Group 1 Elections 2017 - Nominee Announcement

We are happy to announce that nominations for Group 1 Officers and Department Coordinators have been finalised.

The following individuals have confirmed their acceptance of nomination. Included are comments provided by the nominator(s) of each, nominees are listed in no particular order.

Note: Comments are verbatim from nominators except where editing was required to remove personal information about individuals other than the nominee.

Marketing and Communications Department Coordinator

Sandra Decoux (Thevenet)

Nomination Comments

“I have witnessed in my role on Social Media & Marketing teams Sandra already coordinating many teams and taking the lead to move projects forward. She gets things done. “

“She rocks wherever she's active. She contributes a lot in the overall marketing strategy of the project and also directly with images and lot of other stuff.”

“Sandra as a lot of skills related to Marketing and Communication, she’s as the profile to be a great and committed department coordinator. “

“Sandra is the marketing team, without her nothing would work in it, or in Social Media, JDocs and in a most other areas in Joomla. She is devoting an incredible amount of time and all her love to Joomla. Sandra is also a great manager, troubleshooter, friend and hero! If you value people who are working hard and really love the project, instead of doing politics and just want to travel on the project, VOTE for her!”

“She is 7dx24h Joomla addicted :-) Sandra is always responsible and proactive.”

“Sandra has supported GSoC team a lot this year for all our Social Media and Marketing posts, She is dedicated, honest and really hard working. “

“She has been the driving force behind this department for almost a year. It is about time she became that officially. She was highly effective in CLT and I feel she would be a great addition to the board as well as being the best person to DC this critical department.”

Statement from the candidate:

“I'm involved in all the teams of the department, contributing actively in these teams on a daily basis, managing many projects and spending hours per day to improve our communication, marketing and localisation. I've already lead many projects unders this department and all went fine and current projects are going fine too. Plus I'm currently the liaison between marketing and other teams/departments which allows to communicate better and be aware of what's going on in the other departments.”

Radek Suski

Nomination Comments

Events Department Coordinator

Rowan Hoskyns-Abrahall

Nomination Comments

“She is doing an amazing job in Events and she's more than good at managing, organising and solving issues about all events. And she is always available, ready to help. She's able to listen to others and help in all areas.”

“Having travelled with Rowan as coordinator for JAB Barcelona and this year for the Marketing Sprint at JAB Krakow, and with my many mobility challenges her care to make it possible for me is much appreciated. As Team Lead for JET Rowan is my assistant there. She meticulously gathers the information and works to maximise the project dollars to help the maximum number of participants possible. As graphic design/social media assistant for JD17UK I saw the hard work and dedication again with making that event as success. (I saw it for JD16UK as well).”

“The January super sprint was organised perfectly, and as with all events Rowan has organised, I cannot wait to attend the next one.”

She did a good job in the last period

She’s very committed to the Joomla! community, I work with Rowan since I started to volunteer on the User Group Team, she done a very good job until now and she pushing further The Joomla project in all the aspect related to the organization of event around the world, she's also very talented as webmaster!

She's doing currently an amazing job as Events Dept. Coord. and also in all the other place where she's active. Rowan is one of the top contributors of this project and she fits best this role.

Because she's in it and awesome and there's still work to do before someone else is in this role.

You must be nuts not voting for Rowan! She is EVENTS, without her the whole department and JWC would break apart at once. She has the perfect knack for organizing stuff: Every code sprint and event she organized in the last years was a great joy and every participant was motivated contributing to Joomla. She is available 24/7 fixing and managing things, taking care of every detail and keeps Joomla running. A true Joomla hero!

Every Event i attend, she manages it perfectly. I don't know nobody in the Joomla Community, who is better than Rowan in this case.

She has been doing a fantastic job as event department coordinator and I hope she can serve for another term. She is committed to project and the improvement of Joomla! She is a maverick of it all.

Programs Department Coordinator

Yves Hoppe

Nomination Comments

“Yves is the perfect person for this department. He is available nearly 24h a day, he always takes the time to listen, always ready to help and to solve any issue. He is a great guy and you can rely on him.”

“I had seen some of Yves' skills with smoothing things along especially at the beginning of the transition but I really had an opportunity during the Marketing & Communications sprint at JAB17. Yves has the ability to keep things on track and focused on goals. I look forward to being able to continue to work with him in the future on teams.”

“He did a good job in the last period”

“Yves is doing a great job as Programs Dept. Coordinator. He's a great contributor and he bringed lot of interesting stuff to this project. He's one of the promoters of the Volunteers Engagement Program that could increase the quality and stability of our people engagement.”

“When I see volunteers like Yves, I’m proud to be part of the Joomla! Community, he is really devoted to the Joomla! Community and is work as department coordinator of program is fabulous, he deserve to be reelected.”

“He is also very active and manage a lot of stuff in the community.”

“Yves is a great leader, He has also an admin for GSoC Program, he is doing a wonderful job. He brings a voice for GSoC team on the board, he is fair with all the teams he works in.”

“Great guy with admirable dedication.”

“Yves is a pleasure to work with, he is able to motivate, mitigate and troubleshoot across a broad spectrum of situations and is a true "people person". He has proven to be level headed in the boardroom and is the ideal candidate for a department centred around our people and their success.”

Vice President

Aleksander Kuczek

Nomination Comments

I would like to see him be able to have time to reach his potential in this role.

He did a good job in the last period

Aleksander is very positive, he brings to the community a positive attitude as VP, I think he deserve to be reelected for another term.

