[openstack-dev] Election Stats and Review Discussion

Anita Kuno anteaya at anteaya.info
Fri May 23 14:45:04 UTC 2014


One of the things that OpenStack does really well is review our process
for various activities. I don't believe we have had a discussion in the
past reviewing our electoral process and I think it would be good to
have this discussion.

There are two issues that I feel need to be addressed:
Item One: the health of our voter engagement for the tc election
Item Two: messaging around campaigning
others may feel additional issues need some airtime, if you can think of
other issues affection our election process for ptl and/or tc elections,
do add your item to the list.

Item One:
    the health of our voter engagement for the tc election

Going by voter turnout, the health of individual programs as reflected
in the ptl voter turnout statistics is sound (43.5% voter turnout or
better) however the health of the voter turnout for the tc election
process could tolerate some scrutiny.

For the April 2014 tc election the voter turnout was 29.7%. We have had
a total of three tc elections in the history of OpenStack and our voter
turnout percentage is dropping.
First TC Election, March 2013: 33.6% voter turnout
Second TC Election, October 2013: 30.9% voter turnout
Third TC Election, April 2014: 29.7% voter turnout

Now our actual votes cast are increasing, but the size of the electorate
is increasing faster, with proportionally fewer ATCs voting
March 2013: 208 votes cast, 619 authorized voters
October 2013: 342 votes cast, 1106 authorized voters
April 2014: 448 votes cast, 1510 authorized voters

I would like for there to be a discussion around voter engagement in the
tc election.

Item Two:
    messaging around campaigning

Right now we have no messaging around election campaigning and I think
we should have some.

Specifically I feel we should state that the TC requires candidates and
their backers to campaign in the spirit of the OpenStack ideals
(Openness, Transparency, Commonality, Integration, Quality...)  as
stated in the TC mission statement[footnote] while refraining from
sending unsolicited email and also refraining from holding privately
sponsored campaign events. Campaigning is expected to be done in the
open with public access to links and content available to all.

I welcome your participation in this discussion.

Thank you,
Anita.
anteaya

[footnote] The  Technical Committee ("TC") is tasked with providing the
technical  leadership for OpenStack as a whole (all official programs,
as defined  below). It enforces OpenStack ideals (Openness,
Transparency,  Commonality, Integration, Quality...), decides on issues
affecting  multiple programs, forms an ultimate appeals board for
technical  decisions, and generally has oversight over all the OpenStack
project.



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