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OSGeo board,<br>
In the interests of making a decision such that Jorge Salinas (our
CRO) can move forward, I propose the following process be followed
for voting new charter members in 2014:<br>
<br>
1. Charter member to nominate potential new charter member(s) (as
before).<br>
<br>
2. Charter members then vote (in/out) nominated charter members.
This will be different to prior years, as we previously voted in a
fixed number of members for a larger selection pool. (eg vote in 20
people from a list of 30). For this year, I propose we have a
"Yes/No" vote. Ie, if we have a list of 30 candidates, we will ask
all charter members to vote Yes or No against each candidate. Each
candidate with greater than 50% of YES votes will be included as new
charter members.<br>
<br>
3. Charter members would be guided to select candidates who fit the
"Positive Attributes for Charter Members" as defined here: <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process#Positive_Attributes">http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process#Positive_Attributes</a><br>
<br>
4. There will be no limit to the number of new charter members who
can be selected. This will require an update of <a
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process">http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process</a><br>
<br>
5. Note: This vote is being put to the board and not to charter
members as I don't wish to complicate this decision by adding a 2nd
(positive) idea for change. We can address getting charter members
to vote on issues as a separate motion.<br>
<br>
Board members, can you please all vote on above:<br>
<br>
+1 Cameron<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 25/06/2014 9:31 pm, Cameron Shorter
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:53AAB2F7.4040607@gmail.com" type="cite">
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Following the community discussion, I further researched OSGeo's
foundation documents, (in retrospect I should have done this
earlier).<br>
<br>
Of particular relevance to current discussion is our ByLaws:<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html">http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html</a><br>
<i>Section 7.1. Admission of [Charter] Members. An initial group
of up to forty-five (45) persons shall be admitted as the
initial [charter] members of the corporation upon the
affirmative vote of the Board of Directors of the corporation.
Thereafter, to be eligible for [charter] membership, a person
must be nominated by an existing [charter] member of the
corporation pursuant to a written document in such form as shall
be adopted by the Board of Directors from time to time. The
nomination must be included in a notice to the [charter] members
at least ten (10) days in advance of the meeting at which the
[charter] members will vote on the applicant’s admission.
Proposed [charter] members shall be admitted upon the
affirmative vote of the members of the corporation.</i><br>
<br>
This section implies that the proposal below of automatically
accepting "Recognised OSGeo Community Leaders" is
unconstitutional, as charter members need to be voted into the
role by existing charter members.<br>
<br>
It also implies that while a separate paid membership category
could be created, paid members would still need to be voted into a
charter member role by existing charter members.<br>
<br>
The ByLaws don't mention limiting the number of new charter
members. This criteria seems to have been introduced as a
Membership Process by the 26th Board meeting:<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process">http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process</a><br>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<i>The number of new members will be between 10% and one third of
the existing charter membership count as decided by the board</i>.<br>
<br>
Such a statement created by the board, could be updated by the
board, and as such the board could agree to accept an unlimited
number of new charter members.<br>
<br>
So I'm now thinking that our election process can be simplified
to:<br>
<br>
1. Charter member to nominate potential new charter member(s)<br>
2. Charter members then vote (in/out) against all nominated
charter members<br>
A suitable criteria for determining whether a nominee qualifies is
listed here: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process#Positive_Attributes">http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process#Positive_Attributes</a><br>
4. Nominees with a majority of votes are included as new Charter
Members<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 15/06/2014 9:52 am, Cameron
Shorter wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:539CE03F.8010005@gmail.com" type="cite">
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Within 2 weeks we intend to start our annual process for
selecting new OSGeo charter members.<br>
<br>
In previous years the Charter Member selection process has been
a little contentious. We typically receive numerous nominations
from high caliber members of our community, and insufficient
positions to accept them all. This typically results in
unnecessary disappointment and dissent.<br>
<br>
In response, the OSGeo board has agreed to trial tweaking the
voting process. The aim is to automatically accept recognised
OSGeo community leaders, while continuing with our existing
process which attracts the many valuable community members who
contribute in other ways. Community comments are encouraged, and
will be considered over the next week.<br>
<br>
<b>Design guidelines:</b><br>
<br>
* We want a process which is simple to understand and implement.<br>
* We want a process which encourages recognised OSGeo community
leaders to become OSGeo charter members, while continuing to
accept members from the many other valuable OSGeo roles.<br>
* We want a process which is difficult to abuse.<br>
* For the first iteration, we should err on being more selective
in our criteria, with potential widening of selection criteria
in future years.<br>
<br>
<b>Recognised OSGeo Community Leaders</b><b><br>
</b><br>
OSGeo aims to provide OSGeo Charter Membership to all recognised
OSGeo community leaders who are nominated. Hopefully, sufficient
positions are available. If there are more candidates than
available, then membership will be allocated to the first to be
nominated. Remaining nominees will be automatically offered to
go through the standard voting process.<br>
Recognised OSGeo Community Leaders are defined as people who
have been <b>voted</b> into a position of authority within
official OSGeo projects and committees, where the voting
community includes at least 3 OSGeo charter members.<br>
<br>
Acceptable roles are currently limited to:<br>
* Project Steering Committee member of a Graduated OSGeo Project<br>
* Chair of Official Local Chapter<br>
* Chair of an OSGeo committee<br>
<br>
The application process for recognised OSGeo Community Leaders
is the same as for other nominees.<br>
<br>
Full text of our processes are at:<br>
* <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process_2014">http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process_2014</a><br>
* <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Election_2014">http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Election_2014</a><br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter,
Software and Data Solutions Manager
LISAsoft
Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf,
26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009
P +61 2 9009 5000, W <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.lisasoft.com">www.lisasoft.com</a>, F +61 2 9009 5099</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter,
Software and Data Solutions Manager
LISAsoft
Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf,
26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009
P +61 2 9009 5000, W <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.lisasoft.com">www.lisasoft.com</a>, F +61 2 9009 5099</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter,
Software and Data Solutions Manager
LISAsoft
Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf,
26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009
P +61 2 9009 5000, W <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.lisasoft.com">www.lisasoft.com</a>, F +61 2 9009 5099</pre>
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