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:

• 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 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.
• Members selected should provide a diversity of geographic regions, diversity of projects, diversity of programming languages and diversity of interests (e.g., corporate, hobbyist, educational, scientific).
• Members should be prepared to work constructively and positively towards the goals of the Foundation. Good teamwork skills are an asset.

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.