Report of the Operating Guidelines Committee

January 28, 2000

Submitted by: Morgan Rees, Chairman

The Operating Guidelines Committee met on January 28, 2000, at Lockwood Greene Engineers, Savannah, GA. In attendance were Bill Farmer, Brittany Robinson, Teri Leffek, Bill Bailey, Doug Plachy, Chris Schuberth, Charles Griffen, Judy Jennings, and Ben Brewton. Participating by telephone conference call were Larry Keegan, Mitch King, and Morgan Rees. Bill Farmer chaired the meeting.

The purposes of the meeting were to update the Operating Guidelines Appendixes and the "Matrix" and, at the request of the SEG at the January 2000 meeting, to review the definition of consensus and discuss imposing time limits on discussion at the SEG meetings.

Attached is a revised version of the Operating Guidelines which includes recommended changes dealing with the definition of "consensus" and a mechanism to manage the time of discussions at the SEG meetings. There are suggested changes to the appendixes and a number of editorial and typographical corrections.

Recommendations:

Section II.B. The Committee recommends changes to the definition of consensus as noted and suggests a procedure to determine when a discussion should be continued at a later time. Subsequent to the meeting, in email traffic several committee members discussed deleting the sentence referring to "revisiting" the definition of consensus if a future dispute arises. We make no recommendation on this point and expect to discuss it at the next Operating Guidelines Committee meeting.

Appendix D. The Operating Guidelines Committee recommends changes to the mission statement of the committee. The committee further recommends that each committee review its mission statement to ensure the SEG and all committees are aware of the scope of each committee’s activities.

Appendix. D. Several committee names have been corrected and committee membership list have been modified.

Appendix D. The committee recommends a change in the mission statement of the Model Technical Review Group to include the phrase, "and other tasks as assigned."

Appendix D. The committee recommends the SEG discuss its expectations regarding the scope of work whenever an issue is referred to a committee.

Matrix. The committee recommends each matrix include a statement of the intended function of the matrix. The specific language of the statement will await the SEG discussion of its expectations of committees at the March SEG meeting. Bill Farmer and Morgan Rees will do the clerical work necessary to ensure the lists in the appendixes and the matrixes are consistent.

General. The committee recommends the SEG ask the Operating Guidelines Committee to review the Operating Guidelines to ensure that specific decisions of the SEG regarding agendas, meeting conduct, and related matters are properly reflected in the Operating Guidelines.