Dear Eli,

I appreciate your concerns related to OSGeo board elections. However, I have a few points to make. This year we had 2 CRO people, not just one. In your message on this topic you always make it sound like the CRO ended up in a conflict position and this is not entirely true. Actually, during the board meeting when the CRO position was decided I was the one stepping up for this role. During that meeting Jeff was invited to manage this year Sol Katz award so he was also present. Next topic item was the CRO, the moment when Jeff offered his help for CRO, as he did in most of the previous years. The log is available at [1]. The board motion was to have two CRO for elections. And Jeff did an wonderful job during the new charter members nomination process. Then, Jeff stepped down immediately after his nomination for the board members elections. He never had access to the electronic voting system (that was setup a week later) and his access to c...@osgeo.org email was cutoff a few hours later. Personally I share your position that a CRO should not be in the situation to be nominated for a position in the elections that he/she is managing. However, in this case, OSGeo had the position covered and the changes were done transparently. I know for a fact that Jeff din not think about a nomination when offered his help. It happen and he resign from his position to remove the conflict. At that moment I have asked Jorge for help for technical problems (not as co-CRO as this should require board acceptance and the time was short). All this elections discussions, starting with Jeff resignation, were performed through CRO email alias and I can make that public if any concerns regarding the impartiality/transparency of the elections are raised by you or by anyone else.

Best,
Vasile
CRO 2017


[1] http://irclogs.geoapt.com/osgeo/%23osgeo.2017-04-12.log


On 10/18/17 10:15 PM, Eli Adam wrote:
On Wed, Oct 18, 2017 at 11:19 AM, Jody Garnett <jody.garn...@gmail.com> wrote:
Eli the board did not deliberate, you can see the board email list. I have
been glad for individual such as yourself caring, speaking up, and hopefully
attending the next board meeting.


I thought that this issue might have been of enough concern for the
Board to deliberate it.  Indeed, I thought that Venka's earlier
comment was an indication that that might happen.


I think we have all learned a lot this election period, and cannot thank the
cro enough for keeping up.


CRO is a very large and difficult job.  Yes, great thanks to the CROs.

I trust the next board meeting will provide an update from the cro and an
opportunity for discussion. The board is in a strange situation during
elections, handing over control of the process to the CRO, and with 1/2 the
participants at the end of their term. If you track the most recent board
meetings several items have been deferred to the next board, so I understand
the board not feeling able to deliberate in the middle of elections.


Yes, the Board appoints the CRO(s) to run the elections for them.
While the Board can defer some things to future Boards (especially
future looking things), the Board is responsible for anything that
arises while they are on duty.

It is also important to trust the CRO to act in good faith on behalf of our
organization. I did speak up when I was concerned that member list had not
been updated and would interfere in the CRO performing their task - but that
was it.


I largely believe that once a task is delegated, that person has the
latitude to act.  In this case, I would have thought it was worth
deliberation and consultation with the CRO on how they want to run
elections that don't go exactly following the process.

This is a hard lesson to learn, when to deliberate and when to encourage.
Many of the deliberations about foss4g affordability were left until the
Boston F2F meeting, to avoid distracting from the excellent work being done
by the BLOC. If if well intentioned, deliberating during the course of an
activity can distract contributors and bring out feelings of "why bother". I
think this was the bickering referenced during the candidates debate
yesterday.

Finally as a candidate in this election I could not see a clear way to
deliberate the current election that would not be viewed as a personal
attack, or dismissed as campaigning.


This seems rather straight forward.  For the Board to deliberate this
manner fairly, directors like you who are running for reelection would
be obligated to show up for quorum and abstain from discussion and
voting.  The issue would be decided by the portion of the Board with
their term running until 2018 and those who are not running for
reelection.  But yes, I do see how you personally would be hampered
from really engaging this topic.

Best regards, Eli


--
Jody Garnett

On 18 October 2017 at 10:23, Eli Adam <ea...@co.lincoln.or.us> wrote:

On Wed, Oct 18, 2017 at 10:04 AM, Jorge Sanz <js...@osgeo.org> wrote:
HI Eli,

If I recall correctly, we answered you that Jeff immediately resigned
from
his position as CRO and he has not been involved at all in any Board
elections CRO activity so everything is correctly handled except (and we
apologized for that) the lack of a Trac ticket for the alias change.

Thanks Jorge.  I know those are the events that happened, however, I
never saw the Board deliberate and consider whether that is acceptable
or not.  In my opinion, it is not, however I'm not on the Board, nor
is one Director's opinion a position of the Board.  In the absence of
any Board action on the legitimacy of the CRO accepting a nomination,
I was left to conclude "that this issue is of no concern to the
Board."

Has the Board deliberated or considered this?  Did they take a position?

The reason to have a process and follow it even when you maybe don't
"need" it, is so that you also follow the process when you *do* need
it.

