[sakai-pmc] Proposal to amend PMC bylways regarding term of election

[Anthony Whyte]

I consider the vice-chair position a valuable one.  The role provides a second set of eyes/ears/thoughts whenever the chair is contacted by other community members, the Executive Directive or Apereo board members.  

Following on Noah, I recommend Sam's proposal be amended to include the following provisions regarding the position of vice-chair:

1.  Abolish the rotating chair clause outlined in section 1.2.  The vice chair will no longer succeed to the chair upon completion of the current chair's term.
2.  The vice chair position will remain an elected position.  Term one year, running parallel to that of the chair with the same start/end dates.  
3.  If the chair is unable to serve out their term (for whatever reason) the vice-chair will succeed to the chair and serve out the remainder of the former chair's term.  A new vice-chair will be elected and serve the remainder of the former vice-chair's term.  When the current term ends, a new election will be held for both positions.   

I also suggest that we hold elections for the chair and vice-chair post-conference (mid- to late June).  Holding an election just prior to or during the conference I regard as largely a distraction.  Plus, if it proves a contentious event or results in a tie, more time will be absorbed by electioneering that would be better spent focused on planning and other conference doings.  Hold the election during a quiet period is my recommendation.

I also think we should simply extend the current chair/vice-chair's terms to cover the period Feb-June 2014.  Assuming Sam's proposal passes muster, it aligns the current term with the amended rules and saves us from holding an out-of-cycle election in January.

That said, when Sam's proposal is ready to be voted upon, as current chair, I intend to recuse myself from participating in the roll call vote.  Although not required by the rules I consider it important that I avoid any conflict of interest, whether perceived or real.

Cheers,

Anth  


anthony whyte | its and mlibrary | university of michigan | arwhyte at umich.edu | 517-980-0228


On Dec 20, 2013, at 3:07 PM, Matthew Jones wrote:

> Yea, as far as the PMC is concerned it doesn't look like they have a "vice chair", they just have a new election. So it's mostly about the succession/transition question So what we would be looking at is a 1 year chair term, with voting being done at each Sakai conference. Having someone setup as vice chair 1 year later in this community is a little far looking. So I guess that would make the options a little more complex?
> 
> Either run out these 2 6 month terms as is and have a new election at the conference, or extend these both to a full year term?
> Whether or not to have a vice chair follow up, elected at the conference either way.
> 
> I think the simplest to parallel Apache would be to continue the 6 month terms until August and vote for a new 1 year chair at the conference with no Vice Chair starting in August. (It can be a re-election of the same or any previous)
> 
> 
> On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 2:46 PM, Noah Botimer <botimer at umich.edu> wrote:
> This is only my initial reaction, but I think I prefer to decouple the notions of election and succession. There would surely be things to sort out, but the two-year cycle seems daunting.
> 
> Thanks,
> -Noah
> 
> On Dec 20, 2013, at 2:13 PM, Sam Ottenhoff wrote:
> 
>> 
>> > I don't know whether we, as a body, consider serving as vice-chair immediately prior to serving as chair to be important.
>> > It could be that serving as a vice-chair is an eligibility requirement to being chair, but succession is not important. Or it
>> > could be that there is no eligibility concern.
>> 
>> Following the Apache model, I see chair and vice-chair as "hats" that should be worn by trusted members of our community who do a good job at coordination.  It's not a hat that I want to wear, but I'm glad we have capable members in the PMC.  I think we're mature enough now that this should be a hat worn with a year term and succession shouldn't be a requirement.
>> 
>> http://apache.org/foundation/how-it-works.html : 
>> 
>> Secondly the role of the PMC is to further the long term development and health of the community as a whole, and to ensure that balanced and wide scale peer review and collaboration does happen. Within the ASF we worry about any community which centers around a few individuals who are working virtually uncontested. We believe that this is detrimental to quality, stability, and robustness of both code and long term social structures.
>> 
>> We firmly believe in hats. Your role at the ASF is one assigned to you personally, and is bestowed on you by your peers. It is not tied to your job or current employer or company.
> 
> 
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