Re: [wg-c] consensus call results

["Rita M. Odin" <OdinR@arentfox.com>]

Jon,

I hate to argue with you, but you did not include the 3 abstentions in calculating the consensus.  There were 67 votes.  In order to have the 2/3 majority you need to meet your definition of rough consensus, you would need 44.666 (rounded to 45) votes.  It looks like you are, in fact ,one vote shy of reaching rough consensus.


Rita M. Odin
Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
202/857-8927
odinr@arentfox.com

>>> Jonathan Weinberg <weinberg@mail.msen.com> 12/18/1999 8:01:32 PM >>>
	As Eric has already posted, the final tally was 44 YES votes to 20 NO.  A
few thoughts:

	1. This surmounts the preannounced 2/3 barrier for rough consensus, and it
allows us to continue work.  We've got a lot of work left to do, Lord
knows.  But our process for doing it is simply that we reach points of
rough consensus one by one, and after settling each one we move on to the
next.  We surely haven't "settled" the 6-10 point in the sense that
everyone in the group is convinced of the rightness of that position, and
we don't have consensus in the sense of unanimity.  But as in Working Group
B, our vote has shown a sufficient (2/3) weight of opinion behind the 6-10
position to allow us to treat the issue as settled for purposes of the WG,
and to move on to the rest of the issues we have before us.

	2. FWIW, five members of the NC voted in their individual capacity as
members of the WG.  Their tally was 3 YES (Kleiman, Lindsay, Stubbs) to 2
NO (Chicoine, Sheppard).

	3. I think it's really important to recognize that we're *not* all of one
mind on these issues, and that there's a substantial minority within the WG
who believe (or fear) that we're going down the wrong path.  This process
will work only if we all find a way to reach out and find common ground.
If we just bull forward, each of us convinced of the rightness of his or
her views and unwilling to recognize the force of his opponents', we'll fail.

	4. In my note last week, I indicated that after we got through with this
vote, I wanted to move on to some informal straw polling on the
non-profit/for-profit issue.  A list member has suggested to me, off-list,
that it would be better to wait to do that until after we'd received the
public comments on the interim report.  Absent objection, I'm happy to wait.

Jon