All votes of the SFF Committee are by letter ballot. Members who did not return their ballot and are in attendance at a meeting may cast their vote when the results are presented.

There are multiple ballots on every Specification. The previous ballots cast by a member company are reflected in the Cumulative Total of voting which is summarized on the front page of an SFF Specification i.e. a member company which voted Yes to Approve a Specification and did not respond to the ballot to Publish will be shown as in favor. A member that previously voted Yes or No and wants to change to neutral can do so by voting to Abstain on any subsequent letter ballot.

The discrimination between Cumulative and Mailing ballots is so that only those members who are technical experts in the content need vote on revisions as they are developed. The Mailing ballots attract the technical voters, so the merits of a revision are judged by the active and involved experts.

The Cumulative vote reflects the general degree of support for a project. Some members may vote support based on believing there is an industry need and that the process followed within SFF will produce a viable solution.

The minutes of each meeting summarize the results of the previous letter ballot and the Cumulative results of all ballots. Members are encouraged to check whether the voting status represents a valid record of how they have voted.

Balloting is done in several categories.

• An S (Submit) ballot is to move a document from a submitted proposal status or a SSWG to the full Committee.
• An A (Approval) ballot signifies general agreement with the content, but it may be subject to editorial and technical changes.
• A P (Publish) ballot provides all members an opportunity to review a complete document that will be widely distributed

  Simple Procedure:	Status	Time
  Development revision balloted to Approve	D	0 months
  Edited Revision balloted to Publish	A	2 months
  Published Specification Status	P	4 months

If a major technical change to an Approved Specification is adopted by the members, the Specification reverts to Development status and the balloting cycle is repeated to Approve it prior to Publication. The time to publication is as follows.

Procedure if Technical Changes:	Status	Time
Development revision balloted to Approve	D	0 months
Edited Revision balloted to Publish	A	2 months
Technical changes received, revert to Development	D
Development revision balloted to Approve	D	4 months
Edited Revision balloted to Publish	A	6 months
Published Specification Status	P	8 months

An alternative that may be pursued is to have a major technical change cause the status to revert to Development but combine the Approval and Publish ballot into a single vote. The choice of the procedure followed is a judgment call by the Chairman and the members present in an SFF Committee meeting.

Alternative Procedure:	Status	Time
Development revision balloted to Approve	D	0 months
Edited Revision balloted to Publish	A	2 months
Technical changes received, revert to Development	D
Edited Revision balloted to Publish	A	4 months
Published Specification Status	P	6 months

A ‘majority of one’ applies to voting. One ‘No’ is sufficient to prevent Publication of a specification if that that vote is technical in nature and raises an issue of completeness. This method ensures that only specifications which are voted technically complete and accurate can proceed to Publication.