Hi, A few responses: On 19 okt 2007, at 10.34, Philip Sheppard wrote:
I do understand the mess we are in with no decisions taken at the last call and a Council meeting now blended in with a public forum.
I do not beleive we are in a mess. I am sorry you do. I believe we have a lot of work to do. And we have to do it as appropriately as possible.
However, it is not appropriate to use the Sat and Sun meetings as substitute Council meetings.
I do not understand why it is not appropriate for these to _be_ council meetings. There is no rule that says we can have only 1 meeting while in a face to face meeting. I think that we can use our time as profitably as possible and if that involves having more hours of meeting, I see no rules that bar it. Now if most of the council members believe that it is inappropriate, that is a different story.
Firstly, our by-laws require an agenda and 7 days notice: ie certainty not maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
We have an agenda as of now and there is still more then a week before each of those meetings. and I did mention that any motions would have to be submitted in advance other then minor ones (e.g. we vote to thank X for Y. or we need a sub group to do draft Z). As is always the case.
Secondly, the Sat and Sun meetings come BEFORE Constituency meetings: surely the reason for delaying the decision making at our last call, was to be able to discuss in the Constituencies?
Yes, and i was not suggesting we make any major decisions that have never been discussed before. On each possible decisions, as was done in the past, the council members can indicate whether they are ready or not for a vote and whether they need to take the issue back to their constituencies. So I am not suggesting anything different then what we have done in the past. And if no one suggests any significant motions in time for the meeting, then there won't be any significant motions that might need constituency pre-discussion. I am aware that some decisions are of such a major importance that council members need to go back to the constituencies before they can vote. On the other hand, there are other decisions, e.g. to constitute an ad hoc group to do something, that may be possible for a council member to vote on without returning for specific instructions.
Thirdly, whereas I am all in favour or improving outreach in the public forum, it is not acceptable to compromise the integrity of our Council meeting as a result. Either we can achieve what Council must or we cannot. If the new format stops Council functioning, the new format needs revisiting.
Are you suggesting that it does compromise the council's integrity? Certainly after we have tried this format once, we should review it and can either fine tune it or change. We are doing this as a response to comments that were made by the commenting community, so I suggest we see if it works before we decide that it compromises our integrity. And yes, a change in one place, may require some concomitant changes in other places.
So, to end on my usual positive note. By all means lets use Sat and Sun to discuss the issues, but with no votes.
I would like to hear other council member's opinions on this last point (on any of the points really, but especially on this last one)
Then, the time needed on the actual Council meeting (Wed Oct 31) can be short and sweet to do the voting.
Well we still need to listen to what is said by the community and then consider what has been said before voting. thanks a.