Hi all,
I've been overdue in publishing proposed bylaws for GO::DH. You can now see them here: http://www.globaloutlookdh.org/proposed-bylaws/
Because GO::DH is an experiment in global community building (and ADHO SIG development) we began the year without bylaws and set establishing some as a main task for the founding executive. Over the course of the last six months or so, the executive and the smaller steering group of officers has been developing a set of bylaws to establish governance, elections, and all the other things a community needs if it is to thrive.
The initial work was led by Barbara Bordalejo, who did some research on the bylaws and comparable scholarly societies and communities. She wrote a first draft based on those at digitalmedievalist.org. These were then heavily revised by the steering group, the bylaws committee, and subsequently the larger executive. The results of that process is available at the website.
Since we currently don't have any bylaws, the approval process is not clear. In the absence of any other rules, my proposal is that we open these bylaws up for discussion on the general list for the next two weeks. If they prove uncontroversial and it appears that there is a consensus in favour of their adoption, then, at the end of the two weeks, we as a community will delegate the Executive to make any final editorial changes and approve them on our behalf. If, on the other hand, it appears they are unsatisfactory in some way or that we are not developing a consensus in their favour, we will ask the executive to begin a consultation process with a goal of resolving such differences as quickly as possible and proposing a compromise set of bylaws for a vote by the entire mailing list membership.
If the bylaws pass over the next two weeks, then the next step will be soliciting nominations for the new Executive as described in the bylaws. The elections to the Executive are required to be finished by Feb. 1, 2014.
Please do not be shy about discussing this proposal. Feel free also to distribute information about it widely and to offer translations and/or paraphrases.
-dan