[OSGeo-Discuss] Charter Member Elections

[Frank Warmerdam]

Folks,

It has been our intention for some time to "regularize" a plan for new
charter members, and as we pass the one year mark in OSGeo I think it is
time to do so.  Towards that end, I have prepared a proposed charter member
selection procedure at:

   http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Membership_Process

OSGeo's charter members are the ultimate guarantee of the organization
staying "on course" through selection of new charter members, selection of
the board, and updates to the corporate bylaws.  So it is important that
we have broad discussion and by-in to any related procedures.

I'd appreciate charter members and any other interested parties reading things
over, and commenting on the process.

At some point in the coming months I expect that the corporate bylaws will be
revised, and some sort of summary of this process will be "baked in".  At that
point we will likely hold a vote of the charter members to approve the update
to the bylaws.  In the meantime it is my expectation that after feedback and
revision here, the process will be adopted by the board of directors so that
we can have a new charter membership round within the next six weeks or so.

A few highlights of the above process:
  o Having someone in charter of operating the election (designated Chief
    Returning Officer)
  o Nominations are public after the CRO has verified willingness to stand,
    to avoid the situation we had last time were some very worthy candidates
    were not nominated because everyone thought someone else was nominating
    them.
  o Plan to add 15 charter members per year.
  o Inactive charter members would be removed after not voting for two years
    (actually buried in the CRO wiki page).

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org