Re: changed charter, new elections proposal

[James Henstridge <james daa com au>]

On Thu, 28 Sep 2000, Bart Decrem wrote:

[snip]
> 1.  Proposed election process
> ------------------
> - The charter provides for 7 to 15 board seats.  For this election, I
> propose that we have 11 board members.  I picked this number because
> it's odd, and large enough to allow a broad mix of people, but hopefully
> still manageable.
> - I don't think we should designate specific slots for specific types of
> representatives.  If we try to set aside slots for "documentation
> person" or whatever, I think we're going to end up with a logistical
> nightmare and flame wars that make the debate about slates look like a
> joy.  It would get hopelessly complicated.  The reasons for this have
> been discussed at length on this list in recent days.  People should
> just vote for people that they think will best represent GNOME in all
> its diversity.
> - I propose that candidates nominate themselves by sending email to a
> list to be created by Havoc with a few sentences about their involvement
> with GNOME and what they would add to the board.  There'd be a two-week
> period for people to nominate themselves, and then we'd publish a list
> of candidates (see timeline).
> - I propose that everyone be allowed to vote for up to 11 candidates.
> So everyone gets to elect their dream-team.

only 11?  Does this mean that preferential voting is out?  Are you voting
for 11 candidates, or 11 candidates in order of preference?  What if I
have a preference for a 12th or 13th person?

> - Havoc will write a script to help tally the votes.  Votes would be
> held by sending email to vote gnome org (or whatever).  Havoc would come
> up with a ballot format that could be processed by his script.

What voting system is this script going to use?  These sort of elections
where multiple candidates are selected can be difficult to understand (I
know that very few of my friends understand exactly how the australian
senate voting system works exactly).  Depending on the voting system,
people may have to vote differently to express the same opinion.

[snip]
> 3.  Next steps
> ---------
> If people are comfortable with this approach, we would draft and
> circulate the announcement to go up on Gnotices, update the FAQ.  Then
> Havoc would create new mailing lists and a voting script.  People would
> then nominate themselves, and there could be comments and discussions as
> candidate nominations come in.

Sounds like a good idea.  But please make it a bit more specific than just
having a script to help tally the votes.


James.

-- 
Email: james daa com au
WWW:   http://www.daa.com.au/~james/