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Newsgroups: uk.net.news.announce,uk.answers,news.answers
Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!peernews.mcc.ac.uk!news.mcc.ac.uk!clerew!chl
From: [e-mail] (Charles Lindsey)
Subject: UK Usenet Committee
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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Summary: The constitution for the elected committee which oversees the
    maintenance of the uk.* hierarchy.
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Sender:  "Charles Lindsey" <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 12:53:38 GMT
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Archive-name: uk/committee
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Last-modified: Mon Dec  1 20:19:42 GMT 2003

The procedures for coordinating newsgroup management within the UK hierarchy
are contained in four documents, of which this article contains the third.

    GUIDELINES FOR GROUP CREATION WITHIN THE UK HIERARCHY
    <http://www.usenet.org.uk/guidelines.html>
    <ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-info/news.answers/uk/guidelines>
    VOTING PROCEDURES WITHIN THE UK HIERARCHY
    <http://www.usenet.org.uk/voting.html>
    <ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-info/news.answers/uk/voting>
    THE UK USENET COMMITTEE
    <http://www.usenet.org.uk/committee.html>
    <ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-info/news.answers/uk/committee>
    GUIDELINES FOR UK USENET MENTORS
    <http://www.usenet.org.uk/mentors.html>


The following Committee document was accepted on 07 Aug 95 by a vote
conducted on uk.net.news with 76 votes in favour and 23 votes against.
It was amended by further votes on 19 Apr 97, 10 Feb 98, 19 Apr 2000, 9
May 2001, 1 Oct 2001 and 5 Nov 2003.

The Committee elected in October 2002 comprises

Permanent members
    For BTnet -    Martin Stewart
    For Demon -    Clive D. W. Feather
    For Energis -    Euan Galloway
    For PSINet -    No current representative
Ex Officio as Control
    Dave Williams
Open members
Until Dec 2003
    Dave Mayall
    Peter Corlett
Until Dec 2004
    Charles Lindsey
    Alan Ford
Until Dec 2004 or Dec 2005
    Geoff Berrow
    Thomas Lee
    Andrew Gierth
Until Dec 2005 or Dec 2006
    Graham Drabble
    Fiona Gostling (aka 'Kat')
    Chris Croughton
    Jim Clokey (aka 'Lt. Cmdr. Jim')

The Committee as a whole may be reached by email to [e-mail].
The Committee has appointed Dave Williams to act as Control with Charles
Lindsey as Deputy Control. Control may be reached at [e-mail].

        THE UK USENET COMMITTEE

The following words where used in this document have the precise
meanings shown here:

SHALL  - any CFV which fails to follow this guideline will be invalid
SHOULD - in all but exceptional or unusual cases a CFV ought to follow
         this guideline
MAY    - whilst this guideline is acceptable practice, it remains optional

Terms Of Reference

The remit of the UK Usenet Committee is to provide leadership in policy
concerning the uk.* news hierarchy.

The committee is concerned with issues such as naming, voting and management
of the hierarchy.

It will monitor the naming of new groups to insure they fit in with
an acceptable structure.

It will ensure that the rules for group creation are documented,
followed and applied.

It will appoint, and oversee the work of, the person to act as Control.


Control

1) This position will be filled by two people to act as Control & Deputy
Control, with the Deputy filling in for Control when he/she is unable to
perform the role.

2) They will moderate the group uk.net.news.announce.

3) Acting under the name [e-mail], they will be the only
people entitled to issue valid 'newgroup', 'rmgroup' and 'checkgroups'
control messages for the uk.* hierarchy.

4) They will perform all other duties set out in the companion document
GUIDELINES FOR GROUP CREATION WITHIN THE UK HIERARCHY.

5) They will be ex officio members of the Committee. They will not have
voting rights unless they also happen to be elected or permanent
members of the Committee.


Membership

There shall be two classes of member of the Committee.

1) Permanent Members

   The UK Network is topologically a star network, with a few central sites
   on an "inner ring" who feed news to their own branches, and with
   relatively little cross-communication between branches away from the
   root. Inevitably, those few central sites are in a position to control
   what goes out to their own branches, and are therefore classified as
   Major Service Providers.

   The Committee shall include, as Permanent Members, one representative of
   each Major Service Provider, up to a maximum of 4 permanent members.

