[OSGeo-Discuss] End the vote!

[Volker Mische]

On 07/16/2013 01:53 AM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 4:17 PM, Cameron Shorter
> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com <mailto:cameron.shorter at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi Adrian and Jeff,
>     Your points are very similar to those raised in April -> June 2012
>     [1] when discussing the concept of "OSGeo Advocate" (previously
>     referred to as "OSGeo Ambassador").
> 
>     [1] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2012-May/thread.html
> 
>     There is a tension between people wishing an exclusive "label" or
>     "badge" which easily identifies a level of expertise and community
>     recognition, verses a desire to be inclusive of everyone who applies.
> 
> 
> Adrian / Cameron,
> 
> I just wanted to stress that there is also a "responsible governance" role
> for charter members.  They exist in order to be a representative body 
> representing our community.  They are responsible for selecting the
> board and more broadly to ensure that the organization isn't intentionally
> or accidentally subverted by some other interest group.
> 
> Somewhat hypothetically imagine if all the students (of all types) at
> a university got nominated.  Or if we had some money in the bank, and
> advocates of some charity had the clever idea of nominating 1000
> members so they could redirect our funds into their mission.  
> 
> So some degree of limitations on charter membership election aren't
> just about maintaining some exclusivity for status purposes.  They are
> to avoid the organization being derailed from it's mission to easily.
> 
> I am personally in favor of allowing a fairly large number of charter
> members, but also of de-emphasizing the distinction between 
> charter members and all the rest of our membership and community.
> Charter member is a *mechanism* to keep the organization 
> reasonably representative but not otherwise (imho) supposed to
> be important. 

I agree. I think such a restriction is needed that in case of an abuse
it can be stopped.

Cheers,
  Volker