Rules & Timeline for the GNOME Foundation 2009 Elections

Elections Rules

  1. See the GNOME Foundation charter for general rules.
  2. There are 7 board slots that are to be filled during these elections.
  3. Members of the GNOME Foundation as of June 3rd, 2009 are eligible to vote in the elections. Anyone who has made a contribution to GNOME can apply for membership by completing the application. Also, your membership needs to be valid at least until the end of the elections (2009-06-26).
  4. Any eligible voter is eligible to be elected to the Board of Directors. To announce your candidacy, send a message to foundation-announce@gnome.org with your full name, e-mail, corporate affiliation (if any), and a description of your reasons for wanting to serve as a director. Candidacies must be announced prior to May 25th, 2009, 23:59 UTC.
  5. All candidates should mail a summary of their candicacy announcement (see previous rule) to elections@gnome.org. Summaries should be no more than 75 words of continuous text (i.e. no bullet lists or multiple paragraphs) and must be received by the nomination deadline given above. A compilation of the summaries will be mailed to all registered voters several days prior to the elections.
  6. All discussion related to the elections should be held on foundation-list@gnome.org. Members are invited to ask questions to one or all candidates on that list.
  7. Instructions explaining how to vote will be sent via e-mail to all eligible voters on June 3rd, 2009, and votes must be returned by June 17th, 23:59 UTC (18:59 EST).
    Update: Instructions explaining how to vote will be sent via e-mail to all eligible voters on June 8rd, 2009, and votes must be returned by June 22th, 23:59 UTC (18:59 EST).
  8. Votes will be held confidential during the elections, but an anonymized archive of all submitted votes will be made publicly accessible at its conclusion.
  9. The GNOME Foundation Membership and Elections Committee is responsible for counting the votes.
  10. The 7 candidates voted for most as counted by a single transferable vote system will be elected, except that no more than two individuals affiliated with any one corporation may be elected. Should more than two of the top seven vote-getters be affiliated with the same company, only the two with the most votes will be considered elected. For a full definition of corporate affiliation, see the GNOME Foundation charter.
  11. In the event of a tie for the final slot on the board, the Elections Committee will schedule run-off elections as soon as possible.
  12. The Elections Committee will announce preliminary results as soon as possible after the elections close, along with instructions on how to access the votes archive and how to independently verify the vote count.
  13. Any eligible voter may challenge the preliminary results by e-mailing elections@gnome.org prior to June 30, 2009. The decision of the Elections Committee as to any challenge shall be final. Once any challenges have been resolved, the Elections Committee shall announce the final results.
  14. Any questions regarding these procedures should be directed to the Elections Committee by e-mail to elections@gnome.org. The committee shall have the power to make any necessary changes or clarifications to these rules at any point during the elections.

Timeline

(all deadlines are 23:59 UTC/18:59 EST)