Topic: Time for an election / The status of SME Server Inc.

[guest22]

I believe that for an important process as this (2008 leaders) a proper process would be in order. Would it be wise to implement such a process, meaning did we learn something from the previous election processes?

I've lost track of the activities of the current leaders, and it is only the technical developers from the contribs .org team that are visible to me. Also the 'confusion' about donations to either contribs.org or developers personally is not clear to me. In short, all that was 'expected' of an elected 'management board' was not all that visable.

The developers and supporting team are doing an outstanding job! but I believe we are in need of pro-active engagement from the 'other' parts of the management team.

There are a zillion opportunities out there to 'market' SME Server, that's for sure. And there are many many organizations and individuals out there willing to provide support we anticipate. It should be the contribs.org team managing this, so we have to 'invest' time and our best efforts in the best possible process to achieve this.

My 'dream-team' would be:

* Ruffdogs (Garret), facilitating all hosting, including development machines
* Shad, Charlie, Ian, Stephan, Michael and team taking care of the development
* Cactus, Ray and team managing the web presence
* Byte, Ruffdogs and team managing public relations, marketing and expansion

- Clear communications
- Clear donations
- Clear road path
- Clear coorporation(s)

In short, have the best of the best take care of us.

guest

[cactus]

* Cactus and team managing the web presence

It is an honor to be named here, but at the moment there is no (official) team and I do not know for sure if I can make such a firm commitment as I have a lot of other tasks, wishes and things to take care of apart from lurking around the forums, bugzilla and the wiki

[guest22]

Well, your 'work' would stay the same then, other then being in charge 'for real'

[pfloor]

My 'dream-team' would be:

* Ruffdogs (Garret), facilitating all hosting, including development machines
[...]

Sorry to say HF but it appears that the first part of your "Dream Team" has already retracted his offer to participate:

[...]
Also, I will need to retract my offer of assistance. I think it's time that I and Ruffdogs be moving on also. Thanks.

Besides that, ALL the hosting, servers, etc were moved months ago.  Ruffdogs/Holonyx/Garret hasn't provided hosting, bandwidth or technical support for the past 6 months or so.

-PF

[kruhm]

Ruffdogs/Holonyx/Garret hasn't provided hosting, bandwidth or technical support for the past 6 months or so.

Code: [Select]

[root@server ~]# dig contribs.org

;; ANSWER SECTION:
contribs.org.           300     IN      A       75.146.90.141


Code: [Select]

Comcast Business Communications, Inc. CBC-CM-5 (NET-75-144-0-0-1)
                                  75.144.0.0 - 75.151.255.255
Comcast Business Communications, Inc. CBC-UTAH-7 (NET-75-146-88-0-1)
                                  75.146.88.0 - 75.146.91.255
Lordsfam-net LORDSFAM-NET (NET-75-146-90-136-1)
                                  75.146.90.136 - 75.146.90.143

Do SLORDS, CBRADY, GROWELL have any public comments/opinions/suggestions/nominations?

[guest22]

Besides that, ALL the hosting, servers, etc were moved months ago.  Ruffdogs/Holonyx/Garret hasn't provided hosting, bandwidth or technical support for the past 6 months or so.

Then I must have missed the 'Thank you Garret/Ruffdogs and team for your support' mail.

Anyway, it all adds up to the confusion to this community. Is the proposed process of 2006 still in effect?

guest

[imcintyre]

Did anyone come up with a link or information regarding the constitution/by-laws?

[cjensen]

Did anyone come up with a link or information regarding the constitution/by-laws?

http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/contribs/rmcnew/SME_Community_Constitution/rtf/

AFAIK...

Craig

[imcintyre]

The link works fine

[uniqsys]

Thanks for the link to the constitution.  Some questions:

1.  Is the constitution in force at this time?
2.  If so, the specified election procedure due date(s) is past.  What deadlines should be in place now?
3.  The constitution lays out a nomination time frame.  Are we in that now?
4.  Is this a self-nomination process or do we need to be "recommended"?
5.  Items in the original post on this thread imply some disorganization, eg. transferring money to an individual option.  This is unclear.  Why would one consider closing SME Server, Inc if it is just started and there is a call for nominations?  I think we need a little more focus on what is really being asked of us here so we can make some progress to the goal of electing a DM, CM and BM.  Let's get the campaigns started!

[guest22]

Can SOMEBODY from the '2006 elected team' take the real lead in this all please???

If you take a look at the importance of this matter, its the least that team could still do....

I challenge the '2006 elected team' hereby to take the lead and properly coordinate/organize the written an agreed procedures within 1 week.

If this team fails to do so (officially react within 1 week with all details requested) , this community is entitled to overthrown this team and no longer recognize them any longer as the leading team. And ,I, as a member of this community, order the '2006 elected team' to make available to this community the following:

- All accurate wiki data
- Provide all public/Open Source credentials and code regarding hosting/contribs (e.g. ibiblio and other hosting resources that hold community resources)
- The contribs.org AND smeserver.org domains, and related DNS ownership
- Full ownership and administration of both contribs.org as well as smeserver.org, including all related legal agreements.
- All information/code that is in spirit of the GPL whatever version.


Legal entity details will be provided as soon as possible for the handover of all of the above and what has not been discussed yet. Please be aware that this community trusted a team in 2006, but will NOT cope with another disaster organization.

Getting real tired of this lack of pro-activity and energy. I've decided to keep a very close eye on this all and partner with US based resources to monitor legal events.

Personal issues with me? Do NOT waist the time of this community by posting here, but feel free to contact me directly at: XXXX AT gmail dot com. I have NO problem sharing any info with the community if you would require this in your mail to me directly. After all, this is a community, and we have no secrets.

I'm serious and a seriously hope the '2006 elected team' takes it's responsibility.



guest

[uniqsys]

Quick update:
- The IRS paperwork can be filed without holding an election first. 
- No date has been set for the election, and it is unlikely that it will happen before the 28th, although it would still be great to know now who would be interested in running.
- I spoke too soon and it will likely be an election to elect 3 board members again, as that is how it was set out in the constitution and articles of incorporation. 

Sorry to jump the gun everybody.

gregswallow,

Some of us think you have started the process for an election with this thread.  (See first post.)  Some are getting HOT (see HF post above) over no progress to that end.  Would you please clarify if an election/nomination process in underway or not.  As HF says, 

Do NOT waist (waste) the time of this community...

if an election is not in order and nothing needs to be done about the SME Server, Inc status.  Could you please let us know what the timetable for an election is? And could you let us know if the SME Server, Inc is in some danger of disintegration here?  Let's keep the peace.

Thank you,
uniqsys

[garret]

Hosting was pulled from Ruffdogs without any real explanation, other than it's what the board desired. That was fine enough.

My retraction was based on the fact of feeling like I have been pounding my head against the wall for years. The board has been a development centric board rather than business centric. I believe the board should be more about the business of SME Server then the development of it.

Given a supporting and energized team, I feel there is still a lot I have to offer to this community. It has been quite some time since I have had any say in what happens around here (I've had this conversation with Paul a number of times).

I feel like I do have a lot to offer, I have quite a bit of experience with the BUSINESS of open source and have been in quite a few communities at that level. I am not a developer, I am a businessman who has a keen understanding of software development. I also understand communities well and open source very well. I know how to get a project seen, and I know how to bring new eyes to a project. This project, http://restore-backup.com/, gets between 300 and 700 unique visitors daily and it's had over 30,000 downloads in it's first four full months, still being a very young project.

I can do this, it's what I do for a living, but I need the support in order to achieve the goals.

[pfloor]

gregswallow,

Some of us think you have started the process for an election with this thread.  (See first post.)  Some are getting HOT (see HF post above) over no progress to that end.  Would you please clarify if an election/nomination process in underway or not.  As HF says,   if an election is not in order and nothing needs to be done about the SME Server, Inc status.  Could you please let us know what the timetable for an election is? And could you let us know if the SME Server, Inc is in some danger of disintegration here?  Let's keep the peace.

Thank you,
uniqsys

The election of a new board is WAY overdue and Greg called for nominations here: http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=39718.0

The constitution was voted upon and excepted (overwhelmingly if I remember correctly) by this community and 3 members stepped forward and filled the 3 positions and did their best.  They covered their positions for twice as long as expected and were able to push out 7.0, 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 and are now working on 7.4 and 8.0

As of yet, I haven't seen anyone jump at the opportunity to nominate themeselves (or anyone else for that matter) so until there are candidates for the 3 available positions, I don't see any need for anyone from the current team to do anything but wait for you all to step up to the plate.  How can there be an election and how can they be replaced according to the constitution if no one is there to be voted on?  Can't really do much without candidates now can we?

[pfloor]

Hosting was pulled from Ruffdogs without any real explanation, other than it's what the board desired. That was fine enough.

My retraction was based on the fact of feeling like I have been pounding my head against the wall for years. The board has been a development centric board rather than business centric. I believe the board should be more about the business of SME Server then the development of it.

Given a supporting and energized team, I feel there is still a lot I have to offer to this community. It has been quite some time since I have had any say in what happens around here (I've had this conversation with Paul a number of times).

I feel like I do have a lot to offer, I have quite a bit of experience with the BUSINESS of open source and have been in quite a few communities at that level. I am not a developer, I am a businessman who has a keen understanding of software development. I also understand communities well and open source very well. I know how to get a project seen, and I know how to bring new eyes to a project. This project, http://restore-backup.com/, gets between 300 and 700 unique visitors daily and it's had over 30,000 downloads in it's first four full months, still being a very young project.

I can do this, it's what I do for a living, but I need the support in order to achieve the goals.

Garrett, it "kind of" sounds like you are throwing your hat in the ring.  Are you nominating yourself here?  If so, what position do you seek?