This a result of
- the current FAmSCo election rules and an analysis of the former
- a mix of the FESCo election policy and the Board's succession planning
- feedback form a session at FUDCon Blacksburg
FAmSCo Election Policy
FAmSCo elections help to keep the leadership of the project in touch with the ambassadors who make up the project.
Schedule
FAmSCo elections will be held twice a year, as part of the Fedora Project combined election process.
Seats on FAmSCo
There will be 7 seats on FAmSCo. 7 seats were up for the F16 and earlier elections, and the following election will have 3 seats up for vote. The 3 seats that will be up for election will be the bottom 3 vote-getters from the prior election. The 4 seats not up for election in the F17 election, will be up for election in F18. After that, the seats up for election will alternate based on the seats up for election in the prior election.
Candidates
Candidates may be any member of the ambassadors group in the Fedora Accounts System. This helps ensure FAmSCo members have some experience with the processes of Fedora but still allows relatively new contributors to sit on FAmSCo 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 (Fedora account, email and irc nick, statement of past contributions and what they hope to accomplish while a member of FAmSCo.) In addition, candidates must not be a citizen of an export-restricted country (see Legal/Export#Embargoed_Destinations for the list of export restricted countries).
In order to hold an election, a minimum number of candidates are necessary. This will be the number of open seats + 25%. If there are 4 seats available, there will need to be at least 5 candidates. If not enough candidates have signed up by the deadline, the election may be delayed waiting for more candidates to appear, in coordination with the schedule for combined Fedora elections. If there are still not enough candidates, the candidates who are present will be voted upon (or merely confirmed if there are less candidates than open seats.) If FAmSCo does not have the full number of seats filled at this point, please see Filling Vacant Seats below.
Voters
Any person in the Fedora Account System who has completed the Contributor License Agreement and is member of at least one other group - including, but not limited to the group of ambassadors - is eligible to vote in the FAmSCo elections.
Members
Members of FAmSCo are elected for a term of two (2) major releases of Fedora. However, a FAmSCo member may resign his/her seat at any time for any reason by notifying the rest of the committee as well as the Fedora Ambassadors community of their decision.
In the event of repeated absence without contact, or other serious misconduct or negligence, a FAmSCo member may be subject to removal. Before any other process occurs, the FAmSCo member in question will be personally contacted by the FAmSCo Chair to try to resolve the situation. If this contact does not successfully resolve the situation, the FAmSCo member in question may be removed by unanimous vote of the other members of FAmSCo. Any resulting open seat will be filled as described in Filling Vacant Seats below. The term of the interim member will be the remainder of the original term for that seat.
Election of the Chairperson
Once an election is completed, the committee must elect a Chairperson. This must be done by not later than weeks or two meetings that are held after the election. Until a new Chairperson is elected, the current chair will continue in that role. The FAmSCo Chairperson can only be removed from this position by an unanimous vote of the other FAmSCo members. If this happens, a new Chairperson must be elected within one week.
Appointment of Vice-Chairperson
No later than two weeks after election, the FAmSCo chairperson will appoint the Vice-Chairperson. The FAmSCo Vice-Chairperson can only be removed from this position by an unanimous vote of the other FAmSCo members. If this happens, a new Vice-Chairperson must be appointed within one week.
Filling Vacant Seats
If FAmSCo does not have all its seats filled due to members leaving or other lack, the vacant seats will attempt to be filled by the following methods:
- If there are runner-up candidates from the previous election that did not have the opportunity to be on FAmSCo, they will be considered and offered a seat.
- If those candidates have been exhausted or FAmSCo does not consider them eligible, FAmSCo will ask Fedora community members that they think would do a good job if they would be willing to hold the open seats.
- If the open seats are still not filled, FAmSCo will operate with less members until the next FAmSCo election.
Voting System
The Fedora Elections Guide provides information about the voting system for all Fedora elections.
Notes
There are no term limits imposed by this policy. If FAmSCo chooses to impose term limits for its internal positions (Chair, VP, etc) those should be specified in the FAmSCo by-laws rather than this document.