[okfn-coord] Governance: Network members

Tue Oct 20 19:25:53 UTC 2009

This is a longish email but it's about something important so I'd ask
all of you to please read it if you can.

Recently I sent an email to okfn-discuss summarizing the public
discussion on-list over the summer about OKF vision:

<quote>
Back in July we had a discussion about the "vision" for the OKF going
forward. I've summarized that discussion on this wiki page:

  <http://wiki.okfn.org/Vision/Suggestions>

>From that, it looks like there are 3 key areas we should work on:

  1. Better explanation of "Why" (benefits of openness)
    * http://wiki.okfn.org/Vision/Why
  2. Better explanation of "What" - what we are doing, what our goals are etc
    * http://wiki.okfn.org/Vision/What
  3. Clearer structure and governance
    * http://wiki.okfn.org/Vision/Structure

Comments on all of these would be most welcome.

Right now I think the "chunkiest", and most important, is the last of these.

[1]: http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/2009-July/001533.html
</quote>

>From my reading of the emails from the summer it came through very
clearly that even for those who are involved and supportive of the
OKF's work there is a lack of clarity about the structure/governance
of the OKF's activities. I think we need to address this going
forward.

Below is one specific proposal. Please let me know what you think.

Regards,

Rufus

The basic aim of the proposal is to create a separate strand of
governance within the OKF setup that is more about the wider community
"network" than the core "Foundation". The Board would remain unelected
and would remain in charge of the Foundation but we would permit
greater community involvement in the project and working group side of
our work.

Specifically my proposal is:

1. Create role of a "Network Members". Anyone may become a network
member but membership must be approved by the Project Committee (see
next paragraph). In general, Network Members are expected to be
actively involved in OKF's activities.

2. Create a Project Coordination Group (I'm open to renaming!). The
PCG is elected from network members and deals with all project and
working group related matters including incubating, approving,
retiring project and working groups, monitoring progress, etc.

3. The PCG has monthly meetings (like the board), on the second
Tuesday of every month.

4. To bootstrap this process the Board will create the initial set of
Network Members. All current working group and project members will be
automatically become network members.