Restaffing

Revision 1 as of 2010-02-19 16:09:33

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Restaffing generally

Every Ubuntu Council or Board has a specific term length for their members defined. The only exception is Mark Shuttleworth's seat (aka SABDFL) on the CommunityCouncil and TechnicalBoard. So whenever the term length of members of a board ends, restaffing the board is necessary. There are other cases where members might decide to step done from their post because of lack of time or other obligations.

At each UDS the list of boards and councils is checked for expiries.

The re-staffing can happen in form of an election or an appointment. While the Community Council and Technical Board reserve the right to appoint if it's necessary, in the majority of cases an election will be the preferred solution. This will happen, when there is a clearly governed subteam of Ubuntu members who can vote the new board or council members. For example:

  • ~ubuntu-dev would vote new ~techboard members
  • ~ubuntu-dev would vote new ~developer-membership-board members
  • ~ubuntumembers would vote new ~communitycouncil members
  • etc.

An example where it's not quite clear who would vote is the LoCo Council.

Announcing and planning an election

If you coordinate the restaffing of a board or council, you might want to give the nomination part special thought. Make sure you make the list of responsibilities and the type of personalities you are looking for are quite clear when announcing the nomination period. Self-nominations, nominations by others, both? Which information do you want nominees to include? Will you need to short-list the number of nominees (if you're having an election)? Please also make sure that you leave at least 1-2 weeks for that nomination period and make sure the relevant people know about it.

In the case of an election you will have to set up the poll and announce it once you have a suitable number of nominees. Be clear about who will be allowed to vote and set up the poll.

You might want to ask the (probably short-listed) nominees to write something about their ideas and plans on their wiki pages, so voters will be better informed about who they vote.

  • Launchpad votes are pretty straightforward, but a bit limited in its setup, either you
    • set up one poll for the whole election and see who gets the top <x> of <y> votes (5 of 12, when you have 12 nominees and 5 seats) or

    • set up one poll per person and see who gets the most "Yes minus No" votes.
  • CIVS makes use of the Concordet method which can be more suitable.

The outcome

Make sure the new faces on the board or council are announced and maybe even ask them to introduce themselves. DeveloperCommunication has good tips how and where to announce and why. Make sure you thank everybody who participated in the election or nomination period.

Aftwards be sure to update Launchpad, the wiki pages, ubuntu.com and whatever else is necessary. Also make sure they get on the team-council-members mailing list. An introduction to the council or board by existing or former members is also ver valuable in bringing people up to speed.


CategoryCommunityCouncil