2023 Elections - Plan & Organization

Owned by Xavier Antoviaque
Last updated: May 18, 2023
6 min read

Copied from the original document.

Schedule

The charter specifies the following schedule:

  • September 1: Nominations & voting registration opens

  • September 30: Nominations & voting registration closes

  • October 7: Voting opens, ballots are sent to eligible voters, nominated candidates are announced with a link to their program

  • October 25: Voting closes

  • November : Announcement of the results

  • January 1: Terms begin

Aug 26

Pre-election checklist

Checklist of items to complete before the beginning of the election:

Reaching out to key Open edX instances for announcements

  • Write a draft of the email to be sent to instances owners

    • Review & approve draft

  • Get/build a list of the main major instances, with contact emails to reach out to

  • Ask to ask their clients:

    • Main Open edX instances, edX & tCRIL partners

    • Providers

  • Write a draft of an email to be sent to core contributors (getting them to obtain approval internally & from their clients)

    • Also mention that they will automatically be registered for the CC vote, they don’t need to do anything

Sep 1

Announcement: 2023 Elections

Includes:

  • Nominations & voting registration opens

  • Public call to the community to relay the info about the election

    • Open edX announcements used for publishing the call: Forum announcement + mention in blog posts about the election

    • Provide an email to the instance managers, to coordinate/review the announcements, and ask questions

  • Mention election schedule & timelines

    • Include the required timing for those who also need to become core contributors. From Sarina: “OEP-54 states that nomination threads must be open for at least two weeks, and that a nominee (or sponsor) must present evidence that the nominee has demonstrated the 3C's. Two weeks before the 30th is September 16th. I might suggest that we ask them to submit no later than Monday September 12th,”

Checklist

Sep 26

Announcement: Reminder

  • Announcement: Last chance to register to vote!

  • [Bonus / not done] Organize 2nd test vote with the CCs list as the test voters? Which can also help confirm we have the right emails for everyone

Sep 30

Review voters registrations & candidatures

Oct 7

Announcement: Start of vote & publication of lists

  • Publish lists of accepted candidates & voters

  • Provide instructions on how to vote

  • Publish the list of confirmed voters (including the current list of core contributors & maintainers registered to vote)

List of nominated candidates

The candidate list is the same on both polls.

Candidate

Core Contributor

Accepted

Ignacio (Nacho) Despujol Zabala

Yes

Yes

Régis Behmo

Yes

Yes

Andrés González

Yes

Yes

Xavier Antoviaque

Yes

Yes

Stefania Trabucchi

Yes

Yes

Felipe Montoya

Yes

Yes

Samuel Paccoud

Yes

Yes

Oct 25

  • Voting closes

November

Voter registration

Form fields

  • Full name & email address

  • Public profile URL

  • Address of instance/course used, along with a URL showing a proof of the role held (teacher, operator, etc.)

  • Accepting a Code of conduct

  • Accepting the publication of the information provided in the form in the public list of voters (Full name, address of the instance of the course published, etc.)

  • Data use/purpose statement

  • CAPTCHA

Requirements

  • Operators & core community representative: all active core contributors are eligible to vote

  • Instructors & learners representatives: are eligible to vote all instructors using Open edX to publish a course; any individual producing or running a currently active course on Open edX, including Teaching Assistants (TAs) and course content authors.

List of criteria for reviewing voter registrations

A voter registration is considered valid if and only if the information the voter provides:

  • Matches the descriptions for each required field of the voter registration form

  • Demonstrates a role matching the charter’s criteria: “are eligible to vote all instructors using Open edX to publish a course; any individual producing or running a currently active course on Open edX, including Teaching Assistants (TAs) and course content authors.”

  • Appear genuine on a superficial review - it would be too time consuming to review each in depth, a quick review should already be dissuasive. If some information appears to be suspicious or missing, the reviewer can reach out to the voter applicant to ask for clarification or additional information.

    • If the reviewer is unsatisfied with the answer or documents provided, the voter registration can be refused, indicating the missing proof. Generally we would err on the side of accepting voters, unless cheating/spamming is suspected.

Candidatures

Candidature presentation during vote

  • Focus on the program presented, less the person (which many won’t know): put forward the goals described concisely by the candidate, rather than a long intro; let candidates pick a title for their candidature, which is shown front and center, rather than using their name.

  • Dedicated page separate from the voting tool?

    • Simple static wiki page

    • Put the candidates side by side, to allow to compare and rank them easily (no need to develop UX specifically for this, but anything that makes the voter’s work easier is good!)

    • Only include the short fields from the candidature post on the page, i.e. the ones that can be compared quickly while ranking the whole list: picture/avatar, title (1-5 words), goals summary for the 2023 term (<40 words), time commitment (in hours/month). 

    • For the other fields, include them as a “Read more” link to the candidate’s candidature forum post.

    • Post the design for community review (review open 21 - 28 Sep)

    • Implement any change requests and add candidate information: 29 Sep - 6 Oct

Requirements

  • Be active core contributors or maintainers designated by the Open edX Project (OEP-54 & OEP-55). Any core contributor would qualify, including non-technical roles.

  • Be nominated by currently active core contributors or maintainers, including nominating themselves. Anyone can suggest a nomination, but it needs to be posted or endorsed by at least one core contributor who isn’t the nominee.

  • Have their candidature individually approved by the TOC

  • Have the technical expertise necessary to carry out the TOC responsibilities;

  • Have expertise with the Open edX Platform or similar learning technologies, for example (but not limited to) individuals who have contributed code or documentation that has been merged into the codebase in the past 12 months or who are responsible for the technical direction of an Open edX Platform instance (e.g., CTO or lead developer of a site powered by the Open edX Platform);

  • Comply with the Charter and applicable NP and TOC policies and procedures as updated from time to time (e.g., Code of Conduct, antitrust policy, etc.)

  • Be willing to serve a 1-year term.

  • No more than three (3) members can be affiliated with the same organization.

Votes

Anti-spam & anti-cheating measures

  • To prevent fraud, some additional anti-spam measures can be put in place, such as restricting to 1 vote per IP, as long as they are described publicly.

  • People who qualify for voting for multiple voters categories can vote multiple times (once per voter category)

Poll creation options

Ways to contribute

  • Register to vote or become a candidate

  • Relay the news about the election

  • Participate to a test vote

  • Review the plan