* [gentoo-nfp] Merging Trustees and Council / Developers and Foundation
@ 2017-01-05 21:36 99% Matthew Thode
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From: Matthew Thode @ 2017-01-05 21:36 UTC (permalink / raw
To: gentoo-project, gentoo-nfp
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Merging Trustees and Council / Developers and Foundation
First, let me state that this is a generic solution right now so as to
remain flexible to any needed changes, details still need to be ironed out.
Second, this is a request for comment. I'd appreciate it if you either
replied via email, replied via irc or replied via the comment on the
gdocs link below.
Thanks for going over this (if you are going to read this).
====================
When the Foundation and subsequently the council were set up, both
bodies had common members despite their declared different purposes.
Over the years the common members have vanished. Indeed, since 2008,
the Foundation bylaws have forbidden a single individual to serve on
council and as a trustee concurrently.
Thus the split in responsibilities identified when the foundation was
created has become more absolute.
This split is suboptimal for Gentoo (all of it). There is a reason why
normal corporations are structured the way they are and Gentoo has not
been like that since 2004.
This proposal sets out a plan to revert to the normal corporate
structure that Gentoo enjoyed before the Foundation and Council were
created.
Right now this is a general plan for discussion, if we wish to go this
way details need to be hammered out.
Current situation, cause for change
Issues:
Foundation/Trustees exist to take away the burden of running Gentoo
financially, infrastructure and legally. There is some crossover with
projects run under the Council though. PR, Recruitment, Comrel and
Infrastructure exist under the Council, not Foundation. Each of those
have implications for Legal reasons (mainly due to how their actions
may expose Gentoo to legal conflict) and monetary reasons
(Infrastructure particularly).
What it means to ‘be’ Gentoo. There’s the legal definition, meaning
only the Foundation members ‘are’ Gentoo (non-EU, ‘Gentoo eV’ exists
there). There is also the reality of the developers actually being
Gentoo, as they do the work. Problems occur when the membership of one
does something the other doesn’t like or thinks needs to stop (for
example, the Foundation forcibly removing all non-GPL software from the
tree would probably not go over well).
Possible Solution:
In order to solve this Gentoo needs to have a combined electorate,
meaning those that would vote for Council would also vote for Trustees
and visa-versa. This would ensure that everyone’s needs are represented.
We should have a single combined governing body, let’s call it ‘The
Board’. This is so that conflicts between Council and Trustees (as they
exist now) would have a straightforward resolution. This new ‘Board’
would be able to use the existing project metastructure to delegate
roles to various groups (Comrel, Infra, etc would still exist, but under
this new Board).
(personal opinion) I imagine the merging of voting pools would coincide
with the merging of governing bodies. I don’t think there will be
compulsory voting, I feel opt out is the best option here.
This draft of the proposal has nothing to say about the detail of the
formation of the ‘Board’, how many members it would have, nor how they
will be selected.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10xzPUREMzZllT7dLs85JjMvlymEY9wWzYPRCnTZIsfI/edit?usp=sharing
--
Matthew Thode
--
Matthew Thode (prometheanfire)
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