Announcing elections for the next TDF Membership Committee

Franklin Weng from The Document Foundation’s Board of Directors writes:

Dear Community,

we hereby officially announce the upcoming elections for the next Membership Committee of The Document Foundation.

As per § 12 II of our statutes (binding version in German and non-binding translation), the Membership Committee’s term lasts two years. The current Membership Committee started its duty on September 19, 2018. Therefore, the old Membership Committee remains in charge until the end of September 18, 2020, so the new MC will be in charge the day after that, which is September 19, 2020.

That upcoming term will then (regularly) end on September 18, 2022, so the next election of the Membership Committee will take place before.

As per § 6 III, only members of the Board of Trustees of The Document Foundation, as well as current members of any of its bodies, are eligible to be elected into the Membership Committee, and the election is overseen by the Board of Directors (§ 12 II).

The active electoral right is reserved to those who have been members of the Board of Trustees before this announcement (§ 12 II).

§ 6 III also states that members of the Board of Directors or their substitute members may not be members of the Membership Committee and vice versa.

There is one more notable limitation: Per § 8 IV of the statutes, a maximum of 1/3 members of the Membership Committee is allowed to work on an employment basis for the same company, organization, entities, affiliates or subdivisions.

Nomination of candidates fulfilling the above requirements, as well as self nomination is welcome. In total, at least five members of the Membership Committee are required, and given there are enough candidates, up to four substitute members can be elected based on the last board decision on this matter.

Re-election of current members of the Membership Committee is explicitly permitted (§ 12 II).

Please send nominations and self-nominations via e-mail to elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Board of Directors in private) and also (!) to board-discuss@documentfoundation.org (which is a public mailing list).

We kindly ask nominees who would like to stand for elections to provide a statement of up to 75 words – longer statements will be cut off at the maximum – on their candidacy as continuous text (so no bullet lists or multiple paragraphs). In addition, you have to provide your full name, e-mail address and your corporate affiliation, if any, and please announce that you will provide information on all future changes as soon as possible. Specifically, it is necessary to indicate all information regarding § 8 IV of the statutes.

Discussions with the candidates and questions to them as well as questions about the elections should take place on the public board-discuss@documentfoundation.org mailing list. For details on how to use the mailing list, see https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/

Eligible voters will receive further details via e-mail prior to the start of elections, including a summary of the candidates, details on how to access the voting system, and instructions on how to independently verify the vote count. Please ensure we have your recent and correct e-mail address on file. For questions, you can reach the Board of Directors in private at elections@documentfoundation.org

Following the time line set forth in § 12 II, requiring a 45 day advance notice, we hereby announce the following time line for the elections:

(00:00 is beginning of the day, 24:00 is end of the day)

1. (no later than) Friday, 2020-07-17: announcement of the election; and start of the nomination phase
2. Thursday, 2020-08-27, 24:00 CEST/UTC+2: end of the nomination phase (one week before the election starts, as per § 12 II)
3. Friday, 2020-09-04, 00:00 CEST/UTC+2: official start of the elections (at least 45 days after announcement of the election, as per § 12 II)
4. Thursday, 2020-09-10, 24:00 CEST/UTC+2: end of the election
5. Friday, 2020-09-11: announcement of the preliminary results and acknowledgement of role
6. Saturday, 2020-09-12, 00:00 CEST/UTC+2: start of the challenging phase
7. Tuesday, 2020-09-15, 24:00 CEST/UTC+2: end of the challenging phase
8. afterwards: official announcement of the final results
9. Saturday, 2020-09-19: new Membership Committee officially in charge, and election of a Chairperson from among its members

Be advised that the newly elected Membership Committee will only be in charge beginning from September 19, 2020.

Challenges to this election announcement with respect to the deadlines outlined have to happen no later than seven (7) days after this announcement, via e-mail to elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Board of Directors in private).

Challenges to the preliminary results of the election have to happen until the deadline set forth above, via e-mail to elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Board of Directors in private).

On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Franklin Weng