[Board] Open Letter to the Board Candidates

[Michael Gerlek]

Dear Board Candidates:

Your past actions have shown to your peers that you have the skills and qualifications to help lead OSGeo: congratulations on your nomination to be a member of the Board of Directors!

There are seven of you to choose from, but I am only allowed to vote for five of you: please help me make an informed choice.

So far, only four of you have chosen to fill out the wiki page [1] with your thoughts on why you should be elected, and none of you have yet replied to Darrell’s list of three questions posted yesterday. For myself, I will narrow my choices by excluding any candidate who has not done taking advantage of at least one of those two opportunities.

Furthermore, I’m looking for you to provide specific ideas that you would like to see the the board address if you are elected. For example, these kinds of statements, while laudable, are generally insufficient for me:

  - “I want to improve collaboration”
  - “I will provide a fresh perspective”

However, saying things like this are very helpful:

  - “I have seen a problem with the board not sufficiently funding subcommittee X to do activities like Y”
  - “our current structure of regional chapters does not adequately serve the needs of community S and their needs for representation in doing T”
  - “I would like to see OSGeo try new thing A, because I heard from people at FOSS4G that A needs a home and some leadership”

(Indeed, I’m almost more concerned with whether you can show you have thought about actionable ideas to bring to OSGeo than I am with whether I actually agree with your ideas or not!)

Please help me make an informed vote this week. Thanks!

-mpg

[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Election_2015_Candidate_Manifestos