Aleksander is a wonderful Joomler and a great contributor

During the last votes i was skeptic for Aleksander being Vice President, because I wasn't convinced he matches into these tight group of other Joomla addicts. He is a great businessman and spell binder for sure. But during the last months he convinced me that he is the right person as vice president. He brings in a different, more business and success oriented view and this is something strongly needed in Joomla. It helps us focusing on the real topics and brings a strategic vision, instead of pseudo-debates and non-sense. He did also a great job of spreading the Joomla word throughout the world.

He fits good in his new role and needs more time to set his own accents.

I don't see who else could be VP.

He has done a lot for the project, I had a chat with him in his office in Krakow and I believe there is a lot the project can benefit from his knowledge and expertise.

“I admit to having my initial doubts as to Aleks' motivations, but having seen him in a board room situation and as the result of subsequent conversations with him, I now truly believe that his intentions are for the good and improvement of the project as a whole. Although guaranteed not to agree with him on some things, I look forward to seeing how he can help shape our future should he secure an additional 1 year term.”

Brian Teeman

Nomination Comments

“he is a very engaged in the community and has the required skills”

Statement from the Candidate:

I am not a developer, I am not a marketeer, I am not a blogger, I am not a public speaker, I am not an event organiser, I am not a CEO. I am much more than things than I am not. I am all of these and none of these.

I am in my 50th year and for 35 of those I have been closely involved in community and volunteer organisations both inside and outside of the tech community. I am not a developer but I have "scratched my own itch (https://issues.joomla.org/activity/user/joomla-cms)" and learned as much as I can in order to help make joomla more powerful and yet still easy to use.

I am not ashamed to say that I value "open source" above everything and believe that it is only through communal activity will humanity progress and we will see equality for all.

I'm independent and can make my own decisions. I strongly believe that everyone has the ability to think for themselves and the right to question what other people are saying if they don't think it's right. I don't always agree with any party and that's important. We need people to stand up and speak out.

We should never hide behind "I am just a volunteer (See here)" - that is never an excuse for not striving to achieve excellence. This does not mean that we have to introduce layers of bureaucracy and signed agreements to achieve this.

I believe in radical transparency. In an open source, community run, organisation there is rarely a need for anything to take place behind closed doors. The now regular reports on the volunteer portal are a great improvement but we can do much more.

Joomla has a great future ahead, but only if we all stand up and contribute. Standing on the sidelines and throwing popcorn or waiting for others to stand up and do something will never achieve anything. We can and should be doing much more in all areas of Joomla to increase engagement and contribution. We should and must look at removing barriers to entry and make it even easier for those that wish to contribute.

Treasurer

Mike Demopoulos

Nomination Comments

Mike has done an amazing job with this position IMO, both with being fiscally prudent but more being very responsive with getting approved expenses refunded in a timely manner.

He did a good job in the last period

He is good Treasurer, committed to the Joomla! Project, dealing with budget is not an easy position and I think that Mike is the right person for this position on the board, and he should be elected for another term.
Mike is simply amazing managing finances and complying all the needed stuff. Being treasurer is not an easy task, but Mike is really good in that.

I think we all can agree that he has proven to be perfect for this role

Mike has been a great Treasurer for Joomla and should continue this role

Mike is an excellent treasurer and the key point, when it comes to financial and legal questions on the board and in Joomla in general. He is the one, that made the 2017 budget possible, keeping an eye on the whole, like trademarks etc. and convincing people to look over their own department interests and care for Joomla as a whole. Whenever you do a reimbursement Mike is processing it within mostly some hours, latest one or two days and you get your money back almost immediately. Being treasurer is an enormous amount of work and requires a lot of dedication. Mike brings all of this and a lot more, so VOTE for him if you want to continue this success!

I never heard something negative about him and in my opinion, he's doing a great job.

He is doing a good job as treasurer and has the required skills for the role.

He has brought this department back to life, he responds to issues promptly and I believe we should give him a chance at what he is doing.

Mike is a stickler for detail. He crosses his t's and dots his i's without fail. This is exactly what we need in a treasurer.

Next Steps:

Department Coordinator Election Process

Voting Ballots for Department Coordinators will be sent to Team Leaders in the 3 departments in this election cycle to vote for their Department Coordinator.
- Voting will close after 7 days or when all votes have been received, whichever is sooner. Should an eligible vote not be cast within the 7 day voting period it will be recorded as an abstention.
- Votes will be tallied and announcement of newly elected Department Coordinators will be posted approximately 48 hours after voting closes.
- The transition period will then begin for any newly elected Department Coordinators with their official term commencing on the 23rd September 2017

Officer Election Process

Voting Ballots will be going out to those who vote for Officer roles within the next day.
- Team Lead and Department Coordinator Votes.
  - Voting will close after 7 days or when all votes have been received, whichever is sooner. Should an eligible vote not be cast within the 7 day voting period it will be recorded as an abstention.
  - The votes for each department are tallied and the winning candidate for each role within the department becomes the department's vote.
- Officer Votes.
  - All 4 existing officers will also vote for a candidate for each Officer role.
  - Voting will close after 7 days or when all votes have been received, whichever is sooner. Should an eligible vote not be cast within the 7 day voting period it will be recorded as an abstention.
- The 4 Officer votes will be added to the Department Votes and the winning candidate from these votes will duly be elected.
- The announcement of newly elected officers will be posted approximately 48 hours after voting closes.
- The transition period will then begin for any newly elected Officers with their official term commencing on the 23rd September 2017

Reference:

OSM Bylaws: https://www.opensourcematters.org/organisation/by-laws-policies.html
Joomla! Election Cycle: https://www.opensourcematters.org/organisation/directors/election-cycle.html

Thank you!

Details: Published: 05 August 2017