Beginning of the 2005 GNOME Foundation elections

["Vincent Untz" <vuntz gnome org>]

The GNOME Foundation Membership & Elections Committee is proud to
announce the beginning of the 2005 elections for the Foundation's Board
of Directors. A description of the role of the Board can be found at
http://foundation.gnome.org/elections/overview.html.


Who can vote?
-------------

To be able to vote, you need to be a member of the GNOME Foundation and
your membership needs to be valid at least until the end of the
elections. For example, a member whose membership ends on November 30th
2005 won't be able to vote for the elections.

If you're not a member of the GNOME Foundation or if you need to renew
your membership, you have to apply at
http://foundation.gnome.org/membership/application.php before November
6th 2005 (23:59 UTC).

If you have applied before this date and if you are accepted, then you
will be able to vote for these elections.


Being a candidate
-----------------

If you are a member of the GNOME Foundation and are interested in
running for election, you may nominate yourself by sending an e-mail to
foundation-announce gnome org with your name, e-mail address, corporate
affiliation (if any), and a description of why you'd like to serve
before November 14th 2005 (23:59 UTC).

You should also send a summary of your candidacy announcement (75 words
or less) to elections gnome org  If you are not yet a GNOME Foundation
member and would like to stand for election, you must first apply for
membership and be accepted to be eligible to run. (You may, however,
announce your candidacy prior to formal acceptance of your application;
should your application not be accepted, you will not be included in the
list of candidates.)


Number of directors to be elected
---------------------------------

The number of directors to be elected depends on the Reducing Board Size
Referendum. It will be either 7 or 11. The elections rules will be
updated once the final result of the referendum is known.


Timeline
--------
(all deadlines are 23:59 UTC/18:59 EST)

   November 2005
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
       1 (2) 3  4  5   list of candidates open (2nd)
(6) 7  8  9 10 11 12   applications/renewals closed (6th)
13(14)15(16)17 18 19   list of candidates closed (14th)
                       list of candidates announced (16th)
20 21 22 23 24(25)26   instructions to vote are sent (25th)
27 28 29 30

   December 2005
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
             1  2  3
 4  5  6  7  8 (9)(10) votes must be returned (9th)
                       preliminary results announced (10th)
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22(23)24   challenges to the results close (23rd)
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

In the case of a tie, another round of votes will happen after the
preliminary results are announced.

Note that the timeline is available in webcal format at:
webcal://foundation.gnome.org/elections/2005/timeline.ics


Questions
---------

For more information, please look at the referendum procedures at
http://foundation.gnome.org/elections/2005/rules.html.
If you have any questions, feel free to send them to
elections gnome org or to foundation-list gnome org


The GNOME Foundation Membership Committee