[Linux-aus] Converting Linux Australia's "Committee" to a "Board"

[Bret Busby]

On Thu, 1 Mar 2007, Dave Davey wrote:

> Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 16:54:16 +1100
> From: Dave Davey <daved at windclimber.id.au>
> To: Stewart Smith <stewart at linux.org.au>
> Cc: Jonathan Oxer <jon at ivt.com.au>, Dave Davey <daved at windclimber.id.au>,
>     linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au
> Subject: Re: [Linux-aus] Converting Linux Australia's "Committee" to a "Board"
> 
> On Wed, Feb 28, 2007 at 10:35:42PM +0100, Stewart Smith wrote:
>> On Mon, 2007-02-26 at 15:52 +1100, Jonathan Oxer wrote:
>>>> So another model would be
>>>> 	elevate the committe to council
>>>> 	elevate sub-committees to commitees (best named committees)
>>>> 	retain president and vice president
>>>
>>> Sounds like a good model to me: it's basically what I'm wanting to
>>> achieve, but with "Council" instead of "Board". The connotations of a
>>> "Council" is that it's more representative of the community anyway. I
>>> like it!
>>
>> One of the problems with the word council is that it can conjure up
>> ideas of representation based on location (e.g. a counselor for each
>> state, city or whatever) and this isn't what we're trying to achieve
>> (although it's generally nice for la ctte to be composed of people not
>> just from one place).
>
> I think "can" is an important word here.
>
> Of three organisations that I can think of at the moment that have councils,
> one has state-related councillors (partly), the other two do not.
>
> Our local borough council does not have locality based councillors.  The whole
> council is elected by all citizens in a preferential voting system similar
> to that for the Federal Senators for each state.
>
> So the name does not carry commitments for the electoral system.
>
> Dave
>
> -- 
>

I think that this goes back to the proverb from Shakespeare - "A rose 
by any other name would smell as sweet".

You can name it whatever you want - a Senate, a Forum (as in THE Forum 
of Rome),  a Council, a Committee, or a Knitting Circle.

It is the Constitution, that defines it, and, its actions that 
demonstrate what it is and what it does (lots of split infinitives here, 
for those who enjoy them :) ).

I think that the issue of what the governing body should be named, is no 
more than a distraction. It is its definition, and, its actions, that 
matter.

--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
  you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
   Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
   "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
   A Trilogy In Four Parts",
   written by Douglas Adams,
   published by Pan Books, 1992

....................................................