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The Document Foundation supports the “Deutschlandstipendium”

In 2019, the German LibreOffice community sadly lost one of its most active members, Klaus-Jürgen Weghorn. In his memory, The Document Foundation (the non-profit foundation behind LibreOffice) has decided to support a student through the Deutschlandstipendium initiative:

With the Deutschlandstipendium, the German government is expanding student funding through a program that is also kick-starting a new scholarship culture in Germany. The federal government and private sponsors – companies, associations, foundations and individuals – work together to support high-achieving students. In this way, civil society is taking responsibility for talented young people and making a contribution to Germany’s future.

We are in contact with the student and will report more here on the blog.

The new Board of Directors has started its two year term

The new Board of Directors of The Document Foundation has just started the two year term on February 18, 2022. Full members are: Thorsten Behrens, Paolo Vecchi, Jan ‘Kendy’ Holešovský, Emiliano Vavassori, Caolán McNamara, Cor Nouws and László Németh. Deputies are: Gábor Kelemen, Ayhan Yalçınsoy and Gabriel Masei.

Four people have been elected for the first time to the Board of Directors: László Németh and Gábor Kelemen from Hungary; Ayhan Yalçınsoy from Turkey; and Gabriel Masei from Romania.

During the first meeting of the Board of Directors, its members have elected Thorsten Behrens as Chairman and Caolán McNamara as Deputy Chairman. In the meantime, also the responsibilities and areas of oversight have been discussed and decided:

  • Employees & hiring: Thorsten, Paolo, Kendy, Emiliano
  • Infrastructure & community: Emiliano, Caolán
  • QA & community: Gabor, Gabriel
  • Documentation & community: Kendy, Gabor, Ayhan
  • Native language projects, translation, localisation & community: Laszlo, Gabor, Ayhan
  • Certifications and other business development activities: Cor, Laszlo
  • Licenses, development & releases, including schedules & community: Caolán, Gabriel
  • Affiliations, e.g. advisory board, peer foundations, politics: Paolo, Kendy
  • Marketing, events, communication & design, brands & community: Emiliano, Cor, Laszlo
  • Assets, finance, taxes: Thorsten, Paolo
  • Contracts, legal compliance, GDPR, trademarks: Thorsten, Paolo, Kendy

At the same time, five people – who have served as board members and deputies during the previous term(s) – have left the board, but will continue their activity as TDF Members: Lothar Becker, Chairman; Franklin Weng, Deputy Chairman; Michael Meeks and Daniel Rodriguez, Full Members; and Nicholas Christener, Deputy.

We are deeply grateful to all of these for their dedication, contribution to decision making and for all of their volunteer time spent in BoD duties, as well as for their ongoing contribution to the project.

 

Best Wishes from TDF

Dear community members, TDF members, Advisory board members, team members, membership committee and board!

Another year marked by the global pandemic is coming to an end these days. In addition to all the depressing news and circumstances that affect us all, there are also pleasing and uplifting developments.

Apart from the painfully missed opportunity to meet in person, be it in the local communities or at our annual conference, we have nevertheless achieved so much together, worked together and brought our foundation forward, so that we can already say that it was one of the most successful years for and with our project.

I would like to thank all of you on behalf of our project. Everyone has contributed to the success story in different ways. All the contributions intertwine, and without these individual parts the whole thing would not be possible and so successful. Especially in these times. Thank you very much again for this.

And it is precisely this commitment, this proof of the resilience of our project during this time, that allows me to look to the future with good cheer. Please continue to support our community in so many ways in the coming year, every contribution is needed.

After two very intensive and busy years, I myself will say goodbye to the board, but after a short phase of rest, I will continue to work with you in the project in one or two different places again. I wish the newly elected board all the best!

I wish you and your beloved ones a few days of recreation at the end of this year and a stable good health for the next one.

Thanks again and hope to see you all with your contributions in the new year again,

yours
Lothar Becker
as chairman of the board

PRELIMINARY results of the elections for the next Board of Directors at The Document Foundation

TDF Membership Committee announces the PRELIMINARY results of the elections for the next Board of Directors at The Document Foundation.

The number of TDF Members who voted is 120, from a total amount of 211 eligible voters. This means that 91 TDF Members did not vote. The Membership Committee would like to thanks all the voters, as the elections are the most significant time of the year for TDF Members, because they can decide about the project’s governance.

Based on the PRELIMINARY results, the following candidates are elected as members of TDF Board of Directors, in order of preference:

Full Members:

  1. Thorsten Behrens
  2. Paolo Vecchi
  3. Jan ‘Kendy’ Holešovský
  4. Emiliano Vavassori
  5. Caolán McNamara
  6. Cor Nouws
  7. László Németh

Deputies:

  1. Gábor Kelemen
  2. Ayhan Yalçınsoy
  3. Gabriel Masei

Results were calculated using the same tooling and rules of previous elections, based on the single transferable vote (STV) voting system and the Meek algorithm (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting_single_transferable_votes). The software used is OpenSTV (https://github.com/Conservatory/openstv).

The Membership Committee agreed on the ranking of the first six candidates, but is still discussing about the last four candidates.

Unfortunately, given that there are 10 candidates and 10 seats, OpenSTV 1.7 does not provide more than one round to rank all candidates that have not reached the threshold, and considers all candidates as elected. For more details, see: https://elections.documentfoundation.org/results.php?election_id=14. The Membership Committee will investigate this further, and will update TDF Members and the general public as soon as possible.

Before the results can be considered as final, we have the challenge phase from Wednesday, December 15, to Monday, December 20, at midnight CET (UTC+1).

TDF Members are invited to check their votes as explained after the voting, by using the anonymous token received at that time (each voter has received a different token, and is the sole owner of that token). Election results to verify are available here: https://elections.documentfoundation.org/votes.php?election_id=14.

If you have any questions or if you think that there were irregularities during the vote, please get in touch with the Membership Committee AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, and in any case no later than Monday, December 20, at midnight CET (UTC+1), using the email address elections@documentfoundation.org.

For reference, details of the whole election process have been outlined in the first announcement: https://listarchives.tdf.io/i/tFJzSYUUGcSjf0c0NtNiEOou.

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