Re: Ideas for improving GNOME board elections

[Allan Day <aday gnome org>]

Hi Tobias! I'm just going to reply to the points that differ from the
thread with Pascal.

Tobias Mueller <muelli cryptobitch de> wrote:
...
> > Some of the areas we are interested in improving are:
> > Increasing engagement and discussion around the elections, in
> > particular with more debate and discussion.
> > Ensuring that the elections are accessible, so that everyone is able
> > to cast their votes in an informed manner.
> > Ensuring clarity over which candidacies are valid.
>
> These are laudable goals.
> Do you think we're falling short of achieving those?

I'm not entirely sure what the board thinks about every point, but
these are the things we wanted to investigate, and I think that there
is a perception that recent elections have lacked discussion amongst
the membership.

> > We've discussed some ideas for how to improve in these areas,
> > including:
> > Having a template that candidates have to fill in, with short
> > questions on subjects like availability, relevant expertise and
> > personal priorities.
>
> I think this is a perfect question an interested member can ask, if they
> so desire.

I'm not entirely sure how to interpret this response: do you think the
committee should help with the template or not? What's the committee's
view?

This is a suggestion from the board, which I think we'd like to
pursue. As I mentioned in my reply to Pascal, we can provide a draft
for the membership committee to look at.

...
> > Have prepared questions that are pitched to the candidates, possibly
> > written by the existing board or outgoing board members
> Or by anybody else who is interested in doing that.
> Fortunately, we have such a phase for asking questions in the schedule.

Do we? I've looked at the schedule for the past two elections, and it
looked like voting starts as soon as the candidates are finalised.
Perhaps that's because the candidacy period had to be extended?

> Anybody is free and encouraged to send out prepared questions. Even
> unprepared ones.

Again, I could do with some clarification on whether you're in favour
of this suggestion or not. It would also be helpful to hear what the
committee's view is. We're also keen to hear your own suggestions, if
you have ideas.

Thanks,

Allan