[OSGeo-Discuss] [Election 2014] Nominations finish tomorrow!!

[Eli Adam]

On Fri, Aug 1, 2014 at 3:47 PM, Jeff McKenna
<jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com> wrote:
> Indeed as I informed the Board privately last night, in another non-profit
> software org there is a hostile take-over trying to happen...so our bylaws
> on elections are very important.

When I approach someone who I want to nominate for charter membership,
I sometimes explain that their only real functional role in OSGeo as
charter members is to be aware of and respond to hostile takeover
attempts of OSGeo or OSGeo funds/assets.  And to serve as the pool
from which board members are drawn.  As unlikely as hostile takeover
attempts are, recognizing and responding to that is the only thing
that charter members can do that non-charter members can not (other
than serving on the board).  In most cases, individuals have already
long been doing and can continue to do all the positive actions and
attributes listed,
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process#Positive_Attributes

I get some "are you serious" responses for approaching people this way
but do think it is worth reminding people of this important (although
unlikely and hopefully never needed) role.  I think that the process
is self-actualizing, i.e. since we have a policy in place that
prevents or guards against hostile takeover attempts, there will be no
attempts since it would not work.  Since we have a maybe somewhat
cumbersome process to guard against something that will never happen
since the process exists, it makes it look like the process is
entirely unnecessary and a pointless headache.

I think that this function is sufficiently obscure that the board
should consider adding it to the positive attributes sought from
charter members and have taken the liberty of putting it on the board
agenda [1].  If the board has time and so desires, they may undertake
this.

I'm not trying to ignore the important role that charter members play
by serving as the pool of potential board members, it is just that
most charter members will never serve on the board but all charter
members can and should actively be aware of and respond to potential
hostile takeover attempts (which once again are unlikely and will
probably never happen so long as we have effective policies in place
to prevent them).

Preposterously, Eli

[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2014-08-14#Agenda

>
> But if Venka and other Charter members want changes in the bylaws it should
> be made possible, and considered strongly by the Board.
>
> -jeff
>
>
>
>
> On 2014-08-01 7:40 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>>
>> Venka,
>> Further to Jorge's email, the reason we need to vote in charter members
>> (rather than accepting everyone who applies) is to meet OSGeo bylaws
>> which state that we need to vote in new charter members every year.
>> The reason for the bylaws is to avoid hostile take-over. Admittedly very
>> unlikely, but still possible.
>>
>> So we have changed our voting processes to try and be as inclusive as
>> possible, basically aiming to ensure that everyone who is interested,
>> and actively contributing toward OSGeo should be voted in for charter
>> membership.
>>
>> On 2/08/2014 2:30 am, Jorge Sanz wrote:
>>>
>>> 2014-08-01 15:23 GMT+02:00 Venkatesh Raghavan
>>> <raghavan at media.osaka-cu.ac.jp>:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> What is the "voting" for, I though all the  nominated members would be
>>>> automatically
>>>> elected.  Perhaps I am the only one not aware of the new election rules.
>>>> Can you clarify please.
>>>>
>>>> Venka
>>>
>>> Hi Venka, thanks for raising the question.
>>>
>>> On previous years the Board allocated a number of seats and if there
>>> were more nominations than seats then elections were conducted, so
>>> some people could not get the membership if they were at the end of
>>> the ranking. Other years no election was needed because there were
>>> less nominations than seats, so everyone was automatically accepted.
>>>
>>> As was discussed in June[1], a new procedure was designed[2]. On this
>>> new procedure, there is no limit of seats for new charter members, the
>>> nominations are carried as every year but instead of having a number
>>> of seats, we will have a different criteria for accepting new members.
>>> Another difference is that instead of voting by e-mail, with 180
>>> members, we will use an electronic voting system.
>>>
>>> For every nominee, current Charter Members will have to decide say
>>> "Yes", "No" or "Abstain" for their acceptance. This way we assure that
>>> supported nominees are accepted. The criteria will be:
>>>
>>> - The nominee needs to have more Yes than No
>>> - The nominee needs to have more than 5% of Yes of voting members.
>>>
>>>
>>> And then we arrive to one VERY important point in my opinion. For me,
>>> the +1 and seconds on discuss mean a LOT, because maybe a I don't know
>>> the nominee, but I know many of the nominators and seconders, and I
>>> trust their criteria so they add points for me to vote a *Yes* instead
>>> of an *Abstain*.
>>>
>>> There are more than 60 nominations, so checking every nominee
>>> discussion will take a while for Charter Members, but it's a very
>>> important excercise to be responsible on our vote on who will be
>>> accepted.
>>>
>>> Sorry for the long mail, I hope it makes sense!!
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> [1] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2014-June/thread.html
>>> [2] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process
>>>
>>>
>>>
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