[Board] Elections 2017 from the CRO point of view

[Helmut Kudrnovsky]

Vasile,

thanks a lot for your hard work as CRO and considerations to keep the _community_ in balance!

Kind regards
Helmut

OSGeo charter member

>Dear Board directors and dear members of OSGeo community,
>
>This year elections [1] will end in less than 7 hours and it is time for 
>me, as CRO, to make a short assessment and to issue a few recommendations.
>
>As you all know, during the process we had a few situations that caused 
>tension and discontent to an important number of our members. I will go 
>through the most important ones.
>
>1. This year membership process [2] was a very lite one. The basic rule 
>for becoming a charter member was to be nominated by one existing member 
>and to be seconded by at least one other existing member. This lite 
>approach was in line with the new OSGeo Vision and Mission Statement 
>which is focused on being inclusive [3]. However, during the nomination 
>period, many of our members considered the new membership process way 
>too inclusive/lite, causing a diminution in the importance of the 
>charter member position. Another subject that produced criticism was 
>related to the fact that some of the nominations were considered short 
>in content and did not offer enough information on the "positive 
>attributes" [4] that a potential member shall have. Finally, one of the 
>charter member responsibilities [5], "Be aware of and protect against a 
>takeover of OSGeo by single group or viewpoint.", was also a subject of 
>dispute. My recommendations for the future board are to: (a) Change the 
>existing membership process with another one more balanced, that assures 
>both inclusiveness and a consistent weight for the charter member 
>position. Of course, this new mechanism should be discussed with the 
>community; (b) Impose a a very light template for the new nominations. 
>This way, all the nominations will be consistent and comparable. (c) 
>Rephrase responsibility no. 3 of the charter members. The meaning should 
>be kept bu the wording should not sound that martial.
>
>2. Jeff was nominated for the board of directors while was serving as 
>co-CRO. Even if the nominee steeped down immediately from the co-CRO 
>position, the access to the cro at osgeo.org was immediately cut-off and he 
>never had access to the electronic voting system, criticism over the 
>potential conflict of interest and elections credibility was raised. My 
>recommendation for the board is to make a specific rule that a 
>nomination/candidacy for/from a person that is acting as CRO or has any 
>other role in the election management is not acceptable.
>
>3. During the voting period Jeff sent a request to withdraw from the 
>elections due to the negative feedback. This also started a vivid 
>debate. My recommendation for the board is to create a clear rule 
>stating that an accepted nomination cannot be withdraw after the start 
>of the voting period. Of course, elected persons can always resign for 
>various reasons.
>
>Regarding the current status of the elections. 311 from a total of 390 
>members voted (80%). Due to the final reminder sent today there are 
>chances to improve the voting participation.
>
>In my previous message I was proposing to accept Jeff's withdraw request 
>but to continue the elections without any modification to the voting 
>list. After more study on different voting systems and after going 
>through your feedback, my decision and proposal for the board is not to 
>admit the request from Jeff. Such requests are not possible in this kind 
>of elections elsewhere. It is true that we have no specific rule for 
>that in our bylaws. As I mentioned before, this should change. After the 
>release of the elections results, and if Jeff is elected, it's up to him 
>to decide if he goes on with the mandate or if he is resigning. This 
>decision should be a very fast one, without further discussions on the 
>mailing list, with all the possible arguments being already on the table.
>
>The other option that the board can consider is to entirely restart the 
>board elections cycle (or only the voting part for the remaining 8 
>nominations). Even if this looks like the most correct way to go, 
>looking on how the elections went before and after Jeff announcement, I 
>can say, without disclosing anything about the final results, that the 
>announcement did not changed the way people were voting. Of course, this 
>is not a fact, is just my conclusion after looking at the trends. After 
>the elections, beside the final numbers, I will also publish the 
>evolution of the votes (every single vote and the timestamp, anonymized 
>of course). Other important reasons for the board not to start new 
>elections are: (a) The community is very irritated about this never 
>ending stories and people are waiting to move forward and do the things 
>we usually do. For most of them, the arguments for restarting the 
>elections are not strong enough; (b) Four of our current board members 
>are also running in this elections. Although that personally I have no 
>doubts that each one of them will position/vote/decide correctly, only 
>in the interest of the community, some objections on the 
>position/vote/decision impartiality can be raised.
>
>In any case, the board should have an opinion before the results are 
>made public. To give time to board members to react, I plan to release 
>the results of the vote on Thursday 17:00 GMT. If needed, more time can 
>be allocated. However, deciding on the way to go further after seeing 
>the results can only escalate the possible conflict of interest.
>
>I'm asking the board for a position not because I'm running away from 
>the responsibility (my position was clearly presented) but because we 
>have no specific rules in our bylaws for the current situation and the 
>CRO has really no legal obligations, the board members being the one 
>that are legally responsible for the foundation decisions.
>
>Personally I have to apologize again to you for the length of this 
>message. I was not able to convey this in a more condensed way. I think 
>the most important challenges for the near and medium future are to 
>restore the trust of our community in the way the organization is 
>managed and to reconcile what is now, in my opinion, a divided 
>community. Of course, achieving this is not easy, will require a better 
>communication and the prevail of arguments over emotions, but, under 
>such a vibrant, passionate and transparent organization like OSGeo this 
>is surely possible.
>
>As CRO, I did my best not to express any personal opinion, to focus 
>strictly on facts and rules, to be calm and impartial. Not sure how well 
>that went by the end but I want to assure everyone that all my actions 
>were perform in good faith and to the extend of my knowledge. I'm 
>thankful for all the people that assisted me along the way with 
>technical support (Jeff, Jorge, Jody, Werner). I will also would like to 
>extend my gratitude to all the people that publicly or privately 
>expressed support for the CRO activity. It was highly appreciated. For 
>me this will be the last term as CRO. Not because this year was a little 
>bit more challenging but just because I did this three times and someone 
>else should take the lead. Of course, that person will have my full 
>support.
>
>I will finish this by thanking all the people that voted and expressed 
>opinions on this list. Direct involvement and dialog are the only 
>options to move ahead as a community.
>
>Best,
>Vasile
>CRO 2017
>
>[1] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Election_2017
>[2] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process
>[3] http://www.osgeo.org/about
>[4] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process#Positive_Attributes
>[5] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process#Responsibilities