[board-discuss] Announcing the election for the next TDF Board of Directors

Dear Community,

We hereby officially announce the upcoming election for the next Board 
of Directors of The Document Foundation.

As per § 7 II of our statutes, [1] the Board's term lasts two years. The 
current Board started its duty on February 18, 2020. Therefore, the old 
Board remains in charge until the end of February 17, 2022, so the new 
Board will be in charge the day after that, which is February 18, 2022.

That upcoming term will then (regularly) end on February 17, 2024, so 
the next election of the Board of Directors will take place before.

As per § 6 III, only members of the Board of Trustees of The Document 
Foundation, as well as current members of any of its bodies, are 
eligible to be elected into the Board of Directors, and the election is 
prepared and supervised by the Membership Committee (§ 7 II).

The active electoral right is reserved to those who have been members of 
the Board of Trustees before this announcement (§ 7 II).

§ 6 III also states that members of the Board of Directors or their 
deputies may not be members of the Membership Committee and vice versa. 
This means that current members of the Membership Committee are eligible 
to be elected, but with the acceptance of their new role they lose their 
current role in the MC. For clarification, they have to step down from 
the Membership Committee, with effect no later than to the beginning of 
the new
term of the Board of Directors, the minute before accepting to become a 
member of the Board of Directors.

There is one more notable limitation: Per § 8 IV of the statutes, a 
maximum of 1/3 members of the Board of Directors is allowed to work on 
an employment basis for the same company, organisation, entity or one of 
its affiliate organisations.

Nomination of candidates fulfilling the above requirements, as well as 
self nomination is welcome. In total, at least seven Board of Directors 
members are required, and given there are enough candidates, up to three 
deputies can be elected (§ 7 II). As deputies are on duty quite often, 
we encourage many candidates to participate.

Re-election of current members of the Board of Directors is permitted (§ 
7 II).

Please send nominations and self-nominations via e-mail to 
elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Membership Committee 
in private) and *at the same time (!)* to 
board-discuss@documentfoundation.org (which is a public mailing list).

We kindly ask nominees who would like to stand for election to provide a 
statement of up to 75 words - longer statements will be cut off at the 
maximum - on their candidacy as continuous text (so no bullet lists or 
multiple paragraphs). In addition, you have to provide and keep up to 
date your full name, e-mail address and your corporate affiliation, if 
any, or state the lack of an affiliation, and please announce that you 
will provide information on all future changes as soon as possible. 
Specifically, it is necessary to indicate all information regarding § 8 
IV of the statutes.

Discussions with the candidates and questions to them as well as 
questions about the election should take place on the public 
board-discuss@documentfoundation.org mailing list. For details on how to 
use the mailing list, see 
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/

Eligible voters will receive further details via email prior to the 
start of election, including a summary of the candidates, details on how 
to access the voting system, and instructions on how to independently 
verify the vote count. Please ensure the Membership Committee has your 
recent and correct e-mail address on file. For questions, you can reach 
the Membership Committee in private at elections@documentfoundation.org.

Following the timeline set forth in § 7 II, requiring a 45 day advance 
notice, we hereby announce the following timeline for the election:

(00:00 is beginning of the day, 24:00 is end of the day)
1. Monday, 2021-10-18: announcement of the election; and start of the 
nomination phase

2. Thursday, 2021-11-25, 24:00 CET/UTC+1: end of the nomination phase 
(one week before the election starts, as per § 7 II)

3. Friday, 2021-12-03, 00:00 CET/UTC+1: official start of the election 
(at least 45 days after announcement of the election, as per § 7 II)

4. Monday, 2021-12-13, 24:00 CET/UTC+1: end of the election

5. Tuesday, 2021-12-14: announcement of the preliminary results of the 
election and acknowledgement of role

6. Wednesday, 2021-12-15, 00:00 CET/UTC+1: start of the challenging 
phase

7. Monday, 2021-12-20, 24:00 CET/UTC+1: end of the challenging phase

8. afterwards: official announcement of the final results

9. Friday, 2022-02-18: new Board of Directors officially in charge, and 
election of a Chairperson and a Deputy Chairperson from among its 
members

Live sessions with the candidates: Between the end of the nomination 
phase (Thursday, 2021-11-25, 24:00 CET/UTC+1) and the official start of 
the election (Friday, 2021-12-03, 00:00 CET/UTC+1), the Membership 
Committee will organise public - and if possible recorded - live 
sessions, where members of the Board of Trustees can ask questions to 
the candidates. Everyone, also non-members, is invited to join these 
sessions. We will also make available to the general public the 
recordings and the answers given.

Questions to the candidates: In addition, after the end of the 
nomination phase (Thursday, 2021-11-25, 24:00 CET/UTC+1), the Membership 
Committee will provide a set of questions to all the candidates. All 
candidates are kindly invited to send their answers, which will also be 
made available to the general public.

Be advised that the newly elected Board of Directors will only be in 
charge from February 18, 2022 on. The current Board of Directors will 
however include them in the decision making process, to ease up the 
transition.

Challenges to this announcement with respect to the deadlines outlined 
have to happen no later than seven (7) days after this announcement, via 
e-mail to elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Membership 
Committee in private).

Challenges to the preliminary results of the election have to happen 
until the deadline set forth above, via e-mail to 
elections@documentfoundation.org (which reaches the Membership Committee 
in private).

On behalf of the Membership Committee,
Marina Latini

[1] https://www.documentfoundation.org/satzung.pdf (binding German 
version) and https://www.documentfoundation.org/statutes.pdf 
(non-binding English translation)

--
Marina Latini, Chairperson of the Membership Committee
Tel: +39 3497482812 | IRC: deneb_alpha on LiberaChat
The Document Foundation, Kurfürstendamm 188, 10707 Berlin
Gemeinnützige rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts
Legal details: http://www.documentfoundation.org/imprint

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