Electronic Balloting Ad Hoc Committee Report

1
Electronic Balloting Ad Hoc Committee Report

• IEEE-SASB Meeting
• September 15, 2006
• Howard Wolfman

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Goal

• Each approval vote should represent the informed
  consent of a knowledgeable, informed expert
• If rules are forced to be other than compliance
  with the goal, the result will be uniformed
  voting.
• Legal requirements should not unduly burden or
  undercut the goal

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Involved Colleagues

• Comments received from
• Malcom Thaden
• Dave Ringle
• Rich Hulett
• Rick Townsend
• Bob Grow
• David Law
• Discussions with
• Bob Grow
• Geoff Thomson
• Claire Topp
• Bob Dwyer
• Bob Davis

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Background

• IEEE bylaw I-300.1(4) allows electronic voting as
  follows
• Unless otherwise provided in the Certificate of
  Incorporation, the Constitution, these Bylaws, or
  the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law of the State
  of New York, any action required or permitted to
  be taken by any board or committee of any
  organizational unit of the IEEE (other than the
  Board of Directors, the Executive Committee, the
  Major Boards, the Standing Committees and any
  other board or committee reporting directly to
  the Board of Directors) may be taken without a
  meeting. Unless a more restrictive voting
  requirement is specified in the governing
  documents of the board or committee, an
  affirmative vote of a majority of all the voting
  members of the board or committee shall be
  required to approve the action. The results of
  the vote shall be confirmed promptly in writing
  or by electronic transmission. The writings
  and/or electronic transmissions shall be filed
  with the minutes of the proceedings of the board
  or committee. Electronic transmission means any
  form of electronic communication, such as e-mail,
  not directly involving the physical transmission
  of paper, that creates a record that may be
  retained, retrieved and reviewed by a recipient
  thereof, and that may be directly reproduced in
  paper form by such a recipient.

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Issue

• IEEE Bylaws require an affirmative vote of a
  majority of the voting group (participants) in
  order for a vote to pass
• IEEE Parliamentarian position - IEEE rules must
  apply equally across the institute
• Some SASB voting groups number over 100 and not
  all members vote on an issue
• Example
• 400 members in voting group
• 240 members vote on email ballot
• 160 vote to pass issue
• Even though 160 is a majority of those voting, it
  is not a majority of those in voting group
  therefore the vote fails

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Vote Calculation

• yes votes
• Total participants (yes votes no votes
  abstentions)
• Yes votes must be at least a majority of the
  participants

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Proposal

• Ballot return rate shall be gt50 (including
  abstentions)
• Balloting shall be
• Yes
• Yes no
• Abstentions shall not be counted in either
  numerator or denominator
• Abstentions for reasons other than lack of
  expertise, may incur penalties for non
  participation

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How to proceed?

• Revise IEEE Bylaw I-300.1(4)
• Get extension for submittal date to Bylaw Review
  Committee (from Sept 15)
• Socialize with IEEE Parliamentarian
• Submit to Bylaw Review Committee for review at
  October 18 meeting
• Don Heirman to lead discussion at November IEEE
  BoD meeting