Opening Inkscape Committee Nominations
As many of you know Inkscape is a member organization of the Software Freedom Conservancy. (http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org/) As Specified in Section 6 or our charter we maintain a committee of seven project members. Section 6 reads as follows:
"6. Representation of the Project in the Conservancy. The Developers, each a signatory hereto, shall represent the Project in its official communication with the Conservancy. There shall be seven Developers (together, the "Committee"), elected by the community members of the Project listed in the Project's AUTHORS file (the "Community Members"). Each Developer shall continue to serve until he or she resigns from the position. The Developers may be removed from the position at any time by a majority vote of the Community Members. Upon the resignation or removal of a Developer, the Community Members shall elect a replacement Developer to serve on the Committee. The Committee will elect a single individual to communicate with the Conservancy (the "Representative") and shall notify the Conservancy promptly following the election of a new Representative. The Representative will have the authority to instruct the Conservancy on the Project's behalf on all matters. This section may be modified by a vote of at least 3/4 of the Community Members, with the consent of the Conservancy, such consent not to be unreasonably withheld."
The committee consists of Josh Andler, Jon Cruz, Ted Gould, Bryce Harrington, Nathan Hurst, MenTaLguY and Aaron Spike. Bryce Harrington currently serves as the Representative. Nathan Hurst has recently resigned his position on the committee. Therefore we must elect a new committee member. I will be collecting nominations over the next few days (ending Friday March 28th unless there is great desire for an extension to the nomination period). Anyone listed in the AUTHORS file may make a nomination. Anyone listed in the AUTHORS file may be nominated. Nominees are free to refuse nomination.
I will open the nominations by relaying Nathan's nomination:
"I nominate Peter Moulder, as one of the most senior people, a clear thinker, an Aussie and as close to a lawyer as you can get in a programmer."
Aaron Spike
On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 09:50:53PM -0500, Aaron Spike wrote:
The committee consists of Josh Andler, Jon Cruz, Ted Gould, Bryce Harrington, Nathan Hurst, MenTaLguY and Aaron Spike. Bryce Harrington currently serves as the Representative. Nathan Hurst has recently resigned his position on the committee. Therefore we must elect a new committee member. I will be collecting nominations over the next few days (ending Friday March 28th unless there is great desire for an extension to the nomination period). Anyone listed in the AUTHORS file may make a nomination. Anyone listed in the AUTHORS file may be nominated. Nominees are free to refuse nomination.
I will open the nominations by relaying Nathan's nomination:
"I nominate Peter Moulder, as one of the most senior people, a clear thinker, an Aussie and as close to a lawyer as you can get in a programmer."
I'd like to nominate Bulia Byak.
Bryce
Aaron Spike wrote:
I will open the nominations by relaying Nathan's nomination:
"I nominate Peter Moulder, as one of the most senior people, a clear thinker, an Aussie and as close to a lawyer as you can get in a programmer."
I think pjrm would be a great choice, and if he is uninterested would nominate Johan Engelen.
-Josh
Josh Andler wrote:
I think pjrm would be a great choice, and if he is uninterested would nominate Johan Engelen.
Could we please avoid control structures and logic in the nominations. If you use a Turing-complete language I will have a very difficult time reasoning out any obfuscated nominations. ;-P
Aaron
On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:50:53 -0500, Aaron Spike <aaron@...749...> wrote:
I will open the nominations by relaying Nathan's nomination:
"I nominate Peter Moulder, as one of the most senior people, a clear thinker, an Aussie and as close to a lawyer as you can get in a programmer."
I second the nomination.
-mental
I've just asked Nathan about this.
We should clarify that this is primarily about membership of the Inkscape Board and answering questions posted to inkscape-board (see archives at http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=inkscape-board).
Looking at the archives should give a better idea of who should take Nathan's place.
Btw, the reason for Nathan mentioning my being "an Aussie" in his reasons for nominating me is mainly about ensuring non-north-american representation on the board: all the other board members are North American, I believe. I note that this reason applies to the other two people nominated so far, Johan Engelen (Netherlands according to ohloh entry) and arguably Bulia Byak (who I believe is now Canadian but can nevertheless offer a non-Canadian / non-North-American perspective). While considering this criterion, I should note that I believe both have more exposure to the thought/culture of non-English-speakers than I.
An important argument against me being on the Board is just that my involvement in Inkscape is rather limited these days.
Also, I hesitate to accept because I know I'm very slow at writing. The giving of lots of thought to what I write is no doubt one reason behind Nathan nominating me, but OTOH this writing style means I tend to avoid replying to things at all.
