On Sep 23, 2011, at 1:40 AM, Jim Duncan wrote:
With my parliamentarian hat on: A nominating committee's essential function is to ensure that a minimum number of qualified, vetted individuals are placed on the slate of candidates for election. it should never be a gating function; it is an important safeguard to allow the nomination of qualified individuals outside the nominating committee and "from the floor" before votes are cast. ...
Although organizations may decide for themselves how a nominating committee will operate, it is inconsistent with the general principles of parliamentary process -- whichever standard you choose, Robert's, Sturgis, or another -- for all candidates to be forced to pass through the gauntlet of the nominating committee.
Jim - I agree with you in principle regarding the NomCom's essential function, but note that your requirement that the Nominating Committee pass _all_ candidates minimally qualified is not the only valid approach. In the case of ARIN, the NomCom process provides a sufficient number of qualified qualified candidates but is specifically not required to provide all such candidates <https://www.arin.net/participate/elections/nomcom_faqs.html> The protection of the parliamentary representation principle that you allude to (i.e. the freedom for members of an organization to choose its own leadership) to is instead provided via a petition process. This mechanism provides a comparable safeguard by allowing anyone to be added to the ballot if they desire such and can show some support in the community for their candidacy. Note that ARIN's initial Bylaws only provided for direct selection of new Board members by the ARIN Board from a list of candidates chosen by the ARIN AC. In subsequent years, this was changed to be a separate NomCom, and a petition process requiring support of 15% of the electorate was added. The petition threshold was then lowered to 5% of the electorate, and then again recently lowered to be now 2% of the electorate. The ARIN Board has reviewed the election process in each of the recent years to see if any further changes are required. Further evolution of this process is quite possible, and discussion here (or on an ARIN mailing list) will help inform the ARIN Board about the community views on this matter. Thanks! /John John Curran President and CEO ARIN