[maemo-community] Maemo Community Council: election announcement

[From: Andrew Flegg]

As current chair of the Maemo Community Council[1], I'm announcing
that the third council election will conclude at:

    Sunday, 27th September 2009 23:59 UTC[2]

This will give the incoming council about two weeks to nominate a
chair; prepare for the first sprint meeting of the new term (Tuesday,
6th October) and get ready for the kick-off of the community days at
the Maemo Summit 2009[3].

WHAT IS THE COUNCIL?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The council is an elected body of 5 members of the Maemo community who
represent the community to Nokia and facilitate cross-community
discussions and organisation. For example, activities the council have
been involved in include:

  * The Maemo Summit 2009 location, date, schedule and accomodation
  * Promotion and support of Mer[4], as the future of Maemo for
    current devices.
  * Chairing the monthly maemo.org sprint meetings and setting
    priorities for the paid members of staff.
  * Triaging bugs.
  * Communicating with people outside the community on behalf of
    the community.
  * Helping define the Extras QA process.
  * The interviewing and choice of the maemo.org docmaster.

You don't have to be a council member to work on these tasks, but the
council can help avoid duplication of work; and raise awareness of the
good work that many people in our disparate community are doing.

WHO CAN STAND?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The full election process is outlined in the wiki[5], however a
candidate must meet the following criteria:

   * Karma[6] of 100 or higher.

This allows Nokia employees, commercial partners and *anyone* who is
an involved member of the community to stand for the council.

WHO CAN VOTE?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The full election process is outlined in the wiki[5], however a voter
must meet the following criteria:

   * maemo.org account older than 3 months at the date of the
     election.

   * Karma[6] of 10 or higher.

Each voter will receive a tailored ballot which allows them a Single
Transferable Vote[7] on the available candidates.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A list of eligible candidates will be prepared and published later
this mornth. Information on ensuring you are getting all the karma you
are entitled to will also be published (of particular interest to
about 1,600 talk.maemo.org account users who are are eliglbe to vote
but need to register a link with a maemo.org account).

Nominations officially open 2 weeks prior to the election; the
nomination period will run from:

    Monday, 7th September 2009 00:00 UTC[8]
 to Sunday, 20th September 2009 23:59 UTC[9]

Nominations must be announced on the maemo-community mailing list[10]
in the form:

    Subject: Council Nomination: <name>

Eligible candidates can nominate themselves, or be nominated by
others. If nominated by others, they MUST accept the nomination on
maemo-community, by responding to the original nomination.

Voting will start following the close of the nomination period and
will run for a week:

    Monday, 21st September 2009 00:00 UTC
 to Sunday, 27th September 2009 23:59 UTC[2]

Following the close of voting, provisional results will be announced.
Everyone will be able to check that their anonymous vote was
registered correctly.

If no challenges are upheld, results for the elections are finalised a
week after the voting closes.

[1] http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council
[2] http://tinyurl.com/n9bkjb
[3] http://wiki.maemo.org/Maemo_Summit_2009
[4] http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer
[5] http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council/Election_process
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote
[6] http://maemo.org/profile/list/
[8] http://tinyurl.com/ktpout
[9] http://tinyurl.com/n9l2pd
[10] https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-community

-- 
Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew at bleb.org  |  http://www.bleb.org/
Maemo Community Council chair