Each year when the board election comes around I have to remember how it works.

By now everyone eligible should have received a password email enabling them to vote. If you have a password and have not yet voted, please do so now. There’s no point in having an election if people don’t vote.

Now, if you do not have a password but think you are eligible to vote, read on…

Only members can vote.

Who is a member? Well, committers who work for a member company or those independent committers who have signed individual committer membership papers.

Apparently some very small number of independent committers go through the process of becoming a member. You should. Its pretty easy. I recently left IBM and became an independent committer. Walking the process to become a member took about 10 minutes and most of that was the time to print and fax the forms.

These forms are different from the committer paperwork that you filled out. Membership is not automatic.

If you hurry, you might be able to get the forms in and processed in time to vote. Why bother? Well, for one, your vote will count for as much as all of IBM’s, Oracle’s, Intel’s, … Votes from committers at member companies are aggregated down into one vote so us independents wield just as much power as the big guys.

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