[OSGeo-Discuss] Proposed process for selecting OSGeo charter members

[Cameron Shorter]

Following the community discussion, I further researched OSGeo's 
foundation documents, (in retrospect I should have done this earlier).

Of particular relevance to current discussion is our ByLaws:

http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/incorporation/bylaws.html
/Section 7.1. Admission of [Charter] Members. An initial group of up to 
forty-five (45) persons shall be admitted as the initial [charter] 
members of the corporation upon the affirmative vote of the Board of 
Directors of the corporation. Thereafter, to be eligible for [charter] 
membership, a person must be nominated by an existing [charter] member 
of the corporation pursuant to a written document in such form as shall 
be adopted by the Board of Directors from time to time. The nomination 
must be included in a notice to the [charter] members at least ten (10) 
days in advance of the meeting at which the [charter] members will vote 
on the applicant's admission. Proposed [charter] members shall be 
admitted upon the affirmative vote of the members of the corporation./

This section implies that the proposal below of automatically accepting 
"Recognised OSGeo Community Leaders" is unconstitutional, as charter 
members need to be voted into the role by existing charter members.

It also implies that while a separate paid membership category could be 
created, paid members would still need to be voted into a charter member 
role by existing charter members.

The ByLaws don't mention limiting the number of new charter members. 
This criteria seems to have been introduced as a Membership Process by 
the 26th Board meeting:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process
/The number of new members will be between 10% and one third of the 
existing charter membership count as decided by the board/.

Such a statement created by the board, could be updated by the board, 
and as such the board could agree to accept an unlimited number of new 
charter members.

So I'm now thinking that our election process can be simplified to:

1. Charter member to nominate potential new charter member(s)
2. Charter members then vote (in/out) against all nominated charter members
A suitable criteria for determining whether a nominee qualifies is 
listed here: 
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process#Positive_Attributes
4. Nominees with a majority of votes are included as new Charter Members

On 15/06/2014 9:52 am, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Within 2 weeks we intend to start our annual process for selecting new 
> OSGeo charter members.
>
> In previous years the Charter Member selection process has been a 
> little contentious. We typically receive numerous nominations from 
> high caliber members of our community, and insufficient positions to 
> accept them all. This typically results in unnecessary disappointment 
> and dissent.
>
> In response, the OSGeo board has agreed to trial tweaking the voting 
> process. The aim is to automatically accept recognised OSGeo community 
> leaders, while continuing with our existing process which attracts the 
> many valuable community members who contribute in other ways. 
> Community comments are encouraged, and will be considered over the 
> next week.
>
> *Design guidelines:*
>
> * We want a process which is simple to understand and implement.
> * We want a process which encourages recognised OSGeo community 
> leaders to become OSGeo charter members, while continuing to accept 
> members from the many other valuable OSGeo roles.
> * We want a process which is difficult to abuse.
> * For the first iteration, we should err on being more selective in 
> our criteria, with potential widening of selection criteria in future 
> years.
>
> *Recognised OSGeo Community Leaders**
> *
> OSGeo aims to provide OSGeo Charter Membership to all recognised OSGeo 
> community leaders who are nominated. Hopefully, sufficient positions 
> are available. If there are more candidates than available, then 
> membership will be allocated to the first to be nominated. Remaining 
> nominees will be automatically offered to go through the standard 
> voting process.
> Recognised OSGeo Community Leaders are defined as people who have been 
> *voted* into a position of authority within official OSGeo projects 
> and committees, where the voting community includes at least 3 OSGeo 
> charter members.
>
> Acceptable roles are currently limited to:
> * Project Steering Committee member of a Graduated OSGeo Project
> * Chair of Official Local Chapter
> * Chair of an OSGeo committee
>
> The application process for recognised OSGeo Community Leaders is the 
> same as for other nominees.
>
> Full text of our processes are at:
> * http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process_2014
> * http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Election_2014
>
> -- 
> Cameron Shorter,
> Software and Data Solutions Manager
> LISAsoft
> Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf,
> 26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009
>
> P +61 2 9009 5000,  Wwww.lisasoft.com,  F +61 2 9009 5099

-- 
Cameron Shorter,
Software and Data Solutions Manager
LISAsoft
Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf,
26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009

P +61 2 9009 5000,  W www.lisasoft.com,  F +61 2 9009 5099

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