Skip to content

>AUUG–The Organisation for Unix, Linux and Open Source Professionals

Online Decisions

A procedure for the AUUG board to take decisions between formal meetings.

Last updated 22 February 2003

Online Decision Procedure For the AUUG Board

The AUUG Board meets between 4 and 6 times each year, and there can be a period of up to 3 months between board meetings.

From time to time there will be an action or expenditure that requires board approval but can not wait for the next board meeting.

This procedure allows for the board to take a decision via email, in a way that ensures the decision reflects the collected opinion of the board.


  1. General discussion on a topic should take place via the auugexec@auug.org.au mailing list. To make it easier to track a line of discussion, the Subject: should be kept the same between messages.
  2. If the President identifies an issue that needs a board decision, he shall send a mail to auugexec with "Subject: AUUGFINAL - <topic>", where <topic> is the subject of the previous emails. In the message there shall be the wording of a motion that reflects the decision required.
  3. Two business days will be allowed for final statements of position, arguments, or amendments to the motion.
  4. The President will then send out a message with "Subject: AUUGVOTE - <topic>", containing the final wording of the motion.
  5. Each board member may reply with "Yes", "No", "Abstain" or "Defer".
  6. If three or more board members vote "Defer", then the decision shall be deferred until the next board meeting. However, if the President and Business Manager agree that the decision is too urgent to wait, they may veto the decision to defer; in which case those voting "Defer" will be asked to cast a different vote.
  7. The vote shall be decided by simple majority.
  8. The President shall receive votes for 3 working days, or until a decision is "obvious". A decision is obvious if either the "Yes" or "No" votes number greater than
    (Number of board members - "Abstains")/2
    (for in that case a simple majority is established).
  9. If after all board members have voted or 3 working days have passed (whichever happens first) there is a tied vote, the President may excercise a casting vote.
  10. After the decision is made, the President shall communicate it to the board, showing all votes received.
  11. Since decisions of the board must be recorded in the minutes of a board meeting, after each decision is made the Secretary shall record it and add an agenda item for the next board meeting for the board to ratify the decision. Each board member will be bound by the vote they made online when voting for the decision to be ratified. Note that this step is required whether or not the motion succeeds.