Item # 3 - Questions/Comments on the On-line Meeting Procedures

Item # 3 - Questions/Comments on the On-line Meeting Procedures

Below are the Meeting Procedures from the CFC Handbook – If at any time during the meeting a governor has a question around the procedures, please post it here and I will attempt to respond as Posting Secretary.

Governors’ On-line Meeting Procedures

CFC Handbook SECTION 2 –Rules and Regulations, Article One, section 22A – Procedures for Governors’ On-Line Meetings:

1. The Meeting

( i ) Meetings shall be held on the CFC Governors’ Discussion Board.
( ii ) Meetings shall be held from the 1st to the 7th of every third month, beginning with the CFC AGM in July ( whether that be a normal or on-line meeting ). The meeting will start at 11:00 AM on the 1st, and conclude at 10:00 PM on the 7th ( subject to a motion amendment extension ). All times in this motion are Eastern Standard Time, and where relevant, Eastern Daylight Time.
( iii ) There shall be a quorum of 15 governors to constitute a meeting.
( iv ) Motions will be passed during meetings, and such meeting extensions as may be required due to amending motions.
( v ) The President, or someone designated by him/her as an alternate, shall chair the meeting.
( vi ) The Posting Secretary will post the agenda items to be dealt with.
( vii ) Proposed agenda items will be sent to the Secretary by 6:00 PM, two days before the start of the meeting. The Secretary will assemble these suggestions and forward them to the President. The President shall draw up the meeting final agenda ( he may consult with the Secretary in doing this ). The President shall publish the agenda as soon as possible, before the meeting.

2. The Role of the Chairperson

( i ) The Chair will decide on procedural matters such as motions of order, when to close agenda items, whether to add items to the agenda after the deadline, adjournment, etc..
( ii ) The President shall initially abstain on all motion votes. However, in case of a tie vote on motions or elections, s/he shall have the tie-breaking vote.

3. Role of the Posting Secretary

The Secretary, or his/her designated alternate, shall be made a Governors’ Discussion Board Administrator. S/he shall post the meeting agenda, discussion threads and motion voting threads on the Governors’ Discussion Board as follows:

( i ) Posting of Meeting Agenda – As soon as the Secretary can, s/he shall post the agenda on both the Governors’ Discussion Board, and the members’ CFC Chess Forum.

( ii ) Agenda Items – each agenda item shall be a new thread. The opening agenda item will be “ Those Present “, where governors will sign in. It will be a “ sticky “ so it remains at the top of the page. The second last agenda item will be “ New Business “. The Chair will instruct the Posting Secretary whether to open a new thread on “ New Business “ items proposed ( i.e. whether there is sufficient meeting time left to deal with the item; etc.. ).
( iii ) Agenda Item Introductions – the Posting Secretary will post any preliminary introduction statement, giving relevant facts and issues, as the first post under agenda item headings. These will have been developed by the Secretary, in consultation with the agenda item proposer, in advance of the meeting.
( iv ) Motions – motions will be “ stickies “ at the top of the page, and will only be used for recording governor votes. No voting on motions can occur until after 9:00 PM on the 4th, to allow for initial discussion, and the filing of amending motions. After voting on motions has commenced, there can be no amending of the motion. Motions voting closes at 6:00 PM on the 7th. Discussion of motions will be under normal agenda item headings.
( v ) Amending Motions – motions to amend a tabled motion may be introduced up to 6:00 PM on the 3rd. A discussion thread for them shall be started. They shall be voted on by the normal motion vote closing time – 6:00 PM on the 7th. Once an amending motion is filed, the main notion sought to be amended shall be temporarily closed, pending the outcome of the amending motion.
( vi ) Motion Meeting-Extension – where a motion has been “ closed “ due to an amending motion, as soon after 6:00 PM on the 7th as possible, the Posting Secretary will reopen the motion, or if amended, start a new thread on voting on the amended motion. There will be no longer be a discussion thread for the unamended motion nor a new one started for the amended motion. The meeting will then be extended to 6:00 PM on the 10th to vote on this motion(s) ( and for no other business ). Voting on this motion(s) shall be closed at 6:00 PM on the 10th.

4. Agenda Item Summary

At 9:00 AM on the 6th, or as soon thereafter as possible, the President, or the Posting Secretary if asked by the President, will post a summary of the agenda item discussion, setting out the critical points and the majority view, if any, on any controversial issue. S/he will propose what action might be taken on the agenda item, if any, in his/her opinion. Governors will have until 9:00 PM on the 7th to respond to the President’s Summary,. Whether the President or Posting Secretary summarizes discussions during a meeting extension is optional.

5. Vote Results

As soon after the close of voting on motions as possible, the Posting Secretary will post the results of all motions, giving the names of governors and their vote, and confirm whether the motion passed or failed ( e.g. whether constitutional amendments achieved the 2/3 majority needed, and 50% quorum for non-AGM constitutional amendments ), on the Governors’ Discussion Board and the members’ CFC Chess Forum.

