"Carl R. Stevenson" wrote in message
...

"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...

There is a widespread and horrible misconception that it is ALL about
"the majority". I see it all the time. On many issues, a majority will
suffice. But there are some things that speak to something higher.

Can a majority in a democracy vote to dissolve the democracy?

Perhaps ... in the US system it would require a Constitutional amendment
and
would probably end up being reviewed by the Supreme Court.

Note, however, that a
properly passed constitutional amendment is, by its own existence,
constitutional.

Many times the majority would vote to enact laws that are illegal or
unconstitutional.

And many times elected officials that "do their own thing" with little
regard for their constituent's views vote to enact laws that would trod on
the rights and/or sensibilities of their constitutents ... that's another
reason we have "checks and balances" like the Supreme Court.

NCI's Board of Directors are like the legislature in a way - elected
representatives - NOT the Supreme Court.

[snip] When I have been in a leadership
position, I have often polled the membership about their wishes. But it
was always with letting them know that their opinion was taken under
advisement.

Often we made our decisions with the desires of the majority as a
guide. However, there were a few occasions that we did not, and for good
reasons.

If it were morally wrong, or illegal, that's one thing ... but NCI's Board
of Directors debated the issues and, while there was not 100% agreeement
on
our personal views we agreed that we should represent our members' views
to
the FCC and that we could each file our personal comments to voice our
personal views.

And, like Carl, I 'personally' filed comments supporting the ARRL
petition except for code testing. I supported NCVEC where it
is the same as ARRL, where it ends all code testing...but I
opposed NCVEC on the other points. Cleraly I differ with the
NCI membership on several points as does Carl...and have made
my own comment filing on both petitions.

There were even a couple times that I defied the board of
directors on a voted issue. Each time I offered my resignation as the
price of that defiance. Not once was it accepted, nor was my act of
defiance overruled.

So your colleagues on that board "gave you a pass" ... how cute.

No pass at all. Just agreement to disagree on a point. That
goes on everywhere in government, organizations, clubs, etc.

If I violated my obligations/authority I would expect to be removed from
office ... and I would move to remove from office any of my colleagues on
the NCI Board of Directors if they violated their obligations/authority.

And we have never encountered such a need in NCI.

Of course it helped that in each case I was proven right in the end.
But sometimes you just HAVE to do what is right if you are going to be a
real leader. It is one hell of a lot harder than just "well this is what
the majority wanted". But oh man, it feels a lot better.

Again ... please note that NCI's comments report what the membership said
in
the survey (and that these are just initial comments on 4 of 18
outstanding
post-WRC-03 petitions - the "main event" will be when the FCC digests
those
18 petitions and all of the comments on them and comes out with a Notice
of
Proposed Rulemaking. I fully expect that NCI will use the services of the
survey service again to gather member input on the NPRM ...

Also ... I know that at least some of the ARRL Directors want to know what
the majority of their constituents feel on the issues ... and try to vote
in
a way that represents their constituents.

Cheers,
Bill K2UNK