Busy month for IGDA board

IGDA co-chair resigns

August was a busy month for the volunteers of the IGDA's board of directors. They elected Tobi Saulnier as co-chair. A task force planned the special meeting to vote to remove Doctor Tim Langdell. The board set a date for the special meeting. Bob Bates resigned as co-chair to work on a personal project. Shortly after, Doctor Tim Langdell resigned as well. This cancelled the special meeting and leaves two vacancies to fill next year.

The purpose of abandoned special meeting was to vote on the removal of Doctor Langdell from the board. More than 10% of the membership petitioned the board to call it. These members felt the public dispute between Doctor Langdell's Edge Games and independent developers Mobigame was damaging our association. Doctor Langdell ignored calls for his resignation on the forums. Calling a meeting to vote on his removal therefore became the only way to resolve this problem.

This (I think) was the first attempt to remove a board member in the history of the IGDA. The by-laws of the IGDA allow two ways to call a special meeting: either by the chair of the board of directors or by a petition of at least 10% of the membership. I wrote to the chair Bob Bates in July to ask him to call the meeting. He did not. A petition was therefore the only remaining option.

Corvus Elrod of the writing SIG funded an Internet petition of IGDA members to call the meeting. It took a few weeks for the petition to reach the target. With 10% of the membership calling for a special meeting, the board were finally forced to act.

The IGDA's by-laws are vague on the details of holding such a meeting, so the board arranged for a task force to create a plan. And when the planning was complete, they announced the details of the meeting: members would vote through the web site; Doctor Langdell and Corvus would each post a statement and rebuttal; and, the board would announce the results at the main IGDA office. But, with the resignation of Doctor Langdell, the special meeting was no longer needed.

• Tobi Saulnier elected co-chair
• Task force plans special meeting
• Special meeting announced
• Bob Bates resigns
• Doctor Langdell resigns
• Petition of members presented to the board
• IGDA's Tim Langdell and Mobigame title Edge
• The IGDA by-laws
• I ask Bob Bates to call a special meeting
• Corvus Elrod of the writing SIG
• IGDA's writing SIG
• Corvus start the petition