Subject: Voting Procedures for uk.*
Summary: The officially recognised voting procedures to be used for
.determining issues such as newsgroup creation within the uk.*
.hierarchy.
Supersedes: <DKvBvu.Dqu@clw.cs.man.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 15:19:07 GMT


Posting-frequency: every 8 weeks

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

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


The following Voting procedures were accepted on 07 Aug 95 by a vote
conducted on uk.net.news with 91 votes in favour and 13 votes against.


..VOTING PROCEDURES WITHIN THE UK HIERARCHY

Hopefully, most newsgroup creation within the UK hierarchy can be done
without a vote. When dissention arises, however, voting may be the only
method of resolution, and hence these rules are provided.

Votes should be conducted by a third party, not involved with the topic. To
this end a panel of volunteer vote takers has been set up, accessible by
sending email to ukvoting@usenet.org.uk.

THE VOTE

1) AFTER the proper discussion period (see GUIDELINES FOR GROUP CREATION
   WITHIN THE UK HIERARCHY), and if a vote is considered necessary, a call
   for votes (CFV) may be posted to uk.net.news.announce and any other
   groups or mailing lists that the original RFD was posted to. The CFV
   should include all the items required for an RFD. It should be posted by
   a member of ukvoting@usenet.org.uk. It is the responsibility of the
   proposer to prepare the text, after negotiation with the vote taker. 

   The call for votes should state clearly the question(s) to be put, should
   include clear instructions on how to cast a vote, and must be completely
   even-handed as regagrds voting FOR or AGAINST or ABSTAIN (e.g. there must
   be no default vote).

2) The voting period should last for at least 18 days and no more than
   28 days. The exact date that the voting period will end should be stated.
   Only votes that arrive on the vote-taker's machine not later than that
   date will be counted.

3) A repeat of the CFV should be posted half way through the vote, but it
   must be a repeat of the same CFV on the SAME proposal (see #5 below).
   Partial vote results must NOT be included.  It is permitted to post a
   "mass acknowledgement" in which the names of all those from whom votes
   have been received are posted, so long as no indication is made of which
   way anybody voted.

4) ONLY votes MAILED to the vote-taker will count. Votes posted to the net
   for any reason (including inability to get mail to the vote-taker) and 
   proxy votes (such as having a mailing list maintainer claim a vote for 
   each member of the list) will not be counted.

5) Votes may not be transferred to other, similar proposals. A vote shall
   count only for the EXACT proposal that it is a response to. In particular,
   a vote for or against a particular newsgroup shall NOT be counted as a
   vote for or against a newsgroup with a modified name, charter,
   moderation status or moderator.

6) Votes MUST be explicit; they should be of the form "I vote for the
   group foo.bar as proposed" or "I vote against the group foo.bar
   as proposed". The wording doesn't have to be exact, it just needs to
   be unambiguous. In particular, statements of the form "I would vote
   for this group if..." should be considered comments only and not
   counted as votes.

7) A vote should be run only for a single group proposal. Several votes for
   related groups may be included in the same CFV, provided the voter has
   the opportunity to vote independently for each one. A particuler vote may
   be specified as being dependent on the result of an earlier one (e.g. the
   creation of a group may depend on the prior removal of some other group),
   but decision trees of excessive complexity should be avoided. The use of
   a Single Transferable Vote may be appropriate for choosing between
   several mutually exclusive alternatives.

THE RESULT

1) At the completion of the voting period, the vote taker must post the
   result to uk.net.news.announce, and to all the other groups or mailing
   lists that the original CFV was posted to. He must include the E-mail
   addresses and the names (if available) of all the voters, together with
   which way each one voted, so that the results can be verified.

2) AFTER the vote result is posted, there will be a 5 day waiting period,
   beginning when the voting results actually appear in
   uk.net.news.announce, during which the net will have a chance to correct
   any errors in the voter list or the voting procedure. If the vote was
   successful, and if there were no serious objections that might invalidate
   it, control@usenet.org.uk will issue the appropriate 'newgroup' and/or
   'rmgroup' control messages.

3) In normal circumstances, a vote will succeed if a majority of the valid
   votes are FOR and if the number FOR is at least 12 greater than the
   number AGAINST. If the vote does not succeed, then the Status Quo shall
   prevail (which usually means that a group is not created).

   Exceptionally, where there is no Status Quo to revert to (the matter HAS
   to be decided one way or the other) the Committee may sanction a vote
   requiring a simple majority.

4) All objections and appeals will be decided by the Committee. Their
   decisions will be posted to uk.net.news.announce.
-- 
Charles H. Lindsey -------------------------------------------------------------
           At Home, doing my own thing.           Internet: chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk
Voice/Fax: +44 161 437 4506                       Janet:    chl@uk.ac.man.cs.clw
Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave., CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K.   UUCP:     mucs!clerew!chl
