[OSGeo-Conf] MOTION : Conference Committee - Updating Membership Policies and Process

[till.adams at fossgis.de]

Hi Steven, @CC,

great work, many thanks for this.

I have just one comment - as said few month ago:

If Board members can also be members of the CC this **might** cause 
voting conflicts.
It's more a theory, than a real problem, but I wanted to point on this:

1. The CC votes the next LOC and proposes the winner to the board, the 
board decides (and normally approves, what CC proposed)
2. If a board member as CC member voted another LOC than the winning 
team, he/she can block the decision made by CC in the board

As said, just a theoretical construct, but in theory possible.

If we see no problem here, I keep quiet.

Till


Am 2016-09-09 16:41, schrieb Steven Feldman:
> This mail is aimed at the current members of the Conference Committee
> (we do not have a private list).
>
> Only committee members can vote on these proposals, others on this
> list are welcome to comment and committee members will hopefully take
> note of those opinions when voting on the matters proposed.
>
> The current membership of the conference committee is listed at
> https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Conference_Committee#Current_Members [1].
> We have 19 members after Dave McIlhagga resigned and after we 
> co-opted
> Till Adams as the chair of FOSS4G2016. There is currently no policy 
> or
> rule for eligibility nor for requiring a member to retire after a
> period of time.
>
> I have suggested in the past that we needed to have an open and fair
> process for selecting members and limiting the maximum number of
> committee members. At the face to face it was agreed that I should
> propose a policy.
>
> I propose the following:
>
> Goals
> =====
>
> The conference committee have the responsibility to run the selection
> process and voting for the global FOSS4G, to vote on other proposals
> submitted to the committee and to advise the board on other matters
> relating to FOSS4G events.
>
> Role of the Committee and the broader community on the Conference_Dev
> list
> ============================================================
>
> 1) Everyday topics will be decided upon by an open vote of all list
> participants in a clearly designated separate mail thread (+1/-1) 
> over
> a minimum of two business days with a minimum participation of 3
> votes. Ideally we aim for consensus falling back on simple majority
> vote where necessary. The result will be clearly declared afterwards
> (or whatever is decided).
>
> 2) Election of conference committee is by secret vote and restricted
> to the remaining conference committee members and board members who
> are not members of the conference committee.
>
> 3) FOSS4G Selection - All Letters of Intent and subsequent proposals
> will be posted to the list for open comment by all participants. The
> selection of the winning proposal is by secret vote of conference
> committee members only. Any committee member who has a potential
> conflict of interest is expected to withdraw from vote. In the event
> of a disagreement the committee chair will decide.
>
> Votes in 2 and 3 are to an online voting service or by email to an
> independent teller appointed by CC Chair
>
> Conference Committee membership policy and process
> ==========================================
>
> 1) The conference committee aims to retain up to 11 active members,
> preferably an odd number
>
> 2) The committee aims for half of these members to be chairs (or vice
> chairs) of the most recent FOSS4G global events. The chair of the 
> most
> recent FOSS4G event will automatically be invited to become a member
>
> 3) The remaining membership is open, ideally attracting people from
> earlier past chairs or active LOC members from past Global, Regional
> FOSS4G or related conferences
>
> 4) Each year (after FOSS4G) the 3 committee members should stand 
> down:
> a) The longest standing past FOSS4G chair
> b) The longest standing 2 committee members remaining
>
> 5) Each year, prior to putting out the Global FOSS4G RfP, the old
> committee should vote for their replacement committee, using the 
> above
> criteria as voting guidelines. OSGeo Board members who are not on the
> conference committee will also be invited to vote.
>
> 6) Past committee members including those who have stood down due to
> length of service may stand for re-election
>
> 7) Votes will be secret either using an online voting system or by
> email to a designated teller who is not a voter. The mechanism will 
> be
> selected by the committee chair.
>
> I would ask committee members (and list participants) to comment on
> this proposal by 18.00 GMT Wednesday 14th September. I will then call
> for a vote amongst committee members only, the vote will close at
> 18.00 GMT on Sunday 18th September.
>
> Once the membership policy has been agreed we will then need to apply
> the policy to the existing membership. I suggest that we ask all
> current members to confirm whether they wish to remain committee
> members and then hold an election (if needed). To this end it would 
> be
> helpful if each committee member could update their record on the 
> wiki
> page to show when they joined the conference committee (see my
> example).
>
> The intention is that a 2016-7 committee of 11 will have been 
> selected
> before we vote on the LoI’s for 2018, which is likely to be before
> the end of October.
>
>  ______
> Steven
>
>
>
> Links:
> ------
> [1] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Conference_Committee#Current_Members