On Thu, Oct 6, 2022 at 8:45 AM John H Palmieri <jhpalmier...@gmail.com> wrote:
> There is nothing in our department's bylaws to provide for a delay of
> voting, but we have a chair and we have an executive committee, and the
> hope is that they care not only about the particular issue at hand, but
> also about the atmosphere in the department. So if someone asked for a
> delay, probably the executive committee would consider it and make a
> decision. That would not likely result in a vote on whether to delay, but
> just a decision to delay the vote, and probably to schedule some meetings
> for discussion.
On Thu, Oct 06, 2022 at 09:25:26AM -0700, William Stein wrote:
> Thanks! So it's basically this model that you already described:
> "Alternatively, we have a steering committee that steps in to make
> decisions, for example about the timing of votes, when there is
> disagreement." Having an elected steering committee is common in
> other software projects I pay attention to (e.g., Python and Jupyter).
As another data point, in section 12.8 of his book "The Design and
Evolution of C++", Bjarne Stroustrup describes an invocation of a
"delay a vote to the next meeting" rule in the ANSI/ISO C++ standards
committee (which at the time typically met about 3 times per year):
[[a proposal for extending the C++ language]] was presented at the
standards meeting in Seattle in July 1990. There appeared to be a
massive majority for making this the first non-mandated extension
to C++. At that point, Beth Crockett from Apple stopped the committee
dead in its tracks by invoking what is known as the "two week rule:"
Any member can postpone voting on a proposal that has not been in
the hands of the members at least two weeks before the meeting until
the following meeting. This rule protects people against being rushed
into things they don't understand and ensures that there will always
be time to consult with colleagues.
As you might imagine, Beth didn't gain instant popularity by that
veto. However, her caution was well founded, and she saved us from
making a bad mistake. Thanks! As we reexamined the problem after
the meeting, Doug McIlroy [[found a better solution]]
--
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currently on the west coast of Canada
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