[Board] Proposed process for selecting OSGeo charter members

[Bob Basques]

All,

Shouldn't there be an option for abstaining from a vote in addition to the yes/no options?

bobb

On 06/29/2014 03:26 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> OSGeo board,
> 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:
>
> 1. Charter member to nominate potential new charter member(s) (as before).
>
> 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.
>
> 3. Charter members would be guided to select candidates who fit the "Positive Attributes for Charter Members" as 
> defined here: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process#Positive_Attributes
>
> 4. There will be no limit to the number of new charter members who can be selected. This will require an update of 
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process
>
> 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.
>
> Board members, can you please all vote on above:
>
> +1 Cameron
>
>
>
> On 25/06/2014 9:31 pm, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>> Following the community discussion, I further researched OSGeo's foundation documents, (in retrospect I should have 
>> done this earlier).
>>
>> Of particular relevance to current discussion is our ByLaws:
>>
>> http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html
>> /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./
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> 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:
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process
>> /The number of new members will be between 10% and one third of the existing charter membership count as decided by 
>> the board/.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> So I'm now thinking that our election process can be simplified to:
>>
>> 1. Charter member to nominate potential new charter member(s)
>> 2. Charter members then vote (in/out) against all nominated charter members
>> A suitable criteria for determining whether a nominee qualifies is listed here: 
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process#Positive_Attributes
>> 4. Nominees with a majority of votes are included as new Charter Members
>>
>> On 15/06/2014 9:52 am, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>>> Within 2 weeks we intend to start our annual process for selecting new OSGeo charter members.
>>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> *Design guidelines:*
>>>
>>> * We want a process which is simple to understand and implement.
>>> * 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.
>>> * We want a process which is difficult to abuse.
>>> * For the first iteration, we should err on being more selective in our criteria, with potential widening of 
>>> selection criteria in future years.
>>>
>>> *Recognised OSGeo Community Leaders**
>>> *
>>> 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.
>>> Recognised OSGeo Community Leaders are defined as people who have been *voted* into a position of authority within 
>>> official OSGeo projects and committees, where the voting community includes at least 3 OSGeo charter members.
>>>
>>> Acceptable roles are currently limited to:
>>> * Project Steering Committee member of a Graduated OSGeo Project
>>> * Chair of Official Local Chapter
>>> * Chair of an OSGeo committee
>>>
>>> The application process for recognised OSGeo Community Leaders is the same as for other nominees.
>>>
>>> Full text of our processes are at:
>>> * http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process_2014
>>> * http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Election_2014
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> 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,  Wwww.lisasoft.com,  F +61 2 9009 5099
>>
>> -- 
>> 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,  Wwww.lisasoft.com,  F +61 2 9009 5099
>
> -- 
> 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,  Wwww.lisasoft.com,  F +61 2 9009 5099
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Board mailing list
> Board at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board

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