09 May 2001: Motions of No Confidence
From: Alex Holden <vote-noconf@rdns.org.uk>
Date: Wed, 09 May 2001 13:41:15 +0100
Subject: RESULT: Motions of No Confidence: Main proposal PASSES,
Newsgroups: uk.net.news.announce,uk.net.news.config,uk.net.news.management
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RESULT OF CALL FOR VOTES
Summary: Motions of No Confidence: Main proposal PASSES, Option A PASSES
Option B PASSES
PROPOSAL - Include Motions of No Confidence text PASSES (53:10)
OPTION A - Publish results in same format as Committee elections PASSES
(35:23)
OPTION B - Allow Motions of No Confidence in Control PASSES (36:24)
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Voting closed at 23:59:59 BST, 28th April 2001.
Proponent: Charles Lindsey <chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk>
Primary Votetaker: Alex Holden <vote-noconf@rdns.org.uk>
Secondary Votetaker: Jim Hill <vote-noconf@jhc.org.uk>
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Distribution:
uk.net.news.announce, uk.net.news.config, uk.net.news.management
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The Results:
The results follow below in the following order:
1) Results
2) Particulars of the Vote
3) Votetakers Comments
4) Voting and Appeal Guidelines
5) Rationale & Proposed Charter
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RESULTS:
PROPOSAL - Amend Committee document to include Motions of No Confidence
YES : 53 votes
NO : 10 votes
ABSTAIN : 0 votes
Total : 63 votes
YES beat NO by a majority of 43 votes. For passage, there must be 12
more YES votes than NO votes. Accordingly, this proposal PASSES.
OPTION A - Publish vote results in same way as Committee elections
YES : 35 votes
NO : 23 votes
ABSTAIN : 5 votes
Total : 63 votes
YES beat NO by a majority of 12 votes. For passage, there must be 12
more YES votes than NO votes. Accordingly, this proposal PASSES.
OPTION B - Allow MONC in Control
YES : 36 votes
NO : 24 votes
ABSTAIN : 3 votes
Total : 63 votes
YES beat NO by a majority of 12 votes. For passage, there must be 12
more YES votes than NO votes. Accordingly, this proposal PASSES.
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Motions of No Confidence Vote Details
Name Address P A B
- ---- ------- -----
{R} {R} voting semolina ogr Y N Y
- -=3D-peas-=3D rob piethief oc ku Y N =
N
Alan Fleming af etrigan ogr Y N N
Alex D. Baxter alex-news oenone demon oc ku N Y N
Andrew Gierth andrew erlenstar demon oc ku N N N
Andrew Hartley andy eastupham freeserve oc ku Y Y Y
Andy Mabbett andy pigsonthewing ogr ku Y Y Y
Andy Roberts andy roberts zetnet oc ku Y Y Y
Arwel Parry arwel cartref demon oc ku Y N N
Barry Dorrans barryd bann oc ku Y Y Y
Barry Salter ukvotes salterg demon oc ku Y Y Y
Ben Whyte ben funky-badger ogr Y A Y
Bill Carter carterwilliam talk21 moc Y Y Y
Bill Muskett bill muskett which net Y Y Y
Charles Bryant noconf vote ch chch demon oc ku N N N
Charles Lindsey chl clw cs man ca ku Y N N
Chris Bannister cj moodog ogr ku Y Y N
Colin Rosentiel rosenstiel cix oc ku N Y N
Dave Millard dave focus3 ku moc Y Y Y
Dave Mills davemills ravesw demon oc ku Y Y Y
Dave Sparks dave Sparks sisyphus demon oc ku Y Y Y
David Mahon noconf_vote amigo oc ku Y N Y
Eddie Bernard usenet ebernard greatxscape net Y Y Y
=46rankie Roberto frankie roberto lineone net Y Y Y
Graham Drabble graham drabble lineone net Y N Y
Grant Mason grant mason sh Y Y Y
Iain Bowen alaric alaric ogr ku Y Y Y
Ian Chard ichard cadence moc N Y N
Jack Howard {J} stormshadow oc ku Y N N
James Coupe james zephyr ogr ku Y Y Y
Jeffrey Goldberg jeffrey goldmark ogr Y N N
Jezza jezza hotwells freeserve oc ku Y N Y
JL jeff maerdy ogr Y Y N
John B jcb avism demon oc ku Y N N
John S. Robertson Secretary talyllyn oc ku Y Y N
Jon Thomson jon thomson2273 freeserve oc ku Y Y Y
Jonathan Wheeler J F Wheeler rl ca ku Y N N
Keith Willoughby keith flat222 ogr Y Y Y
lachlan lachlan excommunicant oc ku Y Y Y
Malcolm Mladenovic mbm tinc ogr ku N N A
Mark Goodge mark good-stuff oc ku Y N N
Mark Tyndall mrt102 york ca ku Y Y Y
Martin Biddiscombe martin priatel globalnet oc ku Y N Y
Michael Farthing mf cyclades demon oc ku Y Y Y
Mike Fleming mike tauzero oc ku Y A Y
Neil Fernandez ncf borve demon oc ku N N A
Nick Regan nick nregan oc ku Y Y Y
Owen Rees owenrees waitrose moc Y Y N
Paul Cummins paul cummins ie eu ogr Y Y Y
Paul Harris paul harrisp demon oc ku Y Y N
Pekka P. Pirinen ppp pirinen demon oc ku N N N
Peter Gradwell peter gradwell moc Y Y Y
philip.j.page philip j page btinternet moc N A A
Richard Clayton richard highwayman moc N N N
Richard Kennaway jrk sys uea ca ku Y A Y
Richard Kettlewell richard+noconf sfere greenend ogr ku Y Y Y
Rob Linham robert linham sjc ox ca ku Y Y N
Thomas Lee tfl psp oc ku Y N N
Tim Forcer tmf ecs soton ca ku Y N Y
Tom Harris t harris iname moc Y N Y
Tony tony darkstorm oc ku Y Y Y
Tony Towers tony cats tele2 oc ku Y A N
Tony Walton tony walton ku sun moc Y Y Y
Total votes cast: 63
(P=3DProposal, A=3DOption A B=3DOption B)
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Votetakers' Comments:
Not the largest of turnouts for a management ballot, but easily the=20
busiest vote that I have had to handle yet. Thanks to the system
employed by UKVoting of logging and archiving each vote before being
forwarded to the votetakers one vote that had gone astray between the
UKVoting server and the votetakers' ISP was detected as missing.
