procedures to say who are the surrogate sponsors in such a case but i  
would suggest that we leave it up to the facilitator to propose  
amendments to try to reach consensus based on the concerns expressed  
and input  from anyone trying to help attatin the best decision that  
addresses all concerns, as that is what consensus is about.

There may be some confusion with this versus the 3-week decision  
making process that we have a procedure for that has different  
thresholds for participation seeing as it is not a meeting and is  
slower and is there to deal with usually non-controversial issues  
between meetings.

I hope this helps clarify things.

Peace,
Dan

On Jun 19, 2008, at 5:28 PM, Merelice wrote:

>>
>>> Waiting for quorum was not an issue since the meeting takes
>>> place over a period of time. We simply needed to hear from at least
>>> two-thirds of StateCom to complete the business of the virtual
>>> meeting.
>>
>>
>> Quorum is always an issue for state committee.  Due to the virtual
>>  nature of special state committee meetings, we require consensus of
>>  two-thirds of the entire state committee to ensure that whatever
>>  decision was made would reflect the entire state committee.  In  
>> such a
>>  case, quorum is two-thirds of the state committee.
>>