[Osmf-talk] Community vote (was: AoA Discussion)

[Nic Roets]

On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 1:19 AM, Henk Hoff <henk at toffehoff.nl> wrote:
>> And allowing corporate members makes the legal framework more complicated.
> It only makes it more complicated if you want it to be.

So be it. No problem.

> Back to the community-vote. Why should we give people who do not want to
> become member of OSMF give the power of vote?

Because it makes them loyal to the project.

> Shouldn't we not try and get
> more people member of OSMF instead of designing all kinds of loopholes to
> give them decision rights?

Current efforts have been quite unsuccessful up to now. The GBP15 may
have something to do with it. But I also think people mistrust the
legal system and the privacy issues. Many intelligent people are not
familiar with concepts like "limited by guarantee" and may be just a
little bit worried that becoming a member can cause them to loose
their house, being detained at the airport for being a member of a
foundation or get spam from China.

> You state that allowing corporate members is making the legal framework more
> complicated (suggesting that you oppose such an idea). To me, giving
> non-members decision powers in a membership-organization is way more
> complicated.
>
> All in all: please make a clear (!) proposal. That would help this
> discussion.

I am quite unfamiliar with UK law. All I can do is show you how
Wikimedia did it, even though they do not have members and they fall
under US law. Their bylaws do not say who is eligible to vote and I
see that the election committee tweak the criteria every couple of
years.

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Bylaws#Section_3._Selection.

Perhaps if you ask on legal-talk, you will get some answers.