DASA Elections 2015, Early Review

Hello Everyone!

Can't believe it's been a year already. We started roughly a year ago to put the Drupal Association South Africa together and by November of 2013, we had our initial governing board. This year we're looking forward to all of you electing a new governing board, to take over from the current one in November 2015.

This is an early post to gather opinion and to prepare for elections. So things may still change and your input on this matter will be very valuable to us. Read on...

First we had to decide who can vote. We wanted to make it as inclusive as possible, so we decided to make the vote public and have it operate fully here on GDoSA. Yes, in this group right here in the topics. Anyone who can post here can vote and anyone, really, with an interest in Drupal in South Africa should be urged to sign up to this group.

Then we needed to decide on candidates. The current board members are all willing and able, so they will certainly be available to vote for. We'll also ask for candidate volunteers and nominees around the 10th to 17th of September in a topic here on GDoSA.

Around the 1st of October we'll open voting. Simply list up to 7 of the people you would like to be on the board in order of preference. You can replace your vote with a new one, but only the latest non-broken vote of yours will be the one that counts.

We'll tally the votes by assigning 7 points to each first preference and one less point for each one following, then add each candidates points up and the seven top-performing candidates will be your new board.

There's one exception: At least one of the current board needs to step down as part of our founding documentation. As such, if the full current board is elected, the one with the least amount of votes will step down. Not to worry though: The board meetings are open for anyone to attend and volunteer their time and even if one of us step down, that person will be sure to remain active and in support of DASA, attending meetings too.

National board members are welcome, but it will be easier if such members can attend the monthly meetings in Johannesburg. Perhaps we should allow one or two more national board members slots and even if attendance in person is not possible, their input can be via representative, on-line communication and proxy votes?

We'll publish the results of the vote before 31 October.

The new board will meet to take over on the 19th of November, thank the old board, assign portfolios and review their fiduciary duties and the Constitution (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DYY133KEg320wm4mIIBMDMd8f31LpndEimys...).

I think I covered everything in the current state of planning. Ask if anything is unclear and reply with comments if you want to give input.

Kind regards,
Riaan