This vote was subsequently retrieved and counted.
On this occasion all voters voted correctly and no votes were rejected.
My thanks to Jim Hill for more than competently running secondary
on this vote and for processing the vote acks on my behalf.
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This vote was conducted by two neutral third party members of UKVoting.=20
UKVoting is a group of independent votetakers who count votes on behalf=20
of the uk.* hierarchy and other 3rd parties. =20
The rules under which votes for the uk.* hierarchy are taken are posted=20
regularly to uk.net.news.announce or can be found at the following URL:
<ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-info/news.answers/uk/voting>
The UKVoting web pages can be found at <http://www.ukvoting.org.uk/>
There is a five day discussion period after these results are posted to
uk.net.news.announce. Allegations of irregularity should be sent to
control usenet.org.uk.
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RATIONALE:=20
Some years ago, there was a motion of No Confidence in the
Committee (which failed to be carried by a large majority, as it
turned out). At that time, there were no rules in place for the
conduct of such motions, and so the procedures were worked out on
the hoof, as it were. This lack of proper process enable the
Proponent to argue endlessly about what was or was not proper,
and to spin the process out over many weeks by arguing about the
precise wording of the CFV.
Various proposals were put forward subsequently to regularise
the situation, and even some RFDs were started, but never
carried through to completion. Hopefully, this present proposal
will finally regularize the matter.
Some points to note:
1. The wording has been kept as short as possible,
consistent with doing the required job.
2. A fixed and unalterable time schedule is laid out. There
is no way it can get spun out.
3. The exact wording of the RFD and CFV are to be established
before the process even starts.
4. The whole thing is conducted by ukvoting.
5. There is a moratorium on such motions during the annual
Committee elections, and for three months after any
previous such motion.
6. The proponent must state what effect his motion is expected
to achieve. There are too many possible scenarios to list
them all in detail, but resignation of the Committee,
dismissal of Control and reversal of some disputed decision
are obvious possibilities.
7. Nothing is said about enforcement, simply because there is
no machinery available to enforce anything on Usenet. But, in
practical terms, no Committee could expect to get away with
ignoring the result totally (though they might not take
exactly the action "expected").
8. There is an optional wording, as requested in the straw=20
poll, requiring anonymizing of the results, as with
Committee elections. Personally, I shall likely vote against
it.
9. There is a second optional wording, again as requested in
the straw poll, allowing a motion of no confidence in
Control. Again, I shall vote against this - Control is
appointed by the Committee, and it is up to them to dismiss
him (or stand by him as the case may be). Moreover, there is
now the mechanism in place for the proponents to indicate
that dismissal of Control is their aim.
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PROPOSAL: [Votetaker's Note: The two optional wordings voted on are
encased in square brackets]
In the document "The UK Usenet Committee", between the sections
headed "Elections" and "Rule Changes", insert the following new
section:
Motions of No Confidence
A Motion of No Confidence in the Committee may be proposed by
any 9 identifiable individuals, who shall submit it to
ukvoting usenet.org.uk, together with a Rationale of no more
than 800 words. The rationale shall include a statement of the
actions they expect to ensue should the motion be carried.
The votetaker appointed by ukvoting shall invite the Committee
to submit a Response of no more than 800 words, which they must
do within 7 days. When he is satisfied of the identity of the
proponents and that all other required conditions have been met,
the votetaker shall prepare a CFV containing the names of the
proponents, their Rationale, the Committee's Rebuttal, and a
vote allowing a choice between "I have Confidence in the
Committee", "I have No Confidence in the Committee" and "I
abstain from this vote". The voting period shall be 18 days
unless the votetaker finds exceptional reason to extend it. The
votetaker shall also prepare an RFD containing the same
material, specifying a discussion period of exactly 10 days,
which shall then be posted by Control to uk.net.news.announce,
uk.net.news.config and uk.net.news.management only, with
followups set to uk.net.news.management where all discussion
will take place. The CFV shall be posted as soon as possible
after the 10 days are up (with a 2nd CFV at the usual time).
The vote shall then proceed in accordance with "Voting Procedures
Within the UK Hierarchy", except that a simple majority shall
suffice to determine the result, [that the results shall be
published in the same format as the results of committee
elections,] and that all appeals and objections shall be decided
by the panel of UK votetakers.
A motion of no confidence may not be proposed once the annual
call for committee nominations has been issued until one month
after the newly-elected members are fully installed, nor may it
be proposed within three months of the announcement of the result
of any previous such motion.
[A Motion of No Confidence in Control may be proposed using the
same procedure.]
END PROPOSAL.
Cheers,
- --
Alex Holden <vote-noconf@rdns.org.uk>
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