Eclipse Bylaw Changes 2011

Voting concluded August 12, 2011 at 4pm EDT. The new Bylaw vote passed. The results were:

• YES: 224
• NO: 5

Here are links to the new Bylaw document:

• Summary of Bylaws changes
• New Bylaws with change bars and comments

The current Bylaws of the Eclipse Foundation have served our community well for a number of years. Changes have been proposed to the Bylaws to prepare them for the future and to reflect current practice. These changes require super-majority (two-thirds plus one) approval of the Membership-at-Large to become effective.

The By-law changes have been unanimously approved by the board and were outlined in the Annual General Members Meeting on March 21, 2011 and then Members Meeting on June 21, 2011.

On July 12, 2011 we initiated an electronic vote of the Eclipse Foundation Membership-at-Large to approve the proposed changes. All Member Company Representatives and Committers should vote on the proposed changes. If you are a Member Company Represenative or Committer Member and did not receive your official voting instructions on July 12, 2011 please contact membership@eclipse.org.

The proposed changes

• Replace the annual Roadmap with an annual community report
• Eliminate the Membership Committee. Make the IP Advisory Committee a Standing Committee
• Delete the Requirements Council
• Put the Architecture Council in charge of future revisions of the Eclipse Development Process
• Delete the requirement for there to be a ratio of Strategic Consumers to Strategic Developers
• Remove the requirement that the AGM be in Q1
• Allow for flexibility in covering expenses
• Sustaining Member board reps need to be a Sustaining Member
• Revisit collapsing votes from same member company to a single vote. Proposed solution: One committer one vote Total number of candidates from the same organization may not exceed one-half (1/2) of the total number of seats available for that year’s annual at-large election

FAQ

Who do I contact for more information? For email questions, please contact membership@eclipse.org. If you would like to speak to someone in North America or APAC, please call Andrew Ross at +1 (613) 614-5772. In Europe and India, please contact Ralph Müller at +49 (177) 449-0460.

How does the voting process work? All Committer Members and Company Representatives are required to vote. Ballots have been sent electronically by email. Committer Members are Committers who work for a Member Company or have completed the Committer Membership paperwork. Each Company Representative vote counts as one vote. Each group of committers for a Member Company also count as a single vote based on a collapsable single vote. Each vote by a Committer who has completed the Committer Membership paperwork and is not working for a Member Company will also count as one vote. The voting process will be open for 30 days until close of business August 11 , 2011. A super-majority of affirmative votes is required for the changes to become effective.

I do not see any of the benefits of membership noted in the Membership Agreement or Bylaws; how do I find out about those? Members all have certain rights and obligations as noted in the Bylaws and Membership Agreement. However, many of the benefits members receive are from programs run by the Eclipse Foundation - thanks to the support of its membership. You can find out about these benefits on the membership benefits page and some of the special programs being run on the special programs page. New benefits and programs are always being added and you can find out about those from your Member Newsletters, Members Meetings, and other information feeds.