On Wednesday 08 December 2010 13:34:53 Ronald van Haren wrote:
and who determines if there is a substantial difference between the two votes (I'm talking about edge cases here)? And what exactly is this substantial difference that is required, how do we quantify it?
Indeed, there are always these questions :-)
And maybe this isn't clear, but "substantive" is a little different from "substantial". It basically means that there needs to be a difference of value between the two proposals. I.e. the implication of accepting the second rather than the first would be, at least in some small way, different.
That's my feeling, anyway.
I'm not a native speaker, but I always thought they could be used interchangeably. Actually most of the on-line dictionaries don't give a clear answer about the difference. Either way, we should probably try to use a different wording if the purpose is to make the document more understandable.
Sure - I'm all for easily understandable, as long as we're also precise :-) I suppose what I'm after is that the effect of the two proposals must be in some way different. It's not enough just to reword the same thing. So how about: "A rejected proposal may not be presented again before a waiting period has passed. The duration of the waiting period shall be 3 full months UNLESS otherwise stated in a section of the bylaws pertaining to the proposal. The waiting period begins at the end of the voting period. A proposal which is similar to the rejected proposal, but whose effect is in any way different is considered a different proposal, and therefore does not require a waiting period before being presented." Pete.