Hi everyone,

Its time to start our second election of the Board. I think this is very 
important - I think that having an elected board has significantly 
improved some things about how the community works:
1. We have been able to tackle projects that previously did not have 
enough consensus, such as the relicensing of Squeak and an open process 
for stewardship of the release process.
2. We have a solid basis for trust and diversity in our board, where 
before the composition of the leadership may have seemed somewhat haphazard.

I personally think we had a pretty kick-ass board this last year. While 
it got off to a somewhat quiet start, recently there have been quite 
regular meetings of the board, with updates to the mailing list, and 
additions to the board agenda regularly solicited. Do you agree this 
worked well? do you think you can do better?

Well, this is your opportunity. Starting today, and for the next 2 weeks 
(until 18th February '07), candidates for the Squeak board are invited 
to announce themselves on this mailing list. If you do not wish to run 
yourself, but would like to see either a particular Squeaker as a 
candidate, or you want something about this election or board term to 
happen differently than is described below, right now is the time to 
start discussing right on this list. If you are not sure how to go about 
it, feel free to send a mail to the elections team mailing list, or me 
personally.

In particular, when applying, candidates are encouraged to mention their 
background, general reasons for running, and particular plans if they 
get elected. Other candidates and all squeakers are invited to pose 
additional questions.

What happens then? the following is our planned schedule, and we don't 
expect it to change much.
For 2 weeks starting from the 18th, prospective voters are asked to make 
sure they are registered. Remember that the basic criterion for voting 
is having an SqP account that is validated at least to the Apprentice 
level. This is also a good time to talk to other Squeaker communities 
and get them involved. As in the previous elections, we will accept 
votes from other communities, but to waive the SqP requirement, we need 
a well known representative of this community to contact us at the 
elections mailing list.

The voters list will be finalized on the 3rd of March, and the CIVS 
(http://www.cs.cornell.edu/andru/civs.html) election started. The 
election will run for 3 days, and the results announced on March 7th, 2007.

Daniel Vainsencher and the Elections team