From: OPE-L Administrator (ope-admin@ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu)
Date: Mon May 17 2004 - 20:54:13 EDT
Re the list procedure re admissions: We don't make or discuss recommendations on the list in fairness to the people being recommended. However, I can explain again the list procedure. The procedure begins when a list member makes a recommendation to a member of the AC or myself. It is then shared with the other members. We then discuss the question. In some cases, we agree that someone else on the list should be asked for an opinion. Our discussions are speeded when we all know the person being recommended and especially when the member making a recommendation provides sufficient motivation, documentation and references for the proposed candidate. If any member wants to make a recommendation, then I strongly urge them to motivate the candidate as fully as possible and to at least provide us with an email address for that person. I also strongly encourage them to read the criteria that we use when considering recommendations (explained in the report noted below) and to speak to those criteria when making recommendations. Our discussions _can_ take time, especially if one of the 2-3 AC members or myself is on vacation or attending a conference, etc. A certain time lag is the price you pay when a ctte makes decisions by consensus. In the end, we make a decision on the basis of consensus. We sometimes have disagreements (as is to be expected) but no one has ever officially "blocked" consensus to prevent someone from being admitted and no one ever threatened to resign if someone was either not invited _or_ invited. The criteria that we use in considering recommendations, and our entire admissions policy, is spelled out in detail in a statement by the AC to the list sent on April 10, 2002 [OPE-L:6958]. Our admissions procedure is therefore quite transparent. When an invitation is made it can sometimes be months before someone gets back to us. After all, the people being invited can also be away from their email for months at a time if they are on vacation or attending conferences, etc. Sometimes people are invited and they never reply. It happens. All of this is time-consuming. The members of the AC, including past member Alfredo, deserve a lot of credit for the time and effort that they have devoted to this process. One should remember that all of this activity by the AC and myself is unpaid activity. I think the list should be grateful for the administrative service(s) that we perform for the list. After someone makes a recommendation, whether we get back to the person making the recommendation is a matter of discretion. We have no firm policy about that. More often, after a recommendation goes before the AC for consideration, the first the original person who made the recommendation hears about what happened is when s/he reads the welcoming message. Of course, there is nothing which prevents a list member who has made a recommendation from asking an AC member or myself _off-list_ for a status report. In solidarity, Jerry
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