The new FAmSCo election guidelines

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After months of – sometimes controversial – discussion I am happy to announce the new FAmSCo election guidelines. For those of you, who did not follow the discussion, here is a brief summary of the three most important changes:

More continuity

Instead of electing all seats once a year, we follow the example of the Fedora Board and FESCo and elect half of the committee every 6 months or with every release of Fedora. FAmSCo will not change over sudden and new members can easily catch up with their new duties by learning from others.

Easier filling of vacant seats

Every committee is in danger of members becoming inactive. This can happen to all of us for various reasons such as our dayjobs or personal problems. Under the old guidelines, we had to wait until 3 members left – even with 2 left the committee is hardly operational – and then call a supplementary election – which never happened even though some FAmSCo’s had only 4 active members. Now we are filling vacant seats when necessary, either with runner-up candidates from the previous elections or by appointing new members.

Wider electorate

The ambassadors represent the whole Fedora Project, this is why now not only ambassadors are eligible to vote for FAmSCo, but everybody who has signed the Fedora Project Contributors Agreement (FCPA) and is member of (at least) one other group in the Fedora Account System (FAS) is allowed to vote. This will not only strengthen FAmSCo’s position but also help candidates who are active in other groups of the Fedora project.

Last but not least the guidelines have been massively cleaned up.

We think that the new guidelines are a big improvement and want them to come into effect as soon as possible. Therefor we will have a special election for Fedora 18 (the next regular elections were scheduled for F19). All 7 seats in FAmSCo will be open for election. In order to make the transition to the new alternating terms, the top 4 vote-getters will serve 2 Fedora releases, the bottom 3 will have to run for re-election after one release.

More about the upcoming ambassadors elections to come later this week as part of the general Fedora 18 elections announcement or on the elections wiki page. Please help us building a better, stronger and more active FAmSCo by casting your votes.

If you have feedback or questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. We are looking forward for your input on the Fedora ambassadors mailing list or in the ticket in FAmSCo’s trac.

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