Re: [council] Regarding working group membership

[Cary Karp <ck@nic.museum>]

> Observers shall not be members of or entitled to vote on the working
> group, but otherwise shall be entitled to participate on equal
> footing with members of the working group.   In particular observers
> will be able to join the mailing list, and attend teleconferences or
> physical meetings."

If this applies without limit to the number of observers, a w.g.
meeting can easily end up with an unmanageably large number of
attendees. A few dozen people with equal right to speak means that even
the briefest turn around the table on a single question will take
substantial time.

Even in a situation where every single member of an unboundedly large
w.g. has significant expertise to contribute, the Town Hall model may
not provide the best basis for the focused determination of consensus
on the substantive issue(s) the group has been formed to address -- at
least not within the timeframes that w.g.'s are typically given to
complete their assignments.

A mailing list can readily absorb a large constituency and is likely
to be exempt from these concerns. The same might also apply to the
rather infrequent face-to-face meetings. Teleconferences are, however,
quite a different matter (also having potentially tangible central
budgetary consequence if equal footing also means that everyone is
provided with toll-free dial-in access). 

I very much support the initiative to provide a more nimble channel for
contributions from interested members of the community, but fear that
even if the current proposal may have that effect in form, it will
simply end up introducing other impediments instead.

(There is another somewhat more negative line of reasoning that might
also fairly be mentioned, but I won't pursue it beyond noting that this
model also leaves w.g. discussion vulnerable to special interest
domination.)

/Cary