[Board] Kicking off Elections 2015 process

[Jeff McKenna]

Hi Board, all,

I'd like to make sure we begin the OSGeo Elections process, for both 
Charter members and Board members.

I've added this to the next Board meeting agenda, but, we 
shouldn't/can't wait that long to begin, so, here are some tasks:

1. Ask for volunteer to manage the 2015 Elections process
---------------------------------------------------------

This is for the CRO (Chief Returning Officer) position[1].  Jorge did a 
great job last year, and setup an electronic voting system that will 
likely be used again this year.  Do we have any volunteers for this year?

Note that what I found worked well last year, was Jorge as CRO but 
having at least 2 others CC-ed in the cro@ alias, I think it was Jachym 
and myself, to follow along and help where needed.  It is a big task for 
one person.

2. Develop the 2015 Election Process
------------------------------------

For now, until we have a CRO volunteer, and to hopefully kick-start this 
into motion, I created a 2015 page[2] to work from (with proposed dates, 
listing accurate Board positions available etc.).  The CRO can of course 
change anything.

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


[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Chief_Returning_Officer
[2] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Election_2015
[3] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process