[Evergreen-governance-l] Basic rules of governance draft

[Amy Terlaga]

I think Galen's amendment is a very good idea.  I know that that was your
general intent, Dan, but to state it explicitly right within the rules of
governance seems like the way to go so that there isn't any
misunderstanding.

I'm still reviewing it (and was about to make some suggestions then realized
that what we're aiming for here is a basic structure that will be fleshed
out later) - may have some comments after I've reviewed some more to make
sure there's enough there to proceed without running into any significant
gray area.

Oh, and since it's on my mind, I'm still hoping to work membership dues in
at some point (won't be here - that's one topic that will bog us down again,
I know)

For the Officers section, was the reason why we stayed clear of making the
Vice-Chair the Chair-Elect the fear that we wouldn't get someone to commit
for that long (whatever the term length turns out to be)?   In my past
experience on Boards, transitioning between Chairs can be made smoother with
that setup in place.

Amy

-----Original Message-----
From: evergreen-governance-l-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org
[mailto:evergreen-governance-l-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf
Of Galen Charlton
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 9:20 AM
To: Dan Scott
Cc: Evergreen Governance; Bradley M. Kuhn
Subject: Re: [Evergreen-governance-l] Basic rules of governance draft

Hi Dan,

On Feb 25, 2011, at 4:31 PM, Dan Scott wrote:
> As promised at the last Governance Committee meeting, I've drafted a 
> Rules of Governance document that attempts to reflect our current 
> reality (we're bootstrapping an Oversight Board for the Evergreen 
> software project so that we can join the Software Conservancy as a 
> member in a fiscal sponsorship agreement) with some additional 
> structure (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary) and some minimalist rules for 
> how the rules of governance can be amended. This draft also asserts 
> that the Board is is responsible for the overall policy and direction 
> of the Project, and that the Board does not generally implement 
> practices, but instead relies on the recognized community leadership 
> within the Project to do so. (I've adapted some of this text from the 
> Fedora Project board document, as noted in the license statement at 
> the bottom).

Thank you for putting this together.  As a minimalistic set of rules that
would allow us to enjoy the benefits of membership in the SFC while giving
us (and more importantly, members of the Evergreen Project as as whole) time
to hash out the broader governance issues, I think your proposal provides a
way forward.  However, I do think it it is important to ensure that there is
a deadline given for that discussion, as otherwise the board in theory could
perpetuate itself indefinitely without settling those issues or being
subject to any kind of election by the broader membership of the project,
however it gets defined in the end.

Consequently, I propose the following new section:

"2.10 Transition to General Rules of Governance and General Elections

By the end of the 2012 Evergreen International Conference or 30 April 2012,
whichever comes sooner, the Board will have promulgated rules of governance
for this Board and the Evergreen Project to be presented for approval by the
general membership of the Evergreen Project during the conference.  At that
same time, the board will designate at least 1/3 of its seats to be filled
by general election at the 2012 conference."

Also, as a nitpick, I think the proposed meeting notice period of 36 hours
is a bit too short.  I think 72 hours would be better, as it gives adequate
notice if there is some emergency that requires a meeting to be called for a
Monday.

Regards,

Galen
--
Galen Charlton
VP, Data Services
Equinox Software, Inc. / Your Library's Guide to Open Source
email:  gmc at esilibrary.com
direct: +1 352-215-7548
skype:  gmcharlt
web:    http://www.esilibrary.com/

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