[Businessmtg] Process

[Lynne]


Hi everyone,

Please refer to the business meeting rules on the member website. Our process is one week of discussion. If a consensus is reached, we move to parliamentary stage where we discuss a motion. That step also needs to be for at least a week. Then, if we have a motion that has survived that discussion, then we have a vote, which also lasts for a week. We started this topic on October 20th. The earliest we could move to discussion of a motion would be tomorrow. Then that would mean that that discussion would be required to go until November 2nd and then a vote happen from Nov 3-10th. The BM ends on October 31st. If we are in the middle of a vote, then we have in the past extended the BM to allow voting to end outside of the month.  But this situation is not like that. 

There is also the consideration, that for issues that will make major changes to ASP, we are required to discuss them for 3 business meetings. There could be debate that this does not make a major change to ASP. But we are talking not only about stopping the practice of archiving shares or updating our website or greeting process to make it more clear that shares are archived, but about removing the existing archives, which is a permanent decision that cannot be undone. That seems pretty major. 

Last, there are a lot of strong feelings on this topic. And some are very long standing. I don’t really have any skin in the game and I am struck that very few people have considered the ramifications of removing the archives for our members. I appreciated Betsy and a couple other people who suggested that we give people warning to find another way to access ASP. But that is a minority of those that have had input. I don’t feel there is consensus on that issue. How much notice do we give? Do we pause archives first to make sure everyone can access ASP? Do you want to leave these details up to the SC? What about people who access the archives to find shares on a topic that they need more ESH on? It is just worth the trade off? I am the one who will have to deal with members on these issues, so I want you all to discuss and make sure there is a clear consensus in our group conscience. 

I understand that the slow nature of this process is frustrating. I am trying my best to follow the existing policies of ASP. While I understand that there are strong emotions involved, I hope the temperature can be turned down considering that the previous topic was how to get people to serve in these positions. I seriously contemplated resigning as Secretary and List Administrator today. 

Hugs,
Lynne

Sent from my iPhone