Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Geocaching Australia governance issues
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Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by caughtatwork » 02 July 15 2:11 pm

These are the terms of reference for the 2015 senators.
The senate will be formed by 1 member from each state in Australia and New Zealand and the Geocaching Australia developers. This will result in a maximum of 10 senators representing two countries plus any developers who are on board. A state need not be represented, but should a state be not represented, they will continue unrepresented until the next election. In the event of a senator standing down, that state will continue unrepresented until the next election.

Senators will serve a term of around 12 - 24 months or until a new Senate election is held. Senators may stand aside at any time. Senators are eligible for re-election for every election. Nominations will be called for approximately 1 month prior to elections and vote will be taken for any state where there is more than one nomination. The senator will be elected on a "first past the post" result. Nominations must come from the nominee.

Governance of the website and the way that Geocaching Australia continues in the Australian geocaching space will be a collaborative effort between the senate and the developers. Voting in the Senate will be on a "first past the post" result. In the event of a tie further discussion and voting will take place.

When 50% +1 or more of the senators and developers choose an option, it will be considered a decision. Senators may "opt out" of voting, however their "opt out" vote will not be taken into consideration. Senators may not proxy their vote to another senator. e.g. If only 9 senators vote and there are 5 FOR and 4 AGAINST, then the YES vote will be considered to the the decision even though there are senators who did not express a preference either way.

Major decisions in terms of the direction of the website should be proposed to the senate who will help to formulate the acceptance or rejection of the position to be adopted and guide the website towards achieving that goal. This is done though the Geocaching Australia Senate forum.

Enhancements to the functionality of the website where a function pre-exists do not need approval of the senate. e.g. Additional statistical data or data feeds to other sites.

Enhancements to the functionality of the website where a function does not currently exist may be provided to the senate for review and discussion.

Concepts for rewards programs shall be provided to the senate in confidence for review and discussion.

Our current philosophy is "free and open" which is the desire of the founders for a geocaching website where there will never be mandatory payment for access to geocache data and the data of the website can be openly shared to other websites. Data will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 deed. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ This is already agreed to when a cacher lists their cache at Geocaching Australia.

Funding of the website will be via voluntary donations or from the profit on the sale of token goods.

The role of Senator is not onerous and decisions are only likely to be taken a few times a year.
If you are interested in nominating yourself for a Senate role, indicate your nomination in this thread. If you would like to promote yourself, do so at the time your nominate.

SELF nominations ONLY please.

Senators will be announced or elections will commence around end July 2015.

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by LouiseAnn » 02 July 15 4:03 pm

Since Victoria didn't have a senator last round, I would like to nominate myself. I feel anyone is better than no one. If another more qualified Victorian would like to put themselves up, I would happily stand aside for them.

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by firnsy » 03 July 15 11:27 pm

I'd like to nominate as the senator for Western Australia. Having lurked around GCA for a few years now, I have started to participate more in GCA caching lately. I enjoy what GCA has to offer and would like to contribute to its ongoing success.

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by Richary » 03 July 15 11:43 pm

I will put my hand up again, having previously been a Senator until the 2011 elections when Big Matt took over the role. And let me say there is no criticism of him in any way at all and he is a great advocate for caching and someone I respect a great deal as a person and a GC approver.

I would be quite happy for him to continue in the role, my nomination is just to provide an alternative if people want a change. And I won't be offended if I get hammered in any voting.

My qualifications? I found my first cache in 2003 and have over 5000 finds and closing in on 1000 on GCA. Treasurer of Geocaching NSW for a few years. I'm not obsessed by caching but love doing it, not in it for the numbers (I haven't been out the last 2 weekends) but prefer to find a good hide in a good spot than a micro under a railing for no other reason than there was a railing.

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by fluffyfish » 04 July 15 11:27 pm

I would like to second firnsy's nomination. This was mentioned at the Perth GCA event and everyone seemed supportive of firsny representing the state.

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by MavEtJu » 05 July 15 7:51 pm

Is there a historical and current overview of the senators?

Also there is in the forums and website little to find what they do or have done (maybe it's there but just not found by me) so it's hard to determine the whats-and-hows on it.

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by caughtatwork » 05 July 15 8:24 pm

The Geoaching Australia Senate forum is the forum where the public senate information is published. http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewforum.php?f=24 As you'll see there is no much required from the senators. Only a few decisions as to website direction. I hope that more input and requests for change will drive a harder working senate in the future although the workload will still by very, very light.

There have been only 2 sets of senators. The original set based on a potential sponsorship opportunity in 2008 and the 2nd set established by vote in 2011.

Current senators are:
firesafe (South Australia)
ruzzelz (Queensland)
Cheesy pigs (Tasmania)
Bewilderbeest (ACT)
Big Matt and Shell (New South Wales)
Papa Bear_Left (Western Australia)
caughtatwork and CraigRat as developer are automatically senate representatives.

Prior to this the senators where:
Papa Bear_Left
richary
Pesky!
Rhinogeo
roundcircle
Jardry
pjamesk
Snuva
totalube
zactyl
winglen
caughtatwork
CraigRat
riblit

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by MavEtJu » 05 July 15 9:56 pm

caughtatwork wrote:The Geoaching Australia Senate forum is the forum where the public senate information is published. http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewforum.php?f=24
Yeah that was what I found and except for three postings over the time of four years it was pretty empty and as such I wondered if I was missing something somewhere or that it really was not much to do. I admit I'm spoiled with the (1 or 3) monthly reports from various open source projects I'm involved in and as such was looking for something like that.

