[Os-project-managers] Consent agenda items

[Gus Gassmann]

Hi guys,

Kipp and I talked today about ways we might be able to streamline some of 
the discusions around schema constructs and came up with the idea of a 
consent agenda, something they started using in the meetings of the 
University Senate at Dal just recently.

Here is how it works: Items that are thought to be non-contentious are 
bundled together in a single motion. Anyone can request to take an item off 
the consent agenda, but many items such as approving the agenda, 
approving the minutes or ratifying a decision rendered by one of the 
committees are never debated, so they can be passed by general consent. 
It speeds up the meeting.

We can adopt the consent agenda to our work as follows: Any one of us can 
propose an item to the os-project-managers distribution list. The item should 
have "Consent agenda item" in the subject line, so we can find them again 
easily in the archives. The others are given limited time to respond; two 
days, for instance. 

Anyone has the right to withhold consent or to say "I need more time to 
consider this issue", and then the item will be properly debated. This means 
that the items to put on the consent agenda should really be only those that 
we are reasonably confident will be adopted without further debate. 

To test this, I will give a consent agenda item in a separate message.

Cheers

gus