Proposing townhall meetings for MC elections

Board Discuss
#1

Hello,

during the last two board elections at least, the membership committee organized townhall sessions for the board candidates, see e.g. here:

I suggest we organize something similar for the upcoming elections of the membership committee. Given it’s vacation time and people might be on holiday, it’s better to coordinate early on.

Based on what I remember from the previous townhall sessions, I would not wait until the nomination phase has ended, because then things will get stressful, but schedule the meetings upfront, even if that means not everyone can attend.

The elections are overseen by the board, and the team supports the board. Based on the timeline from Announcing the election for the next TDF Membership Committee I suggest to organize something the second or third week of August (calendar weeks 32 and 33).

I suggest we use Jitsi again for livestreaming, have live translators, and also record the sessions so those who cannot attend can watch them later. Sessions should be open to the general public, depending on the number of questions we receive we might want to limit speaking right to members, but only if needed, otherwise I don’t think there’s a need for that.

I would also suggest that our community should send questions to the candidates to the board in private, so the moderators of the townhall sessions can ask them during the meeting, without sharing them with the candidates upfront.

For which languages we can organize meetings depends on who can support us in localizing and translating, so please feel free to share this message also with your local community to ask for help. In the past, based on the different timezones, we have organized something suitable for:

  • BRT timezone
  • JST timezone
  • CET timezone

Let me know what you think!

Florian

#2

Thanks Florian for the proposal; I have the following suggestion:

  • arrange the possibility to send questions to all the candidates,ego with a list of questions made visible to all members on this site. All the candidates will be asked for an answer.

diego

1 Like
#3

We have two options, and I have no preference, so I’m happy to hear what people think. :wink:

Option 1: People send/ask questions publicly, so they are known to all the candidates before and candidates can prepare their answers.

Option 2: People send questions to the board, and the candidates will be asked them without knowing them in advance, so candidates have to reply spontaneously.

Option 1 would not exclude that participants get a chance to also ask spontaneous questions during the sessions, of course.

#4

I would welcome a town hall session in August.

Regarding the two options @floeff mentioned: I would prefer option (1) to option (2). In fact, I would like it even better if candidates would answer in advance, so that the town hall would be more of a discussion than people reading written statements.

#5

I had a look at the times the last sessions took place. When converting them to daylight savings, the outcome is as follows:

  • For BRT timezone: 2100 BRT - 0900 JST - 0000 UTC - 0200 CEST
  • For JST timezone: 2100 JST - 0900 BRT - 1200 UTC - 1400 CEST
  • For CEST timezone: 2000 CEST - 0400 JST - 1600 BRT - 1900 UTC

Last time, we had calls on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Looking at people’s availabilities, and that we need a bit of lead time to organize everything, calendar week 33 (August 12-18) could be a good option.

Thoughts welcome.

#6

We discussed it in today’s team call, and looking at people’s availability, the current proposal would be (note the glitch in the CEST timezone conversion that is fixed now):

For BRT timezone: 2100 BRT - 0900 JST - 0000 UTC - 0200 CEST (Tuesday, August 13 CEST time)
For CEST timezone: 2100 CEST - 0400 JST - 1600 BRT - 1900 UTC (Tuesday, August 13 CEST time)
For JST timezone: 2100 JST - 0900 BRT - 1200 UTC - 1400 CEST (Wednesday, August 14 CEST time)

The 0200 CEST slot provides a challenge, it’s a hard ask to have people awake until 0400 local time, so my hope is we find supporters from Brazil who can run the session.

Regarding the questions, I would propose we start a separate thread here on board-discuss and collect them.

I wait for the board’s feedback, so we can confirm and proceed.

#7

I’ll be available for CEST and JST slots

Regards,
–Osvaldo

#8

Hi all,
Thanks Florian for organizing!
I’ll be there for CEST and JST. If I’m needed for BRT, I’ll be available too.
Cheers - Sophie

#9

I should be available for the CEST and JST timeslots!

#10

Thinking of this again, we might be able to have the calls also later in August.
As per Announcing the election for the next TDF Membership Committee the nomination phase ends August 26, and the election is a week later.
If we shift the meeting to that week, all candidates can participate, plus it gives us a bit more time for preparation.

In other words, meetings would then be two weeks later than in the original plan:

For BRT timezone: 2100 BRT - 0900 JST - 0000 UTC - 0200 CEST (Tuesday, August 27 CEST time)
For CEST timezone: 2100 CEST - 0400 JST - 1600 BRT - 1900 UTC (Tuesday, August 27 CEST time)
For JST timezone: 2100 JST - 0900 BRT - 1200 UTC - 1400 CEST (Wednesday, August 28 CEST time)

I think this is much better as it gives all candidates a chance to participate.
I know not everyone from board and team might be available during that week (which is why I’ve chosen the earlier timeslot in first place), but if we have enough supporters, we could still make it.

Let me know if also the later date works for you.

#11

I will be on vacation this week, so not sure to be available.
Cheers - Sophie

#12

I’ll be in holidays … I cannot attend.

#13

With these updated dates, I should be available for the CEST and JST timeslots too :blush:

#14

Formally, the board is in charge of the MC elections and it’s ultimately their decision how and when to run the townhalls, if any, and how to handle the questions. Ideally, also the board should do the formal announcement.

I think we have quite a plan developed in this thread, but I would love to have feedback from the board if they are fine with that - so far, only some people commented here, and I don’t want to proceed with something that is not supported by the board.

So, please, give me your feedback on:

  • if you want to have sessions
  • if so, the dates and times for the sessions
  • your availability to join the sessions
  • and how we should handle the questions

Then the team and me can proceed. Keep in mind we need a bit of time for preparations and it’s vacation time too, so we are running out of time…

#15

Hi Florian,

apologies for the delay in replying and thank you for organising this.

I’m very supportive of having townhalls with the MC candidates with public questions upfront as it has been done for the board elections.

I will be available for the CEST and JST timezones.

#16

Thanks a lot Paolo! I appreciate it - I know for you it’s a tough ask in particular due to all the work for organizing the conference, so thank you even more for being available!

1 Like
#17

Based on the updated schedule, I might connect on August 27 for the CEST
meeting, but not for the BRT and the JST meetings as that week I will be
at the seaside.

#18

Thanks everyone involved in organizing the town halls, and @mikesaunders for moderating them (well, the two I attended at least).

I wish more of us trustees had questions to bring up - especially people who work with the MC more frequently. Then I wouldn’t have stood out as much :stuck_out_tongue:

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