[maemo-community] Election process referendum

[From: Tim]

It's late and I emptied a few bottles tonight, so forgive me... I said
this (probably not exactly) on itT a while back... 

I understand that people are really into voting theory (I'm not and I
don't really desire to be). And this seems really, very important to some
people, so I don't mean offense. Likewise, I'm not responding to any
particular email -- this is just my thoughts about the conversation that
I'm witnessing. 

But, it is very odd (to me) that so much stock is put into something that
isn't (imho) very important. Don't get me wrong: I think that the Maemo
Community Council _is_ immensely important (I wouldn't have ever considered
being a part of it if I didn't think so). But, regardless of voting
tactics, nomination processes, or whatever straws you want to pull out of
the hat, The Maemo Community Council consists of five people who -- for all
intents and purposes -- are *active* community members who are willing to
volunteer their time and energy to (try to) make the
community a better,
more informed place. These people are not paid. They are accepting the
responsibility of devoting a lot of underappreciated effort to a lot of
people they don't actually know. They claim a position that answers to a
large community of diverse (and outspoken) people. They don't have any sort
of innate impetus to "undo" the community by any means. 

So, regardless of how these people are elected, they serve the community
for the purpose of improving the community. 

While some might be worried that the "wrong" people might be elected to
the Council, I have a hard time understanding how it can actually happen.
Whether you have one vote or five; whether the votes are weighed against
one set of mathematical algorythms or another... The fact of the matter
remains that the *community* is voting for people who desire to serve that
community. On top of that, if someone shouldn't be considered for
candidature, I'm positive that the community will let it be known.
Likewise,
it's not like the community is nominating people for, say, Nokia
to pick. No, the community has sole responsibility for who become the
Council. 

The only thing I might change is how people get nominated... For the first
election, we were all self-candidatures. Regardless, I think that the
Council whom was chosen was a good start. Although, in the future, I would
like to a set of candidates who were nominated by the community -- which, I
think would solve a lot of these issues. I don't necessarily think it is
the voting process that must change, but the fact the community didn't have
a choice in who they were voting for. (Which is a completely different
issue, becase, in fact, the community _could_ have nominated people for the
first election, they jus -- for some reason -- chose not to.) 

So, please continue to debate differnt voting practices, but also keep in
mind that you're not voting for people who are powerful, paid, or
otherwise. You're not voting for people that you have to
follow blindly.
These are people who answer to *you*. 

Don't miss out on an opportunity when it's staring you in the face. Go to
the wiki and suggest tasks and goals. Ask questions on this List. Email
council at maemo.org. Whatever... We are here to serve you and, honestly, not
many people have been taking advantage of us (we're all closet masochists
for accepting this role in the first place, you know). If anything, be
proactive during the next election and nominate those people who you'd like
to see as representatives of this great community! 

Most humbly yours,
Tim (Maemo Community Council member)  

---
 http://tim.samoff.com [1] 

Links:
------
[1] http://tim.samoff.com
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