Open Stack

Hi

Since the foundation list thread kicked off, there's been a bunch of
discussion on the foundation-board list and directly amongst ourselves. 

Now that we have this list, I think the first thing we need to do is
summarize where those discussions have lead to.

Here's my attempt, but please pile on with anything I missed. Also, I
haven't put anyone's name against any of these positions for fear of
misrepresenting anyone.


 * The advice that we cannot tweak the cumulative voting system without 
   a bylaws change changes things. We now have the choice between:

     1) do nothing
     2) hold a vote on making any change change to the system
     3) hold a vote on tweaking the cumulative system
     4) hold a vote on changing to a particular system like
        STV/Condorcet

   I have expressed my order of preference as 4, 2, 3, 1

 * Apparently the membership numbers have greatly increased over the 
   6,000 members which I talked about. I don't see a public reference 
   to this number anywhere, so I won't repeat it here.

 * There is debate over whether we could take a vote on a bylaws change 
   in time for the next election cycle or whether it would have to be 
   taken at the same time as the next round of elections.

   My take is that doing it with this years elections could give a
   better chance of turnout and we're unlikely to get a vote ready with 
   sufficient campaigning in advance of that anyway.

 * Some feel that having multiple members affiliated with the same 
   organization on the board is a serious and related issue. We have 
   discussed whether we should hold a vote on this. Personally, I'm fine
   with including it as another vote along with the election system 
   vote.

 * We discussed whether our concern about getting a sufficient turnout 
   for a bylaws change points to a more fundamental underlying issue 
   with our membership. Some discussion about whether members should 
   automatically lose their membership if they do not vote in an
   election.

 * We have had some discussion about STV vs Condorcet that would be 
   great to share, but I'm not best placed to summarize it

 * Our original report is still waiting to be published along with all 
   other supporting materials from the Oct 3rd meeting

Mark.