Subject: Re: DISCUSSION: define the role of a liaison

From: avri <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 16:23:38 -0600

While it is not reflected in the language of the RFC, in my
years on the NomCom i felt that by and large the liaisons
participated in an informational role - that it is trying to
offer objective information (in so far as objectivity is
really possible) that would be helpful to the voting members
in making their decisions.  This allowed for them to
participate in doing interviews since that was for the
purposes of information gathering.  Whenever we, i
functioned as a chair and as a past chair liaison, got close
to rendering subjective judgments about individuals, i would
get a little uncomfortable.  Fortunately i think it was a
relatively rare occurrence, and i don't think it ever really
became a problem in my years on NomCom.

Re: the ability of the past chair to be a candidate for a
role in the I*.  While this is not precluded explicitly i
think it is precluded implicitly by the reasons for the
candidacy exclusion rule.  Once a person has confidential
information on that year's process and candidates, they have
an unfair advantage over other candidates that should not be
allowed.  I think that the language ought to be changed to
exclude NomCom participants, members and liaisons alike,
from candidacy.  If a past chair wants to seek a I* role,
they should find a substitute liaison as is allowed in the
current rules before the NomCom participants are announced.

a.