Announcing Board of Directors Elections 2012

[Brian Cameron <brian cameron oracle com>]

Dear Foundation Members,

The GNOME Foundation board of directors and the GNOME Foundation
Membership and Elections Committee are pleased to announce the upcoming
elections for the Board of Directors in Spring 2012.

The most important deadlines (UTC) in the timeline are the following:

                          *GNOME Board Elections 2012*
                    2012-05-20:  List of candidates closed
                    2012-05-27:  Voting Begins
                    2012-06-10:  Voting Ends
                    2012-06-19:  Challenges End


ELECTIONS
=========

The seven members of our current Board of Directors have been ruling
GNOME for 12 months now.  We, the GNOME Foundation Members, will have
to elect a the board of directors for the next year.


CANDIDACY
=========

If you want to run for one of the seven positions on The GNOME
Foundation Board of Directors, then send an email to
foundation-announce gnome org and elections gnome org with your full
name, e-mail, corporate affiliation (if any), and your reasons for
wanting to serve as a director.

Candidacies must be announced prior to 2012-05-20, 23:59 UTC.

All discussion related to the elections should be held on
foundation-list.  Members are invited to ask questions to one or all
candidates on that list (see below).

A list of candidates will be announced on 2012-05-23.

At this point, you are invited to ask the candidates questions by
sending them to foundation-list.  These candidates might become your
representative, so do not hesitate to ask them questions.

Please try to avoid asking duplicate questions that others have
already asked.  Also, bear in mind that the candidates invest a lot of
time answering questions, so please be reasonable with the amount and
scope of the questions.  You can also send your questions to
membership-committee gnome org instead, so that the committee can
collect, sift and sort the questions before sending them to
foundation-list for the candidates to respond.  Though, if you
prefer to ask your questions directly, please do so.


ELECTORATE
==========

Every GNOME foundation member whose membership is valid in the range of
the full voting period, including challenges (2012-05-27 - 2012-06-19)
is eligible to vote.

If you are not a member yet, please consider applying for membership 
ASAP.  Late applications will most likely not be processed in time.

The GNOME Foundation Membership and Elections Committee will inform
those people who might need to renew via email. We recommend that
members also double check this to avoid a missed opportunity to vote.
Please verify that the email address that is associated with your GNOME
Foundation membership is valid and that you are able to read emails sent
to this address.


VOTING
======

The Electorate will receive complete instructions on how to vote by
2012-05-27 via email.

The 7 candidates who receive the most votes as counted by a single
transferable vote system (Scottish STV) will be elected, except that no
more than two individuals affiliated with any one corporation may be
elected.

In the event of a tie for the final slot on the board, the Elections
Committee will schedule run-off elections as soon as possible.


          May 2012
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
      1   2   3   4   5   6
 (7)  8   9  10  11  12  13   Announcements and list of candidates opens
(7th)
 14  15  16  17  18  19 (20)  List of candidates closed (20th)
 21  22 (23) 24  25  26 (27)  List of candidates announced (23rd)
                              Instructions to vote are sent (27th)
 28  29  30  31

         June 2012
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
                  1   2   3
  4   5   6   7   8   9 (10)  Votes must be returned (10th)
 11 (12) 13  14  15  16  17   Preliminary results are announced (12th)
 18 (19) 20  21  22  23  24   Challenges to the results closed (19th)
 25  26  27  28  29  30

---

More information about The GNOME Foundation Membership Committee
and the voting process can be found here:

  https://live.gnome.org/MembershipCommittee
  http://vote.gnome.org

---

Happy Voting,

Brian