6. Meeting Minutes

Within 7 days of the close of the meeting, the Secretary shall prepare the Minutes of the governors’ meeting, and they shall be posted on the Governors’ Discussion Board, to allow for any corrections to be raised.. Notice by e-mail shall be sent to all governors once the Minutes are Posted. Governors shall have 3 days to post corrections or e-mail them to the Posting Secretary.

7. Governors’ Letters

After 3 days, the Minutes, as corrected if necessary, shall then be immediately published in a Governors’ Letter, to be posted immediately on the CFC Website. This may be combined with any other content the CFC Secretary wishes to publish at the same time. As well, the Governors’ On-line Meetings, will replace the tradition of motions being discussed and voted on in Governors’ Letters. Motions filed will now be for the next Governors’ Meeting, unless dealt with by e-mail.

Hi Chris:

I had to post on the regular board because you forgot to give me access posting rights to the special forum - I couldn't post anything.

Also, you did get me on as a board administrator before the meeting, so I can post stickies. But it didn't seem to work, or I did something wrong. So will you make the Agenda, and Item # 1 - Governor Sign-In stickies for me. You'll have to advise me what I may have done wrong, because I have to make the " poll " threads later on in the meeting, stickies as well.
Bob

I'm not sure what's wrong with it. If you can see the option, it should work, and it worked last time (right?) ...

On a related note, I wonder if the voting is still too rushed. Perhaps starting the voting on the 6th day, and having voting only continue until the 9th?

Hi Chris:

The experience at the last meeting was that much of the dialogue had died down by the evening of the third day ( Sunday , Oct. 3 ) and the majority of governors had visited by then - Monday, Oct. 4 will be a pretty quiet day likely, so starting voting at 9:00 PM EDT on the 4th day ( Monday, Oct. 4 ) works fine.

There is the added wrinkle of motions to amend a motion on the table. This requires a double vote, once on the amendment motion, and then on the main motion. So the rules provide for an extesion of the meeting solely to deal with the main motion voting - so we need these extended days set aside for this.

Bob
( P.S. thanks for putting up the stickies. I maybe did something wrong when I tried it. I'll just try again on Monday night with the voting agenda items, and hope they become stickies )

Since the governors' on-line meetings take place on the Governors' Discussion Bd., they are " confidential ". But even the CFC's AGM is not " confidential " - the public can attend, though can't speak unless recognized by the chair.

I think we should be open to the public attending our on-line meetings. Please post if you approve of this idea.

Chris, can you advise whether you can set up a " Public Governors' Meeting Forum ", like the members' CFC Chess Chat Forum, but with the restriction that only governors can post? Let us know, and then maybe this issue can move forward.

I'd be willing to propose a motion to this effect, with public meetings starting with the Winter ( January, 2011 ) Quarterly Governors' On-line Meeting, if there is support for the idea. One of the advantages of this new on-line meeting format is that motions can be raised, discussed, brought and voted on in one week ( rather than 9 months, under the old GL system ).

Bob

That would be easy to do, yes.

The actual motion that created on-line meetings, did it actually refer to whether or not they were "open to the public" or not?

We would also still have the private board for any "in camera" discussions that would be needed.

Hi Chris:

You may remember from being on the Governor's Voting Modernization Subcommittee that we had some discussions about public viewing of the on-line meetings. It was felt at the time that to maximize chances of governors implementing the on-line meetings, we should initially keep them " confidential ", like the Governors' Discussion Board, where we intended to hold the meetings.

So the Handbook procedures do assume a " confidential " meeting:

CFC Handbook SECTION 2 –Rules and Regulations, Article One, section 22A – Procedures for Governors’ On-Line Meetings:

1. The Meeting

( i ) Meetings shall be held on the CFC Governors’ Discussion Board.


So it seems to me I'd have to prepare a " housekeeping " type of motion that set out all the technical changes that would be needed throughout the section 22A to allow for it to be either private or public viewing - I actually don't think there are that many of them though - maybe just a couple of places. I could do it right away easily if there were enough governors asking me to bring the motion.

Bob

Motions have to be filed by 9:00 PM EDT tonight.

No governors have indicated support for going quasi-public with our meetings.

So maybe this needs more discussion before a motion.

Bob

Les Bunning has brought a motion 2011-A to amend motion 2010-03 re Life Governors. Procedure dictates that an amending motion must be voted on first, and then, according to the outcome of that vote, the man motion/amended main motion is then voted on. The meeting procedures now allow for a 3 day extension of this meeting to accomodate this reality.

But Bob G feels there has been still insufficient discussion on Les' amending motion and has therefore ruled that it will be put up " for discussion " initially, rather than for immediate voting tonight at 9:00 PM EDT. The discussion will then go on for a while and then there will be time set aside for voting on it, and then time allocated to voting on the main motion. The exact dates for this will be posted here once the actual wording of Les' motion has been decided upon and it has been posted.

As a result, Motions 2010-03 and 2010-04 will not be posted for vote at 9:00 PM tonight, but both will await the outcome of the eventual vote on Motion 2011-A. Once that is known, then both Motion 2010-03 ( or the amended motion ) and Motion 2010-04 will be posted for vote.

Bob.

I again found that my attempt to create sticky agenda items did not work. Please make Items # 11B, 16D, 23 & 24 ( voting items ) stickies for me.
Thanks.

Bob