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Committee

Committee

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:
- Committee of Public Safety
- Central Committee (of a Communist party)
- House Un-American Activities Committee and other U.S. Congressional committees Notable subcommittees include:
- Subcommittee on Human Rights of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament Category:Meetings Category:Parliamentary law Category:Politics

Deliberative assembly

A deliberative assembly is an organization, comprising members, that uses a parliamentary procedure for making decisions. The following are common types of deliberative assemblies:
- The Mass Meeting
- The Local Assembly of an Organized Society
- The Convention
- The Legislative Body
- The Board A committee is a type of small deliberative assembly that is subordinate to another deliberative assembly. A deliberative assembly may have different classes of members. Common classes are voting members (also known as regular members), who have the right to vote, ex-offico members, and honorary members. A deliberative assembly may, or may not be, representative. For example, a board is comprised of elected representatives; but there are no representatives in a mass meeting of members.

Chairperson

A chairman is the presiding officer of a meeting, organization, committee, or other deliberative body. In order to avoid what some see as sexist assumptions, the position is nowadays sometimes called chairperson or simply the chair. Alternatively, the title of chairwoman is sometimes used if the incumbent is female.

As a Role

It is their responsibility to determine the final agenda for each meeting, and ensure that everyone operates within, and addresses issues raised in it, in an efficient manner and in accordance with any previously agreed rules - the rules of order of that meeting, which are usually defined for the group. A rotating chair is a person who has the job only for that meeting and will cede it to another for the next meeting.

As a Position

So far as the boards of public companies are concerned, the role of the Chairman of the board as distinct from that of the company's Chief Executive Officer or Managing Director has in recent times been brought into focus, as the result of alleged corporate governance shortcomings observed in companies in which the two roles are combined. A pivotal document setting out recommendations is the Cadbury Report, the recommendations of which have been adopted to greater or lesser extent by the European Union, USA, the World Bank and others. It is common for board members to hold memberships of several boards and committees at one time. Diversifying board memberships gives a broader sense of what is appropriate and "fitting" when making decisions. The chairman is selected by the shareholders. A chairman's role is often building a consensus from what can be very different initial points of view. The chairman therefore has to be fair to all: a good listener and a good communicator.

Other uses

In the People's Republic of China the title of "Chairman" is often used interchangeably with that of president (ex: Chairman Mao). Category:Management occupations Category:Parliamentary law ja:会長

Minutes

:This article is about the written record of a meeting. See minute for other usages. ---- Minutes are the instant written record of a meeting or hearing. They often give an overview of the structure of the meeting, starting with a list of those present, a statement of the various issues before the participants, and each of their responses thereto. They are often created at the moment of the hearing by a typist or court recorder at the meeting, who may record the meeting in shorthand, and then type the minutes and issue them to the participants afterwards. Alternatively, the meeting may be audiorecorded and the minutes typed later. The minutes of certain entities, such as a corporate board of directors, must be kept and are important legal documents. Most public meetings and governmental hearings follow prescribed rules. Often speakers' words are recorded verbatim, or with only minor paraphrasing, so that every speaker's comments are included. There is considerable debate over what to include in minutes from a non-governmental meeting. Within certain limits, businesses and private organizations may follow whatever rules they choose. Minutes may be as detailed and comprehensive as a transcription, or as short and concise as a bare list of the resolutions adopted or decisions made. While most non-governmental minutes are not in practice seen by the public, many stakeholders find a bare list of decisions to be frustrating, as they want more information about which individuals supported (or didn't support) their particular pet issues. However, in a large group that deals with many different issues, it may be very difficult to present a happy middle ground, as people are likely to have slightly different ideas about the tone of any given discussion, or the importance of a specific topic, and so on. Consequently, most organizations go to either extreme, depending primarily on their notion of privacy (speakers may want to ask questions without fear of being perceived as ignorant) and accountability (members may want to know who to blame). Generally, minutes begin with the organization name, place, date, list of people present, and the time that the chair called the meeting to order. Minutes then record what actually happens at a meeting, in the order that it actually happens, whether or not the meeting follows (or ignores) any written agenda. Since the primary function of minutes is to record the decisions made, any and all official decisions must be included. If a formal motion is made, seconded, passed, or not, then this action and the vote tally must be included. The part of the minutes dealing with a routine motion might note merely that a particular motion was "moved by Ann, seconded by Bob, and passed unanimously." Usually it is sufficient to record the number of people voting for and against a motion (or abstaining), but requests by participants to note their votes by name are always allowed. If a decision is made by roll call vote, then all of the individual votes must be recorded by name. If it is made by consensus without a formal vote, then this fact is recorded. It is also often common for adherents to the "less is more" approach to include certain facts: for example, that financial reports were presented, or that a legal issue (such as a potential conflict of interest) was discussed, or that a particular aspect of an issue was duly considered, or that a person arrived late (or left early) at a particular time. The minutes end with a note of the time that the meeting was adjourned. Minutes in businesses and other private organizations are normally submitted by and over the name of an officer of the organization (usually the Secretary, and never the typist, even if the typist actually drafted the document) at a subsequent meeting for review. The traditional closing phrase is "Respectfully submitted," (although that phrase is slowly falling out of use) followed by the officer's signature, his or her typed (or printed) name, and his or her title. If the members of the committee or group agree that the written minutes reflect what happened at the meeting, then they are approved, and the fact of their approval is recorded in the minutes of the current meeting. If there are errors or omissions, then the minutes will be re-drafted and submitted again at a later date. Minor changes may be made immediately, and the amended minutes may be approved "as amended." It is normally appropriate to give a draft copy of the minutes to the other members in advance of the meeting so that the meeting need not be delayed while everyone reads and corrects the draft. It is not usually considered appropriate to vote to approve minutes for a meeting which one did not attend. It is also not wise to approve minutes which one has not read.

References

- Henry Campbell Black, Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edition, entry on Minutes. West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1991. Category:Parliamentary law Category:Meetings

Secretary

A secretary is an office/administrative support position. The title refers to a person who performs routine, administrative, or personal tasks for a superior. These office employees perform duties such as typing, computer processing, and scheduling for an executive. They usually work at desks in offices.
- Since the Renaissance until the late 19th century, men involved in the daily correspondance and their activities of the mighty had assumed the title of secretary (or in other cases clerk), which contains the word secret to indicate the confidential -hence potentially influential- nature of such work.

