[802SEC] policy on Closing SEC Meeting schedule
Paul,
My concern with the schedule of the Closing SEC meeting is serious. I feel I need to raise the issue to a new level of seriousness.
I object to the ad hoc process with which the schedule change has crept into our agendas. The scheduling option is not granted to the Chair, or even to a vote of the SEC. It is, instead, set in the 802 Rules: "The Monday morning and Thursday evening Executive Committee meetings during the Plenary session shall end no later than 10:30AM on Monday morning and at midnight on Thursday evening."
As March comes around, people are considering SEC commitments that they are willing to accept for the next two years. The 802 Plenary meetings are a significant part of the commitment. According to the Rules, that commitment ends at midnight Thursday. The recent convention of delaying the close until 7 pm on Friday extends that commitment by the better part of a day. Because of flight schedules, the net effect is, in many cases, an extension of an entire day. This is a big change. I can't say how it will affect our pool of SEC candidates, but I can tell you that, if the closing SEC meetings were definitively set to end at 7 pm each Friday, personal issues would not allow me to run for re-election as 802.16 Chair.
I appeal to you to follow the Rules unless and until they are changed.
As for this March, some groups have already planned Friday morning plenaries. If you feel it is essential to accommodate their plans on a one-last-time basis, then I request that we still complete the SEC meeting by 5 pm. In any case, I will be leaving at 5 pm and will request that all 802.16 motions be scheduled before 5.
Respectfully,
Roger
>Buzz,
>
>I agree that we ought to set a time and stick to it. However, we haven't done so yet.
>
>The 3-7 schedule popped up in Portland on an ad hoc basis. At that meeting, we discussed what to do about Austin. We took a pool, with the result:
>
>8-12 5
>1-5 0
>3-7 3
>
>After the poll report, the minutes say "Meeting time will be: 3pm to 7pm, since WGs are already planning on using the mornings for meetings." So, the sentiment was for an earlier start, but it seems a decision was made in deference to groups that had already planned (four months out) to meet Friday morning. The decision was a one-time decision, not a permanent one.
>
>If we want look at precedent, there is no better place than the rules. Let's not forget that the rules still say "The Monday morning and Thursday evening Executive Committee meetings during the Plenary session shall end no later than 10:30AM on Monday morning and at midnight on Thursday evening." The Portland minutes say "Friday SEC meeting moved to 3-7pm. Paul asks for input on rules change to set closing SEC meeting time." I think we need a proper rules discussion to put this issue to bed.
>
>In the meantime, we don't have a plan.
>
>Roger
>
>>Colleagues, Do we really need to replay this same discussion one more time??? We spent half an hour of our precious SEC meeting discussing this, and arrived at the Compromise of 3-7pm Friday. Let's not redo this again.
>>
>>
>>Thanx, Buzz
>>Dr. Everett O. (Buzz) Rigsbee
>>Boeing SSG
>>PO Box 3707, M/S: 7M-FM
>>Seattle, WA 98124-2207
>>Ph: (425) 865-2443
>>Fx: (425) 865-6721
>>Email: everett.o.rigsbee@boeing.com
>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: pat_thaler@agilent.com [mailto:pat_thaler@agilent.com]
>>>Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 2:05 PM
>>>To: stuart.kerry@philips.com; stds-802-sec@majordomo.ieee.org
>>>Subject: RE: [802SEC] Closing SEC Meeting for St Louis
>>>
>>>
>>>All,
>>>
>>>I suspect that the requirement to stay an extra night (or 2 nights for some
>>>working groups) to attend the Friday plenary is decreasing the pool of
>>>people who would be willing to take Executive Committee offices. Being there
>>>on Monday morning already eats into the weekend on the front end and some
>>>people come out even earlier to allow for Sunday meetings.
>>>
>>>When I first started chairing 802.3, we weren't nearly as efficient as we
>>>have become partly because we didn't have the tools (no laptops and no
>>>displays other than overhead transparencies) that expedite things today.
>>>Sometimes 802.3 didn't finish until 6 PM. An hour left enough time from the
>>>end of the meeting to the start of the SEC meeting though it meant I had to
>>>hurry.
>>>
>>>In the interest of splitting the pain fairly, I suggest that the SEC meeting
>>>start at 1 PM. I expect that chairs with Friday morning plenaries will find
>>>that by doing as much preparation as possible before their plenary they can
>>>get ready in 1 hour.
>>>
>>>And perhaps at the Monday SEC meeting in March there can be a discussion of
>>>whether to continue to schedule the closing SEC for the afternoon or whether
>>>to go to Friday morning. I think it would be better to make that kind of a
>>>decision at a plenary because of its effect on Working Group schedules.
>>>
>>>Pat