[advocacy-discuss] OGB Election 2008

[Jim Grisanzio]

Brian Gupta wrote:

> Does everyone know how much work is involved in running the OGB? 

A lot.

> It seems
> like quite a bit, and seems a pretty thankless job.  (Getting flack from all
> sides). 


To a certain extent, that's a part of leadership. But it doesn't 
necessarily have to be as hostile as it's been, that's for sure. That 
will be a good issue for the campaign, I'd say. :) I've said this many 
times before, the OpenSolaris community on opensolaris.org has a pretty 
big values problem, and it needs to grow into a much more mature and 
professional community before it can be taken seriously in the meta open 
source community. Basically, we have difficulty having civil 
discussions, and that's not acceptable (to me, anyway). Now, that's not 
true of the other OpenSolaris communities (in China and India 
specifically, and many of the User Groups as well), but it certainly is 
true with the main community on opensolaris.org. The current OGB has not 
addressed this issue, and the election last year demonstrated that the 
voters didn't think it was an issue at all. We'll see what this year 
brings.

> How many hours per week, etc.

It depends. It's not a job. But if we want to run and lead our own 
community, we have to put in the time. There's no way around it. 
Otherwise, it will be run and led for us.

>  Are all the existing OGB members
> interested in running again? 


I'm sure they will tell us when the campaign starts.

> Do candidates have ideas that they want to
> pursue?


Candidates make the campaign and drive their own issues. The voters will 
decide what ideas have value.

> How does the nomination process work? 


Last year, it was pretty informal. After the schedule was published, 
people offered to run or were nominated and got +1s and that was it. You 
have to be a Member to offer a nomination, though.

> Can I nominate someone now? 


Probably too early. Let's wait for the OGB to publish a schedule and any 
specs for the election. I just want Advocacy CG to be ready and start 
the discussion now since we are the biggest CG and we have to update our 
Core Contributor status. I think we should open a wiki page for that 
purpose. The nomination process is covered in the Constitution, but we 
just need to put dates on it.


> Do we need
> to have an election for all board members every election? (Some boards only
> put up a certain number of seats for election each voting period).


I think we are electing all 7. Have to check that, though.

> How do other boards do this?


It doesn't matter. We voted for our process and we are following it. If 
we need to change it, that's certainly fine, but we'll need have a 
community-wide vote and I'm sure that will have to take place with the 
next OGB. Or, it could be a campaign issue. In other words, updating the 
Constitution, etc.

> Can we require that candidates write a document outlining their viewpoints
> on governance?

The candidates in last year's election all issued position papers and 
many were interviewed by Simon Phipps and the DTrace Community. I'm sure 
this year there will be plenty of opportunity for people to articulate 
their views. I'm less concerned about getting people to run than I am 
about getting people to vote. Voter turn out last year was low. We need 
more active voters, and with over 4K people in Advocacy and the UGs, we 
can shape the election probably more than any other CG.

Jim
-- 
Jim Grisanzio http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris