[arin-ppml] [arin-council] AC Role in Petitions

[Owen DeLong]

On Apr 17, 2011, at 8:06 AM, Leo Bicknell wrote:

> In a message written on Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 02:50:42AM -0500, Jimmy Hess wrote:
>> That is, if the AC creates a rule that AC members shouldn't weigh in
>> or be counted
>> on petitions,  that's not part of the PDP, and  if an AC member
>> deliberately breaks
>> the AC rule  and files a response to support a petition,
> 
> I actually think the situation is a bit worse, and think the AC
> should seek guidence on how Robert's Rules work.
> 
> Robert's Rules guide how the AC conducts its meetings.  There is a
> concept of "Standing Rules" which are basically local details about
> meetings, or minor changes to Roberts Rules for a local meeting.
> The canonical example is "The meetings will start at 8PM on the
> second tuesday."
> 
> I do not believe anything in Robert's Rules can control conduct
> outside of a meeting.  A rule like "AC Members must speak in pig
> latin when speaking to any ARIN member" is just unenforceable.  This
> rule seeks to control AC member's conduct outside of a meeting
> (voicing support of a petition) and thus I believe is unenforceable.
> 
Actually, the rule specifically allows the AC member to express
support or opposition to the petition. What it seeks to do is to avoid
having that support counted as one of the 10 required statements
of support.

This may be an inconsequential subtlety, but, I think it should be
recognized that that provision was added to the standing rule
specifically to avoid muzzling or censoring the speech of AC members
while still attempting to accomplish the goal of preventing a
what was perceived as a potential for procedural manipulation
by a minority of AC members.

While I opposed the rule and continue to personally believe that
it is not a good rule, I feel that the AC acted with good intent and
in a manner that attempted to respect and support the diversity
of opinion of the AC members and not unfairly or unnecessarily
restrict our behavior or speech.

If the rule in question turns out to be malformed or an incorrect
tool for the job in question, I think that is an honest mistake
on the part of the AC and nothing more.

Owen