[Announcements] Jasig and Sakai Foundations Finalize Merger Plans

[Josh Baron]

Jasig and Sakai Foundations Finalize Merger Plans

In 2010 the Jasig and Sakai Foundations undertook an evaluation of the 
benefits and feasibility of bringing our two organizations together. 
Following a positive initial investigation, work began after the 2010 
EDUCAUSE conference to merge organizations.  We are now approaching the 
final stages of this process and wanted to take this opportunity to report 
our progress.

The Jasig and Sakai Foundation Board of Directors have now independently 
elected four members from each of their existing Boards to serve on the 
“Founding Board” of the new common organization. A list of the members 
elected by each Board is included below.  A Founding Board is a legal 
precondition for incorporating a new 501(c)3 Not-For-Profit entity which 
necessitates it formation at this point in the process.  Although the 
Founding Board will not have any legal authority prior to incorporation 
they will be consulted and heavily engaged as we finalize the merger 
process.  Once incorporated, community elections will be held to elect 
four additional Board Members (details of the election process are being 
finalized in the bylaws).  Following a timeline to be established by the 
new Board (of no more than three years in length), members of the Founding 
Board will rotate off to allow their position to be filled by individuals 
elected directly by the combined communities.

Following approval by our two communities, we plan to file for 
incorporation early in the new year and gain non-profit status within the 
first quarter of 2012.  The specific timeline for finalizing the 
incorporation process depends heavily on the how quickly we gain state and 
federal approvals.   During this time, the Founding Board will also likely 
be working to form an Advisory Council of international leaders within 
higher education to provide guidance as the new organization matures. 
Additional details on this Advisory Council and the merger, including an 
updated version of the bylaws and a draft membership model, will be 
released to our communities for review and comment in the coming weeks.

As we move into this final phase, we will also select a name for the 
merged organization.  It is important to emphasize that bringing together 
Jasig and the Sakai Foundations will not dissolve or merge our respective 
software communities or projects.  Existing brands will not go away, but 
will benefit from being exposed to the new audiences reached by the new 
organization. The Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment will still 
be promoted and maintained as the Sakai Collaboration and Learning 
Environment, Jasig uPortal as uPortal, and so on. The new organization 
will build on the successes of the past in developing brand recognition, 
without seeking to supplant existing brands.  Managing this branding issue 
is critical, and our respective Boards have been dedicating significant 
attention to this issue.  It is within this context that we are now 
seeking input and suggestions from our communities, and beyond, for the 
name of the new Foundation.

Next week, following the EDUCAUSE conference, we will be announcing a 
Community Naming Process which we hope will stimulate community members, 
instructors, and student groups to assist in this effort as means to draw 
on the wealth of expertise within our communities.  As part of this 
initiative we are also releasing an updated version of a document 
articulating the value of the new organization which was first released in 
April 2011.  The new version, which has been re-titled “The Value of a 
Common Foundation” (see attached, web version coming soon), provides new 
content based on feedback and questions from our communities.  It is 
important that our new name reflect the communities and values of the new 
organization and we hope this updated document will be useful in 
identifying appropriate names for consideration.  The final selection of a 
name for the new Foundation will be the responsibility of the members of 
the Founding Board. 

We thank all of the members of our communities, as well as the many other 
interested third parties that have provided invaluable feedback as we have 
made progress towards merging our two organizations. We truly believe that 
the new joined foundation will represent a positive step forward both for 
our founding communities, but also for the use of open source in 
institutions of higher education around the world.

Founding Board Members

    Jens Haeusser, University of British Columbia
    John Lewis, Unicon
    Josh Baron, Marist College
    Maggie Lynch, Thanos Partners
    Michael Feldstein, Cengage Learning
    Nate Angell, rSmart
    Robert Sherratt, University of Hull
    Tim Carroll, University of Illinois




Josh Baron
Chair, Sakai Foundation Board of Directors
Co-Chair, Jasig-Sakai Joint Working Group

-----------------------------
Joshua Baron
Senior Academic Technology Officer
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, New York  12601
(845) 575-3623 (work)
Twitter: JoshBaron
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