Meeting log for 2008-12-17

[Ian Jackson]

Jimmy Kaplowitz writes ("Re: Meeting log for 2008-12-17"):
> Please reread the announcement. It explicitly mentioned that there was a
> possibility of one or two associated project resolutions being brought up,
> where the associated projects in question had been discussed with the
> contributing membership and were viewed positively by them.

The exact wording of the relevant part of the announcement was:

  At the time of writing, zero motions have been raised, and there is one set of
  minutes to approve for the November meeting, currently linked from the agenda,
  as well as a correction to the attendee list from the October minutes. No
  regrets have been received. No president's report has been received. A routine
  treasurer's report is expected, as is a secretary's report relating to website
  volunteer status, and possibly one or two resolutions to grant SPI associated
  project status to free software projects who have approached us (already
  discussed on spi-private with the members generally supporting such status).

The names of the projects and the names of the people that we are
going to regard as the representatives, are not presented.

This message was sent 2 days before the meeting rather than the 7 days
that we should have expected for an announcement of a draft resolution
(which should have contained those details - although a draft version
those details was indeed sent to -private), or the 5 days that we
should have expected for an announcement of the meeting agenda.

Also if this the paragraph is to be regarded as an agenda, I would say
that it is not well-formatted.  2007-01-16.iwj.5 says that there
should have been a complete list of non-emergency business to be
transacted, and this running text format is not a list.  It makes it
very easy to overlook the meat of the business.

The agenda should have been sent 5 days in advance and should have
said:

  The following business will be transacted:

  1. Emergency business, if any arises
  2. Approval of minutes for the November meeting
     draft minutes: <###@lists.spi-inc.org> on spi-general
  3. Correction of attendee list in minutes for October meeting
     proposal: <###@lists.spi-inc.org> on spi-general
  4. Treasurer's report
     Not yet received
  5. Informal discussion of any other business
    - Secretary's comment on website volunteer status

  Report(s) not yet received are due by 20:00 UTC on 15th December.
  If not received by this point they will be considered at the next
  meeting instead.

  The Secretary is aware of the following potential business items
  which will now be deferred as resolutions/reports were not submitted
  by the cutoff:

  * Two Associated Projects, already favourably discussed on -private
     Next step to move forward, in both cases: Draft resolutions
      to be posted to -general

Ian.