Ordinary sense

- In the 1880s, with the invention of the typewriter, more women began to enter the field, and since World War I, the role of secretary has been primarily associated with women. By the 1930s, fewer men were entering the secretarial field. In an effort to promote professionalism amongst US secretaries, the National Secretaries Association was created in 1942. Today, this organization is known as the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) The organization developed the first standardized test for office workers called the Certified Professional Secretaries Examination (CPS). It was first administered in 1951. In 1952, Mary Barrett, president of the National Secretaries Association, C. King Woodbridge, president of Dictaphone Corporation, and American businessman Harry F. Klemfuss created a special Secretary's Day holiday, to recognize the hard work of the staff in the office. The holiday caught on, and during the fourth week of April is now celebrated in offices all over the world. It has been renamed "Administrative Professional's Week" to highlight the increased responsibility of today's secretary and other administrative workers, and to avoid embarrassment to those who believe "secretary" refers only to women or to unskilled workers. At the administrative level many job descriptions blur into each other; a secretary in one company might be called an administrative assistant in another. However, while Administrative Assistant is a truly generic term, not necessarily implying directly working for a superior, Secretary tends to be biased towards typing-based activities directed by a superior. Other titles describing jobs similar to or overlapping those of the traditional secretary are Office Coordinator, Executive Assistant, Office Manager and Administrative Professional. Secretarial jobs are popular as they require few formal qualifications and yet can be skilled jobs. At the most basic end of the spectrum a secretary may need only a good command of the prevailing office language and the ability to type, while at the other end of the spectrum they may be required to take dictation by writing in shorthand at spoken-language rates, type at high speeds using technical language, organise diaries and carry out administrative duties which may include accountancy. Other common tasks are filing and fetching papers (or the equivalent files and databases online), and planning meetings. Interaction with the general public varies from none to extensive, though in the modern US those whose work entails customer service requests are often called "customer service representatives". They are distinct from those called "secretaries" because the scope of their work is smaller. A large urban supermarket, for instance, will have office staff working in enclosed offices in addition to checkout staff, with the latter usually only handling their own receipts for that day's sales while the professional staff must reconcile all accounts daily. Temporary employment agencies often fill secretarial jobs. ----

Private Secretary

This term denotes a secretary who is assigned to assist the person of a high dignitary, such as a prince or statesman, or high cleric, or of a wealthy person or celebrity, so a return to the more influential origins of the word secretary, and has remained mainly a man's job. The actual tasks and status vary greatly per position, and even over time to the same 'master position' While it may still be a rather informal position, some officies have themselves become quite institutionalized, especially assisting the very highest placed persons, such as:
- UK&Commonwealth Private Secretary to the Sovereign
- Catholic church- Private Secretary to the Pope, often filled by a titular archbishop, as Stanislaw Dziwisz to his Polish compatriot John Paul II (after his death, nominated to the late pope's own pre-Vatican see of Krakow)

Diplomacy

The diplomatic ranks of First -, Second and Third Secretary rank under Counsellor, but above Attache

Political and administrative titles

- In some Anglo-Saxon and other countries, the word secretary, as the short form of the (cabinet or lower) ministerial rank or specific portfolio title Secretary of State (see that article), is the politician in charge of a department of government, and performs duties equal to that of a minister of a ministry, for example The Secretary of Defense.
- A permanent secretary
- In a large bureaucratic hierarchy, there can be a host of titles including or variations of the word secretary, such as:
- Chief secretary
-

Other uses

- The term secretary (or secrétaire in French) is also used to describe a specific type of desk with an hinged working surface, such as a secretary desk, a fall front desk or a Bargueno desk.
- Secretary is also the name of a film.
- The Secretary Bird
- [http://www.nastaa.net/secretary/ Secretary] is also a name of a cellphone game for Nokia S60 -series Category:Occupations Category:Office and administrative support occupations ja:秘書

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a very tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The period of greatest danger started on October 16, 1962, when U.S. reconnaissance was shown to U.S. president John F. Kennedy which revealed evidence for Soviet nuclear missile installations in Cuba, and lasted for 13 days until October 28, 1962, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced the installations would be dismantled. It is regarded as the moment when the Cold War was closest to turning into a nuclear war. Russians refer to the event as the "Caribbean Crisis," while Cubans refer to it as the "October Crisis."

Prelude

The Cuban Revolution

The revolution in Cuba, and Fidel Castro's subsequent alignment with the Soviet bloc was the first time a country had become communist without significant military or political intervention from the USSR. As such, it was hugely symbolic to Soviet leaders - particularly Nikita Khrushchev. The Soviet leader regarded the defense of the communist island as critical to the international standing of the USSR and of communist ideology. It is likely that Khrushchev believed that deployment of missiles in Cuba would protect the island from a second American invasion that he regarded as inevitable following the Bay of Pigs Invasion debacle of 1961. A significant military deployment of highly-prized weapons would also demonstrate the importance of the Soviet-Cuban alliance to Castro, who had requested physical evidence of Soviet support for the island.

U.S. missile sites in Turkey

In 1961, the U.S. started deploying 15 Jupiter IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missiles) nuclear missiles near Izmir, Turkey, which directly threatened cities in the western sections of the Soviet Union. These missiles were regarded by President John F. Kennedy as being of questionable strategic value; a nuclear submarine was capable of providing the same cover with both stealth and superior firepower. In the late 1950's missile technology was well developed in the field of medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs), as opposed to ICBMs which could not be kept in a state of readiness at all times. MRBMs represented only a small portion of the total American nuclear arsenal, but still much larger than the U.S.S.R.'s. Soviet strategists realized that some nuclear equality could be efficiently reached by placing missiles in Cuba. Soviet MRBMs on Cuban soil, with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 statute miles), could threaten Washington, DC and around half of the U.S. SAC bases (of nuclear-armed bombers), with a flight time of under twenty minutes. In addition, the U.S.'s radar warning systems oriented toward USSR would have provided little warning of a launch from Cuba. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had publicly expressed his anger at the Turkish deployment, and regarded the missiles as a personal affront. The deployment of missiles in Cuba - the first time Soviet missiles were moved outside the USSR - is commonly seen as Khrushchev's direct response to the Turkish missiles.

Missile Deployment

Khrushchev devised the deployment plan in May of 1962, and by late July over sixty Soviet ships were en-route to Cuba, some of them already carrying military material. John McCone, director of the CIA, warned President Kennedy that some of the ships were probably carrying missiles; however, a meeting with John and Robert Kennedy, Dean Rusk, and Robert McNamara decided that the Soviets would not try such a thing. Kennedy's administration had received repeated claims from Soviet diplomats that there were no missiles in Cuba, nor any plans to place any, and that the Soviets were not interested in starting an international drama that might impact the US elections in November.

