Re: SPI violating bylaws and Debian constitution
Hello John,
I'll comment on your points and explain what's going on. The short story:
four people can't get much done when real life work gets too much, and SPI
hasn't really had issues to deal with lately. We could use volunteers
though; see below. So, in general, it comes down to the fact that people
don't seem interested in working on SPI issues and we (the board members)
only advance slowly on things if we work on them by ourselves.
I've set the reply-to to spi-general@lists.spi-inc.org (subscription at
http://purcel.spi-inc.org/mailing_lists/); please continue the discussion
there. The list is very low volume; the archives will show what's been
going on in the last year.
In message <sa7og0s5t7j.fsf@indy.progenylinux.com>, John Goerzen writes:
>The recent situation with regard to the voting has brought to my
>attention matters regarding SPI:
>
>1. The SPI failed to hold their board meeting this year as required by
>its By-Laws.
>
>2. SPI failed to publish meeting minutes this year for any meeting
>(again required by the By-Laws).
>
There was no meeting held this year, this is why there are no minutes. SPI
has been largely inactive due to the fact that all four board members are
very busy and noone else has taken any of the work or wanted to work on SPI
related issues. Then again, SPI has not been needed except for account
managing in the last year.
>3. The SPI Board of Directors consists of 4 fewer members than
>mandated by its own By-Laws. Therefore it is IMPOSSIBLE for them to
>achieve a quorum and their resolutions up to this point were approved
>on questionable authority.
>
Yes. This is due to the fact that the bylaws were changed the end of last
year, and the follow up plan was to get membership pages online so that we
could have a real membership, because the previous board did not have any
members on their lists when they turned over the materials to us.
The membership pages need the following:
- finishing. Most of the work is done and they will use the same system as
Debian with some modifications. Preliminary pages are online
- testing and ramp-up. We will open up membership to only debian developers
at first to test and debug the system and because no verification is needed
to grant them contributing membership status.
- opening of the membership to everyone
- appointing of others to the BOD. This did not make sense when there is no
membership and thus has not happened. We have a preliminary list of
possible people we would like, but if nothing is happening and no issues to
deal with in SPI then there's no real urgency to appoint more board members.
>4. The Chairman of SPI is IWJ.
>
Yes, and has been ever since the ESR, Bruce and Ian Murdock board resigned.
>5. The Secretary and/or Treasurer has failed to publish financial
>statements of the Corporation as required by the By-Laws.
>
>I think we need a serious deadwood clearing here.
>
Agreed. What we need most are people who are willing to help as we cannot
get it done with just four people. I know what needs to be done, but I
don't have the time to go and do it due to a real-life work overload. Craig
Small is working on the membership pages and I need to get in touch with him
again.
>BTW: spi-inc.org is dead. You can find SPI stuff at www.debian.org/SPI.
>
This should be http://purcel.spi-inc.org/ soon, we need to get that
changed as well. I'll figure out who needs to do what and get it taken care
of.
Nils.
--
Nils Lohner Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
E-Mail: lohner@spi-inc.org PO Box 273
Board of Directors <board@spi-inc.org> Tracy, Ca. 95378-0273, USA
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