Re: Election results

On Tue, Aug 07, 2007 at 11:36:42PM -0700, Josh Berkus wrote:
> > Speaking only on my own behalf, I don't think that voting in SPI should
> > be compulsory for contributing members, and my reading of the bylaw does
> > not require members to vote.
>
> Unfortunately, the quorum parts of our bylaws will paralyze the organization
> if we do not purge "inactive" members. For example, changes to the bylaws
> themselves require a majority of *all* members, not just voting ones. With
> current levels of participation that will be impossible to achieve.

I definitely support purging "inactive" members, by which I mean
downgrading them to non-contributing status (which is all we can do
under our current bylaws). However, this could make it much harder to
reach the amendment threshhold, as I explain in greater detail in my
reply to MJ Ray. I don't support requiring voting in SPI elections to
retain contributing status, because compulsory voting anywhere is
distasteful to me - it can cause people to cast uninformed votes, which
are usually worse than them not voting. I certainly don't think the
current rules we have include compulsory voting. Weeding out people who
don't vote and also don't respond to an inquiry email sent to the email
address in their SPI membership record, however, is reasonable, assuming
they can regain contributing membership by applying again in the normal
way subject to the normal criteria.

- Jimmy Kaplowitz
jimmy(at)spi-inc(dot)org