[Board] motions from June 18 meeting - making OSGeo Charter membership more exclusive

Sun Jun 21 00:52:20 PDT 2015

Hi all,

in fact, I do remember quite involved discussions around the whole procedure,
where the 5% were only one facet. There were arguments like "an applicant might
be disappointed when not elected, so let us put the barrier low". My view:
democracry is not about giving posts to everybody for avoiding "disappointment",
but to establish a leadership accepted by a majority (sic).

And I am concerned that a procedure seen as debatable by several members
(including me, BTW) should now be pursued further without an opportunity for
reconsideration. Obviously there is at the very least a need to find out whether
there is room for improvement.

-Peter

On 06/21/15 09:44, Venkatesh Raghavan wrote:
> The issue of setting the selection criteria at 5% was discussed
> after the last years Charter member elections [1].
>
> There was no community discussion when the criteria was changed
> to a threshold of 5%. So I do not see the logic in calling for a community
> discussion now
> on a matter in which the the community was never consulted, despite the fact that
> some of us expressed our apprehensions about lowering the threshold.
>
> Venka
>
> [1] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2014-August/012016.html
>
> On 2015/06/21 2:21, Vasile Craciunescu wrote:
>> I get Cameron's point of view. Personally, I really don't want to leave
>> valuable people "outside" just because they are not "popular" enough or
>> because they not recommended to the charter members by a popular figure.
>> Myself, I'm not from on a country with notably contributions in term of code
>> to the FOSS4G realm. I do really know that passion for FOSS4G is not always
>> enough to make a person noticeable in the eyes of the community (especially
>> if you are not a programmer). On the other hand, why do we call the process
>> "elections" if we always accept all the nominations? We really need to have
>> some kind of mechanism to assure that "proper" people are elected as charter
>> members, people that really understand and share the values promoted by
>> OSGeo. If the mechanism is right, all the "good" people will get elected
>> (most probably, all people proposed). Of course, there is no easy path to
>> achieve this. I agree that changing the rules of engagement just before the
>> elections is not the best approach. But, I also recall that, since the board
>> meeting in Portland, the 5% rule was contested by an important number of
>> board and charter members (not always on public channels). My proposal is to
>> delay a bit the elections schedule for this year (not sure if bylaws permit
>> this) or shorten the nomination/voting periods in order to have a real
>> consultation on the topic with the OSGeo community. Postponing the rule
>> amendment for an entire year may find us in the very same situation one year
>> latter in 2016 (as Jeff already mentioned, nobody had nothing to reply to his
>> message from May). I encourage all the board/charter members to express their
>> opinion on this subject. If you do care, please talk now.
>>
>> Best,
>> Vasile
>>
>> On 6/20/15 1:59 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>>> OSGeo board,
>>> As an OSGeo Charter member, I request that the following motion (see
>>> below) not be passed without first discussing publicly on the OSGeo
>>> Discuss email list.
>>>
>>> The current process for joining OSGeo Charter Membership [2] was
>>> specifically refined to be more inclusive than before, in order to make
>>> it easy for all passionate people within the OSGeo community to join,
>>> while aiming to protect against the now relatively unlikely possibility
>>> of a hostile takeover.
>>>
>>> Based on the proposal below, 11 out of 64 of last years successful
>>> nominations would be rejected under the  proposed new rules. I suggest
>>> this is not in OSGeo's interests.
>>>
>>> It is possible that some of these 11 people are not very involved in
>>> OSGeo, and maybe haven't contributed much since being nominated, but is
>>> that a bad thing? Have any of these 11 people been actively detrimental
>>> to OSGeo while being an OSGeo Charter member? Note, the only official
>>> duty of a charter member is to vote for the board. However, being
>>> recognised as a charter member is useful for many of our members looking
>>> to gain OSGeo credibility, such as when presenting at conferences.
>>>
>>> If we are more inclusive, and add 10 new non-active/non-disruptive OSGeo
>>> Charter members, then I'd argue that it is worth it for the 1 passionate
>>> Charter member we also gain.
>>>
>>> I remember a quote from Jeff which rang true with me, and which I think
>>> is applicable here:
>>> /
>>> //"I once heard an interview with a legendary lead singer of a band, who
>>> said his goal each concert was to make the kid sitting in the very back
>>> row to feel like he's as much a part of the concert as the kid sitting
>>> in the front row, and this is exactly how I focus my community work for
>>> OSGeo."/
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2014-August/013498.html
>>>
>>> Warm regards, Cameron Shorter
>>>
>>> On 20/06/2015 5:29 am, Vasile Craciunescu wrote:
>>>> Dear all,
>>>>
>>>> Please also vote for motion below.
>>>>
>>>> 5) For the new charter members elections, change the threshold of
>>>> required YES votes of charter members from 5% to 50%. See Jeff's
>>>> e-mail [1] for detailed explanations and the rationale of this change.
>>>> If needed, also check the Membership Process [2].
>>>>
>>>> My vote is +1.
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>> Vasile
>>>>
>>>> [1] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2015-May/012863.html
>>>> [2] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process
>>>
>>>
>>> On 26/05/2015 2:18 am, Jeff McKenna wrote:
>>>> 3. Decide on 2015 Selection Process
>>>> -----------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> To refresh everyone's memory, last year we (Board) modified the
>>>> selection process[3] for Charter members; but in my opinion we made a
>>>> mistake with the voting change of "Each candidate with more YES votes
>>>> than NO votes, and greater than 5% of voting charter members voting
>>>> YES for them, will be included as new charter members."
>>>>
>>>> What I saw was, for the first time in OSGeo history, strategic
>>>> nominations by certain projects, for relatively unknown community
>>>> members; the result was that all 64 nominations were accepted as
>>>> Charter members.
>>>>
>>>> For 2015, I am proposing we make 1 change, instead of the 5%
>>>> acceptance, change that to 50% or greater voting YES.   Such as:
>>>>
>>>> ***
>>>> Each candidate with more YES votes than NO votes, and greater than or
>>>> equal to 50% of voting charter members voting YES for them, will be
>>>> included as new charter members.
>>>> ***
>>>>
>>>> I have checked the 2014 results again, and with those new 50% rules,
>>>> we would have accepted 45 nominations versus all 64 nominations.  I
>>>> believe this is much better.
>>>>
>>>> But of course this needs to be decided by the Board and community.  I
>>>> am merely kicking off the process   So please speak your mind, or edit
>>>> the 2015 Elections wiki directly.
>>>>
>>>> Yours,
>>>>
>>>> -jeff
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> 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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