The U-2 flights

Robert McNamara A U-2 flight in late August photographed a new series of SAM sites being constructed, but on September 4, 1962 Kennedy told Congress that there were no offensive missiles in Cuba. On the night of September 8, the first consignment of SS-4 MRBMs was unloaded in Havana, and a second shipload arrived on September 16. The Soviets were building nine sites — six for SS-4s and three for SS-5s with a range of 4,000 km (2,400 statute miles). The planned arsenal was forty launchers, an increase in Soviet first strike capacity of 70%. A number of unconnected problems meant that the missiles were not discovered by the US until a U-2 flight of October 14 clearly showed the construction of an SS-4 site near San Cristobal. The photographs were shown to Kennedy on October 16 [http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/colc.html]. By October 19 the U-2 flights (then almost continuous) showed four sites were operational. Initially, the U.S. government kept the information secret, telling only the fourteen key officials of the executive committee. The United Kingdom was not informed until the evening of October 21. President Kennedy, in a televised address on October 22, announced the discovery of the installations and proclaimed that any nuclear missile attack from Cuba would be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union and would be responded to accordingly. He also placed a naval "quarantine" (blockade) on Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of military weapons from arriving there. The word quarantine was used rather than blockade for reasons of international law (the blockade took place in international waters) and in keeping with the Quarantine Speech of 1937 by Franklin D. Roosevelt. John F. Kennedy claimed that a blockade is an act of war (which was correct) and war had not been declared between America and Cuba.

U.S. response

With the news of the confirmed photographic evidence of Soviet missile bases in Cuba, President Kennedy convened a special group of senior advisers to meet secretly at the White House. This group later became known as the ExComm, or Executive Committee of the National Security Council. From the morning of October 16 this group met frequently to devise a response to the threat. The officials had discussed the various options. An immediate bombing strike was dismissed early on, as was a potentially time-consuming appeal to the United Nations. The real options for the ExComm were only military, the diplomatic ones barely considered and dismissed on the first day before even the real discussions started. The choice was reduced to either a naval blockade and an ultimatum, or full-scale invasion. A blockade was finally chosen, although there were a number of hawks (notably Paul Nitze, and Generals Curtis LeMay and Maxwell Taylor) who kept pushing for tougher action. An invasion was planned, and troops were assembled in Florida. However US intelligence was flawed: they believed Soviet and Cuban troop numbers on Cuba to be around 10,000 and 100,000, when they were in fact around 43,000 and 270,000 respectively [http://www.jfklibrary.org/forum_cmc_021006.html]. Also, they were unaware of the 12 Luna tactical nuclear weapons already on the island, which could be launched on the authority of the Soviet commander on the island, General Pliyev, [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/sovietanal.htm] in the event of an invasion. An invasion would therefore probably have invoked a nuclear strike against the invading force, with catastrophic results. There were a number of issues with the naval blockade. There was legality - as Fidel Castro noted, there was nothing illegal about the missile installations; they were certainly a threat to the U.S., but similar missiles aimed at the U.S.S.R. were in place in Europe (sixty Thor IRBMs in four squadrons near Nottingham, in the United Kingdom; thirty Jupiter IRBMs in two squadrons near Gioia del Colle, Italy; and fifteen Jupiter IRBMs in one squadron near Izmir, Turkey). There was concern of the Soviet's reaction to the blockade; it might turn into escalating retaliation Kennedy spoke to the American public, and to the Soviet government, in a televised address on October 22. He confirmed the presence of the missiles in Cuba and announced the naval blockade as a quarantine zone of 500 nautical miles (926 km) around the Cuban coast. He warned that the military was "prepare[d] for any eventualities," and condemned the Soviet Union for "secrecy and deception". The U.S. was surprised at the solid support from its European allies, although Britain's prime minister Macmillan and well as much of the international community did not understand why a diplomatic solution was not considered. The case was conclusively proved on October 25 at an emergency session of the UN Security Council. U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson attempted to force an answer from Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin as to the existence of the weapons, famously demanding, "Don't wait for the translation!" Upon Zorin's refusal, Stevenson produced photographs taken by U.S. surveillance aircraft showing the missile installations in Cuba. Khrushchev sent letters to Kennedy on October 23 and 24 claiming the deterrent nature of the missiles in Cuba and the peaceful intentions of the Soviet Union; however, the Soviets had delivered two different deals to the US government. On October 26, they offered to withdraw the missiles in return for a U.S. guarantee not to invade Cuba or support any invasion. The second deal was broadcast on public radio on October 27, calling for the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey in addition to the demands of the 26th. The crisis peaked on October 27, when a U-2 (piloted by Rudolph Anderson) was shot down over Cuba and another U-2 flight over Russia was almost intercepted when it strayed over Siberia, after Curtis LeMay (U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff) had neglected to enforce Presidential orders to suspend all overflights. At the same time, Soviet merchant ships were nearing the quarantine zone. Kennedy responded by publicly accepting the first deal and sending Robert Kennedy to the Soviet embassy to accept the second in private that the fifteen Jupiter missiles near Izmir, Turkey would be removed. The Soviet ships turned back and on October 28. Khrushchev announced that he had ordered the removal of the Soviet missiles in Cuba. The decision prompted Dean Rusk to comment, "We went eyeball to eyeball, and the other fellow just blinked." Satisfied that the Soviets had removed the missiles, President Kennedy ordered an end to the quarantine of Cuba on November 20.

