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<div>It is just the regional committees that are being disbanded, as they no longer reflect where astronomy is being done, and in the Internet age, the concept is a bit retro.</div>
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<div>All will be able to participate equally in the future.</div>
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<div>Bob</div>
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<span style="font-weight:bold">From: </span>Rob Seaman <<a href="mailto:seaman@noao.edu">seaman@noao.edu</a>><br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">Date: </span>Wednesday, 16 October 2013 12:06 PM<br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">To: </span>Arnold Rots <<a href="mailto:arots@cfa.harvard.edu">arots@cfa.harvard.edu</a>><br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">Cc: </span>"<a href="mailto:wfc@nrao.edu">wfc@nrao.edu</a>" <<a href="mailto:wfc@nrao.edu">wfc@nrao.edu</a>><br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">Subject: </span>Re: [wfc] Fwd: [Iaufec] disbandment of the Regional Committees, THIRD step<br>
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Hi Arnold, et al,
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<div>Interesting. Regarding the shutdown, NOAO just got a reprieve until at least 3 November. Regarding obsolescence, recent discussions about dramatic changes to the FITS standard might suggest otherwise ;-)</div>
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<div>Rob</div>
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<div>On Oct 16, 2013, at 8:37 AM, Arnold Rots <<a href="mailto:arots@cfa.harvard.edu">arots@cfa.harvard.edu</a>> wrote:</div>
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<div>Dear friends at the WFC - the Regional North-American FITS Committee,<br>
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I am forwarding a recent message from Lucio Chiappetti, the chair of the<br>
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IAU FITS Working Group, who is inching closer to move our committee<br>
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into obsolescence.<br>
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He has posted a revision of the voting rules for the IAU FWG and will<br>
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announce that on FITSBITS, but I thought you should have some<br>
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forewarning on this.<br>
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He sent one more message on the subject which I will also forward.<br>
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Cheers,<br>
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- Arnold<br>
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Arnold H. Rots Chandra X-ray Science Center<br>
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory tel: +1 617 496 7701<br>
60 Garden Street, MS 67 fax: +1 617 495 7356<br>
Cambridge, MA 02138 <a href="mailto:arots@cfa.harvard.edu" target="_blank">
arots@cfa.harvard.edu</a><br>
USA <a href="http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/" target="_blank">
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/</a><br>
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<div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Lucio Chiappetti</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lucio@lambrate.inaf.it">lucio@lambrate.inaf.it</a>></span><br>
Date: Mon, Oct 14, 2013 at 8:46 AM<br>
Subject: [Iaufec] disbandment of the Regional Committees, THIRD step<br>
To: IAU-FITS Executive Committee <<a href="mailto:iaufec@nrao.edu">iaufec@nrao.edu</a>><br>
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Dear members of the IAU FWG Executive,<br>
with some delay I am proceeding to<br>
the next step of the procedure to change the IAU FITS WG voting rules,<br>
i.e. preparing the final draft for submission to FITSBITS.<br>
<br>
First of all I would like to know how many of the IAUFEC members are<br>
affected by the US Government shutdown. I would appreciate an explicit<br>
acknowledgment via private e-mail by Bob, Bill and Arnold that they can<br>
receive this message via the exploder, and interact.<br>
<br>
- if any one of them does not reply, the deadline to pass to the next<br>
step will be extended until they come back on line<br>
<br>
- conversely if everybody replies before the deadline of end October<br>
and we can freeze a draft earlier, we could submit it to fitsbits<br>
as soon as it is ready<br>
<br>
I have prepared a new draft taking into account the comments received so<br>
far by the IAUFWG. The revised version (with links to the older ONES) is<br>
at the usual place<br>
<a href="http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/FITS/Proposal/newrules.html" target="_blank">http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/FITS/Proposal/newrules.html</a><br>
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Please note what follows:<br>
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- the buttons to hide "deleted text" now hides also "comments", so one<br>
can have an idea of what the final text will look like<br>
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- I received several comments agains the "co-optation" of members of the<br>
EC, and some general comments about membership of the IAUFWG, terms of<br>
service etc.<br>
<br>
I believe we should proceed quickly to the definition of new voting<br>
rules ("without regional committees") and apply them ASAP to vote the<br>
Timing WCS proposal.<br>
<br>
Therefore I strongly suggest that we confine now to this<br>
relatively simple voting rule change, and DEFER any matter about<br>
composition of the EC, nomination of FWG members, and more complex<br>
"weighted" voting rules to LATER DISCUSSION<br>
<br>
This is indicated by the text hilighted in red on the page<br>
<br>
Also (as a comment states) the introductory sentence is not to be<br>
taken as part of the voting rules, but merely describes the current<br>
composition of the EC.<br>
<br>
- I would however encourage Preben Grosbol to present a formal proposal<br>
for various "member categories" (points 5/6/7 of his Sep 23 message)<br>
and eventual "weighted" voting rules.<br>
<br>
- I would like to stress to Don Wells that I fully appreciate the sense<br>
of the 6-month rule to instigate unanimous consensus. On the other<br>
hand many people may have the impression that we are very slow to<br>
decide on anything (possibly because we are busy otherwise) ...<br>
that's why I suggested going from 6 to 3 (somebody even advocated<br>
2) months for "re-thinking" ... we could as well decrease the voting<br>
period from 3 weeks to 2 (but I guess not shorter than that because of<br>
conferences, observing campaigns, holidays ... or events like the<br>
shutdown)<br>
<br>
- concerning mailing lists, after the poll I conducted I drew a<br>
compromise among the various suggestions and will act ASAP autonomously<br>
as described at the end of the web page. So it is possible that persons<br>
who were on the mailing lists just ex officio without being currently<br>
members will receive this as the last message.<br>
<br>
Please read the page<br>
<a href="http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/FITS/Proposal/newrules.html" target="_blank">http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/FITS/Proposal/newrules.html</a><br>
as soon as you can, and give me (public replies on this mailing list)<br>
suggestions about things to change (including comments to be "disclosed"<br>
or removed) etc.<br>
<br>
Lucio<br>
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