[OSGeo-Discuss] Bylaws or procedures? [was: OSGeo Elections starting tomorrow]

[Peter Baumann]

Hi Adrian,

logically I cannot see the conflict - it's the intersection of both sets 
described which gets effective in the end. I do agree, however, that such a 
distributed modular ;-) spec is not easy to follow.

cheers,
Peter


On 07/09/2013 06:23 PM, Adrian Custer wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> As part of looking into the rights of 'charter members', it appears that OSGeo 
> operates under an unclear mix of its bylaws
> http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html
> and various procedures, e.g.
>   http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Proposed_Board_Election_Procedure
>   http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process
> and possibly others.
>
>
> Unfortunately, these can be in conflict. For instance, from the bylaws there is:
>
>     Section 3.3. Qualification. Directors may only be adult natural
>     persons but need not be residents of Delaware or of the United
>     States nor members of the corporation.
>
> but from the Board_Election_Procedure, there is:
>
>     Nominations
>     ...
>     3. Nominees must be charter members.
>
> which are in direct conflict so it is unclear which take precedence.
>
> In my experience, non-profits modify their bylaws rather than creating new 
> documents with rules governing processes already set out in the bylaws. Also, 
> it is not clear how to discover all the (wiki) web pages which might define 
> procedures that OSGeo is currently attempting to follow.
>
>
> It has been suggested that
>   (1) during an election is not the time to address such issues, and
>   (2) that tidying up such issues is not a pressing matter
> so perhaps this issue is not of general interest. I bring it up merely because 
> I just discovered it and I thought it worth mentioning to all of you.
>
>
>
> cheers,
>   ~adrian
>
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-- 
Dr. Peter Baumann
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