Re: the slate issue

[Brian Behlendorf <brian collab net>]

On 27 Sep 2000, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> Another thing to note is that for almost all non-profits, including
> ones relating to free software, such as SPI, the FSF, the Apache
> Software Foundation, Linux International, the XFree86 Project, Inc.,
> the FreeBSD Project, Inc, etc there is no voting at all! The board is
> self-appointed and appoints it's own successors. 

Not strictly true in Apache's case.  The ASF is a membership-based
organization, and membership is by invitation only, based on
recognition of an individual's work on apache.org code.  Within the ASF
membership, the board of 9 is elected by popular vote.  We regularly
induct new members, and have never kicked anyone out (though some have
moved on to "Emeritus" status).  That's not necessarily a model I'd
advocate for Gnome due to the much larger active developer pool, but it's
worth considering, perhaps by the board once elected.

	Brian