Jasig-Sakai Joint Working Group Releases Draft Bylaws for Merged Organization

[Josh Baron]

Colleagues,

The Jasig-Sakai Joint Working Group (JWG), which has representation from both the Sakai and Jasig Board of Directors and Executive Directors, has been working since September 2010 to investigate and plan for the merging of our two organizations.  This group met in New York City at the beginning of July (2011) to move forward on a number of tasks related to the merger.  One of the outcomes from this meeting was a working draft of bylaws for the new foundation which we are releasing to our two communities today as means to get feedback, hear concerns and stimulate a broader discussion of the plans.

It is important to stress that this is a DRAFT document that neither Board has yet approved at this point.  As means to improve communication with our communities, the JWG felt it was important and useful to release the document at this early stage rather than waiting for more details to be finalized.  As a result, you will see highlighted notes within the document indicating places were details are still underdevelopment.  We recognize that these are important details that our communities need to see in order to fully understand how the new foundation will operate.  We are very actively working on these and plan to release them over the coming month or two for a similar round of feedback and discussion.

Finally, if you are interested in contributing to the dialog regarding the planned merger, I would encourage you to join the Google Group that was established awhile back for this purpose as we plan to use it for all primary discussions with both communities.  If you have feedback or comments on the bylaws posting these to this list would be the best way of sharing them.  You can join the group by going to: http://groups.google.com/group/jasig-sakai-collaboration.

All of us on the JWG have great respect for the many talented and thoughtful people who make up our communities and are confident that your feedback, questions and ideas will ensure the best possible outcome as we work to finalize these merger details.

URL FOR DRAFT BYLAWS:  http://www.sakaiproject.org/sites/default/files/JWG-BylawsDRAFT-28July2011.pdf

Thanks,

Josh
Chair, Sakai Foundation Board of Directors
Co-Chair, Jasig-Sakai Joint Working Group

-----------------------------
Joshua Baron
Senior Academic Technology Officer
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, New York  12601
(845) 575-3623 (work)
Twitter: JoshBaron

[Chris Coppola]

Thanks for sharing this Josh. I appreciate the opportunity to
comment.

I have just a couple of comments for consideration...

1. Article I (i) & (ii) seem too exclusive. Replacing "educational
Institutions" with something like "educational organizations" might be
more inclusive of the full ecosystem of organizations involved.

2. Article VII (section 6). We might consider including the
"membership" in the statement about representing activities of the
community to the community and public.

Chris.

> URL FOR DRAFT BYLAWS:  http://www.sakaiproject.org/sites/default/files/JWG-BylawsDRAFT-28Jul...

[GSchwartz]

I did not see anything in the draft bylaws explicitly expressing the
relationship between the corporation and intellectual property
created by the projects, or perhaps the communities or communities of
interest.

Article III Section 6 "the Board or its agents may, from time to time,
agree memoranda of understanding with such entities which may include
reciprocal membership arrangements."
Is "agree" a legal term or is another word intended?

Article V Section 2 "(b) The Board may appoint, at its discretion, 3
external members of the Board of Directors."
What specifically is an "external member"?

Gary Schwartz

> URL FOR DRAFT BYLAWS:  http://www.sakaiproject.org/sites/default/files/JWG-BylawsDRAFT-28Jul...

[Yves Epelboin]

Hi,

As a European I do not know enough the law in the US and cannot
comment on these aspects.

However I agree with Gary on the fact that "Open Source" does not
suffice to characterize the statute of the software.

I also agree with Chris that "educational organizations" is a better
wording to characterize the variety of organizations.

Regards

> URL FOR DRAFT BYLAWS:  http://www.sakaiproject.org/sites/default/files/JWG-BylawsDRAFT-28Jul...