Membership Message

[Guy Steele <gls@THINK-AQUINAS.ARPA>]

    Date: 10 Mar 86  2024 PST
    From: Dick Gabriel <RPG@SU-AI.ARPA>


    Scott's version of the message brings out more clearly the point I
    understand poorly: How are X3J13 and the technical committee related?  The
    technical committee labors to produce a document, and X3J13 votes on it?
    Is it a majority vote? A super-majority vote?

    This point requires more discussion in the message, and I didn't include
    it because I didn't know it.

			    -rpg-

I wondered about this too.  It seems to me that once X3J13 is formed it
can vote on any stupid thing it pleases.  (I don't know what ANSI's
official rules for conducting meetings and votes are, but X3J11 operated
by Robert's Rules, informally construed, when formally aking votes.
Most of the work got done in Committee of the Whole, during which time
the chairman had the prerogative of declaring a vote too close to be
meaningful and continuing debate.  The formal part usually consisted
merely of ratifying the committee's report, although sometimes those
formal votes contained surprises.)

Anyway, it seems to me that logically the best we can say is that this
technical committee we have nominated is intended to fill the gap until
X3J13 can really get underway, to provide clarifications and suggested
changes for X3J13 to work with.  This preliminary technical committee is
our only hope of producing a revised edition by 1987, as the ANSI
committee probably cannot produce anything until 1988 at the earliest, I
should think.  (It would be nice if someone could prove me wrong.)
--Guy