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Online Meeting System for Societies and Committees?

Posted by Cliff on from the robert's-online-rules-of-order dept.

T-Ranger asks: "This past weekend a board that I'm on, which usually handles all its formal motions during face to face meetings, had a formal motion go over the mailing list. Unfortunately, Majordomo was broken for 24 hours, so I think that the vote should be invalid. At the same time I have been pushing for more and more of the board's discussion to happen online, and in principal support online voting in this limited setting. So, I'm looking for some web based software that can handle it. Ideally it would record when each voter acknowledges each step of the process: the call for a motion; the motion; seconding of the motion; the formal call for discussion; the formal call for the vote; and then handle the vote itself. Knowing when each member acknowledges each step, IMHO, is a requirement for quorum; and I believe that there should be a consistency of the members who make quorum over the length of the formal process. Does anyone have pointers to such a system?"

11 comments

  1. Just an idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Diebold, perhaps?

  2. MOOs work for this sort of thing by Cecil · · Score: 4, Informative

    Warning: Shameless plugs ahead. Disclaimer: I don't make any money from my pimping of MOO.

    Although I don't know of something that does specifically for what you're asking for, in my experience a MOO makes a good platform for conducting official meetings. Everyone logs in, you can talk to one another (privately if you wish), and logging is easy.

    Plus, it's decently easy through the MOO's C-like internal programming language to code up a motion/voting system in a certain room so that everyone can head in there for a meeting and have everything handled and logged correctly.

    More info about MOOs can be found here and documentation is plentiful on the web. Additionally, I could probably even give you some pointers if you were to drop by my MOO.

    --
    Random and weird software I've written.
    1. Re:MOOs work for this sort of thing by Caharin · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'd have to second this idea. It was the first thing that came to mind for me when I read this article.

      Basically, get a codebase and strip out a lot of the code. It should be a pretty easy task for anyone with a good programming background. It should go quickly. Make sure that each person has an account set up, so you can ensure that there are no people acting as others.

      You'll be able to discuss, and with some custom code, vote. You, as an admin, can see everyone's IP to track them and insure untampered results. Easy!

      Best of all, it can be customized to whatever you specifically need.

      --
      By reading this sig, you agree to be bound by all terms and conditions I choose.
  3. CSPAN called... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...they want their mind-numbingly boring question back.

  4. Zope by bobv-pillars-net · · Score: 1

    You could use Zope and Plone to accomplish this sort of thing. There is a very flexible workflow implementation. With a little python scripting you can make it do just about anything.

    --
    The Web is like Usenet, but
    the elephants are untrained.
  5. A good MMORG by squiggleslash · · Score: 1
    If you take a look at most of the major FPS multiplayer games, most have astonishingly good conversation features making it easier than, say, AIM or IRC to use to get a group of people together.

    My advice therefore is Unreal Tournament 2003. Someone sets up a server, and then everyone just agrees a place to meet in, say, the Citadel or whereever. You can use the various flags and balls and stuff as a way to easily moderate the meeting without bias. And if someone is disruptive, you can blow them away.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  6. important stuff by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 1

    It's very important for the shadow government to be able to stay in touch.

  7. Go ahead by cybermace5 · · Score: 2, Informative

    You know what you want; build it! About a week ago I knew nothing about MySQL and PHP, but I'm building a site to allow hobbyists and small machine shops to link up and do custom work. Basically, say you want to laser-cut a big logo on your modded case; well, you'd submit a request and then people on the site can let you know what kinds of equipment they have, and if they want any money above materials cost etc. Already have a bunch of users and several workshops up, and the request portion of the site will be live soon. Everything from the user login system on up designed from scratch. Notice that I'm not linking to it at this point, though.

    It's not hard to learn this stuff, and you as a group can actually design something that uniquely works exactly how you want it to.

    --
    ...
  8. IRC by SoundGuy666 · · Score: 1

    We use IRC when we are forced to have an online meeting. The time-logging is done for you by your favourite IRC client, as is the logging. Our solution to voting/etc was to use private messages to the secretary, or a simple "show of hands" where appropriate.

    Cheap and cheerful!

    --
    Why can't we all just get along?
  9. OpenACS by aquarian · · Score: 1

    Try OpenACS. While there are many web publishing and collaboration toolkits out there, OpenACS comes closest to supporting this kind of thing already. It would be very easy to do exactly what you're describing. Go to the Q&A bboard on the OpenACS site, and post your question there. I'm sure you'll get several good ideas.

  10. sorry for the typos, links here, Re:OpenACS by aquarian · · Score: 1

    Try OpenACS. While there are many web publishing and collaboration toolkits out there, OpenACS comes closest to supporting this kind of thing already. It would be very easy to do exactly what you're describing. Go to the Q&A bboard on the OpenACS site, and post your question there. I'm sure you'll get several good ideas.