[cfp-interest 3600] fyi: note sent to 754 working group on procedure

[David Hough 754R work]

On the whole, there is remarkably little progress being made on the 754
revision.   A lot of this is due to attempting to do wordsmithing in 
committee of the whole.   That's very hard to manage effectively, and very
hard to partipate effectively if you don't have the time or capacity to
keep many email threads in your mind as you decide how to vote on a
particular proposal.

In the committee of the whole, members should come prepared to vote up
or down on the proposals that were in the agenda.    If proposals
do not pass, a second vote should be taken on whether to return the
proposal to the proposer with a list of specific issues to be addressed
prior to re-consideration.   That means those who voted no need to 
succinctly state what they think needs to be changed - something they should
have decided on prior to the meeting.   But ad-hoc tinkering and wordsmithing
should be discouraged in the committee of the whole.

An essential prerequisite, of course, is that the current draft incorporating
changes approved at the previous meeting needs to be available a week in
advance so that proposals can be calibrated against what was already 
approved.

David Hough