The TYPO3 Association opens up to its members

The TYPO3 Association has been striving for more transparency. In a workshop a plan has been created to enable more involvement of the TYPO3 Association members. After approval this will go into effect in 2012.2

As announced at the last General Assembly (GA)¹, the Board and Steering Committee together with a legal expert from BDO² have been working together on a complete overhaul of the by-laws. The main objectives were:

• more decision making power through voting for all members

• stringent division of power

• better distribution of workload among functionally dedicated bodies

At the most recent Combined Steering Committee and Board meeting (CoSCoB), which also doubled as an extraordinary GA at beginning of May in Dusseldorf, the new by-laws have been approved. The new by-laws are now being reviewed by the Swiss authorities, which have to accept them before they can come into effect at the  next General Assembly in February 2012.

What you will find as the major organizational difference is that the Steering Committee will no longer exist. It‘s place will be taken by the Expert Advisory Board, which will be elected by the members directly. This Expert Advisory Board will then elect the Board, which will continue to focus on daily business of running the organization.

The Expert Advisory Board has the main purpose of deciding on the annual budget, but is bound to poll all members on their opinion on the budget applications handed in for the respective year as a guideline.
Contrary to the current Steering Committee, members of the Expert Advisory Board cannot at the same time apply for funding.

Effectively that also means the current Steering Committee has ousted itself from the Association. This step is due to the belief that the time is right for letting the organization become more mature and independent of it‘s founders.

The new by-laws will come into effect at the new GA, meaning the election of the Expert Advisory Board and half of the Board will happen according to the new by-laws by then for the first time. The first annual budget will be decided upon by the expert advisory board (guided by the member‘s poll results) for the fiscal year of 2013.

The Business Control Committee will continue to exist under the new by-laws and keeps it‘s focus on reviewing expenses and accounting.

All in all that means the Association‘s bodies will be open to any member willing to run for an office, as long as they can gather enough votes to be elected.

Those with a strong penchant for strategic thinking and deep knowledge of TYPO3‘s main objectives should think about taking up responsibility within the Expert Advisory Board.

Those with business administration knowledge and organizational skills should run for office as members of the Business Control Committee.

The Board will remain the place for practitioners with very good problem-solving skills in it‘s respective areas of expertise and activity.

It‘s highly recommended to read the draft for the new by-laws (it remains a draft until the authorities approve it) and the accompanying introduction at the Association website membership area.
<link http: association.typo3.org how-it-works _blank>association.typo3.org/how-it-works/ (bottom of the page - By-laws proposal by the "Perestroika Project")

=======================