Aftermath

The compromise satisfied no one, though it was a particularly sharp diplomatic embarrassment for Khrushchev and the Soviet Union, who were seen as backing down from a situation that they had created, whilst, if played well, it could have looked like just the opposite; the USSR gallantly saving the world from nuclear holocaust by not insisting on restoring the nuclear equilibrium. Khrushchev's fall from power a few years later can be partially linked to Politburo embarrassment at both Khrushchev's eventual concessions to the US and his ineptitude in precipitating the crisis in the first place. U.S. military commanders were not happy with the result either. General LeMay told the President that it was "the greatest defeat in our history" and that the US should invade immediately. For Cuba, it was a betrayal by the Soviets whom they had trusted, given that the decisions on putting an end to the crisis had been made exclusively by Kennedy and Khrushchev. In early 1992 it was confirmed that Soviet forces in Cuba had, by the time the crisis broke, received tactical nuclear warheads for their cruise missiles, artillery rockets, and IL-28 bombers [http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2002_11/cubanmissile.asp], though General Anatoly Gribkov, part of the Soviet staff responsible for the operation, stated that the local Soviet commander, General Issa Pliyev, had predelegated authority to use them if the U.S. had mounted a full-scale invasion of Cuba. Gribkov misspoke: the Kremlin's authorization remained unsigned and undelivered. The short time span of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the extensive documentation of the decision-making processes on both sides makes it an excellent case study for analysis of state decision-making. In the Essence of Decision, Graham T. Allison and Philip D. Zelikow use the crisis to illustrate multiple approaches to analyzing the actions of the state. The intensity and magnitude of the crisis also provides excellent material for drama, as illustrated by the movie Thirteen Days (2000), directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp. It was also a substantial part of the 2003 documentary The Fog Of War, which won an Oscar. In October 2002, McNamara and Schlesinger joined a group of other dignitaries in a "reunion" with Castro in Cuba to continue to release classified documents and further study the crisis. It was during the first meeting that Secretary McNamara first discovered that Cuba had many more missiles than initially expected, and what McNamara refered to as 'rational men' (Castro and Khruschev) were perfectly willing to start a nuclear war over the crisis. Furthermore, it was revealed at this conference that an officer aboard a Soviet submarine, named Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov, may have single-handedly prevented the initiation of a nuclear catastrophe [http://www.news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/10/14/wcuba14.xml]. The reported details of this event are remarkably similar to the plot from the movie Crimson Tide (1995), except that the roles of the Americans and Soviets are reversed.

External links

- [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/index.htm Declassified Documents, etc.] - Provided by the National Security Archive.
- [http://www.whitehousetapes.org/pages/trans_jfk2.htm Transcripts and Audio of ExComm meetings] - Provided by the [http://www.whitehousetapes.org Miller Center's Presidential Recordings Program, University of Virginia].
- [http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2002_11/cubanmissile.asp#mcnamara Forty Years After 13 Days] - Robert S. McNamara.
- [http://www.hpol.org/jfk/cuban/ Tapes of debates between JFK and his advisors during the crisis]
- [http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/missile.htm Cuban Missile Crisis Reunion, October 2002]
- [http://www.jfklibrary.org/cmc_exhibit_2002.html The World On the Brink: John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis] Category:History of Cuba Category:Cold War Category:History of foreign relations of the United States Category:U.S. nuclear history Category:Military history of the Soviet Union Category:Cuban-American relations ja:キューバミサイル危機

Commission

In law a commission is a patent which allows a person to take possession of a state office and carry out official acts and duties. Although the term commissioned officer is a military term, civilian officers of the government such as judges, justices of the peace, marshals, and cabinet ministers also are commissioned, as well as many others. A commission does not appoint a person to an office. The appointment occurs before the granting of the commission itself; however, the commission is necessary for the person to exercise the office. This is best illustrated in the landmark Marbury v. Madison of the United States Supreme Court, which made a distinction between the appointment of a person to an office and the actual assumption of the office. The first occurs once the appointing officer, in this case the President of the United States, makes the appointing act, and the second occurs upon reception of the commission. In the United Kingdom, to put an office in commission means to take an office normally held by one person, such as Lord High Treasurer, and assign it to a board of commissioners. The office of First Lord of the Treasury is actually the most senior commissioner sharing the post of Lord High Treasurer. A commission may also be the entire government agency that operates under the authority of a government officer. A commission is also a fee or allowance given to a sales person, affiliate, realtor, stockbroker or agent in exchange for services rendered, often some percentage of the sales s/he is responsible for. A commission can also be a request to create a work, whether of commerce or art: a patron may commission a sculptor to create a specific work, or a corporation may commission a survey by a consulting firm which does such work.

Council

A council is a group of people who usually possess some powers of governance. It can also be an area: Council (subnational entity) Examples:
- A city council, county council or other council in the system of Local Government in the United Kingdom.
- The United Nations Security Council
- The United States Council on Foreign Relations
- The United Kingdom's Privy Council
- The common revolutionary organisation Workers' Councils
- Councils within the European Union:
- Council of the European Union
- European Council
- Councils within the African Union
- Peace and Security Council
- Economic, Social and Cultural Council Other definitions:
- Council of Europe is an international organisation.
- In Australian English refers to a geographical area belonging to a Local government area.
- In the United Kingdom it refers to the Municipality.
- In the Boy Scouts of America, councils are divisions within the National Council.
- Certain Synods are known as Ecumenical councils. A synod which is not an ecumenical council can also be called a council.
- The Xindi Council is a fictional organization from Star Trek Council is not interchangeable with counsel or consul.
- A councilor is a member of a council, as such described above.
- A counselor provides counsel: advice and guidance, such as lawyers provide to their clients.
- A consul is a diplomatic officer. ja:理事会

Presidium

The Presidium or Præsidium (from Latin praesidium meaning protection or defense so plural presidia or praesidia) is the name for the executive committee of various legislative and organizational bodies. In Communist states the presidium was the permanent executive committee of legislative bodies such as the Supreme Soviet in the USSR. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR existed since 1936 when the Supreme Soviet replaced the Central Executive Committee, and from 1936 until 1991 the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was the formal title of the President of the Soviet Union. From 1952 to 1966 the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was known as the Presidium of the Communist Party but despite the similarity in name, the two Presidia were different bodies with different functions. A praesidium is the group of people that take care of the daily management of a student organisation in Flanders. Category:Belgian student societies Category:Dutch student societies Category:German student societies

Politburo

Politburo is short for Political Bureau. The term originates either from the Russian Politicheskoe Byuro, which contracts to Politbyuro, or from the German Politbüro. A Politburo is the executive organization for a number of political parties, most notably for Communist Parties.

Marxist-Leninist states

In Marxist-Leninist states, the party is seen as the "vanguard of the people" and therefore usually has the power to control the state, and the non-state party officials in the politburo generally hold extreme power. In the Soviet Union for example, the General Secretary of the Communist Party did not necessarily hold a state office like president or prime minister to effectively control the system of government. Instead, party members answerable to or controlled by the party held these posts, often as honorific posts as a reward for their long years of service to the party. On other occasions, having governed as General Secretary, the party leader might assume a state office in addition. For example, Mikhail Gorbachev initially did not hold the presidency of the Soviet Union, that office being given as an honour to former Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. Stalin ruled the Soviet Union for well over a decade before assuming the governmental position of Premier of the Soviet Union during World War II. In theory the Party Congress elects a Central Committee which, in turn, elects a General Secretary. Under Stalin however, this model was essentially reversed and it was the General Secretary who determined the composition of the Politburo and Central Committee. At other times the manner in which the membership of Politburos was determined in both the Soviet Union and abroad was influenced by various factors such as the strength of various formal or informal factions within the party, the waxing and waning authority of the General Secretary and the degree to which power was consolidated in that position, the strength or weakness of other leaders in the party, alliances among leading figures and the strength of their support among party members or various poles of power within the party or, in the case of ruling parties, the country. Another factor for members of the Comintern aside from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the degree to which leading members of the party were in or out of favour with Moscow. The wishes of the Soviet leadership to promote or remove certain leaders, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s and again after Stalin's death, were particularly important. The general line promoted by Moscow often changed, sometimes quite abruptly - a phenomenon which tested the ability of local Communist leaders to conform with the new orthodoxy or, converserly, the ability of dissenting communist parties to maintain their independence.

