[sakai-pmc] VOTE: PMC chair/vice-chair tenure and election bylaws changes

[Noah Botimer]

+1

Thanks,
-Noah

On Jan 8, 2014, at 11:52 AM, Anthony Whyte <arwhyte at umich.edu> wrote:

On 19 December 2013 Sam Ottenhoff proposed that we revise the PMC chair's
term of election.  A number of amendments regarding the position of
vice-chair were offered by other PMC members and the proposal below
incorporates the suggested changes to the original proposal.

*Overview*
The six month rotating chair rule inherited from TCC practice specifies too
short a time period between elections to ensure effective continuity in
office for members elected to serve a committee now responsible for
oversight of the Sakai project within a broader Apereo community. The rule
results in the PMC chair and vice-chair rotating too often and results in
too much time spent on elections. The frequency of rotations between chairs
also complicates communications between the PMC and other bodies
(Foundation director, conference planning, licensing, etc) and contributes
to a perception of instability within the committee.

*Proposal *
The PMC will extend the term of office to one year for both the chair and
vice-chair per Apache PMC protocol and eliminate the practice of automatic
succession of the vice-chair to the chair upon completion of the chair's
term in office.

Specifically, the following sections of the bylaws will be amended as
follows:

Section 1.2 PMC chair

Strike the following language:


*Rotating position. Elected by simple majority vote of membership unless
replaced by vice-chair according to order of succession described
below.Term: 6 months*

Replace with:

*Elected by a simple majority vote of the membership. The chair shall hold
office for a period of one year or until his or her successor is elected
and qualified or until his or her earlier resignation or removal.  If the
chair resigns or is removed the vice-chair will succeed to the chair and
serve out the remainder of the former chair's term.  If an election results
in a tie between candidates for the position of chair, successive run-off
elections will be held until a candidate is elected by a simple majority
vote of the membership.*

Section 1.3 PMC vice chair

Strike the following language:


*Rotating position. Elected by a simple majority vote of membership every 6
months. Succeeds current PMC chair when the chair's term expires.Term: 6
months*

Replace with:

*Elected by a simple majority vote of the membership. The vice chair shall
hold office for a period of one year or until his or her successor is
elected and qualified or until his or her earlier resignation or
removal.  If the vice-chair resigns, is removed or replaces a chair who has
resigned or been removed a special election will be held to elect a vice
chair to serve out the remainder of the term.  If an election results in a
tie between candidates for the position of vice chair, successive
run-off elections will be held until a candidate is elected by a simple
majority vote of the the membership.*

Section 3.0 Elections

Strike the following language:

*The method for breaking a tie is still subject to debate. Suggestions
include:*

   - *In a future PMC election if there is a tie, a run off election will
   be held among the tied candidates following the same election procedures. *
   - *If members are still tied after the election, a virtual coin toss
   will be held when only two tied candidates are left.*
   - *The coin toss method may change, but currently it will be
   via http://cointossr.com/ <http://cointossr.com/> between the chair and
   vice chair. The candidate who is represented by heads and tails is arranged
   prior to the toss when the chair sends the link to the vice chair.*


In addition, the existing 6 month tenures of the current chair and
vice-chair's tenure will be extended until 30 June 2014 in order to both
simplify the transition to a new election model and establish a July to
June period of tenure for both positions.

*Polls open*

Voting is now open and will conclude no later than Monday, 13 January 2014,
11:59:59 UTC

As earlier noted, both the current chair and vice-chair will recuse
themselves from this vote.


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


_______________________________________________
sakai-pmc mailing list
sakai-pmc at collab.sakaiproject.org
http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-pmc
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://collab.sakaiproject.org/pipermail/sakai-pmc/attachments/20140108/b900f9ea/attachment.html