Fedora L10n Steering Committee Elections
Elections for the Fedora Localization Project Steering Committee (FLSCo) help to keep the leadership of the project in touch with the translators, engineers and administrators who make up the project. By drawing from and returning to the larger pool of contributors, leadership is always fresh.
Summary
- Voting is open to all contributors in the Localization Project who have joined the 'cvsl10n' group in the Fedora Account System.
- Contributors have up to seven votes they can cast for the slate of nominees , with one vote per nominee.
- The four top vote receivers serve on FLSCo for 12 months, the next three vote receivers serve for 6 months.
- Following this initial election, regular elections are every six months. Half of the seats are up for voting each election, first three seats, then four seats, and so on.
- We are using the Fedora [#Voting-System standard voting software]
If you have not done this, there is still time to get your account so you can vote. Take a look at the Translation Quick Start Guide , "Accounts" section, to become a member of the 'cvsl0n' group in the Fedora Account System .
Learn about getting your account on Account System .
Past elections
Election "Fall 2008" (Fedora 10)
No elections took place due to lack of nominations. The current members of FLSCo will continue to serve for one more release.
Election "Spring 2008" (Fedora 9)
Schedule
FLSCo elections are held approximately twice a year, in the beginning of the development cycle between Fedora releases. Current schedule is the last two weeks in November and May, and elections are only stalled by a lack of candidates (See Candidates below).
Elections run for a period between one and two weeks. An attempt is made to include two weekends in the nomination and election periods so people can vote when they have free time.
The elections are announced in public lists. A reminder mail to those who are eligible to vote but haven't done so is sent three days before the close of the election.
Seats on FLSCo
There are seven (7) seats on FLSCo, with one seat serving as the chair and project leader.
There are currently no specified term limits.
Candidates
Candidates may be any member of the cvsl10n group in the Fedora Accounts System. This helps ensure FLSCo members have some experience with the processes of the FLP but still allows relatively new contributors to sit on FLSCo and bring fresh ideas to the table. Candidates must self nominate at least three days before the election opens by writing their information onto the Wiki nominations page (Fedora account, email, and IRC nick, as well as a statement of past contributions and what they hope to accomplish while a member of FLSCo.)
Voters
Voters may be any member of the cvsl10n group in the Fedora Accounts System. This means everyone who has permission to contribute translations takes part in voting.
Filling Vacant Seats
If FLSCo does not have all its seats filled due to members leaving or other lack, the vacant seats are filled by the following methods:
- If there are runner-up candidates from the previous election that did not have the opportunity to be on FLSCo, they are offered a seat according to their rank in the voting.
- If those candidates have been exhausted, FLSCo asks the Documentation community members who they think would do a good job and be willing to fill the open seat(s).
- If the open seats are still not filled, FLSCo operates with fewer members until the next election cycle.
- In extreme situations, a special election can be held. Members elected during a special election serve a truncated term that is the sum of the remainder of time until the normal election plus the six months until the next election when the seat is made available. FLSCo is empowered to change or temporarily modify rules in order to recreate balance in elections and keep FLSCo seats filled and active.
Voting System
The voting model for the election aims to be simple, easy to audit, and fair in case someone resigns and their runner-up is selected.
The current voting system gives each voter as many votes as there are open seats. They may vote for each candidate only one time, and can use as many or few of their votes as they wish.
Since FLSCo is using the new, general voting system in place for Fedora steering committees, we benefit from the changes that are coming to that system.
(In the future we are shifting to range voting to address these criteria. In range voting, a voter receives a ballot listing all the candidates. For each candidate the voter assigns from 0 to number of candidates points. At the close of the election, the points for each candidate are tallied and the ones with the most points win a seat. For example, if there are 20 candidates running for 13 seats, the voter is presented with a ballot where they can assign 0-20 points to each candidate. After voting, the 13 candidates with the most points win the election.)