Trotskyist parties

In Trotskyist parties, the Politburo is a bureau of the Central Committee tasked with taking day-to-day political decisions, which must later be ratified by the Central Committee. It is appointed by the Central Committee from among its members. The post of General Secretary carries far less weight than in the Stalinist model. See, for example, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party.

Camarilla

Camarilla may refer to:
- Camarilla, which is an unofficial group of courtiers or favorites surrounding and influencing a king or ruler
- Camarilla, either of two such groups prominent in German history
- The Camarilla, a fictional society or sect of vampires in the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, created by the fantasy and horror publisher White Wolf Game Studio
- The Camarilla, the official fanclub of this game studio

Cabal

A cabal is a number of persons united in some close design, usually to promote their private views and interests in a church, state, or other community by intrigue. Cabals are secret organizations composed of a few designing persons; a political cabal is often called a junta. The term can also be used to refer to the designs of such persons. The term also holds a general meaning of intrigue and conspiracy. Its usage carries strong connotations of shadowy corners and insidious influence; a cabal is more evil and selective than, say, a faction, which is simply selfish. Because of this negative connotation, few organizations use the term to refer to themselves or their internal subdivisions. Among the exceptions is Discordianism, in which the term is used to refer to an identifiable group within the Discordian tradition. The term cabal derives from Kabbalah (which has numerous spelling variations), the mystical interpretation of the Hebrew scripture, and originally meant either an occult doctrine or a secret. The term took on its present insidious meaning from a group of ministers of King Charles II of England (Sir Thomas Clifford, Lord Arlington, the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Ashley, and Lord Lauderdale), whose initial letters coincidentally spelled Cabal, and who were the signers of the public Treaty of Dover which allied England to France in a prospective war against the Dutch. It must be said, however, that the so-called Cabal Ministry can hardly be seen as such - the Scot Lauderdale was not much involved in English governance at all; while the Catholic ministers of the Cabal, Clifford and Arlington, were never much in sympathy with the Protestants, Buckingham and Ashley, nor did Buckingham and Ashley get on very well among themselves. Thus, the "Cabal Ministry," never very unified in its members' aims and sympathies, fell apart by 1672; Lord Ashley, who became Earl of Shaftesbury, still later even became one of Charles II's fiercest opponents. The explanation that the word originated as an acronym from the names of the group of ministers is a folk etymology, although the coincidence was noted at the time. The group, who came to prominence after the fall of Charles's first prime minister, Lord Clarendon, in 1667, was rather called the Cabal because of its secretiveness and lack of responsibility to the "Country party" then out of power. In 1777 a supposed conspiracy, known as the "Conway Cabal," took place. A series of criticisms of General George Washington's leadership abilities as commander-in-chief during the American Revolution has been taught as a cabal, but little evidence exists for it being an actual conspiracy. During the rise of Usenet, the term gained great notice as a semi-ironic description of the efforts of people to maintain some order over the chaotic, anarchic Usenet community; see backbone cabal, There is no Cabal. As in this specific case, references to an alleged cabal often fall within the realm of the conspiracy theory. One recent example of the use of the word Cabal came in an accusation by former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, who claimed that the Bush administration's foreign policy is run by a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal" demonstrating evil intent (See [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/21/politics/21wilkerson.html?incamp=article_popular]). Currently on the Comedy Central program The Daily Show, the phrase "A global cabal of Jews" is referenced from time to time. It's meant as a spoof on the popular far right wing conspiracy theory that a secret Jewish society is lurking to disempower non-jews, especially Whites. This theory had been one of the inspirations for Hitler's atrocities against Jews leading up to WW2 and is currently a recurring theory in many ultra right-wing, racist, and neo-nazi groups.

Responsibility

: In moral philosophy, the word responsibility has at least two related meanings:
- The obligation to answer for actions. Often this means answering to some specified authority.
- The recognition that in order to achieve one's purposes, one must act oneself ("take" responsibility) rather than expecting others to do something (compare initiative). The word is derived from the Latin respondere ("to reply").

External links

- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-responsibility/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Moral Responsibility] ---- There was a song called "Responsibility" by the Washington punk band MxPx, from their sixth full-length album The Ever Passing Moment. Category:Ethics Category:Social philosophy ja:責任

Compromise

A compromise is an agreement (or proposed agreement) to accept a situation in which the parties get variations from what they originally sought, to achieve a compatible outcome. Is also something that any involved parties have to concede in something for the common better good to be achieved in an appeasing manner.

Associations and Use

Extremism, is many times associated to an antonym of compromise. Many times, compromise, is also associated with balance or even tolerance. Defining and finding the best possible compromise is an important problem in fields like voting system. For example, the Modified Borda Count seeks to identify which of several options has the highest average preference among voters. [http://www.unomaha.edu/itwsjr/ThirdXV/EmersonMajoritarianims.15.htm] Research has indicated that suboptimal compromises are often the result of fallacies such as the Fixed Sum Error and the Incompatibility Error, leading to the misperception that the other side's interests are directly opposed. Mutally better outcomes can be found by careful investigation of both parties' interests. [http://www.leighthompson.com/publications/pub90d.htm]

Security

In the security field, the term compromise has the following meanings: # The known or suspected exposure of clandestine personnel, installations, or other assets or of classified information or material, to an unauthorized person. # The disclosure of cryptographic information to unauthorized persons. # The recovery of plaintext of encrypted messages by unauthorized persons through cryptanalysis methods. # The disclosure of information or data to unauthorized persons, or a violation of the security policy of a system in which unauthorized intentional or unintentional disclosure, modification, destruction, or loss of an object may have occurred. Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from the National Information Systems Security Glossary and from the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms ----
- See also: Compromise of 1850 Compromise of 1867 Category:Sociology Category:Cryptography

Meeting

s.]] In a meeting, two or more people come together, in particular to have discussions, often in a formalized way. Instead of coming together physically (in real life, face to face), also communication lines and equipment can be set up to have a discussion between people at different locations, e.g. a conference call or an e-meeting. In organizations, meetings are an important vehicle for human communication. They are so common and pervasive in organizations, however, that many take them for granted and forget that, unless properly planned and executed, meetings can be a terrible waste of precious resources. Because of their importance, a career in professional meeting planning has emerged in recent years.

