Re: Timeline for the upcoming elections

["Karen Sandler" <karen gnome org>]

On Tue, March 6, 2012 3:32 am, Tobias Mueller wrote:
> Hey folks,
>
> I just realised, that "the President" or "a Director" shall call for for
> the elections:
>
> Here the bylaws including my comment:
> bylaws as of April 5, 2002 wrote:
> > Notice of Meetings
> > -----------------------------------------
> >
> > A notice of each annual meeting, written ballot for election of
> > Directors or otherwise, if
> > any, and special meeting shall be given by the President or, in case of
> > his or her failure or refusal, by
> > any other officer or any Director; shall specify the place, time, day
> > and hour of the meeting or the
> > date on which the ballot shall be returned, if applicable; in the case
> > of an annual meeting at which
> > Directors shall be elected, shall specify the names of all those who are
> > candidates for election of
> > Directors at the time the notice is given, and in the case of special
> > meetings, the nature of the
> > business to be transacted thereat. Such notice shall be given in writing
> > to every member of the
> > Corporation who, on the record date for notice of the meeting, is
> > entitled to vote thereat. Such notice
> > shall be given either personally or by sending a copy thereof by
> > first-class mail or by telephone
> > communication, including a voice messaging system or other system or
> > technology designed to
> > record and communicate messages, telegraph, facsimile, electronic mail,
> > or other electronic means,
> > either directly to the member or to a person at the member's office who
> > would reasonably be
> > expected to communicate such notice promptly to the member at least
> > thirty (30) days prior to the
> > date fixed for such meeting in the case of an annual meeting and at
> > least ten (10) days in the case of
> > all other meetings.
> >
> > :comment:`Hm. The President has to call for elections? That's a bit
> > ruff`
>
> So well, as with the other mail I sent, I think we should prepare to
> make amendments to the bylaws. I would expect some sort of legal advice
> to be necessary.
>
> Up to that point I think the current president should send the
> announcement I prepared.
> And one might also read the fact from the bylaws, that the notice
> (including all candidates) shall be send 30 days days prior to the
> closing date for the elections. In that case, a new schedule must be
> prepared.
>
> Cheers,
>   Tobi

Hey Tobi,

I've been going through the bylaws and getting SFLC's help too. I think
there are a bunch of changes we'll need to make for various reasons. I
think there's a disconnect between what the bylaws say and how we run our
elections - we run them annually, but not really at our annual meeting,
which we actually have, but at a different time, so you could argue that
if this is an electronic meeting it's not the annual one, in which case 10
days notice would be sufficient. I think in reality, we can't actually
satisfy our bylaws to the letter and run our elections as we have been
doing (not at our annual meeting). Giving 30 days notice for elections
wouldn't be bad though.

karen