[ncdnhc-discuss] Resolution on ORG Divestiture

[Milton Mueller]

George:
I look forward to your attendance at the 
NCDNHC meeting. I think you will get a much 
more realistic assessment of what this constituency 
has accomplished and can accomplish.

You are a well known and respected member
of the noncommercial community. Have you
considered running for Names Council? 
Why is your organization not a member?
You speak as if the direction of the 
constituency was some kind of natural force
outside your control. In fact, the constituency's
direction and practices are a product of the
people who participate, and those who do
not participate have little credibility in scolding
the rest of us about such things.

The LA meeting will be an opportunity for you to 
offer to do something constructive with the 
constituency. I'm afraid so far that all we've
seen from you is complaints about discussions
and no attempts to help or contribute to our
efforts. 

I just want to clarify that I don't "interpret" silence 
as acquiescence. Silence is silence; on an email list, 
it IS de facto acquiesence. The problem with silence 
is that no one can interpret it. Anyone who claims
to know what people who are silent are thinking
is probably a demagogue, attempting to steal
the voices of others for his own advantage. 

If you want to have a voice in what happens 
here, participate. But participation must follow
a structure to be fair.

Through long and hard struggle that tries to
take into account the needs of people
who are not native English speakers, the 
balance of face to face and online interaction, 
etc., we have developed procedures for
approving and following resolutions. 

We submit resolutions for online
discussion a certain period of time in 
advance; we discuss and amend them
in a face to face meeting, we submit them
to the online audience again for ratification
or rejection.

That's the drill. 

By way of contrast, snap votes and straw 
polls called in the middle of a discussion
without proper warning or a predictable 
time table are an unfair and unrepresentative 
sample. The type of vote Vany is trying to 
hold typically gets about 10 participants.