[Board] About the selected election periods

[Jody Garnett]

Personally I think that electing board members is an active role in the
governance of the organization and tread the nomination process as an
invitation.

Still let me see if I can figure out where you are going. We have one of
our organization goals as celebrating members of our community, I had
always hoped to see more acknowledgement (not just awards) to inspire and
encourage members. I think we have been leaning on these charter membership
nominations to celebrate individuals (the candidates are darn impressive).
This celebration may indeed be a more important business function than the
associated responsibility (ie voting in the board elections).

So yeah I agree the acknowledgement is invaluable, but I am also serious
about the invitation/responsibility being important.

If we double back to our nomination process we are emphasizing individuals
who are demonstrating commitment to OSGeo and the OSGeo vision. The vast
majority of nominated individuals already play an active role in the
organization. We want to build on this demonstrated commitment and invite
candidates to specifically have a say in the composition of the OSGeo board.

Importantly individuals are asked if they want to take on this
responsibility, this gives us the personal commitment that the candidate is
willing to take on an active role. Indeed when I when discussing with
nominees each was careful to establish what the commitment was and confirm
they had time to perform this function.

Breaking it down:

1. Candidate demonstrates commitment*
2. Candidate personally agrees to the responsibility

The trick is (*) where the commitment needs to be noticed and recognized by
osgeo charter members (while individuals may contact a charter member
seeking I am not sure if they ever have).




--
Jody Garnett

On 18 September 2017 at 09:46, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com> wrote:

> Jody
>
> Do you think that might indicate that Charter Membership is more of an
> acknowledgement of a member's past contribution rather than an invitation
> to play active role in the governance of OSGeo?
>
> If that is the case, why would we entrust the important task of electing
> the board to those who may not be interested in the governance of the
> organisation?
> ______
> Steven
>
>
> On 18 Sep 2017, at 15:39, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I am a little cautious expecting charter members to take on a significant
> role in the governance of OSGeo without asking first. We have recently
> tried  asking for charter member participation in an OSGeo strategic
> planning activity ... and were disappointed by lack of response. I continue
> to recommend building up the working relationship with the committee
> leadership we do have and promote contributor engagement with committees
> (osgeo,project,board).
>
> Of course we should still rename charter members (since that term means
> people who signed the original charter
> <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/charter%20member>). I know
> "voting member" does not sound quite as fun.
>
>
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
> On 18 September 2017 at 05:23, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Good suggestion Maxi, I agree
>>
>> We might also want to consider whether the Charter Members should have a
>> significant role in the governance of OSGeo beyond electing the board and
>> being some kind of backstop in the event of a “hostile takeover”
>> ______
>> Steven
>>
>>
>> On 18 Sep 2017, at 13:17, Massimiliano Cannata <
>> massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch> wrote:
>>
>> Dear All,
>> now that the official nomination period is concluded I would like to rise
>> a question about the opportunity of having Charter member nomination just
>> before of the Board Election with the intend of opening a discussion for
>> the coming years.
>>
>> Personally I think that this is very inappropriate. I would propose to
>> run the Charter member election only after the Board member election.
>> Even if I'm sure that nobody did it, there is a risk of 'election' for
>> the purpose of 'election'.
>> e.g.: I could virtually nominate 20 people and likely expecting they will
>> vote form me or second all the nominations to get the favor of new members.
>>
>> This is a potential flaws in the system from my point of view.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> maxi
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Massimiliano Cannata*
>> Professore SUPSI in ingegneria Geomatica
>> Responsabile settore Geomatica
>>
>> Istituto scienze della Terra
>>
>> Dipartimento ambiente costruzione e design
>> Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana
>> Campus Trevano, CH - 6952 Canobbio
>>
>> Tel. +41 (0)58 666 62 14 <+41%2058%20666%2062%2014>
>> Fax +41 (0)58 666 62 09 <+41%2058%20666%2062%2009>
>> massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch
>> *www.supsi.ch/ist <http://www.supsi.ch/ist>*
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