The General Assembly is where decisions are taken on everything that has to do with the governance of the project. All members other than Basic members are members of the General Assembly.
3.1 - Powers of the General Assembly
To elect and remove members of the Community Council and Team Leads
To propose the forming or disbanding of Teams
To propose changes to this governance model
3.2. Frequency of meeting
The General Assembly shall meet in ordinary session once a year, ideally at an official Mautic Conference Global event held online, to maximise attendance.
The Community Council may call an extraordinary General Assembly whenever it deems it convenient, and must do so when requested by 10% of the members through the Community Hub platform. The Assembly must take place within 30 calendar days of the request.
The Assembly is convened by the General Assembly Working Group (who exist to organise the General Assembly and oversee the voting process) through an open call on the Community Hub platform, which must contain at a minimum the agenda, location and date and time of the meeting at least 15 calendar days in advance.
Please see the tooling thread where this is explored a bit more - sorry that it’s a bit out of order!
Oof, I missed out explaining that! It would be a working group (I should change the name of that) who are tasked with organising the annual meeting / voting.
It could indeed be online only, that’s an option. The reason I suggest having it at the in-person event is because it would also help to drive up attendance at those events. Having it as hybrid would mean that folks could join remotely as well and we should endeavour to make sure that it is a positive experience however we organise it, for everyone attending!
In terms of how important the online v in person is to me, I’d say probably 4 out of 10. I think it’s helpful to try to support in-person events with things like this happening around the event, and with the hybrid technology we have available we should be able to make sure that we make it a positive experience for folks joining us online. But I also see that it might be better to hold it around our Mautic Conference Global events and therefore be online only. So I’m open to changing that part!
To date, I’ve never seen a hybrid event (online & offline) that wasn’t deceptive. That’s why I’m arguing for it to be online only.
Ideally, it’s good to see each other in real life. I just don’t see how it’s possible for volunteers who don’t necessarily have the means (money + time) to travel to the other side of the planet, not to mention the climate issues.
Could you explain a bit more what you mean by this:
What do you mean by deceptive?
I’m fine with us changing this to suggest that it’s held around the online global conference, perhaps, but I would like to understand what you mean so that we can ensure that we don’t have that issue with a fully online version.
What I mean by “deceptive” is the fact that an event organized in real life AND simultaneously online can NOT by definition deliver the same experience to all participants.
Creating a quality event online is feasible.
Creating a quality event in real life is feasible.
Creating a hybrid event is complex. Even the big TV networks with their considerable resources (in the millions of dollars) can’t manage to create an event with an experience that’s the same for those on the set and those behind the screen.
In my experience, it’s better to focus on organizing an online event that’s accessible to everyone. Particularly for a global community, where travel costs are high to meet up in the physical world (time spent in transport, hotel management, carbon cost of plane tickets, etc.).
Yes that makes a lot of sense, my understanding of deceptive means that there is some kind of foul play, or something is being done which is fraudulent. But it sounds like what you are meaning is that it won’t be easy to create a positive experience both in the room and online.
So yes, for that reason I’m fine with considering revising this to say that we always hold the general assembly, where the entire community needs to be involved, online, as I think it needs to be open and accessible to the widest possible audience.
@pierre_a just to note I have made the suggested edits to this section as discussed. I’ve updated it to say the General Assembly would be held online, and also renamed the Coordination Committee to the General Assembly Working Group and explained that they are tasked with organising the General Assembly and overseeing the voting process.
Hopefully that all makes sense, does this bring us to a point where you’re happy to accept this section?
I recommend that not only an agenda is needed but also a prepared motion that is not altered during the meeting on which they can vote. Agenda’s are prone to change, a motion should be submitted 7 days in advance so people have the chance to read the question and vote.
What if we added some wording to the last point, something like:
The Assembly is convened by the General Assembly Working Group (who exist to organise the General Assembly and oversee the voting process) through an open call on the Community Hub platform, which must contain at a minimum the agenda, location and date and time of the meeting at least 15 calendar days in advance. All motions to be debated must be finalised and uploaded to the Community Hub no later than 7 calendar days in advance to give appropriate time for community review.
