Membership Process 2016

Approved by board vote in August 2016.

General Process

Each year new charter members are nominated and elected by existing OSGeo charter members, in a process operated by the Chief Returning Officer (CRO).

Previously:

• Membership Process 2014 Approved by board vote in July 2014.

Nominations

1. The nominations period should be roughly 2 weeks, and should be announced by the CRO on the OSGeo announce and discuss lists.
2. An existing charter member can nominate potential new Charter Member(s).
   • It is your responsibility to verify with the nominee that they are willing to stand for the election (this should include an explanation of Membership_Process#Responsibilities charter membership responsibilities.)
   • Nominees should meet the Membership_Process#Positive_Attributes Positive Attributes for Charter Members.
3. A person may ask a charter member who can vouch for the Positive Attributes of the person to nominate them.
4. Nominations for charter membership should be sent to the discuss@osgeo.org (CCing at cro@osgeo.org).
   • A nomination must be seconded by at least one other charter member
   • CRO will gather nominations into a candidates list to be presented to the OSGeo board
5. All OSGeo members (members as well as charter members) are encouraged to discuss candidates on the discuss list.
   • A veto may be raised by any OSGeo member (members as well as charter members) by sending a private e-mail to the CRO (at cro@osgeo.org)
   • CRO will gather any and all vetos for the OSGeo board for an anonymous review
   • If the veto is accepted by the board, then the CRO shall reply to the public discuss@osgeo.org and the nomination is removed from the CROs candidates list
6. Once all the nominations close
   • A summary of charter candidates will be prepared and presented by the CRO to the OSGeo board
   • When approved by the OSGeo board the candidates will be added as charter members and posted to the OSGeo discuss list.

Positive Attributes

Recommended membership selection criteria include:

• Members should believe in the general goals of the Foundation. To support and promote the use of free and open source geospatial software, education and data in a collaborative manner.
• Previous participation in or support of OSGeo activities
• The person should already have made a contribution to free and open source geospatial software, education or open data.
• The person should be willing to put in time and effort on the Foundation, perhaps joining committee(s), or volunteering in some other way that gets the Foundation going.
• Members should be prepared to work constructively and positively towards the goals of the Foundation. Good teamwork skills are an asset.

Membership nominations should strive to promote diversity:

• Nominate members representing a diversity of geographic regions, diversity of projects, diversity of programming languages.
• Nominate members representing and diversity of interests (e.g., corporate, hobbyist, educational, scientific).

Responsibilities

Official responsibilities for charter members are important, but relatively light. As of August 2014, they include:

1. Annually vote for OSGeo Board members.
2. Annually vote for new OSGeo Charter members.
3. Be aware of and protect against a hostile takeover of OSGeo. This threat is incredibly low but has been known to occur in other volunteer organisations.