2015 X.Org Elections Get Underway For Board Members, SPI Merger

The election process is beginning for selecting new X.Org Foundation board members and for allowing X.Org members to vote on whether they would like to proceed with joining SPI to become a sub-project of that organization so that they'll take care of the business and administrative tasks.

X.Org board member and SUSE developer Egbert Eich posted this morning about the election process beginning along with the proposed changes to the by-laws of the X.Org Foundation. Today the Q&A process about the changes and nomination for new board members begin while the election voting will start in March and end two weeks later.

The board members who have terms expiring this year are Alan Coopersmith, Martin Peres, Peter Hutterer, and Stuart Kreitman. Thus there's four seats up for re-election and the nomination for new applicants expires on 15 February. You're able to nominate yourself or others during this period. To be elected or to vote you must become an X.Org member.

The changes to the by-laws of the X.Org Foundation are needed in order to join Software in the Public Interest. The change to the by-laws and about joining the SPI will take place alongside this year's elections. If you've been living under a rock and not familiar with this proposed X.Org + SPI marriage, see X.Org Is Formally Invited To Become An SPI Project and X.Org Foundation Moving Forward With Possible Merger. Even though the X.Org Foundation became its own 501(c)3 organization, the board members are developers and not business-oriented and they've fumbled multiple times in managing the organization. In going underneath the SPI umbrella, SPI would manage the business and administrative tasks so that the board members would just need to worry about the matters within their realm.

An interesting change for this year's elections is that they've expired the memberships of all X.Org members. Thus all X.Org members need to renew their membership this time around (or join if you haven't) by the middle of February. In some past years they've nearly failed at the general elections of board members due to coming very close to not meeting the 25% quorum, so now with forcing everyone to re-new, it almost guarantees a much higher turnout as it ensures the developers/members are still active and monitoring email communications, taking interest in X.Org, etc. Those wishing to join can go to members.x.org.

More election details via Egbert's mailing list announcement.