Topics in meetings

- Facilitation
- Open space conference

Types of meeting

- Staff meeting -- typically a meeting between a manager and those that report to the manager (possibly indirectly).
- Team meeting -- a meeting among colleagues working on various aspects of a team project.
- Ad-hoc meeting -- a meeting called together for a special purpose
- Management meeting -- a meeting among managers
- Board meeting -- a meeting the Board of directors of an organization
- One to one meeting -- a meeting between two individuals

Meeting styles

- stand-up meeting
- breakfast meeting
- off-site meeting

Seven rules for meetings

Training material for how to hold an effective meeting often lists rules such as: 1. Be clear about the meeting’s objective 2. Create a solid agenda 3. Prepare in advance 4. Discussion-management process 5. Use of time 6. Plan, discuss and assign roles 7. Pre- and post-meeting communication

External links

- [http://www.mpiweb.org Meeting Professionals International (MPI)]
- [http://www.pmpn.com/planners.htm Professional Meeting Planners Network]
- [http://www.3m.com/meetingnetwork/ The 3M Meeting Network]
- http://crs.uvm.edu/citizens/meeting.htm category:Meetings category:Management category:Organizational studies and human resource management ja:会議

Quorum

:This article deals with the legal definition of quorum; for other meanings, see Quorum (disambiguation). In law, a quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative body necessary to conduct the business of that group. Ordinarily, this is a majority of the people expected to be there, although many bodies may have a lower or higher quorum.
Quorum as a tool
When quorum is not met, a legislative body cannot hold a vote, and cannot change the status quo. Therefore, voters who are in favor of the status quo are able to use an obstructive strategy called, in the United States, quorum-busting. If a significant number of voters choose not to be present for the vote, the vote will fail due to lack of quorum, and the status quo will remain.
United Kingdom
The House of Lords of the Parliament of the United Kingdom can decide on procedural issues with only three members present.
United States
According to Article One of the United States Constitution, the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate each have a quorum of a simple majority of their respective members. The Senate has the additional requirement in Rule VI of its standing rules of a "majority of the members duly chosen and sworn."
Quorum-busting in the United States
A prominent example of quorum-busting occurred in 2003, when the Texas House of Representatives was going to vote on a redistricting bill that would have favored the Republicans in the state. The House Democrats, certain of defeat if a quorum was present, chose not to be present in the House that day, but instead took a bus to Oklahoma, preventing the bill from passing due to a lack of a quorum. Legislative bodies often have rules to discourage quorum-busting. In many U.S. legislative bodies, such as the United States Senate and House of Representatives, if there is no quorum present a call of the house could be ordered, which would cause absent members to be arrested and brought to the floor of the body. This was the reason that the Texas Democrats fled to Oklahoma, which is outside of the jurisdiction of Texas law. The technique of the disappearing quorum (refusing to vote although physically present on the floor), was used by the minority to block votes in the US House of Representatives until 1890.
Online communities
When votes are held in large online communities, where it may never be the case that a majority of the members are "present", the effect of quorum is different. Being absent from the vote no longer requires particular effort, but is the default case: voters are usually assumed to be absent unless they cast a vote. Online communities therefore tend to have quorums that are much less than a majority of the members. In such votes, a non-monotonic aspect can be introduced: a voter can inadvertently swing a vote from failing to passing by voting "no", if a majority has voted "yes" and that "no" vote is the one that causes quorum to be met. With no penalty for being absent, voters are faced with a strategic choice between voting "no" and not voting. The Debian project has addressed this issue in its voting mechanisms with the idea of per-option quorum. A quorum is not set on the total number of votes, but on the number of votes a particular option (besides the status quo) must receive before it is considered. For example, in a yes/no vote, the quorum may say that at least 40 "yes" votes are required, along with "yes" having a majority of votes, for the vote to pass.
External links

- [http://seehuhn.de/comp/quorum Quorum in the Debian Voting System]
- [http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/96-452.pdf Voting and Quorum Procedures in the U.S. Senate] [pdf ~ 55k]
- [http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/1906120 Houston Chronicle article on the Texas Democratic walkout] Category:Politics Category:Parliamentary law

Majority

A majority is a subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group. This should not be confused with a plurality, which is a subset having the largest number of parts. A plurality is not necessarily a majority, as the largest subset may be less than half of the entire group. For example, in a hypothetical group of 40 athletes there are:
- 15 association football players
- 10 sprinters
- 9 marathon runners
- 6 table tennis players In this group, a majority would consist of more than half the total number of athletes, or 21 athletes. The group of all ball sport players together (15 football players + 6 table tennis players = 21) comprise a majority. However, football players, 15 in number, comprise a plurality, not a majority.

Parliamentary rules

In parliamentary procedure (the "rules of order" concerning the conduct of business in a deliberative body), the term 'majority' refers to "more than half." As it relates to a vote, a majority is more than half of the votes cast (noting that an abstention is simply the refusal to vote). In politics and political voting systems, there are several different popular concepts relating to a majority:
- simple majority
- supermajority
- absolute majority
- two-thirds majority
- relative majority
- Double majority - a majority of votes in a majority of states. These concepts are not to be confused with the concept of a majority as understood in parliamentary procedure, which is a common error. While they do have counterparts in parliamentary procedure, in it they are undefined as termed, and their discussion is beyond the scope of this article.

Central Committee

Central Committee most commonly refers to the central executive unit of a Communist party. In Communist parties, the Central Committee is made up of delegates elected at a Party Congress. The Central Committee makes decisions for the party between congresses and usually is responsible for electing the Politburo. See also:
- Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
- Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Non-Communist Central Committees

However, other organizations also have Central Committees, such as the Mennonite church (see Mennonite Central Committee) and Alcoholics Anonymous. There is also a Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors. In the United States the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have Central Committees which act as the leading body of the party in some counties and states. Category:Soviet phraseology

Subcommittee on Human Rights

The Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) is a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. Human

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the parliamentary body of the European Union (EU), directly elected by EU citizens once every five years. Together with the Council of Ministers, it composes the legislative branch of the institutions of the Union. It meets in two locations: Strasbourg and Brussels. The European Parliament cannot initiate legislation, but it can amend or veto it in many policy areas. In certain other policy areas, it has the right only to be consulted. Parliament also supervises the European Commission, must approve all appointments to it, and can dismiss it with a vote of censure. It also has the right to control the EU budget. Other organisations of European countries, such as the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the Western European Union have parliamentary assemblies as well, but the members of these assemblies are appointed by national parliaments. The European Parliament is unique in that it is directly elected by the people and has legislative authority.

Composition

legislative authority The European Parliament represents around 450 million citizens of the European Union. Its members are known as Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Since 13 June 2004, there have been 732 MEPs. Elections occur once in every five years, on the basis of universal adult suffrage. There is not a uniform voting system for the election of MEPs; rather, each member state is free to choose its own system subject to three restrictions¹:
- The system must be a form of proportional representation, under either the party list or Single Transferable Vote system.
- The electoral area may be subdivided if this will not generally affect the proportional nature of the voting system.
- Any election threshold on the national level must not exceed five percent. The allocation of seats to each member state is based on the principle of degressive proportionality, so that, while the size of the population of each country is taken into account, smaller states elect more MEPs than would be strictly justified by their populations alone. As the number of MEPs granted to each country has arisen from treaty negotiations, there is no precise formula for the apportionment of seats among member states. No change in this configuration can occur without the unanimous consent of all governments. The most recent elections to the European Parliament were the European elections of 2004, held in June of that year. These elections were the largest simultaneous transnational elections ever held anywhere in the world, since nearly 400 million citizens were eligible to vote.
European elections of 2004

Observers

It is conventional for countries acceding to the European Union to send a number of observers to Parliament in advance. The number of observers and their method of appointment (usually by national parliaments) is laid down in the joining countries' Treaties of Accession. Observers may attend debates and take part by invitation, but they may not vote or exercise other official duties. When the countries then become full member states, these observers become full MEPs for the interim period between accession and the next European elections. In this way, the agreed maximum of 750 parliamentary seats may temporarily be exceeded. For instance, in 2004, the number of seats in the European Parliament was temporarily raised to 788 to accommodate representatives from the ten states that joined the EU on 1st May, but it was subsequently reduced to 732 following the elections in June. Since September 26 2005, Bulgaria has 18 observers in Parliament and Romania has 35. These are selected from government and opposition parties as agreed by the countries' national parliaments. In 2007 these observers will become MEPs, but their number is expected to decrease when the number of seats assigned to each country is reassessed, according to the Treaty of Nice.

Constituencies

In five European Union Member States (Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy and the United Kingdom), the national territory is divided into a number of constituencies for European elections. In the remaining 20 Member States the whole country forms a single electoral area. In Germany political parties are entitled to present lists of candidates either at Land (state) or national level. In Finland they may do so either at electoral district or national level. In Poland they may do so only at a constituency level, but seats are allocated nationally.

Powers and functions

Poland In some respects, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers resemble the upper and lower houses of a bicameral legislature. Neither the European Parliament nor the Council of Ministers may initiate EU legislation, this power being reserved by the Commission, and the fact that the European Parliament cannot itself propose laws makes it different from most national legislative assemblies. However, once a proposal for an EU law or directive has been introduced by the Commission, it must usually receive the approval of both Parliament and Council in order to come into force. Parliament may amend and block legislation in those policy areas that fall under the codecision procedure, which currently make up about three-quarters of EU legislative acts. Remaining policy areas fall under either the assent procedure or (in a very few cases) the consultation procedure; under the former Parliament has power to veto but not formally amend proposals, while under the latter it has only a formal right to be consulted. The European Parliament controls the EU budget, which must be approved by Parliament in order to become law. The President of the European Commission is chosen by the European Council, but must be approved by Parliament before he can assume office. The remaining members of the Commission are then appointed by the President, subject to approval of Parliament. Other than its president, members of the Commission are not confirmed by the European Parliament individually; rather, Parliament must either accept or reject the whole Commission en bloc. The European Parliament exerts a function of democratic supervision over all of the EU's activities, particularly those of the Commission. In the event that Parliament adopts a motion of censure, the entire Commission must resign (formally, Commissioners cannot be censored individually). However, a motion of censure must be approved by at least a two-thirds majority in order to have effect. Parliament also appoints the European Ombudsman. Under the proposed new Constitution for Europe, Parliament's powers would be enhanced, with almost all policy areas coming under co-decision, greater powers of democratic scrutiny for Parliament, and control over the whole EU budget.

Location

Constitution for Europe Although Brussels is generally treated as the 'capital' of the European Union, and the two institutions of the EU's executive, the Commission and the Council of Ministers, both have their seats there, a protocol attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam requires that the European Parliament have monthly sessions in Strasbourg. Thus the European Parliament is sometimes informally referred to as the 'Strasbourg Parliament'. For practical reasons, however, preparatory legislative work and committee meetings take place in Brussels. Moreover, the European Parliament´s secretariat (administration), which employs the majority of its staff, is located in Luxembourg. Parliament only spends four days of each month in Strasbourg in order to take its final, plenary votes. Additional plenary meetings are held in Brussels. On several occasions, the European Parliament has expressed a wish to be granted the right to choose for itself the location of its seat, and eliminate the two-seat system, but in the successive treaties, European governments have continued to reserve this right for themselves.

Organisation

The European Parliament has a number of governing bodies and committees, and a number of delegations from external bodies. The main offices and governing bodies are:
- President - [http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-019+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y duties]
- Vice-Presidents - [http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-020+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y duties]
- Bureau - [http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-022+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y duties]
- Conference of Presidents - [http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-024+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y duties]
- Quaestors - [http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-025+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y duties]
- Conference of Committee Chairmen - [http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-026+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y description]
- Conference of Delegation Chairmen - [http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-027+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y description]

List of committees

Internal affairs
- BUDG - Committee on Budgets
- CONT - Committee on Budgetary Control
- ECON - Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
- EMPL - Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
- ENVI - Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
- ITRE - Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
- IMCO - Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection
- TRAN - Committee on Transport and Tourism
- REGI - Committee on Regional Development
- AGRI - Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
- PECH - Committee on Fisheries
- CULT - Committee on Culture and Education
- JURI - Committee on Legal Affairs
- LIBE - Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
- AFCO - Committee on Constitutional Affairs
- FEMM - Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
- PETI - Committee on Petitions External affairs
- AFET - Committee on Foreign Affairs
- DROI - Subcommittee on Human Rights
- SEDE - Subcommittee on Security and Defence
- DEVE - Committee on Development
- INTA - Committee on International Trade

