[Osmf-talk] Affirmative Action and Board Elections

[Kate Chapman]

Hi Frederik,

Honestly, I don't find the OSMF Board a particularly friendly place for
women or people from cultures other than North American or European
cultures right now. Though I'm simply guessing on the people of other
cultures. I personally haven't faced overt sexism but the style of
communication and decision making isn't particularly collaborative. Maybe
it isn't the right time to recruit more diversity. That is unless we are
seriously committed to change.

I implore the membership to think of people to nominate that are good at
building bridges instead of fences. This is not something we are
particularly good at in OSM or the OSMF. Who can brings us better together
rather than separate us? Different opinions should be heard, but it takes a
special kind of person to keep things calm.

On the note of quotas, personally I'm not so sure about it in the OSMF
context. At the risk of starting an entire other debate. One way I would
suggest to bring diversity of the board is to not have all the board
members be elected from the membership. If you look at the Wikimedia
Foundation for example they have a mixed board. This allows them to bring
in other expertise and views as needed. An advisory board is another option.

-Kate

On Sat, Sep 27, 2014 at 7:40 AM, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:

> Hi,
>
>    a couple people have suggested that there should be some kind of
> quota, reserving a certain number of board seats for defined groups of
> people who we feel are under-represented. Most people think of women in
> this respect because women are one of the largest under-represented groups.
>
> I've already said that I don't think that the OSMF board is really the
> place to effect change. Not even symbolic change; feminists often
> rightly say that a couple good role models do a lot for motivation, but
> what we need IMHO is female *mapper* role models, not female *board
> member* role models.
>
> I think that setting up any kinds of rules about who can occupy board
> positions is silly, and un-democratic. I used to be, for many years, a
> campaigner for "no (geo)commercial interests on the OSMF board", and if
> given half the chance I would have enshrined a rule that would have
> disallowed anyone employed by Cloudmade, Microsoft, Telenav, Mapbox,
> Geofabrik, Mapquest or any other commercial organisation from being a
> board member. I floated that idea with a large number of people and
> almost everyone said: You know, as long as the affiliations are out in
> the open, you must respect the will of the voters - if they know that
> someone works for X and they vote that person in, then that's that. I
> had to accept that I was perhaps over-zealous, and in the end took a
> seat on the board myself even though I, too, have a commercial background.
>
> Same with "affirmative action" when it comes to a democratically elected
> body - I don't think there's room for it.
>
> Having said that, I would absolutely love to be able to give my vote to
> a couple of female contenders for a seat the OSMF board. I personally
> know a couple of women who care for OSM, who have been long time
> community members and bona fide mappers, and I've tried to convince them
> to stand in the past, with no luck. It seems that most people who are
> interested in mapping and doing cool stuff with OSM are not interested
> in "politics".
>
> I know that men can be pro-diversity or even feminists too, but frankly,
> I'd much rather have women advancing their cause than men trying to beat
> them at it. Advancing your own cause is, in my eyes, quite a central
> element to OSM.
>
> So if you're a woman, and you can imagine serving a couple years on the
> OSMF board, please do step forward. I don't think there should be a seat
> reserved for you because of your gender, but I'm pretty sure that voters
> will actually prefer a diverse board to one that just preaches diversity.
>
> Bye
> Frederik
>
> --
> Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"
>
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