Call for nominations: Ubuntu Developer Membership Board

[Matt Zimmerman]

Earlier this year, the Technical Board agreed to establish a Developer
Membership Board (DMB) with responsibility for approving new Ubuntu
developers and granting them the appropriate privileges in Launchpad.

Previously, this had been the responsibility of the Technical Board itself,
but for various reasons, it was prudent to separate this function into its
own governance board, for example:

 * The Technical Board had been responsible for new core developer
   applications, while the MOTU Council was responsible for new MOTU
   applications.  This was confusing for applicants, as the two groups
   evolved different processes, and doesn't make as much sense in the
   context of ArchiveReorganisation[1].  The DMB will be a central governing
   body for all developers, regardless of which teams they contribute to.

 * The Technical Board would prefer to conduct all of its discussions in
   public, while DMB may have cause for private deliberation.  This means
   that the TB mailing list can be public now.

 * The TB had difficulty keeping up with applications in addition to serving
   its other functions.  In particular, TB meetings were difficult to keep
   on schedule.

Now that the DMB is formally established and active, we would like to hold
an election to determine its membership.  Until now, the members of the
Technical Board have been standing in to fulfill the functions of the DMB.

Because the DMB comprises the functions previously served by the Technical
Board and the MOTU Council, the current members of those teams are
automatically nominated.  Any members of the Technical Board or MOTU Council
who *do not* wish to stand for election to the DMB will need to explicitly
decline the nomination.

This is an open election, so anyone else may be nominated as well.
Candidates should be well qualified to evaluate prospective Ubuntu
developers and decide when to entrust them with developer privileges.

There will be a total of 7 seats on the board, chosen by Condorcet voting,
similar to the Technical Board election earlier this year.

Nominations should be sent to developer-membership-board at lists.ubuntu.com.

-- 
 - mdz

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArchiveReorganisation