All:
A new election cycle for the Community Council begins now. We, the
Council members, hope that we can meet the new members in Orvieto,
Italy, at OOoCon 2009 early this November. To do that, however, we may
have to bend the timing rules a little and accelerate things when
possible. But for now.....
This election cycle inaugurates a new Community Council. Not only will
we have one more member (to 10) but what we do has changed over the
year and we have now a greater ability to promote OpenOffice.org
around the world. Being part of the Council is to be part of the
governing board of what is widely understood to be one of the most
important Free and Open Source Software projects in the world. We urge
you to join us.
**Call for Nominations**
On behalf of the Community Council, I would like to announce the new
round of elections for the Council and start the process by asking the OpenOffice.org
Community members to nominate those they think would best contribute
both to the Council and to the OpenOffice.org Community.
You may nominate yourself. We define membership in our Guidelines. [0]
This election cycle, one of several, begins with this call for
nominations. After a week, candidates will present themselves and then
we will vote. We detail all this in the Election Process wiki.
A copy of this message will be posted tohttp://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/council/items/call_for_nominations_20091013
.
*** The period for nominations ends 24:00 UTC 20 October.***
**About the Council**
The Council is our governing board and among other things, it helps
resolve conflict among projects and people and develop guidelines for
the smooth operation and growth of the Community. Our charter explains
what we can and cannot do.[1] The current members are lighted on the
Council's home page. [2]
Until now, the Council's work has been fairly quiet and its scope
limited. But as the OOo project has matured and grown, our focus has
evolved. For instance, we now have in place procedures for budgeting
and allocating funds for a variety of Community-sponsored events and
doings. (These funds derive from donations given by users as they
download OpenOffice.org or otherwise independent expressions of
support and satisfaction; the funds are the Community's, held in trust
by the Council.)
For this cycle, two standing Council members need to be replaced and
one fresh member to be elected.
* Sophie Gautier and André Schnabel, both exemplary contributors to
the Project and Council and members of OpenOffice.org almost since its
inception, have resigned, effective upon their replacement. I do not
think that we, the Council and the Community, can thank them enough
for their achievements in makingOpenOffice.org the community and
global force that it is. My thanks to them both.
**Rules**
The rules for the process are detailed in a wiki on the subject. [3]
This election inaugurates a new Council, as the number of members has
changed, from nine to ten, as has their characterization.
Several categories of OpenOffice.org contributors make up the Council
membership. Those categories cover the breadth of OpenOffice.org. All
but one, the permanent Sun representative, are elected by community
vote. In this cycle, one of the Native Language Confederation
Representative (aka "Lang") seats (there are two) is up for election.
As well, we are asking for nominations for one Code Contributor
Representative and one Product Development Representative.
** The point of the categories of representatives is to ensure that
the breadth of OpenOffice.org is represented and that its key
constituencies find a voice on the Council. We are not saying nor do
we wish to imply that you can only nominate and vote for someone in
your constituency. Rather, we hope and anticipate that the work done
by developers, marketers, translators, document writers, localizers,
business people and so many of the other contributors constituting our
varied constituencies is represented on the Council. We will thus
strive to promote the election process on the relevant public lists,
as I detail below.**
The nomination process starts now and ends 20 October (24:00 UTC).
Nominations and the attendant discussions should be conducted on
popular public lists, such as disc...@openoffice.org,
d...@openoffice.org and so on.
We will be using tried and true technology for the actual voting: the
Survey machine; only Community Members will be allowed to vote.
Results will be posted in accordance with the published Election
Process; the address will be on the Council wiki, as well as sent to
the various lists below.
The details for the process demand attention and we ask that you spend
some time going over the Election Process wiki.
* As I mentioned above, we are hoping to conclude this cycle by early
November. That will mean shortening part of the process a little, but
which part has not been determined yet. If we cannot shorten the
process and still keep everything satisfactory, then we won't.
* Note: We have yet to identify our observers but for the purposes of
this election, I shall serve as commissary.
This announcement will be posted to the relevant public lists, as
detailed in the Election Process wiki: d...@openoffice.org,
d...@native_lang.openoffice.org, disc...@openoffice.org as well as d...@l10n.openoffice.organd
project_le...@openoffice.org.
Regards,
Louis
[0] http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/guidelines.html
[1] http://council.openoffice.org/councilcharter12.html#PowersoftheCouncil
[2] http://council.openoffice.org/councilcharter12.html#CouncilMembers
[3]
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Community_Council/Items/Election_Process_Proposal
--
Louis Suarez-Potts, PhD
Community Manager, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
OpenOffice.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@native-lang.openoffice.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@native-lang.openoffice.org