Re: [ga] Observations...

["Patrick Corliss" <patrick@quad.net.au>]

Hi Danny

Thank you for your observations.  I note that you have named a number of
people as in the following sentence:

> I was also quite dismayed to note that many our members who posted in the
> last month did not choose to vote:

I realise that this is all a matter of public record but I do think it would
be better if we all avoided naming people whenever there is any suggestion
of disapproval.  The very fact of naming, without more, can cause severe
emotional disturbances amongst members.

In fact, there should be no disapproval.  The nominated people did all cast
a perfectly valid vote.  They all voted to abstain.  Where we could have a
problem is if they MEANT to vote but didn't receive their ballot paper or
something of that kind.

There could also be a fault with the votiing process in that it did not
allow for the possibility of an abstention.  I really don't think all such
questions are simply YES or NO in form.

I know it is a great deal of work but I suggest that you conduct a private
survey of those who didn't vote to see if they want to expolain why not.
They you could publish the results in a summary report without naming
people.  I understand that is standard methodology.

Of course, there's nothing to say that they will repond to your survey,
either.

BTW I am responding to you on the main GA list.  Any future postings of this
type or on this subject should go to GA-RULES as that list is for internal
processes.

Regards
Patrick Corliss


----- Original Message -----
From: Danny Younger <webmaster@babybows.com>
To: <ga@dnso.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2001 8:31 AM
Subject: [ga] Observations...


> Lessons to be learned from the voting process:
>
> As I review the names of those who actually voted on the GA ballot
questions
> http://www.dnso.org/secretariat/b05fullrecord.html , I note that perhaps
> only 18 out of the 91 voters had posted any comments to the GA list in the
> last month.  Frankly, most of the voters are unknown to me.   Simply put,
a
> full 80% of those voting do not actively participate on our GA list.  You
> may want to think about why this happens to be the case, and forward some
> suggestions as to how we may make improvements.
>
> I was also quite dismayed to note that many our members who posted in the
> last month did not choose to vote:
> Appleby, Cade, Cochetti, Conant, Crispin, Crocker, Dassa, Dierker,
Edelman,
> Fausett, Froomkin, Gaetano, Gardner, Greenwell, Harris, Hernand, Kelly,
> Kelsey, Ladi, Langdell, Levin, Marsh, Meyer, Mueller, Narra, Neuman,
> Portneuve, Roberts, Schneiders, Semich, Sheppard, Sotiropoulos, Stoen,
> Stubbs, Svensson.
>
> You may also want to think about why regular contributors have decided not
> to participate in a vote.
>
> You may wish to also note that over 70% of the members on our voting
> registry decided not to vote.  Perhaps we need to look at this "registry"
> list, and ask ourselves if we need a mechanism to keep it "current".
>
> If we are going to transform this Assembly into a body that is reasonably
> functional and representative, we may need to re-think our approach.  I am
> open to further suggestions, observations, and comments on how we can work
> to improve our Assembly.


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