Best regards, Eli


Kind regards



On 18 October 2017 at 18:07, Eli Adam <ea...@co.lincoln.or.us> wrote:

Hi Venka, all,

On Wed, Oct 11, 2017 at 10:57 AM, Eli Adam <ea...@co.lincoln.or.us>
wrote:
Hi Venka,

On Wed, Oct 11, 2017 at 10:15 AM, Venkatesh Raghavan
<ragha...@media.osaka-cu.ac.jp> wrote:
Hi Eli,

First of all, thanks to Jorge for volunteering to be co-CRO
and fixing the CRO alias promptly.

Yes, thanks Jorge.


Regarding your other comment reproduced below;

The Board did not appear to review this topic at
their last meeting,
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2017-10-05, so perhaps it
is
of no concern to the Board.


The question of review this topic at the 2017-10-05 board meeting
did
not
arise
as the nomination for our ex-co-CRO was filed on 2017-10-08.

Thanks for fixing my mistake, I misunderstood the dates and thought
that nomination for our ex-co-CRO was filed on 2017-10-01.  Sorry to
suggest that it was of no concern to the Board when it is actually
unknown.

It appears that voting has now started and I don't see any Board
threads on the legitimacy of the CRO accepting a nomination,
https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2017-October/thread.html



I would like to assure you that I share your concern about the
proper
process.

Great, I hope that the Board follows the proper process.  I'll stop
making noise and allow the proper process to work.


Should I now conclude that this issue is of no concern to the Board?

Best regards, Eli


Best regards, Eli


Best

Venka




On 10/12/2017 1:58 AM, Jorge Sanz wrote:

Hi Eli,

I did it yesterday without having a ticket involved. My bad sorry.

I confirm that the CRO alias is now sending emails only to Vasile
and
me.
--
Jorge Sanz
https://jorgesanz.net

Sent from my phone, excuse my brevity and typos

El 11 oct. 2017 18:36, "Eli Adam" <ea...@co.lincoln.or.us> escribió:

On Wed, Oct 11, 2017 at 7:44 AM, Fenoy Gerald
<gerald.fe...@geolabs.fr>
wrote:

Dear Eli,
as you may have notice, Jeff has stepped down from his position of

co-CRO when accepting the Nicolas’ nomination [1].

I didn't find that thread while scanning through the archive.
Thanks
for pointing it out to me.

Jeff was involved in the charter member election process as co-CRO
but

he is no more so, I guess, there is no issue for the board election.

Was the c...@osgeo.org email alias updated?  I didn't notice a ticket
for that.  I'm impressed that there is so little concern about the
proper process.  The Board did not appear to review this topic at
their last meeting,
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2017-10-05, so perhaps it
is
of no concern to the Board.

Best regards, Eli

Best regards,

[1]
https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2017-October/036449.html


Gérald Fenoy
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Djay

Le 11 oct. 2017 à 16:04, Eli Adam <ea...@co.lincoln.or.us> a écrit :

Nicolas,

On Sun, Oct 8, 2017 at 2:48 PM, nicolas bozon
<nicolas.bo...@gmail.com>

wrote:

It is my honor to nominate Jeff McKenna for the OSGeo Board of

Directors

election.

I don't think that you can nominate the CRO, nor can the CRO accept
your nomination,
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Chief_Returning_Officer.
In some past years the CRO was a sitting Board member with a year
remaining on their term thus avoiding this situation.

Most of you knows Jeff's energy and passion for everything OSGeo,
and i
would probably be mistaken trying to summarize his countless

contributions

over the years, at every level of our Foundation. His leadership and

long

involvement in the OSGeo and FOSS4G communities made him the Winner
of

the

Solz Katz Award in 2016, and i cannot add more. For those of you who

may

really not know Jeff yet, the User:Jeff_McKenna wiki page is a good

read

before you vote.

Jeff already served three times at the board and has a deep

understanding of

both the director role and the current OSGeo strategic plan.

Experienced

with OSGeo governance and bylaws, Jeff also knows a lot about
projects

and

people. He is always ready to help build locally and to represent

globally.

Jeff is a great communicator and enthusiastic community leader, and
i
believe he will be an excellent OSGeo director again. Please let us
all
welcome Jeff back at the Board!


Best regards,

Nicolas Bozon


-------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff McKenna agreed to be nominated and i decided to send the

nomination

directly to the Discuss list with cc to CRO, so it avoids Jeff to

confirm to

himself that he accepts the nomination. The Board Nominations page

still

need to be updated, could you please Vasile ? Sorry for shortening
the
nomination process in this special case.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

The point is not to avoid Jeff confirming to himself that he accepts
the nomination, it is to avoid the CRO running an election and
counting votes when they are also standing for election. It is
really
the Board's (and CRO's) responsibility to ensure that this situation
doesn't occur.  The Board should not appoint CROs who might accept a
nomination and people who might accept a nomination should not
accept
appointment as CRO.  Maybe we should return to the tradition of the
CRO being a sitting Board member with a year remaining on their
term.
CRO is a difficult job and much credit to those who do it.  Also,
someone (other than me) should be paying attention to the basic
process and raise these issues.

Best regards, Eli


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--
Jorge Sanz
http://www.osgeo.org
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Jorge_Sanz
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