I'd like to make a few comments about the NewNOG Bylaws and other election
questions. These are my opinions only, and don't necessarily reflect those of
the NewNOG Board or anyone else.
As with any consensus-driven effort, the NewNOG Bylaws draft was the result of
a lot of work by a lot of people, led by a few dedicated committee chairs. The
Board tried to stay mostly out of the process, in hopes of encouraging
community input. I believe that the result was a good first attempt at what
will undoubtedly be an iterative process.
Given the discussion on this list and in the community meeting yesterday, it's
clear that we don't have consensus on the membership issue, and that there's at
least significant support for the position that the proposed membership is too
complex for our community's goals. Aside from that, I haven't heard many other
comments on the draft, which I am hopeful means that we are reaching consensus
on the other portions of the Bylaws.
It is unfortunate that we didn't think to have a vote on the draft in sections,
but it's too late to change that. Assuming that these Bylaws are adopted, we
do have ways to fix mistakes. There's another election a year from now, with
ways for both the Board and community members to place amendments on the ballot.
If the vote fails and these Bylaws are not adopted, the current initial Bylaws
will remain in effect. These are very minimal, covering only a basic nonprofit
corporate structure with boilerplate necessary to make the IRS happy, and
pretty much everything else left to the Board's discretion.
Given the above, I still recommend a "yes" vote to adopt the Bylaws, as it's a
large step in the right direction for NewNOG.
Since we don't have consensus on the membership issue yet, I will pledge to do
what I can with my Board vote keep from moving down the path specified in the
draft in ways that can't easily be undone when we do come to a consensus. As
one example, I will vote against creating any "fellow" members if it should
come up.
I hope this helps, and I encourage everyone to vote however you feel is best
for the community.
Thanks,
Steve
_______________________________________________
Nanog-futures mailing list
Nanog-futures@nanog.org
https://mailman.nanog.org/mailman/listinfo/nanog-futures
