Subject: UK Usenet Committee
Summary: The constitution for the elected committee which oversees the
.maintenance of the uk.* hierarchy.
Supersedes: <DEp4t2.6n@clw.cs.man.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 1995 15:42:59 GMT
Expires: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 15:42:55 GMT


Archive-name: uk/committee
Posting-frequency: every 13 weeks

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

    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 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.


..THE UK USENET COMMITTEE

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

The person appointed as Control will be answerable to the Committee.

He will moderate the group uk.net.news.announce and, acting under the
name control@usenet.org.uk, shall be the sole person entitled to issue
valid 'newgroup', 'rmgroup' and 'checkgroups' control messages for the
uk.* hierarchy. He will perform all other duties set out in the
companion document GUIDELINES FOR GROUP CREATION WITHIN THE UK
HIERARCHY.

He will be ex officio a member of the Committee, but will not have voting
rights unless he also happens to be an elected or permanent member.


MEMBERSHIP

There shall be three 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) News Administrators

   A News Administrator is a person responsible for administering or
   overseeing the news system on a site. Sites which serve only 1 user, or
   which exchange news articles with only 1 other site do not count.

   The Committee shall include, as Newsadmin members, 3 such news
   administrators.

3) Open Members

   An Open Member is any person who is a reader of uk.* articles. There
   shall be 6 Open Members.

One third of each elected class of member shall retire each year (if more
than one third have not already served a full 3 years, the choice shall be
made by lot). Retiring members shall be eligible for re-election. Casual
vacancies shall be filled at the next annual election.


ELECTIONS

1) Each year during September, Control shall post to uk.net.news.announce a
   call for nominations for the News Administrators and Open classes of
   members.  Nominations shall remain open for three weeks, and each
   candidate must receive 4 nominations. Candidates for the News
   Administrators class must be nominated by other members of that class.

2) If the number of persons nominated in any class exceeds the number of
   vacancies, an independent vote taker from ukvoting@usenet.org.uk will be
   appointed by the Committee, and he shall be responsible for conducting a
   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 and to the
   uk-netnews-managers mailing list.

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.

   When the number of News Administrators amongst the continuing candidates
   has been reduced to the number of vacancies in that class, they shall be
   declared to be elected, but the election shall continue (i.e. votes
   should still be transferred to them, although they may no longer be
   excluded) until the full number of vacancies has been filled.

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

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. 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.
-- 
Charles H. Lindsey -------------------------------------------------------------
           At Home, doing my own thing.           Internet: chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk
Voice: +44 161 437 4506                           Janet:    chl@uk.ac.man.cs.clw
Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave., CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K.   UUCP:     mucs!clerew!chl
