For those not on the WP list, we had a good meeting today discussing the report.

First, a reminder: the agreed process is that comments on the initial Report must be made through the WP membership. That said, both Cheryl and I have watched what has been said on various lists, and raised any issues in the WP meetings. Comments on the Draft Report are due by 23.59 hrs 22 December (your local time). The WP will hold at least one more meeting - a week from today, so please raise any further issues before then if possible. (remembering that the Report will be released for public comment in January)

The discussion today centred around the issues of membership (in ALS, RALOs and ALAC) and participation. The issues included:

individual memberships (rather than ALSs’ membership) in ALAC: rules vary as between RALOs and the ITEMS team is asking for more uniformity of rules on the issue
discussion should distinguish between participation in At-Large matters and membership and the rules for each
on voting rights, two issues were raised: for the most part, ALAC and RALOs operate by consensus, with voting required for only a very few circumstances. That said, there is an issue on the extent to which individual voting rights should be equal to ALS voting rights, when ALSs may represent large numbers of people
it was also noted that, in some circumstances, it may be easier (for a variety of reasons) for an individual to participate than form a group in order to participate

One very helpful suggestion was, in discussion, to link issues identified by the report, with proposed solutions.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to raise them with me or any member of the WP.