BEST PRACTICES for the General Assembly of the DNSO
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Prepared by William S. Lovell and Joanna Lane. Last revised Monday, August 27, 2001
The complete Best Practice document is at http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/20010813.GA-BestPractices.html
Time Line Guide The key Principle of Best Practices has been that of developing a process that, upon being followed through to a Vote, would yield a credible result. The things that can damage the credibility of a vote are legion, and the Internet presents its own new hazards. Chief among these are a lack of participation, endless discussion that gets nowhere, or alternatively some hurry-up job with little discussion at all. Indeed, at times there may be several "motions" being voted upon at once, without clear distinction between them. Endless discussion may be one cause of there being little participation: Because of what looks just like a Filibuster, by the time something finally reaches a vote too many people have lost interest. Conversely, the hurry-up vote may be another: Few know enough about the issue to hazard their votes. It thus seems to be a key part of any Best Practices to establish a Time Line Guide wherein time frames are set for each step of the process as shown in Part II - Flow Chart. This document sets out those guide lines for each of those steps. (In Part IV, the role of the GA Secretariat in keeping all these matters straight will be explained.)
| ACTION | MINIMUM | OPTIMUM | MAXIMUM |
| Discussion | 5 days | 7 days | 14 days |
| Poll | (fixed at 3 days) | ||
| Recognition of Proposal | (fixed at 24 hours) | ||
| Debate | 5 days | 10 days | 14 days |
| Poll | (fixed at 3 days) | ||
| Recognition of Motion | (fixed at 24 hours) | ||
| Debate | 5 days | 10 days | 14 days |
| Poll | (fixed at 3 days) | ||
| Debate | 5 days | 10 days | 14 days |
| Poll | (fixed at 3 days) | ||
| Recognition of Voting Procedure | (fixed at 7 days) | ||
| Debate | 7 days | 14 days | 21 days |
| Vote | (fixed at 7 days) | ||
| Report | (fixed at 48 hours) | ||