[Board] [OSGeo-Discuss] Proposed process for selecting OSGeo charter members

Mon Jun 30 01:58:17 PDT 2014

Selon Bart van den Eijnden <bartvde at osgis.nl>:

> Hey Peter,
>
> so what would be your suggestions to make the process more of the 4 bullet
> points you mentioned?

Not answering on behalf of Peter, but a potential idea to solve those issues
would be to combine Cameron proposal of a yes/no vote on each nominee + allow
people to self-nominate them (as you do in political elections). That should
help solving the "self-sustaining oligarchy"
We could add a rule that a self-nominee must at least be seconded by at least X
charter member(s). Such a rule would not particuarly shoking to avoid unrelevant
candidates (e.g. in France to be candidate to the presidential election you must
have at least support from at least 500 already elected persons : mayors,
deputies, etc... But such a rule is regularly contested by "small" candidates.)
Or we could not make it a rule, but allow charter members to express their
support for the candidature of a self-nominee.

At least, this would help solving the following 2 problems of our current
process :
- people that are excluded because noone thought of nominating them
- people that are excluded because of the limited number of new members
(although that has not been a practical problem the last 2 years since all
nominees have been accepted)

I think OSGeo already works in an open and transparent way. The point of
democracy is perhaps to be better adressed, but there is a subtle balance to
find between oligarchy and a too big dilution of the values. In a democracy you
always have rules to define who can be elected and who can vote.

Even

>
> Best regards,
> Bart
>
> On 30 Jun 2014, at 09:24, Peter Baumann <p.baumann at jacobs-university.de>
> wrote:
>
> > Cameron & all,
> >
> > a lot of serious, involved work is going on on this thread; however, some
> core issues which I tried to phrase, but Steven (Feldman) expressed much
> crisper, still remain unaddressed by the currently voted proposal:
> > Inclusiveness
> > Democracy
> > Growth
> > Openness
> > The proposal as it stands is in high danger of establishing a
> self-sustaining oligarchy.
> >
> > I am concerned that a body that claims to have international impact
> (through project branding) high responsibility must be exercised in terms of
> transparency, openness, and democratic principles.
> >
> > -Peter
> >
> >
> >
> > On 06/29/2014 10:26 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,  W www.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,  W www.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,  W www.lisasoft.com,  F +61 2 9009 5099
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Discuss mailing list
> >> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> >> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
> > --
> > Dr. Peter Baumann
> >  - Professor of Computer Science, Jacobs University Bremen
> >    www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/pbaumann
> >    mail: p.baumann at jacobs-university.de
> >    tel: +49-421-200-3178, fax: +49-421-200-493178
> >  - Executive Director, rasdaman GmbH Bremen (HRB 26793)
> >    www.rasdaman.com, mail: baumann at rasdaman.com
> >    tel: 0800-rasdaman, fax: 0800-rasdafax, mobile: +49-173-5837882
> > "Si forte in alienas manus oberraverit hec peregrina epistola incertis
> ventis dimissa, sed Deo commendata, precamur ut ei reddatur cui soli
> destinata, nec preripiat quisquam non sibi parata." (mail disclaimer, AD
> 1083)
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>