Back in February, during the voting period to elect the new Board Members of Group 2, the Members of Open Source Matters, Inc. had the opportunity to vote for an amendment to the Bylaws in order to remove the Local Communities Department.

Removal of the Local Communities Department

This Department was never created due to the differences between the structure of the Local Communities across the globe. In some countries there are legal entities, completely independent from Open Source Matters, that operate as Local Communities, some of them are backed by business entities, some others are non-profit organizations. It is technically very hard for Open Source Matters to impose new structures, rules or requirements to existing Local Communities, especially where a non-profit organization is operating effectively promoting and supporting Joomla.

Furthermore, it would be very difficult for Open Source Matters to grant the right to vote for each Local Community Leader to all the local people who should have the right to vote, the people from each local community who participate in the global Joomla Community is a minority, many people only join activities organized locally in their cities and countries. It would unfair and undemocratic, to grant the right to vote to a limited representation of each Local Community.The Local Communities Department first definition supposed that there is only one main community in each Country. In most cases there are several Joomla User Groups and other entities, but nobody at the “head” of a local community.

Local communities are already taken care of by the Events department with support for Joomla User Groups (JUGS) and local JoomlaDays and other events provided by the Events Department.

Joomla means “All together” or “As a whole”, we invite all members of Local Communities to participate in the Global Community, as members of the Teams and Departments who are looking actively for volunteers.

The following proposed amendment, removes the Local Communities Department.

AMENDMENT

Article IV (Members)
Section 4.01 Classes and Qualifications

B. The Secretary shall list and maintain on the Volunteers Portal any officially recognized department of the Corporation (each a “Department” and collectively, the “Department List”). The approval of two-thirds (2/3) of the Members (or if there are no Team Members, Team Leaders, and Department Coordinators, the approval of two-thirds (2/3) of the Officers of the Corporation) (“Member Approval”) shall be required to create or amend the Department List. The initial Department List shall include the following six Departments: Production; Legal & Finance; Marketing & Communication; Events; Operations; and Programs;

The Clauses (2) and (3) in the Section 4.01 (B) are removed entirely (page 7 of the Bylaws).

The current version of the Bylaws (prior the proposed amendment) is available here.

Voting Results

Pursuant Article XI of the Bylaws of Open Source Matters, Inc. the proposed amendment to the Bylaws has been submitted for Member Approval in a Special vote held for this purpose.

• 123 members had the right to vote.
• 70 members voted (56.91%)
• 3 members were attentive but did not vote (2.44%)
• 50 members were inattentive (40.65%)

Voting split

• 60 members approved the changes (85.71% of voters)
• 8 members voted against the changes (11.43% of voters)
• 2 members abstained (2.86% of voters).

The amendment passed with majority of votes. The Secretary will prepare an amended version of the Bylaws and the Board will proceed with the filing process in order to apply the changes with legal effect.