Folks,
The point was made that a DC15 legal entity with bylaws and people
in power might slant the way we work together and cause situations
of authoritarian behaviour or abuse of power.
I would like to clarify that the highest body in the association
we're proposing is the members' assembly. It elects the board.
The board represents the association to the outside, but it's bound
by (majority) decisions made by the members' assembly.
The board does have a number of special roles/powers within the
organisation, such as:
- deciding on the order of the agenda of member meetings (not the
content);
- administrating voting and elections;
- untieing votes, i.e. if there's a tie, then the vote of the
head of the board decides (not during board elections, when
a tie is resolved randomly).
The board is elected for two years, but if 10 % of the members deem
it necessary to hold new elections mid-term, they can force the
board (and if necessary by means of the court) to stage new
elections to replace the board if majority is found.
So yes, a whole lot of bureaucracy and legal bounds, but no
cementation of authority.
And while I'm on it: there are a hundred ways to formulate the
bylaws, and none are going to be perfect for everyone. I would
really like to prevent bikeshedding about details, especially
regarding the internal workings of the association, because I never
saw in the association a vehicle to govern the DC15 orga team.
Put differently: we need a legal entity to define tax status, sign
contracts and manage liability, but I don't think DC15 orga needs to
formulate a governance for itself. Therefore, I am focusing on tax
issues and external representation (legal status), but much less on
internals because, as I said, we don't really need them IMHO, and
hence I don't want to spend a lot of time debating the hundred ways
in which we could define governance.
I never considered the association to be an umbrella for the DC15
orga team, meaning that I didn't even consider us all becoming
members beyond the minimal requirements. However, we also don't want
to separate DC15 orga into members and non-members, so in the end,
we should probably all become members.
The governance and rules that I drafted are, IMHO, loose enough to
let us work without obstruction, and yet they are sound and
complete.
I welcome all kinds of suggestions, comments and questions, but I'd
like to ask you to keep the goal in mind — we are not trying to
paint a bike shed, but form a legal entity to sign a contract with
HD, and we don't have endless time for that (in fact, we should aim
to hand a draft to the authorities right after Easter).
Finally, to help avoid conflict of interests, I will not stand for
the election as the president or co-president of the board.
Hope this makes sense,
--
.''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@debconf.org>
: :' : DebConf orga team
`. `'`
`- DebConf14: Portland, OR, USA: http://debconf14.debconf.org
DebConf15: Heidelberg, Germany
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