Considering that Richardy already put his hand up there is not much I want to do to interfere and make things worse, but I'm always willing to give my opinion on things (try to make me not do it!).

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by Richary » 05 July 15 10:43 pm

Team MavEtJu wrote:Considering that Richardy already put his hand up there is not much I want to do to interfere and make things worse, but I'm always willing to give my opinion on things (try to make me not do it!).
Well I have done it before, but was happy to pass the role on when Big Matt beat me in an election in 2011. I am just standing so people have a choice as should be the case in a democracy. And if I win always happy to have input from anyone, unlike our elected politicians I'm not in for a party or any personal gain, but to represent the views of NSW cachers. And neither is Big Matt.

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by caughtatwork » 05 July 15 11:06 pm

Team MavEtJu wrote:
caughtatwork wrote:The Geoaching Australia Senate forum is the forum where the public senate information is published. http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewforum.php?f=24
Yeah that was what I found and except for three postings over the time of four years it was pretty empty and as such I wondered if I was missing something somewhere or that it really was not much to do. I admit I'm spoiled with the (1 or 3) monthly reports from various open source projects I'm involved in and as such was looking for something like that.

Considering that Richardy already put his hand up there is not much I want to do to interfere and make things worse, but I'm always willing to give my opinion on things (try to make me not do it!).
We're terribly unofficial. We're so unofficial we don't exist. We're a collective of people who do things for other people with no authority, no payment, no paperwork, all done by goodwill and hopefully benefiting others. Our only real goal is "free and open". We should probably incorporate, but in the 10 years we've been running, there has been no need. We seem to be able to produce an outcome that most of the people can live with. What the senate does is make sure that any direction we take, say with sponsorship or new ideas are aligned to our goal. If they are, we proceed. If not, then we discuss whether the goal should be aligned or whether the idea should be tweaked or discarded. The task of senator is not onerous, but as I'm looking to get things moving, there might be a bit more involvement than in the last couple of years.

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by Big Matt and Shell » 06 July 15 6:24 am

Richary wrote:I will put my hand up again, having previously been a Senator until the 2011 elections when Big Matt took over the role. And let me say there is no criticism of him in any way at all and he is a great advocate for caching and someone I respect a great deal as a person and a GC approver.

I would be quite happy for him to continue in the role, my nomination is just to provide an alternative if people want a change. And I won't be offended if I get hammered in any voting.

My qualifications? I found my first cache in 2003 and have over 5000 finds and closing in on 1000 on GCA. Treasurer of Geocaching NSW for a few years. I'm not obsessed by caching but love doing it, not in it for the numbers (I haven't been out the last 2 weekends) but prefer to find a good hide in a good spot than a micro under a railing for no other reason than there was a railing.
Thanks Richary. I think NSW could do with a change of view and I have no plans to run against you. It's been fun for the last 5 years (It appears I started in March 2010 and was then voted in March 2011.) The senators role has been pretty quiet with the occasional question about direction of the site. I'd welcome anyone to put their hand up.

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by crew 153 » 06 July 15 9:53 pm

I will put up my hand as the Queensland delegate. I have talked to Ruzzelz and he has not been active on GCA for a while now.

I have not placed any GCA caches as I don't consider that the GCA community in Queensland is active enough to sustain GCA caches.

I run PQs on all the states and New Zealand which I upload to the GCA database to help out the fairies.

I have been caching for almost 11 years now and have always found GCA caches wherever I can.

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by ruzzelz » 06 July 15 10:20 pm

I will not be re-nominating for the GCA Senate for 2015 as it is time to allow others to contribute to the Geocaching Community. :| :(

I fully endorse Crew153’s nomination for the Senate. I cannot think of another Queensland geocacher who has so actively promoted and used GCA for geocaching activities. =D>

I’d like to thank the Queensland geocachers who overwhelming endorsed my nomination in the first instance. :D

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by Richary » 07 July 15 12:44 am

Big Matt and Shell wrote:Thanks Richary. I think NSW could do with a change of view and I have no plans to run against you. It's been fun for the last 5 years (It appears I started in March 2010 and was then voted in March 2011.) The senators role has been pretty quiet with the occasional question about direction of the site. I'd welcome anyone to put their hand up.
Thanks Matt, I think you have done a great job.

So if anyone else wants to raise their hand so we have a democratic contest feel free for NSW. It's something I am happy to volunteer for (as you say it's not too onerous), but others may feel they have a more valid input for the job. I guess the only extra input I can give over a lot of others (except Matt) is being privy to any communications to Geocaching NSW from stakeholders if that becomes an issue and I can put that forward.

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Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2015

Post by Bewilderbeest » 08 July 15 7:00 pm

I have enjoyed my time as a GCA senator and hope that I've made a positive contribution. However, given that I'm not very active as a cacher at the moment, I think it's appropriate that I stand aside in favour of someone more committed.

But in the unlikely event that nobody else puts their hand up, feel free to give me a call...

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