Relevant excerpt of chat with Nathan just now:
11:53:20 pjrm: I ask you about it in order to decide whether to accept the nomination 11:53:30 njh: There isn't much to it 11:53:34 njh: a few emails a month 11:53:39 njh: licence issues 11:53:43 njh: that sort of thing 11:53:45 pjrm: E.g. would bbyak or Johan Engelen be better 11:53:51 njh: I think you would be great 11:54:03 njh: because you are very good at asking the right questions 11:54:19 njh: and I think the board needs more non-north american bias ... 12:53:45 pjrm: I'm just about to post the following to inkscape-devel. Can you comment; in particular, do you wish to make any edits to the transcript before I make it public? 12:54:43 pjrm: [Draft of this message.] 12:55:00 njh: one thing which I think makes you ideally suited to the rôle is the fact that you think things through so carefully 12:57:00 njh: I do think that your anal retentive attention to detail is an important point too 12:57:10 njh: (you can put that in your email if you want :)
For those that don't know, Nathan & I have shared an office for the past few years, which on the one hand means he knows me quite well, while on the other hand means he may be biased towards me for reasons related to friendship etc.
A general remark on the question of who should become a member of the board: time spent with board things does detract from time spent on development (whether of Inkscape or other things). We might consider not just how well someone can handle board duties but also whether it's the best use of their time/skills.
Based on Nathan's confidence, I accept the nomination; but I'm sure no-one (not I in particular) would stand in the way of Bulia if he wished to be on the board. [Sorry Aaron for use of logical control structure!]
pjrm.
On Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 01:32:41PM +1100, Peter Moulder wrote:
We should clarify that this is primarily about membership of the Inkscape Board and answering questions posted to inkscape-board (see archives at http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=inkscape-board).
It's good to see such thought put into this. I can offer some additional data.
The board's duties have been limited to legal and financial.
When the board was first founded, the board had some legal questions revolving around how the Inkscape Board should work, and to sort out questions about our relationship with the Software Freedom Conservancy.
However, since then the vast bulk of the board's responsibility has been to make decisions about the spending of money. For example, approving compensation for travelers to Libre Graphics and other meetings, and covering costs of conference booth materials, etc. I expect that most board responsibility going forward will be of this nature. The work has generally amounted to an average of a couple emails a month, and I expect that to be typical going forward.
The board does not have responsibility currently for technical, social/community, or other issues outside of legal and financial.
Bryce
This thread is getting quiet and it is Friday where I live, so let's close the nominations.
AND THE NOMINATIONS FOR COMMITTEE MEMEBER ARE:
Peter Moulder Bulia Byak Johan Engelen
Peter Moulder wrote:
Based on Nathan's confidence, I accept the nomination; but I'm sure no-one (not I in particular) would stand in the way of Bulia if he wished to be on the board. [Sorry Aaron for use of logical control structure!]
Thanks for your response Peter. I share Nathan's confidence.
After we hear from Bulia and Johan the voting can begin.
Aaron Spike
Sorry I didn't respond earlier.
I do not know the tasks/responsibilities of the committee, but Bryce already explained a bit. Although I feel very much honored by the nomination, I am not sure whether I should accept or not. I feel it is a great responsibility and something I'd learn a lot from; but maybe it's better to code for some more time: when I am more senior and have seen how things are managed, I'll be more at ease when a new chance arrives. Also, I am very new to OpenSource development, Inkscape is the only project I've been actively involved in. Maybe that is a good thing, having a fresh view on things. Maybe it is not, not knowing about pitfalls and precedents. (note that I'd like to stay out of GSoC board matters)
I am willing to go on to the board, but please take the above into consideration.
Regards, Johan
-----Original Message----- From: Aaron Spike [mailto:aaron@...749...] Sent: vrijdag 28 maart 2008 14:47 To: Peter Moulder; inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net; Engelen, J.B.C. (Johan); bulia byak Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] Opening Inkscape Committee Nominations
This thread is getting quiet and it is Friday where I live, so let's close the nominations.
AND THE NOMINATIONS FOR COMMITTEE MEMEBER ARE:
Peter Moulder Bulia Byak Johan Engelen
Peter Moulder wrote:
Based on Nathan's confidence, I accept the nomination; but I'm sure no-one (not I in particular) would stand in the way of Bulia if he wished to be on the board. [Sorry Aaron for use of logical control structure!]
Thanks for your response Peter. I share Nathan's confidence.
After we hear from Bulia and Johan the voting can begin.
Aaron Spike
J.B.C.Engelen@...1578... wrote:
I do not know the tasks/responsibilities of the committee, but Bryce already explained a bit. Although I feel very much honored by the nomination, I am not sure whether I should accept or not. I feel it is a great responsibility and something I'd learn a lot from; but maybe it's better to code for some more time: when I am more senior and have seen how things are managed, I'll be more at ease when a new chance arrives. Also, I am very new to OpenSource development, Inkscape is the only project I've been actively involved in. Maybe that is a good thing, having a fresh view on things. Maybe it is not, not knowing about pitfalls and precedents. (note that I'd like to stay out of GSoC board matters)
I can appreciate your reservations. The only GSoC board matters I'm aware of are deciding how to use the money. I wouldn't worry about any conflicts with GSoC anyway. I seem to remember reading of a few different GSoC participants who were board members for their projects.
Reservations aside, I compute your response as acceptance of the nomination. :-)
Thanks.
Aaron
OK, I accept as well, with all the same reservations as Johan :)
participants (7)
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unknown＠example.com -
Aaron Spike -
Bryce Harrington -
bulia byak -
Josh Andler -
MenTaLguY -
Peter Moulder