[H-GEN] Re: Constitutional amendments

[Paul Gearon]

> >   *  Should nominees for Executive positions be known before SGMs (or
> >      AGMs)?
> 
> Yes. Any executive positions falling vacant should be made with the
> original announcement of the position, giving two weeks for people to
> get nominations in, then another two weeks for people to work out which
> nominee they prefer.
> 
> Not knowing who's going for a position more than five seconds in advance
> makes proxies kinda pointless. Not knowing that there's a position to be
> gone for kinda does to.

This sounds like a good idea.  It would give interested members who 
can't often make it to meetings (for reasons like remoteness rather 
than disinterest), a greater opportunity to participate.

> >   *  Should club members not able to attend SGMs (or AGMs) be able to
> >      proxy their votes?
> Yes.
> >   *  If so, how should they be able to proxy?
> By signing (either physically or with PGP(RSA/MD5) or some other
> "recognised" authentication method) a note saying "I hearby authorise
> J. Random Club-Member to vote for me at the SGM on the nth of Foo, 1901,
> in the following manner: ..." or something similar. This note should be
> presented to both the secretary and J. Random Club-Member.

Not a bad idea.  Which brings up the issue... since PGP(RSA, Diffie-
Hillman) isn't legally recognised as an authentic method of signing a 
document (in Australia), perhaps we could include it in the 
constitution?  Many of the current members already trust it 
implicitly.  It would probably need appropriate safeguards (basically 
around the possibility of some moron releasing their private key)

Is there anyone in the club who would dispute the mathematical near-
certainty of authentication by PGP?

Then, once PGP was ratified, perhaps the public keys of members could 
be made available through the web site.

Just a suggestion.

Paul

Paul Gearon
gearon at computer.org

Microsoft - Where every morning is the dawn of a new error.