The Drupal Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the Drupal community with funding, infrastructure, events, promotion and distribution. The current Board of Directors was elected a year ago, so it's election time again!
On February 17 we will elect new Permanent Members (the General Assembly is comprised of all the Permanent Members) and our third Board of Directors (the Board of Directors is appointed by the General Assembly and is responsible for day-to-day operations). All the details can be found in the Drupal Association's Statutes and on the 2009 election website.
In its second year of operation, the pace of the Drupal Association's work has accelerated notably. We (i) extended the drupal.org infrastructure, (ii) raised funds, (iii) helped organize two international Drupal conferences, (iv) resolved many licensing questions, (v) funded several events, and (vi) made the Drupal.org redesign a top priority. Despite the progress made in 2008, we would like to ramp up our professionalism and increase our activity in 2009.
We are looking for people that want to become a Director on the Drupal Association's Board of Directors and who can provide leadership and experience to expand the reach of the Drupal Association and its activities. All current Board positions, except the Secretary, are up for election, including President, Treasurer, Legal Officer, Marketing and Communications, Infrastructure Manager, Fundraiser, and Events Coordinator. The Association is also looking for new members with skills in marketing, local user group coordination, drupal.org webmaster coordination, project management and more.
People interested in becoming a Permanent Members are also invited to apply. While Permanent Members don't have the full responsibilities of board members, we expect them to take on regular work for the Association. Work done by Permanent Members include a wide range of activities, from processing member applications to assisting with Association projects like the drupal.org upgrade project to managing drupal.org infrastructure.
The Drupal Association is solely run by unpaid volunteers and we expect that our board members will spend a considerable amount of time working on Association responsibilities and obligations. If you think you're a good candidate, and you have the time it takes, find an existing Permanent Member to support your candidacy and submit your application. Applications are due by February 10 and on February 17, we elect the new Permanent Members and the new Board of Directors.
If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask them in the comments, or to contact the Drupal Association.
As the current president of the Drupal Association, I'll post my personal reflections, vision and wishlist for the Drupal Association in a follow-up blog post within the next couple of days. I expect that other Permanent Members will do the same, so keep an eye on the Drupal Association Planet as well as the Drupal Planet.
Comments
A personal note on supporting candidates
As Dries points out, this year we have a requirement for an existing permanent member to support your application (this is actually in our statutes, so technically we are adhering closer to this now than we did last year). Someone in IRC just pinged me to ask if I would sponsor them, so I figured I'd comment here what I said to them so that I don't have to keep repeating myself. ;)
Personally (I'm speaking for myself, webchick, here, and not on behalf of the entire Drupal Association), I am only interested in sponsoring applications from individuals who have specific goals they'd like to achieve while on the Association, and a solid plan of a attack to get there. We have many permanent members, all of whom are great Drupal contributors, but most of whom don't have a particular "itch" that they're actively scratching in their current position. I'd like to see more self-starting, non-swamped-by-other-obligations, goal-focused volunteers in the ranks of the Drupal Association, and my votes will be cast in that direction as well. IMO, being on the Drupal Association, even as "just" a permanent member, should be a "working" position, and is a responsibility that needs to be taken very seriously.
Makes sense...
I agree webchick! I also would like to know where "the money goes."
I'm glad that we're adhering to those statutes this year.
Conservative with expenditures
We are very conservative with our expenditures. The fund raising we've done has gone to hardware purchases, creating pools of capital for Drupalcons, the Drupal.org redesign effort, and now capital and expenses to launch a new Drupal branded store.
Kieran Lal
Drupal association fund raiser
Kieran Lal
expenditures are transparent
The Board of Directors either votes on individual expenditures (if they're significant), or on a budget for Directors to work with given they have put forward a detailed outline of planned expenses. All Permanent Members (i.e. the General Assembly), although not entitled to vote on these matters directly if they are not Board Members, are continuously kept informed on income and expenses, and are given a budget overview before each Board meeting. They can (and sometimes do) voice concerns, which the Board of Directors definitely takes into account. At the yearly meeting of the General Assembly, Permanent Members vote on the yearly budget.
The main sources of income are memberships, donations, targeted fundraising campaigns, Google SoC, book royalties and DrupalCon registration fees and sponsorships. The main expenses this year were, as Kieran wrote, DrupalCons, the drupal.org redesign and hardware. Other (minor) expenses are for example legal, accounting and bank fees.
Dries Knapen
Drupal Association Treasurer
supporting! i will apply to
supporting! i will apply to join
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Drupaluser.org---Sea water droplets together
Wow, I'm sort of new to
Wow, I'm sort of new to Drupal, how long have you guys been doing this election process? I'm actually very impressed, this is very professional. It would appear to someone like me looking in that Drupal is run like a company that's listed on the DJIA. Very impressive.
Also, best of luck to the candidates! hehe
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Scott Winston - CEO of Bonita Window Treatments Inc.
Phone: 239-415-4410 | Estero, Florida
third election round
The Drupal Association was founded in December 2006. The first General Assembly and Board of Directors were elected in January 2007 (so there was an interim period of about a month where only the 4 founders were in charge). A second round of elections was held in January 2008, during which the size of the General Assembly was substantially increased. Next month's elections are the third in row.
Candidacy
I submitted my candidacy at http://buytaert.net/dries-for-president-2009.
How to get help preparing an application
See http://association.drupal.org/node/296 and other articles listed there for some tips and ideas.
And hang out in IRC in #drupal-candidates in freenode on February 9 and February 10. We'll try to have permanent members and board members there to answer your questions, help you with applications, and hook you up with potential sponsors for your application. If you're new to IRC, see these pointers on drupal.org.
Look forward to talking with you!