[Imc] Definition of membership

[Ellen Knutson]

At 06:45 AM 9/20/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>On another tack, I think that we should be cautious in using the
>membership meeting as a venue for presenting new policies or proposals
>being made outside of the already existing decisonmaking structure at
>the IMC, which provides numerous, weekly opportunities to build
>consensus for policies and proposals like this. The membership meeting
>was originally designed to review the existing structure document and
>empower the structures to manage the day-to-day business of the IMC.
>
>This proposal would have been more properly introduced at a Finance
>meeting. There is still time to do that, although there may not be time
>before the membership meeting to fully engage our newly adopted Conflict
>Resolution policy if Paul finds that his proposal doesn't find favor
>among others at the Finance and Steering group levels. However, if the
>proposal meets with difficulties, this might be some indication that
>consensus on it will be lacking at the membership meeting level in any
>case, in which case introducing a proposal that is already known to lack
>the possibility of consensus would probably be counter-productive.


I have to respectfully disagree with Mike on this point. The structure 
document is entirely within the realm of the membership AS as decision 
making body. The structure affects the entire membership and therefore they 
are the only group that has authority over making changes or not. Indeed 
this is even stated in the document itself.  SO I don't think Paul is 
taking things outside of the already existing decision making structures. 
In fact I was the person who told him that the membership meeting was 
indeed THE PLACE for such a modification to be made or for the group to 
decide that it is not a necessary modification.

While I do think that it is often not a bad idea to have discussions with 
another group about whether they would back you on a proposal, I also don't 
think it should be a prerequisite for a member to bring up an agenda item 
at the membership meeting on a topic that the membership would have to 
approve. Especially when done in advance (as Paul has done--he sent me an 
individual email asking about the appropriateness of it as soon as I sent 
out my initial proposal for the membership meeting), so the people 
coordinating the meeting have a chance to put in the agenda.

Cheers,
Ellen