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Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 01 June 16 12:05 pm
by caughtatwork
These are the terms of reference for the 2016/2017 (July to June) 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 you nominate.

SELF nominations ONLY please.

Senators will be announced or elections will commence around end June 2016 for a July 2016 to June 2017 period.

Current Senators are welcome to nominate again.

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 02 June 16 11:58 am
by LouiseAnn
I am happy to do this again for Victoria

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 02 June 16 12:29 pm
by ziggiau
Last year I was still a little green but this year I think I've hung around long enough to get the feel of the place. So I'm happy to put my hand up for NSW.

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 02 June 16 11:26 pm
by Sol de Lune
I'd like to continue in the role for the ACT. It's be interesting experience and I hope I've added something to the 'conversation'. Would be good to see some 'herculean' issues through to the end.......

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 02 June 16 11:42 pm
by Richary
ziggiau wrote:Last year I was still a little green but this year I think I've hung around long enough to get the feel of the place. So I'm happy to put my hand up for NSW.
Thanks ziggiau, I am the current NSW Senator and am happy to continue in the role if the community wants (I had also held the role a few years ago) - but it is great that NSW gets a choice. So while I will volunteer to continue I will be happy whichever of us wins as I value the input you provide to the site via the forums and shows your involvement in the hobby. It is up to the punters to decide. And either of us will be a better choice than what the Americans are having to choose between, or even Australia :mrgreen:

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 02 June 16 11:45 pm
by crew 153
I'm happy to continue to represent Queensland.

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 03 June 16 1:38 pm
by ziggiau
Richary wrote:Thanks ziggiau, I am the current NSW Senator and am happy to continue in the role if the community wants (I had also held the role a few years ago) - but it is great that NSW gets a choice. So while I will volunteer to continue I will be happy whichever of us wins as I value the input you provide to the site via the forums and shows your involvement in the hobby. It is up to the punters to decide. And either of us will be a better choice than what the Americans are having to choose between, or even Australia :mrgreen:
Thanks Richard. I'm equally as easy with the decision either way and agree with you that as long as we're flying the Aussie flag, that's the most important thing.

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 03 June 16 2:58 pm
by caughtatwork
If we don't get a full slate of 10 (one per state including NZ), then I'd be perfectly comfortable with the senate changing the senate "bylaws" to have more than one senator from a few states up to about 10 of you. The more we have the better the outcome to be honest.

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 03 June 16 9:01 pm
by Laighside Legends
Happy to put my hand up for SA if no one else wants to...

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 08 June 16 10:14 pm
by firnsy
Happy to put my hand up for WA again

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 25 June 16 2:09 pm
by firnsy
firnsy wrote:Happy to put my hand up for WA again
Change in circumstances: I expect to be moving across the ditch to live in Aotearoa in not-too-distant future, so if someone else wants to put their hand up as WA rep, I will stand down. If not, I'm happy to stay on until such time as someone else from WA expresses an interest.

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 26 June 16 12:30 pm
by LouiseAnn
firnsy wrote:
firnsy wrote:Happy to put my hand up for WA again
Change in circumstances: I expect to be moving across the ditch to live in Aotearoa in not-too-distant future, so if someone else wants to put their hand up as WA rep, I will stand down. If not, I'm happy to stay on until such time as someone else from WA expresses an interest.
Then there can be a NZ rep then :)

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 26 June 16 3:52 pm
by CraigRat
We do need someone to spread the love in the shakies......

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 27 June 16 10:33 pm
by firnsy
Yep, I've been thinking about what I might be able to do to rally the troops over there. Release of a few caches of various GCA-specific types with a bit of a promo at a GC event might get the ball rolling.

A 2016-17 moveable race might provide an opportunity to garner some interest ...

Also, I was wondering what it would take to roll out the Dragon Zone game over there ... not sure how significant it would be from a development perspective, but one thing I do know is that we'd have to change "State Control" to something else, otherwise we'd lose them for sure.

Re: Senate - Call for Nominations for 2016/2017

Posted: 27 June 16 11:45 pm
by firnsy
Back on the main thread ... as I am planning to move in the next couple of months, and will therefore spend the majority of the next senate term in NZ, I hereby nominate as the Senator for New Zealand in 2016/17

Hence, I will stand down as Senator for WA at the end of the current term.