PPC Report to NCITS
PPC has held no meetings since the last report; all PPC business has been conducted electronically.
PPC Membership:
Background --
The original recommendation from PPC on this subject had recognized that the Parent Body, with many LBs, had a different situation than TCs, which in some cases require several years to have three LBs for a two-out-of-three rule. The proposed revision provided different sets of rules for NCITS and the subgroups, but the approved change included only one criterion -- the quarterly test that is in the current revision of the SD-2.
This scheme has caused problems for some TCs. In December, we surveyed the PPC membership and TC chairs regarding the use of different criteria for the parent body and the subgroups. No objections were raised.
PPC Recommendation to NCITS [2-0-0-3 (Compaq,DoD, IBM)]
Criteria 2 for membership jeopardy, as specified in 4.2.6 a) (2) of NCITS/SD-2, should be modified to:
"return two out of three successive non-accelerated letter ballots if the next non-accelerated letter ballot (identified by LB number) after the warning is not returned,
or
in the case of NCITS letter ballots, return 80% of the total letter ballots (non-accelerated) closing during the present calendar quarter, in which case the membership shall be terminated if the member fails to return at least 80% of the total letter ballots (non-accelerated) closing during the subsequent quarter."This has the effect of restoring the previous procedures for use by the TCs.
PPC LB 003 - Reactivation of a Maintenance TC (action required)
Background --
NCITS/SD-2 Section 3.11 states that:
"Should circumstances dictate that a Maintenance TC change its status back to an active TC, a recommendation will be made to NCITS using the same voting procedure as indicated above. NCITS will take final approval action on this recommendation, or NCITS may initiate the action itself. When changing status from a Maintenance TC to an active TC, the TC will be bound by all of the procedures in this document required of an active TC."Several issues are not addressed by this paragraph. Members can apply for voting membership in a Maintenance TC by correspondence and would have never attended a meeting; would such members be in jeopardy (by virtue of not having attended 2 of 3 meetings) when the Maintenance TC changes status to an active TC and the rules for membership change? Similarly, there are no fees for a maintenance TC, but fees would be due and payable once the Maintenance TC reverts to active status. Additionally, should the Chair of the Maintenance TC continue as Chair of the reactivated TC, particularly since there may need to be a reaffirmation of management support -- in light of the increased resources needed to chair an active TC.
In December, PPC members were polled regarding the possibility of adding a sentence: "Upon the change of status from a Maintenance TC to an active TC, the provisions of 4.2.6 (termination of membership), shall apply only to meetings and fees occurring after the approval of the change in status of the TC."
After consultation with Monica Vago, it seems better to treat the reactivated TC as a new TC, with the current Chair appointed as convener for the initial meeting.
PPC Recommendation to NCITS [2-0-0-3 (Compaq,DoD, IBM)]
PPC recommends to NCITS that the final paragraph of NCITS/SD-2 paragraph 3.11 be amended by the addition of:
"For purposes of membership and voting, the first meeting of the reactivated TC shall be conducted as a subgroup formation meeting, in accordance with 4.2.3.1.4, with the Chair of the erstwhile Maintenance TC serving as convenor until a new Chair can be selected in accordance with 5.4.1.3."
LB 004 - Review of T10 Internal Procedures (no action necessary)
Background --
PPC was asked to review the T10 Document Retention Policy (IT/98-0131) and T10 Internal Procedures (IT/98-0366), which now includes the document retention policy.
In December, the PPC Chair noted that it would be helpful to suggest to T10 that the document retention policy should include identification of minutes and other documents that must be retained by the Secretariat to reduce the administrative burden of sifting through all the documents forwarded from the TC to the Secretariat.
For the procedures, special attention was drawn to the "Procedure for Funding T10 Technical Editors;" no comments were received, so there does not appear to be any concern.
PPC Approval of T10 Procedures [2-0-0-3 (Compaq,DoD, IBM)]
"T10 Procedures, as documented in IT/98-0366, are consistent with the NCITS/SD-2 and hence approved. PPC recommends that T10 should add a requirement that the T10 officers identify to the Secretariat all minutes, agendas, membership rosters, and material to be balloted by NCITS to reduce the administrative burden of having the Secretariat identify these documents within the total set mailed to the Secretariat."
LB 005 - Changes to 5.10, Fast Track Process (action required)
Background -
The following modification to the SD-2 was developed by the NCITS Secretariat.
PPC Recommendation to NCITS [2-0-0-3 (Compaq, DoD, IBM)]
PPC recommends to NCITS that NCITS/SD-2 Section 5.10 be amended as shown:
An organization not accredited by ANSI may propose that a candidate standard be submitted for NCITS processing or the organization that developed it may request NCITS processing. When such initiative is being considered within NCITS (the subject of a project proposal) or a preliminary inquiry is made by the sponsor, a proposal describing the candidate standard, its purpose, and scope is sent to the NCITS Secretariat for distribution to NCITS.
NCITS identifies The NCITS Secretariat
issues a call for comments on the proposal and NCITS members are asked
to identify any prima facie objections, such as, it beingthe
proposal is outside the scope of NCITS,duplication
or in conflict with existing NCITS projects,
or there exists a seriousquestion as to its
technical merit.
If prima facie objections are raised, the NCITS Secretariat will distribute those objections to NCITS. The organization submitting the candidate standard will be invited to respond to the objections raised. The response will also be circulated to NCITS. Once this is completed, the developer will then be invited to submit the information specified below.
If no prima facie objections are raised, the developer will then be invited to submit the following:
b) Memorandum of understanding, which may be negotiated by the NCITS Secretariat on behalf of NCITS, detailing: agreement to respond and participate in accordance with milestones 5; agreement regarding availability and distribution of copies for public review and balloting; agreement for maintenance responsibility in accordance with ANSI procedures; agreement that interpretations shall be accomplished in accordance with NCITS procedures and agreement that participation in further processing of the document be open to all directly and materially affected interests .
c) Any other documentation the developer feels is relevant.
Streamlining the Reaffirmation Process
Earlier drafts of the recommendations from the Ad Hoc Committee on Archiving Standards were distributed to PPC. No comments were received from the PPC Membership.
Several e-mail messages were exchanged between Mr. Thewlis and Mr. Zemrowski to aid in the development of the report. As shown in the report of the Ad Hoc Committee, it was suggested that recommended text for changes to the NCITS/SD-2 should be deferred until NCITS agrees on the concept of operations for streamlining.