Foundation Council Governance

Community Foundation
1

Here is the proposed governance of the ERPNext Foundation. Please provide your inputs, thoughts and suggestions.

The ERPNext Foundation will be promarily run by the ERPNext Foundation Council that will consist of:

2 Directors appointed by Frappe Technologies Private Limited
1 CEO (currently nominated by Frappe Technologies Private Limited but the Foundation Council will decide on the Mode of Appointment/Election of, and the tenure of, the CEO
4 Council Members elected by the ERPNext Foundation members.

Each Foundation Member will be eligible to cast the number of votes as specified below:

Number of votes for Foundation Members:

Individual Member: 1 Vote.
Silver Member: 3 Votes
Gold Member: 5 Votes

Once the Foundation Council Members are elected, decisions will be taken by a simple majority of attending members, Each Foundation Council member will be eligible to cast one vote for all decisions taken by the Foundation Council

Foundation Council members will serve for a two year term, unless the Foundation Council decides to lessen it’s term and call for elections earlier.

How does somebody become a council member?

Elections will be announced. Anybody can stand for election. Need to be proposed and seconded by a Foundation Member of good standing. Contestant needs to be foundation member at the time of application.

Here’s the proposed schedule for the elections:

Day 0: Elections announced
Day 7: Last day of nomination in prescribed forms
Day 14: Elections - Online, WhatsApp and E-Mail - all have to uniquely identify the person that the voter is voting for, for a vote to be counted.
Day 15: Results announced.
Day 16: Objections from Community and Foundation members against ratification of the election of any of the elected council members.
Day 17: Foundation Council Members ratify the elected representatives.

End of the day for these schedules will be as per UTC-12 (Edward Island - US Minor Outlying Islands). Meetings and other such interactions that require the simultaneous presence of multiple people will be announced and all attendees and office bearers will need to adhere to a time zone announced by the Foundation Council.

Till the Elected & Ratified Foundation Council members are formed the Council Members consist of the Directors and CEO.

Each eligible voter will need to vote for as many choices as the number of positions that the election is for. Electors can only vote for a contestant for a maximum of the number of votes that they are eligible for. Which means:

That an individual member can cast a maximum of 1 vote for a contestant
A silver member can cast a maximum of 3 votes for a contestant.
A gold member can cast a maximum of 5 votes for a contestant.

However each voter will need to cast as many votes as the number of positions, subject to the above condition.

Eligible voters can vote for themselves, if they happen to be contesting an election.

In case a Council member resigns or is dismissed or is unable to or incapable of fulfilling her/his duties the election conforming to the above schedule will be announced as soon as practically possible.

Decisions:

Till Election of Foundation Council Members:

All decisions needing an investment/outlay of USD 500 or more or all decisions making changes to the bylaws will need to be approved by the Foundation Members on the basis of a simple majority as per the number of votes listed afore.

Such decisions need to be ratified by the current Foundation Council consisting of 2 * Frappe Directors and CEO.

Other decisions involving an investment of under USD500.00 and not making any changes to the bylaws may be taken by the current Foundation Council consisting of 2 * Frappe Directors and CEO.

After Foundation Council Members are elected:

All decisions will be made by a simple majority of the attending Foundation Council members. But Foundation Members will be consulted and opinions sought on all major decisions.

One of the first decisions the elected Foundation Council members will make is the mode of appointment or election of the CEO and the tenure.

7 Likes
3

My two cents:
I would suggest that 7 days between announcing the election and cutting off nominations is a bit short. As well, requiring each eligible voter to vote for as many positions as there are open is restrictive. They should be able to vote for as many people as they want, up to the number of eligible candidates.

1 Like
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Sure. I hear you!

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As well, requiring each eligible voter to vote for as many positions as there are open is restrictive. They should be able to vote for as many people as they want, up to the number of eligible candidates.

Are you saying they should be able to vote for two candidates when there are 4 positions that are up for elections? Meaning they can vote for fewer candidates than the number of positions?

Thanks

Jay

6

Exactly…
This is common in most elections I’m familiar with, where a voter may not feel sufficiently informed about certain candidates or positions to vote for all of them, but still want to have a voice in the areas they are informed.

2 Likes
7

I think we should set a fixed tenure/term for the CEO rather than having the council decide the tenure. I believe the 2 year term that was mentioned is okay.

I also agree that the days between the election and cut-off is too short. And wouldn’t it be difficult if we have multiple voting methods (whatsApp, Online, email) ?

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Council members should be elected for a period of 1 year, two years is a pretty long duration.

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The multiple methods was to take into account that each medium by itself may not be completely secure, so that was to ensure security. I agree it may be confusing. So maybe we can say that the voting will be by encrypted email and the encryption password will be communicated vide another secure channel - like WhatsApp.

Thanks

Jay

1 Like
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I agree. But it’s a question of perspective right? You need some stability in the post as well. That’s the reason I said two years, but the council can decide to call elections quicker if its becoming dysfunctional or disruptive.

But I’m open to 1 year terms as well.

Thanks

Jay

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I was thinking about the tallying of votes and the possibility of duplication (eg I voted in whatsApp, forgot that I did and voted again via Email) . :slight_smile:

Maybe we can use a secure survey tool? Not sure if survey monkey or lime survey is considered secure (and which is the better choice and if there are better alternatives). For small internal elections, we usually use Google Forms which require the ‘voters’ to sign in using the company email.

Just suggesting. I’ll still go with the pleasure of the majority. :thumbsup:

1 Like
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My suggestion, again, would be to have a simple ‘ERPNext Management’ app hosted on the foundation website. We need to manage roadmap, council election and other similar needs(in future). Building that on erpnext according to foundation needs would be fairly trivial to a reasonably experienced developer.

3 Likes
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such as yourself? :slight_smile:

Thanks

Jay

14

If you are brave enough to use an an app built by me :laughing:

Coding is just one part of the ‘Development’. Anyone with good understanding of community needs can come up with fine grained requirements and UI design. If there are 2-3 volunteers, we could distribute the work of design, coding and testing. I am happy to be one of the contributors if there is enough interest!

2 Likes
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So with regard period of tenure and if I have the responses to now right, the consensus seems to be:

Council members sit for a 1 year term, except for the CEO whose term will be 2 years.

Those terms seem reasonable to me - the 2 year term for the CEO would give that office and the Council more stability and continuity

1 Like
16

I am just thinking of the vote split between the individual, silver and gold members. I am proposing it should be 1, 2, 4 instead of 1, 3, 5. Some how 1,2,4 seems more correct…

1 Like
17

Both option looks fine. When you are saying 1,2,4 instead of 1,3,5 then definitely you must be having some logic behind it. Indictrans is fine with both the options.

Regards,
Kanhaiya Kale
Indictrans