http://www.aag.org/cs/membership/individual_membership http://www.aag.org/cs/membership/individual_membership/dues
Both simpler, and better for the bottom line of OSGeo, if you want to be a member, sign up as a member, collect your t-shirt, see you @ foss4g. P. On Thu, Jun 19, 2014 at 10:28 AM, Dimitris Kotzinos <kotz...@csd.uoc.gr> wrote: > Dear all, > > some thoughts on the proposed changes on the Charter Member election > process. > I will divide my comments into two parts, first some issues about the > process itself and then some comments on the proposed changes. > > (A) the process per se: > 1/ I think that whatever change in the election process should be validated > by the Charter Members themselves, so I fully agree with Arnulf that we need > to vote on that and not just the Board. And of course this contains no > offense for the Board; it is just that I think that it is fair that the body > who is affected by the changes to take the decisions. > Moreover the charter members are the ones who elect the Board so it seems > quite awkward to me that the smaller governing body will take such decision. > 2/ I think that whatever decision taken should be enforced in next year's > elections; members need some time to evaluate that. So it is good to > conclude this process now but enforce it from next year. > > (B) the proposed changes: > Before discussing the proposed changes I think that we should understand > where the current system has failed. Do we have cases where recognized > community leaders failed to be elected? If so please bring them forward. I > doubt so though since if I recall correctly the last two years all charter > member nominations were accepted without voting! Moreover the notion of a > "recognized community leader" that cannot be elected as a charter member is > a contradiction by itself. So why change? > I am not against the idea of having some people becoming OSGEO Charter > Members ex officio but for one I do not like the idea of having members of > different categories and secondly I need to have a look at the data: how > many of the committee chairs, PSC members, official Chapter chairs are not > already OSGEO Charter members (and they wanted to be and failed)? Why are > they not nominated to become ones and to be voted? > And I don't see how the problem described here: > "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." > will be resolved: again we will have some people not becoming Charter > Members if the seats are not enough. So some of us will still be > disappointed, etc. So if the numbers are the same the only difference I see > is that now we choose beforehand whom to disappoint and people working in > the community but in not "official" positions will have less chances to be > elected. > If we want to open up the numbers, this is OK, more seats are offered every > year anyway. But what else? > And of course the first come first served approach if the recognized > community leaders are more than the seats is a bit odd: to lighten up the > discussion I cannot imagine people with the finger on the mouse waiting for > the process to open in order to submit there nominations. > Finally, for the voting process I completely disagree with the ability of a > member to vote multiple times for the same person. This removes from the > process the requirement of someone to be widely recognized within the > community and potentially allows "a couple of friends" to elect whoever they > want. > > I think that the discussion is interesting and thanks to the board and > Arnulf :) for initiating it! > I think that other solutions could also be considered if we feel that we > need to differentiate on how charter members get elected, e.g. agree on a > bonus percentage that a "community leader" gets when he goes through the > standard process, so he still has to be voted by many... > > I apologize for the length of the e-mail and thanks for listening, > > Best regards, > > Dimitris Kotzinos > > > > >> >> 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 >> > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lists.osgeo.org > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss