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

Peter Baumann p.baumann at jacobs-university.de
Mon Jun 30 00:24:31 PDT 2014 

Cameron & all,

a lot of serious, involved work is going on on this thread; however, some core 
issues which I tried to phrase, but Steven (Feldman) expressed much crisper, 
still remain unaddressed by the currently voted proposal:

  * Inclusiveness
  * Democracy
  * Growth
  * Openness

The proposal as it stands is in high danger of establishing a self-sustaining 
oligarchy.

I am concerned that a body that claims to have international impact (through 
project branding) high responsibility must be exercised in terms of 
transparency, openness, and democratic principles.

-Peter



On 06/29/2014 10:26 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> OSGeo board,
> In the interests of making a decision such that Jorge Salinas (our CRO) can 
> move forward, I propose the following process be followed for voting new 
> charter members in 2014:
>
> 1. Charter member to nominate potential new charter member(s) (as before).
>
> 2. Charter members then vote (in/out) nominated charter members. This will be 
> different to prior years, as we previously voted in a fixed number of members 
> for a larger selection pool. (eg vote in 20 people from a list of 30). For 
> this year, I propose we have a "Yes/No" vote. Ie, if we have a list of 30 
> candidates, we will ask all charter members to vote Yes or No against each 
> candidate. Each candidate with greater than 50% of YES votes will be included 
> as new charter members.
>
> 3. Charter members would be guided to select candidates who fit the "Positive 
> Attributes for Charter Members" as defined here: 
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process#Positive_Attributes
>
> 4. There will be no limit to the number of new charter members who can be 
> selected. This will require an update of 
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Membership_Process
>
> 5. Note: This vote is being put to the board and not to charter members as I 
> don't wish to complicate this decision by adding a 2nd (positive) idea for 
> change. We can address getting charter members to vote on issues as a separate 
> motion.
>
> Board members, can you please all vote on above:
>
> +1 Cameron
>
>
>
> On 25/06/2014 9:31 pm, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>> 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,  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,  Wwww.lisasoft.com,  F +61 2 9009 5099
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

-- 
Dr. Peter Baumann
  - Professor of Computer Science, Jacobs University Bremen
    www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/pbaumann
    mail: p.baumann at jacobs-university.de
    tel: +49-421-200-3178, fax: +49-421-200-493178
  - Executive Director, rasdaman GmbH Bremen (HRB 26793)
    www.rasdaman.com, mail: baumann at rasdaman.com
    tel: 0800-rasdaman, fax: 0800-rasdafax, mobile: +49-173-5837882
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