As newly appointed Chair of the Board, I hereby approve and announce the special election of the Hildon Foundation Council.

After much debate, a compromise position has been achieved within the HiFo Board of Directors to move forward in a way which we hope allows the community full choice in where we are going. This agreement is to hold an election of the Hildon Foundation Council (HFC), to run parallel with the Maemo Community Council (MCC) election, following the same election rules and criteria used for the MCC election.

The elected HFC can then form the proper election and membership criteria to be used for future elections of the Hildon Foundation, including elections of the Board of Directors. This would allow legally compliant Board elections shortly after the criteria is released, in a way similar to the "waterfall" vote happening with the referendum on MCC rules.

An important notice from the Chair:
As an explanation on why this is happening, I'd like to clarify by saying the following. Some of the current Board would prefer to see two bodies (two separate Council), while others feel this is not needed. To allow the community to make this choice, potential candidates may nominate themselves for either or both elections, and voters will be able to vote for the same or different candidates. The Board discussion on this topic, in the last Board meeting, can be listened to here, time-index 1:16:08.

Note that this is not an election for Hildon Board of Directors, and that an election for that body will happen some time after HFC sets the criteria for membership, nominations, and elections of that body.