2) Open Members

   An Open Member is any person who is a reader of uk.* articles. There
   shall be 9 Open Members.

   At each annual Committee Election, all open members who have served a full
   3 year term shall retire from the Committee. If at this point there are
   fewer than three vacant seats then the longest serving member(s) will
   retire (ties to be broken by lot) as needed to create three vacant seats.
   Retiring members shall be eligible for re-election.

   For the purpose of this document, the term of service of an Open Member is
   counted from the most recent date they were elected or co-opted; for
   elected members this is the date of becoming a full member, not a
   Committee-Elect member.

Any newsadmin members already on the Committee will be allowed to
serve out their term as open members but no new newsadmins members
will be elected as from the date this proposal is adopted.


Co-opting Committee Members

The Committee has the authority to co-opt members if a vacancy exists on
the Committee (either through retirement from the Committee, Votes of No
Confidence in the Committee, positions not filled at the annual
election).

The Committee should place an announcement of "Intention to Co-Opt"
within uk.net.news.announce, uk.net.news.config & uk.net.news.management
with a 7 day notice period detailing the person(s) to be co-opted and
the reasons for the co-opting.

The person can be co-opted after the 7 day notice period unless Control
receives 10 valid objections, or any objection which seems to the
Committee to be well founded.

The committee has the authority to co-opt members for the Open class.
A co-opted Open member shall retire from the Committee at the next election
after their co-option. The Committee SHALL NOT issue an "Intention to Co-Opt"
notice for the Open class from the date that the call for nominations for the
election is issued until the newly elected members have taken their places as
Committee-Elect members.

Elections

1) Each year during September, Control shall post (on behalf of the votetaking
   organisation) to uk.net.news.announce a call for nominations for the Open
   class of members. Nominations shall remain open for three weeks, and each
   candidate must receive 4 nominations; each nominator may nominate at most
   as many candidates in each class as there are places within that class in
   the election.

2) If the number of persons nominated exceeds the number of vacancies the
   votetaking organisation shall be responsible for conducting an independent
   vote in accordance with the companion document VOTING PROCEDURES WITHIN THE
   UK HIERARCHY, insofar as they are applicable. Voting shall take place
   during October. The CFV shall be posted on uk.net.news.announce,
   uk.net.news.management, uk.net.news.config, and to the uk-netnews-managers
   mailing list.

   The elected committee members should take their places on the Committee
   from the date of the Results being published as Committee-Elect members.
   From the 1st January in the year following the election the retiring
   members of the Committee should relinquish their positions and the
   Committee-Elect members should become full Committee members.

3) Each candidate shall be entitled to have a statement of no more than 1
   kilobyte included within the CFV.

4) If there are more than two candidates for a position, the Single
   Transferable Vote system shall be used (see "How to conduct an election
   by the Single Transferable Vote" obtainable from the Electoral Reform
   Society). The requirements for the size of the majority as contained in
   the VOTING PROCEDURES do not apply.

   Where the Electoral Reform Society's rules call for a quota or the value
   of a vote to be truncated to two decimal places, it shall be acceptable
   to retain them as real numbers. Any algorithm which gives the same result
   as those rules may be employed.

5) The results shall be published in such a manner that it may be seen who
   voted, but only individual voters will be able to recognise and confirm
   their own votes.

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 the votetaking organisation,
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 votetaking organisation shall invite the Committee to submit a Response of
no more than 800 words, which they must do within 7 days. When they are
satisfied of the identity of the proponents and that all other required
conditions have been met, the votetaking organisation shall prepare a CFV
containing the names of the proponents, their Rationale, the Committee's
Response, 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 votetaking organisation
finds exceptional reason to extend it. The votetaking organisation 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 votetaking organisation.

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.

Rule Changes

Any changes to these rules, or those in the companion documents, shall be
proposed in an RFD in accordance with the GUIDELINES FOR GROUP CREATION
WITHIN THE UK HIERARCHY, insofar as they are applicable. RFDs for rule
changes shall be discussed in the newsgroup uk.net.news.management, and
this will be the definitive record of discussion.

If the change is trivial, or an obvious consensus has emerged, then the
"fast track" method may be invoked. However, if a petition to have a Vote
is received from 4 or more people, then the matter shall be decided by
vote.