PSF Board Election Reform

[humitos (Manuel Kaufmann)]

I’m happy that this topic was started. I think many people have comments and feelings regarding the last election and that is a good reason to start this conversion. People elected is super capable for the role and I think nobody will argue that. However, I’ve read that people (myself included) are kind of disappointed that having such a diverse good nominations, the result is not so diverse.

@amcasari

A change I would like to see: change a portion of the at-large seats to regional seats where representatives must be physically living in that region to be eligible to hold the seat.

I agree that having a portion of the seats be regional, is a good idea. However, I’m not sure if “physically living” is the way to go. In my particular case, I’ve done a lot of work in different countries in South America and now I’m living in Spain the last ~2 years. I feel more comfortable representing South America -from where I understand culture, problems, limitations, etc and where I have plenty of contacts to help those communities to keep growing- than Europe where I’m just introducing myself in the communities.

@coderanger

I think a 6 year term limit is the easiest place to start

This could be a good idea. Maybe 6 years in total for life is a good way to help rotating people from the board. We do have enough people around the world to fulfill this. Serving 6 years is probably enough to reach your “personal” goals on the board.

@coderanger

For company caps, I can point to the Kubernetes SC elections process as prior art, no more than 1/3rd of the group can be from one company and all officers must be from different companies. This also seems like an easy policy in the “no brainer” category.

This makes sense to me.

@tiran

Another possibility to increase representation of underrepresented regions is the introduce a new role like PSF ambassador. Regions without a director on the board could be represented by a delegate / ambassador. An ambassador has no voting power but can participate in board meetings, act as a liaison and help to raise awareness of their region

If this is something that we want to pursue, I’m happy to share my experience with more details as a PSF South American Ambassador. In general, it was good to have a direct contact line with the PSF + one member of the board directly involved in the program + economical support. Adding participation to board meetings would have been super useful as the following step to that program.

@carltongibson

So, I think we should keep that. But, if at all feasible, I think one idea would be to have two rounds : the first almost as we had it, for the reasons stated. Then a second round from a sub group (the top eight or ten here would be good) with the simpler “Vote for who you want”, with 4 votes, since there are four seats.

I love this idea.