Re: [ga] Re: Documentation request

[DPF <david@farrar.com>]

On Mon, 13 Aug 2001 19:13:34 +0000, "Roberto Gaetano"
<ga_list@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I don't know about "the powers that be", but speaking for myself I don't 
>have problems with the "people" behind the proposal as individuals, but with 
>their lack of representativity of the population they claim to speak for, 
>together with the lack of capability to aggregate new forces and new 
>subjects.
>You rightfully mention that the proposal has been floating around for 2+ 
>years, and in fact the numbers behind it have not grown substantially.
>
>Until we are not able to present a proposal that can have the support of a 
>substantially higher population (by involving consumer organizations, user 
>groups, other individuals) "the powers that be" will have at least a good 
>excuse for not recognizing the constituency.

There is a chicken and an egg situation here.  Because previous
efforts have been so futile many people have given up and there is
little capacity to attract people and resources.

However if approval in principle was given to a constituency along
with agreement on the basic structure then that would be a different
matter.  

The approval in principle could be done so that no voting rights
accrue to the constituency until it has say 500 or 1,000 members.  But
with that knowledge that once we get that many we will be recognised,
I am very confident that is achievable.

Don't you see the self fulfilling prophecy of the status quo that
applications are doomed to fail because not enough people are involved
and not enough people are involved because the applications are doomed
to fail?

The way to break the cycle is through a three step process IMO

1) Acceptance that there is no reason individual registrants should be
barred from voting rights in the DNSO by having no constituency

2) Approval of some key aspects of a registrants constituency such as
membership eligibility, minimum size, regional variation, funding etc

3) Then once that approval is given the actual constituency self forms
and a final proposal is submitted to the Board.

As I say though (3) will not happen without (2) and (1).  

DPF
--
david@farrar.com
ICQ 29964527
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