[nc-intake] Report on running meetings v3

["Philip Sheppard" <philip.sheppard@aim.be>]

I have updated our report on running meetings. And I propose to circulate this with the agenda for the 19 October meeting. Your comments / approval please by midnight Tuesday 2 October 2000.

Philip.

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Names Council Intake Committee

Report on guidelines relevant to meetings of the Names Council October 2000 version 3

Destination: this report is intended for discussion and adoption at the NC meeting 19 October 2000.

Implementation: the recommendations in this report are intended for implementation immediately after the NC meeting 19 October 2000 and will thus be in place for the NC meeting 14 November 2000.

 

 

Guidelines for running NC meetings

Meetings Schedule

Meetings must be scheduled by the NC chair with at least 14 days notice, except in emergency situations which shall be decided upon jointly by the NC chair and the Intake Committee.

Starting on January 1, 2001, and for every year thereafter, the NC chair shall finalise a schedule of all meetings during that calendar year by the last day of January of that year. NC members may request changes to the schedule during the year which may be agreed upon by the chair in consultation with the NC, subject to the minimum period of notice above.

In any given year, the time of the meetings may vary to accommodate the different geographic regions represented by Names Council members. By way of guidance start times corresponding to local time earlier than 06.00 and later than 23.00 should be avoided.

Voting and Quorum

The NC sees no reason at this time to seek a change in the simple majority vote and quorum for the NC specified in the by-laws VI-B 2(h).

Proxies

Rules for proxy voting are subject to a separate report.

Speaking at meetings

Both at physical and telephone meetings the NC chair will recognise three types of intervention in the following order of priority:

1. A point of order
2. A point of information
3. A normal substantive intervention

At a physical meeting, an NC member may raise a hand or during a teleconference an NC member may speak over the dialogue and say immediately "point of order". The chair will suspend discussion and hear the point.

Points of information and normal interventions. At a physical meeting, an NC member may raise a hand and wait to be recognised by the chair and during a teleconference an NC member may speak in an appropriate gap and say immediately "their name to speak". This will be noted by the chair who will invite the intervention in due course.

To ensure balance, the chair has the discretion to delay an intervention by a frequent speaker to allow others to speak. By way of guidance for the chair, a NC member is not expected to speak for more than three minutes at a time and the chair should solicit the views of other NC members before returning to the same speaker on any one issue. Such discretion should not be exercised for a "point of information". A point of information is for NC members seeking information from the chair or other NC members about meaning or procedure – it is specifically not intended to provide information.

Names Council chair

The NC chair will be elected by the members of the NC by simple majority vote and will hold office for a period of six months. One renewal, subject to a fresh vote, of six months will be allowed. A retiring chairman will not be eligible for re-election for a period of one year.

Seating

During in-person meetings, the NC Chair should be located so he/she can see all members. Specifically, the NC endorses a better seating arrangement for inter-NC communication than the "panel on a platform" favoured to date by host venues.