[Contributors] OGB March 2007 election

[Al Hopper]

Just a quick appeal to any Core Contributor who has yet to vote - to
please Do-It-Now as there is only 1.5 working days [1] remaining before
the ballots close on Mon Mar 26th at 24:00 hrs Pacific.

Just now, looking at poll.opensolaris.org, I see only 93 ballots received
- out of a possible maximum of 267.

Personally I think there are (at least) 3 reasons why every eligible voter
should make _every_ effort to vote in this election:

1) Power Vacuum:  You've heard the phrase that "nature abhors a vacuum".
Well nature also abhors a power/leadership vacuum - and low voter
participation indicates a leadership vacuum or that the community lacks
the willpower to self govern.  The danger with such a vacuum, is that
someone else will try to fill it.

2) Ratification: The current OGB set the bar very high when we agreed that
a majority of the eligible voters must vote "yes" for ratification.  There
was intense discussion on this topic - on more than one occasion.  This
means that we'd have to see more than 134 ballots cast on
polls.opensolaris.org and that the vast majority of those voters would
have to vote "yes" for ratification.  If you listen to the OGB Candidates
Podcasts [2][3] you'll notice that the vast majority of Candidates
interviewed said "yes" when asked (by Simon) if they thought "that the
current Constitution should be ratified".

I remain optimistic....  Please help me out!

3) You owe it:  As a Core Contributor, you are expected to participate in
the politics and leadership of the OpenSolaris project - and not only in
your chosen area of interest/expertize.  So yes - you owe it to the
Project and you also owe it to the Candidates themselves IMHO.  To ignore
politics/leadership is simply irresponsible behavior IMHO and, if this
project is important to you, you'll make the extra effort and take the 10
minutes or so that it'll require to vote.

Concluding remarks: We, the entire community, are extremely honored to
have such a diverse set of highly qualified Candidates willing to
volunteer their time to lead this Project for the next *year*.  All the
Candidates are exceptional people who have an enviable track record of
success in their chosen field of endeavor and have agreed to help lead the
Project in addition to their (many) other obligations.  So please honor
them with the 10 minutes of your time that it'll take to vote.  It's not
that big of a sacrifice compared to the commitment being made by the
Candidates!

[1] At least in my neck of the woods.

[2] In the "Podcast" column of the Candidate Information table at:
http://opensolaris.org/os/community/cab/OGB_Election_Status/

[3] Many thanks to Simon Phipps for taking the initiative and making the
time to record these. It's easy to guesstimate that, for every 1 minute of
recording time, he has probably invested at least 6 minutes of his time.

Thanks for your time.

Regards,

Al Hopper  Logical Approach Inc, Plano, TX.  al at logical-approach.com
           Voice: 972.379.2133 Fax: 972.379.2134  Timezone: US CDT
OpenSolaris.Org Community Advisory Board (CAB) Member - Apr 2005
             OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB) Member - Feb 2006