FAmSCo election rules

Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee Election Rules: Proposed Revision

The changes reflected in this document only take effect if approved by FAmSCo.

Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee Election Rules

Schedule

FAmSCo members are elected for a term of two (2) major releases of Fedora, unless an election is called early by the Chairperson of the committee, an absolute majority vote of FAmSCo, or by the Fedora Project Board.

FAmSCo was chartered in between Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7. Therefore, the first set of terms expired after Fedora 8 was released, and future terms expire after every subsequent even numbered Fedora release.

Upon the decision to call the election, the Chairpersonhair shall notify the Committee first, and then the Ambassadors. It is the Chairperson's duty to notify the Ambassadors even in the event that the Fedora Project Board or the committee itself have made the decision to hold elections. (Max -- I think this paragraph isn't really needed, and could be removed. We want these rules to be as simple as possible.)

The scheduling of the election will be set by the Fedora Election Coordinator after consultation with the Chairperson. Full details of the schedule will be announced widely prior to the beginning of the nomination period. In conjunction with other Fedora elections, reminder emails will be sent to those who are eligible to vote several times during the course of the election.

The election results will be announced in the fedora-ambassadors-list@redhat.com and other public lists.

Seats on FAmSCo

There are 7 seats on FAmSCo, of which 5 must be filled at all times. A replacement election must be called immediately if number of active committee members drops below 5.

Candidates

Candidates may be any member of the Ambassadors group in the Fedora Accounts System. This helps ensure FAmSCo members have some experience with the processes of Fedora Ambassadors, but still allows relatively new contributors to sit on FAmSCo and bring fresh ideas to the table.

Candidates must self-nominate before the close of the announced nomination period by appending their information into the wiki (Fedora account, email and irc nick, statement of past contributions and what they hope to accomplish while a member of FAmSCo) after any existing nominations.

In order to hold an election, a minimum number of candidates are necessary. This will be the number of open seats + 25%. If there are 7 seats available, there will need to be at least 9 candidates. If not enough candidates have signed up by the deadline, the election will be held back by one week for more candidates to be nominated. If there are still not enough candidates, the candidates who are present will be voted upon (or merely confirmed if there are less candidates than open seats).

If a candidate no longer wishes to be on FAmSCo, they have to withdraw their name from the list of nominations at least 24 hours before the voting period opens, to avoid having their name being added to the ballot.

Members

Members of FAmSCo will keep their seats until the next election.

Members can step down at any time for any reason, simply by notifying the rest of the committee of their decision.

Members can be removed from the committee for misconduct by the Fedora Project Board or by an absolute majority vote of the FAmSCo. If an election becomes necessary upon member removal, the member cannot self-nominate for this election, but the removed member CAN self-nominate for the next orderly election.

Election of the Chairperson

Once an election is completed, the committee must elect a Chairperson, subject to ratification by the Fedora Project Board. This will be done by the end of the first FAmSCo meeting that is held after the election. The FAmSCo Chairperson can be removed by the Fedora Project Board or by an absolute majority vote of the FAmSCo. If this happens, a new Chairperson must be elected within one week.

Appointment of Vice-Chairperson

No later than one week upon confirmation by the Fedora Project Board, the FAmSCo chairperson will appoint the Vice-Chairperson. The FAmSCo Vice-Chairperson can be removed by the Fedora Project Board or by an absolute majority vote of the FAmSCo. If this happens, a new Vice-Chairperson must be appointed within one week.

Voters

Any member of the Ambassadors group in the Fedora Accounts System is eligible to vote in the FAmSCo elections.

Voting System

The voting model for the election aims to be simple, easy to audit, and fair in case someone resigns and their runner-up is selected. We have chosen a specific method of Range Voting to address these criteria.

A voter receives a ballot listing all the candidates. For each candidate the voter assigns from 0 to number of candidates points. At the close of the election, the points for each candidate are tallied and the ones with the most points win a seat. For example, if we have 20 candidates running for 7 seats, the voter will be presented with a ballot where they can assign 0-20 points to each candidate. After voting, the 7 candidates with the most points will win the election.

Each voter can submit only one ballot, and all votes are final for any given election.

Notes

There are no term limits imposed by this policy. If FAmSCo chooses to impose term limits for its internal positions (Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, etc.) those should be specified in the FAmSCo bylaws rather than in this document.