IRC Council Election Voter Eligibility

Tue Apr 5 04:46:04 UTC 2016

Hi folks.

Disclaimer: This email is essentially a summary of a discussion the IRCC
had within the past 30 hours since this issue came up, but it is merely
my opinion of the IRCCs position.  I don't *think* any parts of it are
controversial amongst the IRCC, but I am not speaking officially on its
behalf.

> On Sun, Apr 3, 2016 at 2:40 PM, Valorie Zimmerman wrote:
> > Hi folks, I've written to Neal privately, because I didn't yet get a
> > ballot. It turns out that I didn't get a ballot because I'm not on the
> > lp team https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-irc-members. This seems to be a
> > closed team; there is no "join this team" button on the lp page.
> > However, there is a link to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/Membership --
> > and this page, which offers Ubuntu Membership through IRC work, seems
> > to be the only way to join the Ubuntu IRC Team. Is this so?

The "Ubuntu IRC Members" Team consists of people who satisfy the
following criteria:
1) Ubuntu (the project) membership
2) Interest/Activity/Presence in IRC

(When I use "Ubuntu" throughout this email, I'm referring to the
project, not the flavor)

The link for "membership process" is mostly relevant to people who
satisfy neither of those conditions (and are going through the IRCC to
obtain Membership).

Technically, the same process would be used for people who are already
Members (through any means) and wish to be added to the Ubuntu IRC
Members team (to formally participate in the IRC Community, i.e. IRCC
votes).  This a much lower barrier and, in practice, is likely a
rubber-stamp process.

Note: We also have the "Ubuntu IRC Team" team, which is where operators
are added (through a variety of other teams).  Operators need not be
members, so the distinction between these two teams is relevant.

On Mon, Apr 04, 2016 at 06:43:22PM -0700, Elizabeth K. Joseph wrote:
> All of us have had to apply to be part of the IRC membership, even if
> we're Ubuntu Members through other processes already. Just like
> someone would to become a Kubuntu member or member via the Forums,
> they all have their own additional processes, even if you're already
> an Ubuntu member. I'm sure with your background you'd have no problem
> applying and being added.

I agree.  I spoke with Valorie for a while yesterday when she brought up
not receiving a ballot.  And I assured her that I would not close the
ballot until she a) was deemed eligible to vote (and given a chance to)
or b) was deemed ineligible.

We had a discussion amongst the IRCC and first came to the conclusion
that she should not be added as a voter to this election (there was
discomfort with adding voters mid-election), but that we had no problem
adding her to the team "immediately" (as she satisfies the two criteria
listed above).

The requirement for being a part of the "Ubuntu IRC Members Team" was
announced during the call for nominations[1]:

On Fri, Jan 15, 2016 at 12:17:28AM -0800, Melissa Draper wrote:
> * The shortlist identified by the Community Council will be voted upon
> by team members as described at CommunityCouncil/Delegation. Members
> of the Ubuntu IRC Members Team are eligible to vote.

and it was felt that this was sufficient notice to not warrant an
exception (adding voters mid-election).

It appears that when sending out the ballots[2] I misspoke about the
team name ("Ubuntu IRC Team").  However by this point, "no new
voters mid-election" made the error functionally moot (save the
potential for confusion).

Since the urgent question (whether she should be added to the current
IRCC election) was answered, we didn't completely finish our discussion.
That said, I believe that there won't be major mechanical changes to the
two overall groups.  There will, however, likely be some documentation
changes to how we present information on the wiki/launchpad description
and in our future calls-for-nominations.

As a slight aside, I've heard rumblings of an possible overhaul for the
groups-of-groups-of-groups that is the current Ubuntu IRC Team LP
composition, so maybe there will be some changes coming to that anyway.
I'm sure any potential overhaul will be discussed loudly before anything
is put into practice.

We also deferred a discussion of whether there would be anything of
substance to the process for current members to join the Ubuntu IRC
Members Team, or if it would be a purely mechanical exercise.  I know
we'll revisit this.

Once again, this is my personal opinion (of what some of the IRCC briefly
discussed).  I invite the other members of the IRCC to flog me publicly
or berate me privately if I've misconstrued anything.

Regards,
Neal

[1]: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-irc/2016-January/001834.html
[2]: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-irc/2016-March/001844.html