UK-TUG Special Electronic General Meeting: Discussion

[Jay Hammond]

On 13 Dec 2009 at 21:54, Joseph Wright wrote:

> Dear Member,
> 
> As detailed in the earlier notice, the Special Electronic General
> Meeting (SEGM) runs from 00:00 on the 14th of December to 23:59 on the
> 20th of December. Details of the motions put to the SEGM have been
> sent to you in a separate e-mail, along with instructions on how to
> vote on these motions.
> 
> To discuss the motions or any other matter at the SEGM, please reply
> to this e-mail. Replies to this message will be seen by all members of
> UK-TUG.
> 
> Joseph Wright
> UK-TUG Secretary

In case you are wondering about Motion 4, I would urge you to support 
it.  


On Motion 4

I was trawling the web in advance of this meeting to prepare for this 
discussion.  I've looked at some legislation & the interpretation of 
it 

There has been a little legislation that deals with e-business, 
"writing" and "signatures". Commentators say there's not much case  
law. The legislation allows for signatures to be electronic. E-
signatures are admissible in court if the person that issues them  
says they are ok, or rather, has said  what tests they have to pass, 
and you can demonstrate that they pass those  tests.   It's a matter 
of negotiation then, what is an acceptable signature. You need to 
agree in advance what you'll treat as a binding signature.

If fraud is suspected, the courts will use their judgement in whether 
to accept an e-signature as genuine.  

As for writing; my conclusion is that emails are writing. You may 
need to take steps to be sure that the email is from who it says it 
is from. - see signatures.
  
The relevance to motion 4?  

The constitution distinguishes "writing" from "electronic 
communication", so where it only mentions writing, it can be inferred 
that it means to exclude electronic communication.  

Clause 25 sets electronic communication  at parity with writing (in 
the narrow sense) for notices.  

The current clause 10 (5) mentions only writing. As it does not 
specify whether it means the narrow interpretation - marks on paper - 
or the wider one which includes email, there is a possibility that 
10(5)  may be interpreted  as having the meaning that notices for the 
AGM are to be conveyed as marks on paper only.  

One motivation in adopting the new constitution was to be explicit 
that substantial parts (if not all)  of the  business of the Society 
could be transacted electronically.  

Motion 4 ensures that both email and paper communications can be used 
for AGM notices such as motions, dates of meetings.  

We (UKTUG)  need to continue discussing and clarifying how we 
transact our business electronically. Motion 4 is one such useful 
step.   Please vote in favour.

Jay Hammond

homemade at talktalk.net