CFC Procedure's Committee

[Bob Armstrong]

Eric has recently announced the formation of the CFC Procedure's Committee, with me as Chair, and Eric as member. We will be proceding as follows:

a) The “ Procedure's Committee “:

We will not be adding any more members at this time. Rather, the tasks to be done by this committee, will be handled through a number of Subcommittees. The reason for this is that I expect different people may be needed to do the different types of tasks that we want this committee to do. It is preferable to have a group of people do a task on a subcommittee, and then disband them and form a new subcommittee with new members to do task # 2, etc.. It is easier than trying to alter the membership of the main committee each time there is a new task. These subcommittees can report to me as Procedure's Committee Chair, and I will pass on everything that comes in to Eric as member of the main committee. Eric will sit on a subcommittee if he feels he wants to be more hands-on re a particular issue.

b) “ The AGM Modernization Subcommittee “ :

I have already formed this first subcommittee. I am its Chair. The members are Governor Chris Mallon and Governor Jason Lohner . Chris is already working on a draft of an alternate AGM model for the subcommittee to consider. I have also suggested to Jason that he develop an alternate model for us to discuss ( I haven’t heard back from him yet on this ). At present, I don’t intend to expand this subcommittee – I think the three of us should be able to develop a new AGM model. There has been continuous criticism of the rate of governor participation at the AGM, and of the proxy system of voting. The subcommittee will look at ways governors might be able to participate in the AGM from their own homes and /or how all governors might be enabled to vote on AGM motions other than through proxies.
Once we have a recommendation:
1. I will forward it to Eric to keep him in the loop;
2. the subcommittee will publicize it on the CFC Chess Forum to get input/feedback.
We’ll then consider what comes up, and develop a final proposal to report back to the main “ Procedure's Committee “. Then Eric and I can decide what we want to do with the recommendation.

c) “ The CFC Handbook Updating Subcommittee “:

Eric thought it might be good to bring the Handbook updating under the Procedure's Committee. It is merely reshuffling Maurice Smith’s title, but it may be preferable to him reporting directly to Eric, as now appears to be the case. It would relieve Eric of having to monitor Maurice's progress – I could now do that. Maurice will be the Chair of the subcommittee, and is presently its only member. I have written Maurice about this housekeeping restructuring, and that Eric would like him to fit into the new structure as a “ Subcommittee “, reporting to me. I’ve also asked him if he would like to get someone to assist him on the subcommittee – I don’t know if it is something that he can best do alone, or if he could make use of help. He might suggest someone, or else I could post on the CFC Chess Forum for a volunteer ( Or if Maurice prefers it be a Governor, I’d post on the Governors’ Discussion Board ). If he wants to do it alone, we can just leave him as a one-person subcommittee.

d) “ Governor Voting Modernization Subcommittee “ :

This is the third subcommittee. I will Chair it. I have asked Secretary Lyle Craver be a member. I know he is very busy, and likely cannot do any actual subcommittee work, but his opinions on things would be extremely helpful, since he has been CFC Secretary so long, and dealt with the GL’s. Chris Mallon has already indicated to me he would like to sit on this subcommittee as well, and I have written to ask him if he will join this subcommittee as well – he has technical expertise, and has dealt with governor voting from the President’s Chair for 1 ½ years – he will bring good experience to the issue. This subcommittee will look into the GL voting process during the year, between AGM’s. The GL system, all agree, is way out of date. We need to look at e-mail voting, which we now use in emergencies only, and possible Governors’ Discussion Board voting, which we currently use only for governor debating. This subcommittee will not become active until after the AGM Modernization Subcommittee has reported in. Its research will likely be of some assistance on the issue of voting generally, and we don’t want both subcommittees re-inventing the wheel simultaneously. I would be willing to expand this subcommittee a bit beyond the three of us I’ve named. I will confer with the existing members of the subcommittee once they have both agreed to sit. I could post on the Governors’ Discussion Board and the CFC Chess Forum for volunteers ( I see no reason an ordinary member could not sit on this subcommittee if they have some expertise, even though the issue is strictly about a governor item – governors’ voting ). But there should also be some review of where, and if, the GL’s fit into any new system, and this does involve the Executive/Governors’ method of reporting to the membership – so here the membership does have an interest.

This is not exciting stuff. But it does deal directly with governance of the whole organization, and any improvements will be helpful. It is expected that these subcommittees will take a bit of time to complete their tasks. So there will be no quick fix. But hopefully they will come up with some valid options which will bring CFC into the 21st century.

Bob