[OOTB-hive] [GOV] Draft by-laws

[Richard Esplin]

I was thinking about how committee votes would work in an ongoing basis. 
Restricting committee votes to just some members of a committee (non-Alfresco 
employees) will get hard to manage. How do you decide what is a formal vote 
and what is simple collaboration? When that line comes, it will be awkward to 
ask some members of the committee to step aside. Being the potential recipient 
of that exclusion, I would find it demotivating.

Mentally working through those scenarios causes me to feel strongly about 
Alfresco employees voting on the committees where they contribute. I am in 
agreement that Alfresco employees should be excluded from votes sent to the 
general membership, and I do not feel that committee votes undermine the 
independence of the Order from Alfresco.

Richard

-- 
Richard Esplin
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On Thursday, September 04, 2014 00:02:51 Richard Esplin wrote:
> Given your strong feeling about Alfresco employees voting, I re-raise my
> proposed compromise.
> 
> I can see the value in preserving the Order's independence by excluding from
> general votes those who are on the payroll of Alfresco. But committee votes
> are very closely tied to the work of specific volunteers, and I think those
> doing the work on a committee should be treated equally in making the
> decisions of the committee. If there is disagreement, then the vote will be
> escalated to the general membership and the Alfresco employees will be
> excluded from those votes. I think this preserves independence, and still
> allows equal participation.
> 
> I agree with the rest of the proposed by-laws.
> 
> Richard
> 
> On Wednesday, September 03, 2014 23:41:04 Jeff Potts wrote:
> > I am going to try to address everyone's questions/feedback in a single
> > email...
> > 
> > 
> > *Voting Eligibility of Alfresco Employees*
> > The mission of this organization is to be the *independent* Alfresco
> > community. There is no way that can happen if Alfresco employees are
> > voting
> > members. We already have an Alfresco community where decisions get made in
> > a commercial context. This new one we are building is free of that
> > context.
> > It's a core tenant of the Order.
> > 
> > I know there are employees who care deeply about the community. But there
> > will be times during the life of the organization when decisions have to
> > be
> > made that may benefit one side at the expense of the other. I have seen
> > those first-hand when I worked for Alfresco. When there is a trade-off to
> > be made, it only makes sense that people who depend on the company for
> > their paycheck will vote to defend their paycheck. I don't want to put
> > those people in that difficult situation and I don't want to second-guess
> > anyone's motivation.
> > 
> > I have heard from no employees who say they would be less likely to
> > contribute if they were not voting members. I have heard from at least one
> > who says they will gladly participate even if they are not voting members.
> > 
> > Personally, as a non-employee, I would be much less likely to participate
> > if this organization is not truly independent.
> > 
> > We cannot use job title as a filter. The conflict exists regardless of
> > title. I can think of individuals at Alfresco in all job titles and
> > departments who are passionate community supporters and I can think of
> > individuals in all job titles and departments who are fair-weather
> > supporters, to put it kindly.
> > 
> > I have seen a proposal that Alfresco employees should be able to vote, but
> > not be on the Board. The problem with that is that the Board has no real
> > power, by design. It is mostly administrative. So preventing an employee
> > from being on the Board does nothing once they are voting members.
> > 
> > This organization must be able to make decisions without caring at all
> > about how those decisions impact the profits of Alfresco Software. It's
> > really that simple.
<snip>