Draft election rules, announcement

[Bart Decrem <bart eazel com>]

Hi everyone,

Here's a first draft of the election rules, timeline and announcement
(scheduled to be posted next Wednesday).  I'm sure I'm forgetting
stuff.  Pls provide feedback!

Bart

GNOME Foundation Election rules
0.1.0,  29 September 2000

1. See the GNOME Foundation charter for general rules.
2. There are 11 board slots that are to be filled during this election.
3. Elections are for registered voters (future members of the GNOME
Foundation) only.  Anyone who has made a contribution to GNOME can
register.  You may do so by sending email to membership gnome org 
People with CVS accounts can add themselves to membership.txt in the
Gnome-Foundation module.  People who register to vote will automatically
become members of the yet-to-be-incorporated GNOME Foundation, although
anyone can withdraw their membership at any time.
4. An election committee consisting of Dan Muet, Maciej Stachowiak and
Russell Steinthal is in charge of reviewing registration/membership
requests and will monitor the membership list for abuse, in accordance
with the charter.
5. To be on the ballot, anyone who is a member can nominate themselves,
in accordance with the timeline below, by simply responding to the
election announcement on Gnotices, including their name, e-mail address,
contributions to GNOME, and why they want to be on the board of
directors.
6. Ballots will be sent via e-mail to all members.  To vote, members
return ballots, selecting up to 11 candidates who will receive their
vote.
7. The 11 candidates who receive the most votes will be elected.
8. Not more than 4 slots may be occupied by individuals affiliated with
any one company.  See charter for definition of affiliation and process
for enforcing this rule.
9. If there is a tie for the 11th slot, the candidates who are tied may
choose to let the already elected board members resolve the tie, or, at
the request of any of the tied candidates, run-off elections to resolve
the tie may be held.
10. Votes shall be e-mailed to a publicly archived mailing list.  The
archive shall be made publicly accessible at the conclusion of the
elections.
11. The votes will be tallied automatically, with the election committee
stepping in to decide on misformatted returns.
12. Foundation-list is the mailing list to discuss election-related
issues.  The election committee will resolve election-related disputes
that are not readily resolved on the list.
13. The election committee will announce the results of the elections.

Timeline
--------------
- October 23 (Monday): Deadline for candidate nominations for the
elections.  Deadline for making changes to the charter.
- October 25 (Wednesday): Candidate list posted on Gnotices.
- October 30 (Monday): Deadline to register to vote.
- November 1 (Wednesday): Elections begin.
November 8 (Wednesday): Elections end.

Draft announcement
---------------
Elections!

Hello,

The first-ever elections for the GNOME Foundation's Board of Directors
will be held  November 1-8.  The GNOME Foundation will coordinate GNOME
releases, speak on behalf of the GNOME project and more.  See
http://foundation.gnome.org for the foundation's charter, an FAQ, a list
of registered voters, elections rules and more.

Anyone who has contributed in any way to GNOME is welcome to vote, but
first you must register.  Register to vote by October 30 by sending
email to membership gnome org   Just tell us how you're involved with
GNOME and we'll register you.  People with CVS accounts can just add
themselves to membership.txt in the gnome-foundation module.

WE ARE NOW ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS FOR THE BOARD.  Everyone who is
registered to vote can also nominate themselves for the election.  There
are 11 slots on the board, so the 11 candidates with the highest number
of votes will be elected.  To nominate yourself, simply respond to this
posting.  Please include a few sentences about how you contribute to
GNOME and why you'd like to be on the board.  Deadline for nomination is
October 23.

The elections will run from November 1-8.