Re: [opensuse-project] I make a motion - [Was: Public statement from the Board on the removal of a member]

On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 12:39 PM, Sankar P wrote:

On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 9:18 PM, Greg Freemyer wrote:

...

As a openSUSE member and assuming I have the privilege:

I make a motion that the openSUSE bylaws be updated to allow for formal member petitioning.  And if a formal petition supported by 10 members is submitted to the board, the board must call for a all members vote on the matter addressed in the petition.  If the matter concerns an improper sanction or appeal of a sanction, then the sanctioned person must be one of the petitioners.

=== details

I serve on a board.  There are 2 aspects of that board that seem relevant to the current sanction discussion:

1) A sanctioned / fined person can request a hearing where they can interact with the board.  But only once.  We don't do it often and prefer to setup meetings specifically to address the hearing, not handle it as part of out monthly meetings.  This could clearly be done via IRC for openSUSE.

I gather the disbarred person was given the opportunity to make his/her case to the board via emails, so I think this is equivalent, but a more formal IRC meeting would be even better.

2) A petition signed by 10 of the members can be brought to the board and it must be voted on by the whole!  ie. if 10 members disagree with a board action (or lack of action) they can file a petition with the board and the board must call a full all member vote on the issue. Obviously this makes the issue semi-public as all members have to be informed of the issues at hand.

I don't recall this type of feature being in the openSUSE rules.

In this case, if the disbarred person feels wronged and is willing to have the issue addressed with all openSUSE members included in the communication, then he/she would simply need to get 9 other members to join him/her in petitioning for an open hearing / all members vote.

Do you propose this to be covered for all decisions of the board or for only membership related decisions ?

Sankar, My motion is for all board related activity (or lack thereof). But for the association for which I'm currently President: 1) Motions from non-board members can only be made at the Annual Meeting, thus a motion like I just made would be ignored unless it was made at the annual meeting. 2) I can force the board itself to override that rule by having 10 petitioners asking for a membership wide vote, but the vote is only on exactly the wording as written in the petition. 2.1) I've been in my current association for 20+ years and have never seen a petition actually brought to force a vote outside of the annual meeting, but it still acts as a form of oversight. It the board begins acting against the wishes of the community, a petition can be used to correct the issue. In our case, we have a real budget to handle. About $200,000 a year, so some form of oversight of the board is needed. 3) Since my motion involves a change to the "bylaws" it would require a 2/3rds vote. (The board does NOT have the right to change the bylaws. They can change the rules of the association, but not the bylaws. The bylaws always require a 2/3rds vote of all members.) 4) The association is a legal entity, and the bylaws are enforceable by the local court system. ie. A member can file a civil suite to ensure enforcement of the bylaws. 5) The bylaws and all amendments are filed with the State. === At this point I don't think openSUSE has much if any of the above formality and I am not aware of any time I as a member am allowed to make a motion for the full membership to consider. But lacking any rule/bylaw that I can't make such a motion, I did. Greg -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org