Political groups and parties

Committee on International Trade The political parties in the European Parliament are organised into a number of political groupings as well as a number of registered European political parties. However most continue to be members of separate national political parties and discipline within European parties and groupings is not rigid. The makeup of the parliament's groups is fluid, and both national delegations and individual MEPs are free to switch allegiances as they see fit. European Parliament party groups are distinct from the corresponding European political parties, although they are intimately linked. Usually, the European parties also have member parties from European countries which are not members of the European Union. At the start of Parliament's sixth term in 2004 there were seven groups, as well as a number of non-aligned members, known as non-inscrits. As of October 8, 2005 the composition of the European Parliament was: 2005 There has been controversy over the proposed European Political Parties Directive, which seeks to provide state funding for Europe-wide political parties. This has been seen by some as an attempt to put Eurosceptic parties (which would not meet the funding criteria) at a huge financial disadvantage [http://www.hannan.co.uk/eurobriefings.htm#whycourt]. 25 Members of the European Parliament petitioned the European Court of Justice, arguing that this directive contravened the EU's stated values of pluralism and democracy. However, the case was rejected after eighteen months [http://www.hannan.co.uk/eurobriefings.htm#pan-european].

History

European Court of Justice The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) established a 'Common Assembly' in September, 1952, its 78 members drawn from the six national Parliaments of the ECSC's constituent nations. This was expanded in March 1958 to also cover the European Economic Community and Euratom, and the name European Parliamentary Assembly was adopted. The body was renamed to the European Parliament in 1962. In 1979 the parliament's membership was expanded again and its members began to be directly elected for the first time. Thereafter the membership of the European Parliament has simply expanded whenever new nations have joined; the membership was adjusted upwards in 1994 after German Reunification. Recent treaties, including the Treaty of Nice and the proposed Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, set a cap on membership at 750. :See also: Growth in membership of the European Parliament

Footnotes

#These requirements were imposed by Council Decision 2002/772/EC, which is binding on all member states.

External links

- [http://www.europarl.eu.int/news/public/default_en.htm Official web site]
- [http://www.corbett-euro.demon.co.uk/job_parl.htm Detailed description of the Parliament's role, written by an MEP specialising in constitutional affairs]
- [http://www.europarl.ie/ European Parliament Office in Ireland]
- [http://www.europarl.org.uk UK Office of the European Parliament]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/europe/04/eu_parliament_guide/html/introduction.stm BBC News: European Parliament guide]
- [http://drcwww.kub.nl/dbi/instructie/eu/en/T1.htm DEsite]: [http://drcwww.kub.nl/dbi/instructie/eu/en/T13.htm Info page of the European Parliament]
- [http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?SAME_LEVEL=1&LEVEL=2&NAV=X&DETAIL=&PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+TOC+DOC+XML+V0//EN Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament]
- [http://www.euabc.com A glossary of European Union terms]
- Category:Strasbourg ko:유럽 의회 ja:欧州議会

Category:Meetings

Category:Organizational studies and human resource management Category:Organizations Category:Events

Category:Politics

Politics is the process and conduct of decision-making for groups. This notion predates human society. Although it is usually applied to governments, political behavior is also observed in corporate, academic, religious, and other institutions. Political science is the field devoted to studying political behavior and examining the acquisition and application of power, or the ability to impose one's will on another. Its practitioners are known as political scientists. Political scientists look at elections, public opinion, institutional activities (how legislatures act, the relative importance of various sources of political power), the ideologies behind various politicians and interest groups, how politicians achieve and wield their influence, and so on. Subfields of political science include international relations, comparative politics, public law, and political theory. Each subfield tends to overlap with other academic disciplines, such as history, philosophy, law, sociology, and anthropology. Individual political ideologies can be found under the sub-category Political theories. :See also the List of politics-related topics.

Catégorie:Frise chronologique

Catégorie:Maintenance Wikipédia Catégorie:chronologie Une frise chronologique est un tableau permettant de représenter la succession chronologique d'événements. Le but de cette catégorie est de regrouper tous les articles utilisants les extensions du logiciel permettant de réaliser de telles frises simplement. Cette extension devant encore évoluer ces prochains mois, cela permettra de vérifier que les frises générées dans ces articles le sont toujours de manière correcte (tests de non-régression). EasyTimeline semble désormais fonctionner correctement avec l'UTF-8. (voir bugzilla:7 et bugzilla:3965)
- Voir EasyTimeline (anglais) ou sa traduction française frise chronologique pour plus de détails.
- Vous pouvez poser vos questions en anglais (ou en neerlandais) à son auteur w:en:User:Erik Zachte.
- Pour avoir un aperçu de tous les diagrammes et frises réalisés sur tous les wikipédias veuillez consulter l[http://en.wikipedia.org/wikistats/EN/TimelinesIndex.htm Index EasyTimeline], mis à jour hebdomadairement et automatiquement.

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Ward identities
In quantum field theory a Ward-Takahashi identity is nowadays used to designate an identity between correlation functions that follows from symmetries, either global or gauged, of the theory, and which remains valid after renormalization. It was originally used by John Ward and Y. Takahashi to relate the Sussex village of Ebernoe, the location of which is about five miles north of Petworth (). The fair is held annually on Saint James's Day, 25th July. The tradition is centuries old though it appears to have been revived after a long lapse in 1864. The celebration is held on the village c

Committee

Deliberative assembly

See also

Chairperson

As a Role

As a Position

Other uses

Minutes

References

Secretary

Ordinary sense

Private Secretary

Diplomacy

Political and administrative titles

Other uses

Cuban Missile Crisis

Prelude

The Cuban Revolution

U.S. missile sites in Turkey

Missile Deployment

The U-2 flights

U.S. response

Aftermath

See also

Further reading

External links

Commission

See also

Council

Presidium

Politburo

Marxist-Leninist states

Trotskyist parties

See also

Camarilla

Cabal

See also

Responsibility

See also

External links

Compromise

Associations and Use

Security

Meeting

Topics in meetings

Types of meeting

Meeting styles

Seven rules for meetings

See also

External links

Quorum

Quorum as a tool

United Kingdom

United States

Quorum-busting in the United States

Online communities

External links

Majority

Parliamentary rules

See also

Central Committee

Non-Communist Central Committees

Subcommittee on Human Rights

European Parliament

Composition

Observers

Constituencies

Powers and functions

Location

Organisation

List of committees

Political groups and parties

History

Footnotes

See also

External links

Category:Meetings

Category:Politics

See also

Catégorie:Frise chronologique