2024-11-13 Voting rules

Background:

• FOLIO governance provides no rules around voting: FOLIO Governance Model#TechnicalCouncil
• Voting norms are established by us here: Technical Council - Governance Decisions
• For comparison, product council rules are here: Product Council I couldn't find rules for Community Council

Ingolf would like the same voting rules that other councils use.

Maccabee points out that TC has agreed that Slack voting is allowed, but only after a possibility for discussion.

Craig don't want to change the voting rules whenever the TC member changes.

Jenn: Without Slack voting peope are motiviated to attend the meetings.

Ingolf: Knowlegable abstention is quite different from an absent member not voting.

Jakub: We might have a standard rule and the option that any member can request a higher quorum.

Craig: If absent members sent a proxy we can keep the 7 votes rule.

If a majority of a quorum decides this can be a small fraction of the TC; this seems odd for serious decisions.

Marc: Some people have a problem to find a proxy. The chairs might designate a proxy if the member doesn't provides a proxy.

Jakub: The quorum is needed to have a informed decision by getting feedback from all groups represented in the TC.

Tod: A proxy can not only be from the same organisation, it can be another TC member or a person from a different organisation. And Slack voting should be allowed.

There are different opinions whether Slack voting slows down the decision making.

Do we want Slack only voting, or Slack voting as a fallback when we don't reach a quorum/majority in the meeting.

An abstention can cause a loss of a quorum, this is more powerful than a no, but as powerful as an absent.