[OSGeo-Conf] [Board] Amended MOTION (items 1-5): Conference Committee - Updating Membership Policies and Process

[Eli Adam]

Hi Maria and all,

Maybe it was missed in the length of the other thread.  I had some
specific question and cited specific examples.  What are your thoughts
on these items?

On Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 12:09 PM, Maria Antonia Brovelli
<maria.brovelli at polimi.it> wrote:
> Here the amended motion.
>
> In my opinion it is the very time of voting  to be able to go ahead.
>
> It is better to vote before for  1) in such a way that we have a procedure
> and then vote for 2-5.
>
> Steven, I leave you to decide the time.
>
> Best.
> Maria
>
>
> 1) For the voting procedures of the Conference Committee the Board Voting
> procedure  made milder with the introduction of a 50 % quorum is adopted.
>

I'd like to propose quorum of greater than or equal to 25%.  Is that
agreeable to you?

I think that we need to be based on reality, not ideals.  Here are
some OSGeo projects with votes less than 50% including the conference
committee making the most important decision it makes every year.  To
me these represent continued success, not failure.

https://github.com/geoserver/geoserver/wiki/GSIP-132
http://mapserver.org/development/rfc/ms-rfc-89.html
https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Enhancement-Proposals/issues/44
https://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/rfc63_sparse_datasets_improvements

These projects have many more votes with greater than 50%
participation; maybe those were more interesting topics or better
timed with personal events in people's lives.

>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> 2) The number of members of the Conference Committee is equal to 17.

Previously Paul made a call for everyone who didn't vote to resign,
https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/2012-April/001723.html
and I think that was generally poorly received.  Subsequently I think
Cameron did something like that with the intent of spurring people
into action (which worked).

50% is fine with me except to keep the committee functional, we need
to routinely raise motions to remove committee members who haven't
voted.  I think a better method is a lower quorum.  Both work but one
seems unfriendly.

What do other committee members think?  What is a reasonable and
obtainable quorum percentage?  Is removing members for lack of
participation a good idea?

I'd rather the votes of 4 people who read three entire 50+ page
proposals than the votes of 8 people who skimmed the proposals or of
those same 4 people after removing the non-voting other 4 yielding
100% voting.

I'm glad that we're clarifying our operating procedures on the committee.

Best regards, Eli


>
> 3) The retirement policy adopted by the Conference Committee is the same as
> that of the Board.
>
> Conference Committee  membership is for a 2 year term with half of the
> Conference Committee seats coming up for election each year.
>
> 4) The present Committee continues for an year and we hold election in 2017
> with the 9 seats  (9 of the longest serving members vacating their seats in
> Conference Committee) coming up for election.
>
> 5) Voting for Conference Committee members is restricted to the remaining
> Conference Committee members and Board members who are not members of the
> Conference Committee
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
> Prof. Maria Antonia Brovelli
> Vice Rector for Como Campus and GIS Professor
> Politecnico di Milano
>
> ISPRS WG IV/4"Collaborative crowdsourced cloud mapping (C3M)"; OSGeo;
> ICA-OSGeo-ISPRS Advisory Board; NASA WorldWind Europa Challenge; SIFET
>
> Sol Katz Award 2015
>
>
>
> Via Natta, 12/14 - 22100 COMO (ITALY)
>
> Tel. +39-031-3327336 - Mob. +39-328-0023867 - fax. +39-031-3327321
>
> e-mail1: maria.brovelli at polimi.it
>
> e-mail2: prorettrice at como.polimi.it
>
>
>
>
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