Restaffing generally

Every Ubuntu Governance Body (Council or Board) has a specific term length for their members defined. The only exception is Mark Shuttleworth's seat (aka SABDFL) on the CommunityCouncil and TechnicalBoard. So whenever the term length of members of a governance body ends, restaffing is necessary. There are other cases where members might decide to step done from their post because of lack of time or other obligations.

At each UDS the list of governance bodies is checked for expiries in a session of the Community track.

The re-staffing can happen in form of an election or an appointment. While the Community Council and Technical Board reserve the right to appoint if it's necessary, in the majority of cases an election will be the preferred solution. This will happen, when there is a clearly governed subteam of Ubuntu members who can vote the new members of the particular governance body.

The current list:

• ~ubuntu-lococouncil: ~communitycouncil
• ~ubuntu-irc-council: ~communitycouncil
• ~forum-council: ~communitycouncil
• ~ubuntu-membership-board-americas: ~communitycouncil
• ~ubuntu-membership-board-asia-oceania: ~communitycouncil
• ~ubuntu-membership-board-emea: ~communitycouncil
• ~kubuntu-council: ~kubuntu-members
• ~edubuntu-council: ~edubuntu-members
• ~developer-membership-board: ~ubuntu-dev
• ~techboard: ~ubuntu-dev
• ~communitycouncil: ~ubuntumembers

Sometimes you will have too many nominations for posts on your governance body, it might be good to mention your expectations in the announcement beforehand (5 open posts, ~10-12 nominees). In those cases you need to have your list of nominations short-listed. Short-listing is always done by the CC, and the CC needs the full list of nominations, preferrably annotated by the governance body looking for new staff.

Announcing and planning an election

If you coordinate the restaffing of a governance body, you might want to give the nomination part special thought. Make sure you make the list of responsibilities and the type of personalities you are looking for are quite clear when announcing the nomination period. Self-nominations, nominations by others, both? Which information do you want nominees to include? Will you need to short-list the number of nominees (if you're having an election)? Please also make sure that you leave at least 1-2 weeks for that nomination period and make sure the relevant people know about it.

In the case of an election you will have to set up the poll and announce it once you have a suitable number of nominees. Be clear about who will be allowed to vote and set up the poll.

It is important that you ask nominees to write something about their ideas and plans on their wiki pages, so voters will be better informed about who they vote. Without this information voters will just look at a list of names that don't say anything.

• Launchpad votes are pretty straightforward, but a bit limited in its setup, either you

  • set up one poll for the whole election and see who gets the top <x> of <y> votes (5 of 12, when you have 12 nominees and 5 seats) or

  • set up one poll per person and see who gets the most "Yes minus No" votes.

• CIVS makes use of the Concordet method which can be more suitable.

The outcome

Make sure the new faces on the governance body are announced and maybe even ask them to introduce themselves. DeveloperCommunication has good tips how and where to announce and why. Make sure you thank everybody who participated in the election or nomination period.

Aftwards be sure to update Launchpad, the wiki pages, ubuntu.com and whatever else is necessary. Also make sure they get on the team-council-members mailing list. An introduction to the governance body by existing or former members is also ver valuable in bringing people up to speed.

CategoryCommunityCouncil