Bylaws revision committee

Today, the board passed a reolution creating a bylaws revision
committee, the text of which is at
http://www.wiggy.net/spi/2003-01-06.wta.2 The purpose of this
committee is to evaluate the bylaws, decide on where they need
improvements, and suggest these improvements. The improvements are to
be presented to the SPI membership for voting at our next annual
meeting. Therefore, please remember that the committee is here to
advance recommendations only, and does not have the power, by itself,
to enact these suggestions.

The board also nomited myself as the chair of the committee, and
installed Manoj Srivistava as its other member. That leaves three
open seats, which they have directed me to fill. (Can I get someone
from the board to clarify if we need to get approval from the board
before we begin meeting with all five, wrt the last paragraph in the
resolution?)

There is a new mailing lists for discussions, spi-bylaws(at)lists(dot)spi-inc(dot)org(dot)
Interested parties should subscribe at http://lists.spi-inc.org/ SPI
Members are advised that our activities, at least until we organize
ourselves and decide on something else, will be conducted in public
view on that list.

Towards the end of filling the three open seats ASAP, I am soliciting
volunteers from SPI contributing members. People seeking one of the
three open seats should send a brief message (25 lines or less)
nominating themselves to spi-bylaws(at)lists(dot)spi-inc(dot)org stating:

* Relevant experience with these matters, either with SPI, Debian,
Gnome, or some unrelated organizations. Links to websites, mailing
list discussions, etc. will be useful here.
* Your goals for the process
* Areas you think need improvement; areas you think are fine.
* A statement of being able to devote enough time to the process,
and your availability via e-mail (can you respond to most messages
within a day?)
* Anything else relevant that you'd like to say. Things like "I'm
married and live in Iowa" are not relevant, unless the "I have 6
kids" part impacts your availibility :-)

Specific opinions on changes (such as "I think we should change quorum
to x") are not grounds for consideration and are not relevant at this
time.

I want to be able to get us up and running swiftly, so I will be
accepting self-nominations on spi-bylaws(at)lists(dot)spi-inc(dot)org until 4 PM,
US Central Time (22:00 UTC) on Monday, January 13. Nominations not
posted to that list, or which do not come from SPI contributing
members*, will not be considered.

I intend to make a selection swiftly, and I will involve Manoj in the
process if he wishes. I hope to have the decision made by 4 PM on
Tuesday, Jan 14. This decision is subject to Board approval, and
depending on your read of today's log, may need a vote from them
before it takes effect.

Concurrently, I will be working on some initial proposals about how we
will structure ourselves, so that once the committee is formed, we can
discuss and agree to those without significant delay. Input from
anyone on this point is welcomed as well.

* The SPI contributing membership guidelines seem liberal enough that I
don't see any reason to consider someone for this committee that
can't meet them. If you want to be considered for the committee but
are not a member, please join today.

-- John Goerzen