Dear Community,
we hereby officially announce the upcoming elections for the next Membership Committee of The Document Foundation.
As per § 12 II of our statutes, [1] the Membership Committee's term lasts two years. The current Membership Committee started its duty on September 19, 2014. Therefore, the old Membership Committee remains in charge until the end of September 18, 2016, so the new MC will be in charge the day after that, which is September 19, 2016.
As per § 6 III, only members of the Board of Trustees of The Document Foundation, as well as current members of any of its bodies, are eligible to be elected into the Membership Committee, and the election is overseen by the Board of Directors (§ 12 II).
The active electoral right is reserved to those who have been members of the Board of Trustees before this announcement (§ 12 II).
There is one more notable limitation: Per § 8 IV of the statutes, a maximum of 1/3 members of the Membership Committee is allowed to work on an employment basis for the same company, organization, entities, affiliates or subdivisions.
Nomination of candidates fulfilling the above requirements, as well as self nomination is welcome. In total, at least five members of the Membership Committee members are required, and given there are enough candidates, up to four deputies can be elected based on the board decision from June 6.
Re-election of current members of the Membership Committee is explicitly permitted (§ 12 II).
Please send nominations and self-nominations via e-mail to elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Board of Directors in private) and also (!) to board-discuss@documentfoundation.org (which is a public mailing list). We kindly ask nominees who would like to stand for elections to provide a statement of up to 75 words on their candidacy as continuous text (so no bullet lists or multiple paragraphs). In addition, please also provide your full name, e-mail address and your corporate affiliation, if any, and please announce that you will provide information on all future changes as soon as possible.
Discussions with the candidates and questions to them as well as questions about the elections should take place on the public board-discuss@documentfoundation.org mailing list. For details on how to use the mailing list, see http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/
Eligible voters will receive further details via e-mail prior to the start of elections, including a summary of the candidates, details on how to access the voting system, and instructions on how to independently verify the vote count. Please ensure we have your recent and correct e-mail address on file. For questions, you can reach the Board of Directors in private at elections@documentfoundation.org
Following the time line set forth in § 12 II, requiring a 45 day advance notice, we hereby announce the following time line for the elections:
1. 2016-07-25: announcement of the elections (this e-mail); and start of the nomination phase
2. 2016-08-31, 24:00 CET/UTC+2: end of the nomination phase (one week before the election starts, as per § 12 II)
3. 2016-09-08, 00:00 CET/UTC+2: official start of the elections (at least 45 days after #1, as per § 12 II)
4. 2016-09-14, 24:00 CET/UTC+2: end of the elections
5. 2016-09-15: announcement of the preliminary results; and start of the challenging phase
6. 2016-09-17, 24:00 CET/UTC+2: end of the challenging phase
7. 2016-09-18: official announcement of the final results
8. 2016-09-19: new Membership Committee officially in charge
Be advised that the newly elected Membership Committee will only be in charge beginning from September 19, 2016.
Challenges to this election announcement with respect to the deadlines outlined have to happen no later than seven (7) days after this announcement, via e-mail to elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Board of Directors in private).
Challenges to the preliminary results of the election have to happen until the deadline set forth above, via e-mail to elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Board of Directors in private).
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Marina Latini, Chairwoman of The Document Foundation
[1] http://www.documentfoundation.org/satzung.pdf (binding version) and http://www.documentfoundation.org/statutes.pdf (non-binding translation)