Board Election Procedure

See Approved Version from the Twenty Sixth Board Meeting (2007 03 23) and all changes since then

General Process

Half of the board positions (4 or more if directors stepped down before their term was over) will be up for election each year in a process operated by the Chief Returning Officer (CRO).

Nominations

1. The nominations period should be roughly 1 week, and should be announced by the CRO on the OSGeo announce and discuss lists.
2. Nominations for the board positions should be sent to the CRO (at cro@osgeo.org).
3. Nominees must be charter members.
4. The CRO should verify with the nominee that they are willing to stand for the election. This should include an explanation of board responsibilities and workload. Once confirmed, the CRO should forward the nomination to the OSGeo discuss list and update a reference list in the wiki. No seconder is required.
5. All OSGeo members (members as well as charter members) are encouraged to discuss candidates on the discuss list.
6. The nomination period should be approximately 1 week long.
7. Once all the nominations close, a summary of board candidates will be prepared and posted by the CRO to the OSGeo discuss list and in the wiki.

Voting

1. Voting occurs roughly one week after nominations close.
2. The CRO should ensure that all charter members receive the voting announcement - the OSGeo Secretary can provide a charter member list with contact info.
3. Each charter member may vote for as many candidates as there are board slots open (normally 4 or 5). They may not cast multiple votes for one candidate.
4. All votes will be sent to cro@osgeo.org, which is archived and forwarded to the CRO for counting.
5. The voting period is roughly 1 week long.
6. Once complete the CRO tallies votes and the board slots are filled by the candidates with the most votes.
7. In case of a vote tie, the CRO will use some suitable random method to select from the tied candidates for a board slot.
8. The CRO will announce the selected board members on discuss@lists.osgeo.org.
9. The new board is in control once the CRO has announced it's composition.

Board Criteria

Want to be a Board Member?

From http://flossfoundations.org/ Some reflections on making decisions about whether to get involved in foundational efforts:

• Turn it down if you think you wouldn't make a good leader
• Turn it down if you don't have time to do a good job.
• Turn it down if you don't think they should be starting a foundation in the first place.
• Turn it down if you don't care about the goals they're trying to accomplish.

Effort Level

Traditionally board members need to spend several hours a week on OSGeo related work. This includes a board conference call (approximately 1 hour) roughly twice a month. It also includes discussion on the board list, occasional face to face board meetings, and various liaison activities to other OSGeo committees. The OSGeo board implies a large commitment of time and effort.

Positive Attributes

Some positive attributes for board members:

• Already involved in or supporting OSGeo activities or projects
• A commitment to the mission of the foundation.
• A willingness to invest substantial amounts of time in support of OSGeo.
• Diversity of geographic representation.
• Diversity of project representation.
• A cooperative and supportive working style (confrontational boards quickly become non-functioning boards).
• Respected in the community.
• Good communication skills.