On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 08:10:06PM -0400, Paul W. Frields wrote: >On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 07:56:12PM -0400, Tim Burke wrote: >> John Poelstra wrote: >>> >>> I wonder if the board would consider it reasonable to record the "yes" >>> and "no" votes by member when the vote is not unanimous? I also do not >>> think that someone should be able to abstain (which I think is more an >>> indication of lack of resolve or ambivalence). If we elect people to >>> make hard decisions they should do so... not ride the middle or "decide >>> not to decide". >>> >> Alternatively, perhaps abstain can be accompanied with a reason. For >> example, a case where a board member does not consider him/herself to be >> an informed enough expert on the topic and doesn't want a comparatively >> uninformed vote to tip the balance. In this case, which is better (or >> what is the expectation) >> >> a) expect that all board members are required to invest whatever time it >> takes to thoroughly understand ALL issues >> >> b) force board members to cast ill-informed votes >> >> c) allow board members to respectfully abstain in cases where they are >> honestly not well versed enough on the topic; deferring to the expertiese >> of others. > >It's pretty rare for us to have votes where *both* (1) a Board member >doesn't understand the issue at hand, *and* (2) no one else in the >call can resolve that member's understanding by answering questions. >By which I mean, if one doesn't understand the issue, abstention is >not as good as saying, "Can someone explain $ISSUE to me?". > >Typically we try not to push things to voting or decisions when there >are major questions still floating around. It's unfair not just to >the Board members but to the community too. For these reasons, I >think (a) is best but the expectation is on the Board as a whole to >have a shared understanding of the issues. There are cases where abstain is the right answer. For example, conflict of interest. It's quite rare, but it can (and has) happen. josh _______________________________________________ fedora-advisory-board mailing list fedora-advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-advisory-board
