Voting Over, Motion Passed: Amend the TalkBoard guidelines for timelag
 

Moved by kokonutz and seconded by MSPeconomist:


Whereas the TalkBoard would like to ensure that all posters have an opportunity to review and provide input on TalkBoard proposals before voting on them begins;

and whereas the best practice identified to accomplish this goal is a process under which a motion is made and seconded in the private TalkBoard forum and then the Community Director (or his/her designee) posts a site-wide announcement that the motion has been made and will be voted on and then 2 days later a TalkBoard voting period of 2 weeks on that motion opens in the private TalkBoard forum;

The TalkBoard recommends the following amendments to the TalkBoard Guidelines (new language underlined, struck language to be deleted):

C. Voting Procedures
i. Once a motion has been made and seconded and all aspects of the Public Notice Procedures in Section D. below have been completed, not sooner than 48 hours later the President shall post a sticky poll thread in the TalkBoard forum calling the question and announcing the vote. The thread shall be titled "Vote: [summary of motion]". In the first post on the sticky poll thread the President shall post the maker and seconder of the motion as well as the voting deadline and then restate the motion that has been made and seconded.

and

D. Public Notice Procedures
i. Once a motion has been made and seconded put before TalkBoard for a vote the Vice President/Secretary shall post a new thread in the public TalkBoard Topics forum announcing the vote along with the voting end date as quickly as feasible. Once that thread is posted, the TalkBoard Vice President/Secretary will submit a request to the FlyerTalk Host or representative to create an site-wide announcement of the vote with a link to the discussion/voting thread in the TalkBoard Topics Forum. The Announcement will be available until either voting is completed and a decision is made or the voting period ends.




This vote will close on Jan 28, 2015 , at 5:00PM CST or after all TalkBoard members have registered their vote, whichever comes first.

Per the TalkBoard Guidelines:

A motion shall pass if at least two-thirds of the yes or no votes cast by TalkBoard members are ‘yes’ and a majority of the total TalkBoard membership votes 'yes.'

The purpose of posting voting topics in the public TalkBoard Topics forum is to solicit member feedback on any motions that are up for a vote and to allow for comments after a vote is made. It is at the sole discretion of the individual TalkBoard members whether they choose to post in the public discussion thread, there being no requirement to do so.

So while there is already a thread and discussion on this general topic and it is safe to assume that TalkBoard members have reviewed that thread, this thread is about this specific motion.

Please feel free to post questions, comments or any other sort of feedback in this thread, or in the other discussion thread found: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...wn-period.html

Does anyone have comments, especially about the final wording here?

As I said in the private TB forum, it would be a delicious irony if the TB passed this motion in less than 48 hours after the site-wide announcement was made! :D ^

Well folk can have comments re: the overall motion, but given that the wording is what's in the motion comments re: the final wording don't really matter as the current wording/motion is what's being voted on by TB. koko posted the above in the discussion thread asking for comments before it was formally made a motion.

Cheers.

True dat :D :D But I'm sure someone will delay for a while, if nothing else to make sure that doesn't happen :p

Cheers.

I'm almost certain I'm going to vote yes, but in following my personal SOP of waiting to allow any comments on the motion to be considered, I'm deliberately waiting a bit. In fact, I wouldn't have seconded the motion if I didn't intend to vote for it.

However, YES, it would indeed be funny or at least ironical if the outcome of the vote were to be determined in less than 48 hours. In fact, that could happen very easily.

The final wording wasn't posted in TBT until shortly before the motion was made formally and seconded. IIRC the time difference was several hours, but I need to go back and check on that.

ADDED: I just checked and I don't think the final version of the motion (as above) was ever posted in the TBT "Suggestions on the TB voting process..." thread. The discussion ends with the final wordsmithing still being inconclusive and without an apparent consensus.

It doesn't really matter. Once a motion is made, what is voted on by TB is the motion/wording itself. Asking for comments re: wording post-motion/public announcement time doesn't make sense. I was a bit surprised you asked for comments on wording of the motion since you know that.

If there are any comments I think they'll be more along the line of, "sounds good", "what was the fuss about/why is this being done", "wish it had been a longer time frame before voting". But truthfully my money is on this won't get many comments at all. It's an administrative issue that 99% of FTers don't care about. However it solves a perceived problem without going overboard in response, which is why I'm supportive.

Cheers.

If there's a serious problem in the wording, sometimes we can do a friendly amendment. Or TB could decide to vote it down and then immediately begin a vote on a corrected motion.

Regardless--and in this case, there isn't much difference between the motion that was posted in TBT earlier and the final version--it's possible that people do react or want to contribute comments when then see the actual motion.

I prefer to see any comments by fellow FlyerTalk members before I vote on this topic as well.

I was also confused by the request for comments on the final wording.... the TB is voting on THIS motion.... and nothing else.

At the end of the day, I think this motion is much to do about nothing.... I have yet to see an example of where any Talkboard member has changed their viewpoint after a vote has been posted. The chance to "influence" our representative is during the discussion before the motion is made... once it is made, I bet voting decisions have been taken; even if not vocalized.

I am more concerned that our representatives do not always take part in the public discussions... so we do not always know what their position is on a motion. Some representatives are very active in the public threads and make it clear where they stand and where they can be influenced.

I would rather see the Talkboard set in place expectations that all representatives will publicly take part in the public debate.

All I feel this motion does is establish more bureaucracy. I guess the good thing is that there will most likely not be many discussions that will get to this stage.

If I see a vote underway, i'll look at the topic and vote. If I'm asked to wait two days, I very much might forget about it and not vote at all. Based on the # of votes for the Like button (eg few, relative to the # of posters), it would be in my humble opinion that I am against this. I'd rather have more votes (as a sample of the pop) then fewer votes*

*This comment made with my interpretation of the OP's comment.

Which is incorrect as the motion is about TB voting, not members, and building in a 2-day speed bump between motion announcement board-wide and TB balloting in order to give members time to offer their input on the matter at hand. I'd recommend more reading on the topic in the TB forum as there have been several 'snap' votes this year where the elapsed time between motion posting and motion garnering sufficient votes to be adopted is under 24 hours.

Yep, I agree. I've been arguing against this motion for a couple of months and I voted no on it.

And how would you compel public participation of TB members without changes to TB guidelines creating more bureaucracy?

That is however another separate debate for another thread and as to the motion at hand applaud TB for being willing to revise the way it interacts with the members it serves to encourage more input on motion before voting and hope it is adopted.