----- Original Message -----
To: wddm@world-wide-democracy.net
Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2005 12:24
AM
Subject: Re: WDDM future - GGvoter
zugabe
Dear S"ace,
Gremium translated means committee.
Is
this your meaning? I tried to translate the page you sent but no go. It sent
me to committee. Also note the committee has structure, and keeps minutes so
the outcome is transparent and useful.
Bruce
Committee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A committee is a (relatively) small group that can serve one of
several functions:
- Governance: in organizations too large for all the members to
participate in decisions affecting the organization as a whole, a committee
(such as a Board of Directors) is given the power to make decisions. A
committee of this type is a form of a deliberative
assembly.
- Coordination: individuals from different parts of an organization (for
example, all senior vice presidents) might meet regular to discuss
developments in their areas, review projects that cut across organizational
boundaries, talk about future options, etc. Where there is a large
committee, it's common to have smaller committees with more specialized
functions - for example, Boards of Directors of large corporations typically
have an (ongoing) audit committee, finance committee, compensation
committee, etc.
- Research and recommendations: committees are often formed to do research
and make recommendations on a potential or planned project or change. For
example, an organization considering a major capital investment might create
a committee of several people to review options and make recommendations to
upper management or the Board of Directors. Such committees are typically
dissolved after issuing recommendations (often in the form of a final
report).
- Project management: while it is generally considered poor management to
give operational responsibility to a committee to actually manage a project,
this is not unknown. The problem is that no single person can be held
accountable for poor performance of the committee, particularly if the chairperson of the
committee is seen as a facilitator.
It is common for a chairperson to organize a
committee meeting through an agenda, which is
usually distributed in advance. The chairperson is responsible for running
meetings: keeping the discussion on the appropriate subject, recognizing
members (calling on them to speak) [often omitted in smaller committees], and
calling for votes after a debate has taken place [formal voting is normally
only done in committees involved in governance]. Governance committees often
have formal processes (for example, they might follow Roberts Rules of Order);
other types of committees typically operate informally, with the chairperson
being responsible for deciding how formal the committee processes will be.
Minutes, a
record of the discussion and decisions of the meeting, are often taken by a
person designated as the secretary of the committee;
they may be legally obligatory (again, typically for governance committees).
For committees that meet regularly, the minutes of the most recent meeting are
often circulated to committee members before the next meeting.
Committees may meet on a regular basis, often weekly or yearly, or meetings
may be called irregularly as the need arises. During an emergency, a committee
may meet more than once per day, or sit in permanent session, as, for example,
ExComm (the President's Executive Committee) did during the Cuban missile
crisis.
A committee that is a subset of a larger committee is
called a subcommittee. [Where the larger group has a name other than
"committee" - for example, "Board" or "Commission", the smaller group(s) would
be called committee(s), not subcommittee(s)] For organizations where the Board
of Directors is large - say 20 people or more - it's common to have an
Executive Committee, of Board members, which is authorized to make some
decisions on behalf of the entire Board.
Committees, both permanent and ad hoc (unofficial), appear both in
representative democracies and in non-democratic structures. They may bear
titles such as Commission, Board, Council, Presidium,
or Politburo. Unofficial
committees often get unflattering labels such as junta, camarilla or cabal.
Committees are a necessary aspect of organizations of any significant size
(say, more than 15 or 20 people). They keep the number of participants
managable; with larger groups, either many people do not get to speak (and
feel left out), or discussions are quite lengthy (and many participants find
them duplicative and often boring).
Committees are a way to formally draw together people of relevant expertise
from different parts of an organization who otherwise would not have a good
way to share information and coordinate actions. They may have the advantage
of widening viewpoints and sharing out responsibilities.
Their disadvantages appear in the possibilities for procrastination,
undesirable compromises in order to
build consensus, and groupthink, where (valid)
objections or disconfirming evidence is either not voiced or is ignored.
Moreover, the need to schedule a meeting, get enough committee
members together to have a quorum, and debate until a majority
agrees on a course of action, can result in undesirable delays in taking
action. (A common joke, in organizations, is that when someone doesn't want to
make an unpopular decision, he/she creates a committee to study the
question.)
Some famous committees include:
Notable subcommittees include:
On 12/21/05,
S'ace
wrote:
hey fellow member ...
i was surprised the word "gremium" is not
a wellknown word in the english/american language ...
hmmm ... i had a thought on that fact
...
maybe it can be helpfull if i serve you
here by offering the german-wiki-word-link:
add your service,
;-)
s'ace
--
Direct Democracy League, DDL is a nonpartisan coalition, advocating
constitutional renewal at state and national levels to give us TRG -- true
republican governance. Not mob-rule, it is a balanced governance of I&R's
citizen lawmaking combined with representative govt. TRG relies on the People
to make decisions using State-level OCI's (online citizen
institutions). OCI's will be transparent organizing institutions, not control
devices.TRG has been legally recognized as a republican form of
government intrinsic to the Constitution.
www.trg-polity.org
Bruce Eggum
Gresham Wisconsin, USA
www.doinggovernment.com/
Check
out my Blog too
www.doinggovernment.blogspot.com/