Wiki

There have been a number of flags raised around the first committer elections for the board, and the proposed election process for "committer seats" and the chair of the TSC. The goal of this page is to draft an alternate proposal, which will cover guidelines for running elections and proposed by-laws changes to be considered and voted by the board.

Some of the concerns which have been raised are:

• Lack of transparency in the election process
  • Candidate statements were sent initially only to voters
  • Detailed results were withheld
• Error-prone process for electorate
  • Some duplicates/old emails in INFO files
  • Project maintainers need to update the INFO files, create repos after project approval
• Is "committer" the right level of contribution for voting?
  • OPNFV is not a code-driven project: wiki edits, upstream participation, Gerrit reviews, blueprints submission, presentations and event organisation are valuable participation
  • "Committer" status was handed out as a very low bar at project approval, many inactive "committers" across the many OPNFV projects
• Need to increase clarity around the election process
  • The elections "snuck up" on people - seemed quite rushed in terms of process, no clear understanding of what was driving the urgency
  • One potential candidate missed the TSC chair proposal deadline because of a US holiday weekend
  • No "hustings" or questions to candidates - election fundamentally is a popularity contest in the absence of debate
  • See earlier concerns about where election materials were sent - the lack of a documented process has led to some confusion and discontent
• Concerns about TSC being made up of nominees of Platinum sponsors, instead of active technical contributors to the project

The election-related sections of the by-laws are as follows (extract from complete by-laws):

Section 2.7 Privileges of Individual Committer Membership

Each Individual Committer Member, while in good standing as a Committer on a project (as such requirements for such Committer role shall be established by the Technical Steering Committee from time to time), shall be entitled to:
- run for election as a Director and participate in the election of Directors in accordance with Section 4.3(e) of these By-laws;

Section 4.3 Nomination, Election and Term of Office of Directors
…
- Following the first release of the Platform, each Individual Committer Member (while remaining in good standing) shall have the right to vote, together with the other Individual Committer Members as a class, to elect one (1) Individual Committer Member to serve as a Director (the “Individual Director”), to serve until the next annual action of Members without a meeting and until his or her successor is elected and qualified or until his or her earlier resignation or removal. The selection of nominees for such position shall be made by the Individual Committer Members (as project committers) and approved by the Board through such nominating procedures as may be set by the Board from time to time.

- Any Director nominated, appointed or elected by any class of Members or the Technical Steering Committee, or by any Member, may, but shall not automatically, be re-nominated, re-appointed and/or re-elected for additional terms.