Hi, We as the board appreciate Raymond's commitment to the project and thank him for his work on the board and having the courage to step down when external influences no longer provide Raymond with the time he feels is necessary to effectively participate on the board. Within the board we've had a rather lengthy discussion about the way forward until the next election, which is just 5 months away. We have turned the election rules over a few times to get a good understanding of what can/may be done. The election rules clearly define that any person appointed to the board must stand down at the next election and the seat will be filled with an elected person. This rule has probably had the biggest influence on our decision to continue as a 5 member board until the next election. We feel that to appoint someone at this time would give the person very little time to make an impact. It does take a little bit of time to get a selected person going. More time would be lost if we had to select another person if the first choice would decline for whatever reason. With this in mind an appointed person may have only 4 months time on the board. Additionally a selection this close to the election may indicate a "favoritism" position of the board toward a given person and thus give this person an undue advantage in the upcoming election. In effect it would feel a bit as if the board would hand pick its members. A situation and impression we do not want to get into. Thus, we feel that at this point it is best to continue with a 5 member board until the next election. What is the effect on the next election and the election after that? At the election in November, 4 candidates will need to be elected. 3 of these seats will be filled with 2 year board members. The person with the fewest votes in the November election will occupy the 4th seat elected, but will only hold the seat for 1 year. This is based on the established election rules. In 2014, 2 seats will be up for election (the one year term seat from the 2013 election) and the 2 year term seat from the 2012 election. If you have any questions about the decision to operate as a 5 person board please feel free to send a message to the board mailing list or respond to this thread. Lets not discuss the election rules. We just added this topic here in the hopes to offer some clarification of the upcoming process for the 2013 election. Having turned the election rules over in our discussion about this decision a few times we feel very confident that the rules are set up in a fair manner that serve the project and the openSUSE members well. Regards, Your openSUSE Board -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org