Upcoming Fedora elections

[Matt Domsch]

Yes, it's that time of year again.  Rain is falling, another Fedora
release is about to conquer the known world, and volunteers everywhere
are busy preparing their ideal Fedora Mission Statements to captivate
the electorate.  Fedora's Winter Election is upon us.

The first order of business is to find an Election Coordinator.  For
the last 2 election cycles I have volunteered for this role, with the
able assistance of John Rose (inode0), and Thorsten Leemhuis (thl) and
others.  This cycle, I would like someone besides myself from the Fedora
community to volunteer as Election Coordinator.  Raise your hand,
don't be shy!  If you have been harboring a secret (or public) list of
all my mistakes, here's your chance to set things right!

As Election Coordinator, you will have the opportunity to:
* propose, get buy-in, and finalize the schedule
* schedule forums (traditionally IRC and with FUDCon Toronto, Live)
* seek forum moderators
* if desired, gather questions from the electorate, distribute to the
  candidates, gather and post their answers.
* coordinate with Infrastructure to be sure the elections app is
  ready.


Second, a schedule will need to be set.  At the Board meeting this
week, we agreed that it would be nice to hold in-person forums at
FUDCon Toronto, December 5-7, for those who can attend.  Our election
rules require us to complete the election within 30 days of the Fedora
12 release, so must end by December 17.  Per Nigel Jones, author of
our voting system, most of the votes cast were within the first 2-3
days, so running it Dec 8-17 would be sufficient.

Before these, we typically hold nominations for 2 weeks, and a week
for IRC Town Halls to be scheduled.  Thorsten also requested after the
last election that we have a few days between end of nominations and
beginning of the town halls, to allow time for candidates to be given
a set of questions, and sufficent time to answer.

Third, we need to be sure of all the committees who are holding an
election.  The committee chairs can assist here.  I believe that the
Board, FESCo, and Ambassadors are electing members, and that the
Fedora 13 naming election will happen too.  Are there any I missed?

Feedback on prior elections, ideas for how to improve this cycle, and
volunteers for Election Coordinator all welcome.

Thanks,
Matt