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2005 Election

Election Results

The votes have been tallied:

We had 549 email addresses for eligible voters. Of these, there are 64 bounces, and 59 total ballots returned (of 485 delivered) for a total return of approximately 12%.

So, within the 59 total ballots, there were 276 'votes' cast out of a possible 295 votes. (59 ballots x 5 max candidates.)

There were ten candidates for five positions. The vote tallies are thus:

 Ray Henry              50
 John Kasunich          47
 Alex Joni              40
 Chris Radek            35
 Jon Elson              31
 Matt Shaver            24
 Stephen Wille Padnos   17
 Steve Stallings        15
 Kenneth Lerman         12
 Jonathan Stark          5

So congratulations to the newly elected Board of Directors,

And thank you to Chris Daniel (thalx) for running the election.

Important Dates

Deadline for nominations: 2359 UTC Friday Nov 4

(was extended, but nominations are closed now)

Target date to send out ballots: Sunday Nov 6

Delayed, ballots went out on Sunday Nov 20.

Tentative deadline to return ballots: 2359 UTC Sunday Nov 13

Extended, deadline is now 2359 UTC Sunday Nov 27

Current list of candidates

1.1. Jon Elson
1.2. Ray Henry
1.3. Alex Joni
1.4. John Kasunich
1.5. Kenneth Lerman
1.6. Stephen Wille Padnos
1.7. Chris Radek (cradek)
1.8. Matt Shaver
1.9. Steve Stallings
1.10. Jonathan Stark (zwisk)

Candidates, please indicate whether you are willing to accept the nomination, and if you wish add some background information. I've included IRC handles/email aliases for those that aren't obvious - I suspect that many folks will form their opinions based on their online interaction with the candidates, and it is good to know who is who.

1.1. Jon Elson

seconded: yes

accepted: yes

Background goes here

1.2. Ray Henry

seconded: yes

accepted: yes

Started running the EMC when RedHat? 5.0 was the recommended OS and you had to ask Fred Proctor for a copy of the rt 0.9j patched for real time. I currently have two Sherline mills and a lathe running with the emc. I committed us to the Mazak project during the first annual CNC-Workshop which may disqualify me for any controlling position. I have also served on the EMC Board during the first year and a half of it's existence.

I am not much of a coder although I maintain the tcl/tk guis.

1.3. Alex Joni

seconded: yes

accepted: yes (didn't decline ;-) - (actually I did accept right after the nomination)

I started doing simple stuff (about middle 2004), small bugfixes and changes, but then it started to grow. I've been working on a few areas inside emc:

1. build system I took care of the autoconfigure stuff (which now is part of emc2, emc-bdi4, emc1). Later I did parts on the 2.6 port of emc2 (once I was set on the right track by Paul_C's valuable hints & samples).

2. HAL-related work Did some minor changes to the HAL system, commited some HAL drivers (hal_stg - the long awaited STG driver, hal_tiro - a driver for a DRO board I designed)

3. IO.related I did most of the work on iocontrol (based on simIoControl?), added HAL hooks to that, and support for estop (with aditions from jmk :-), automatic toolchanging, etc.

4. bug-fixes Fixed and closed a few bugs (don't want to remember how many, the code should be perfect imho :)

5. NML-related The parts I've been coding got me very often in contact with the NML messaging system (mostly iocontrol), so I accumulated some knowledge on libnml, not the actual implementation, but the usage inside emc (messages, states, etc.)

I also had some minor incursions into the motion controller (together with jmk we figured out teleop-jogging for non-trivial kinematic machines), into some GUI's (tkemc, mini), did i18n support for tkemc (with a german & romanian translation), task and NML-interface (started to document the NML messages for the NML-rework project).

I haven't touched the interpreter code (only briefly looked at it), and I admit to have little (if almost none) machining experience.

My day job revolves around welding robots (from programming to repairing them), my background is that of a CS graduate (you can see my diploma project http://dsplabs.upt.ro/~juve/yanor/ ), and recently I got a IWE (international welding engineer) degree.

One of the machines I built to use with emc2 is a tripod, you can see some pictures/movies http://dsplabs.upt.ro/~juve/emc/mytoy/ (it's not a serious machine, only a proof of concept, one day I'll build a serious one ~10x10m)

1.4. John Kasunich

seconded: yes

accepted: yes

I'm the lead coder for HAL, the interface used by EMC2 to address hardware configurability and related issues. I also wrote most of RTAPI, the interface to the realtime OS used by EMC2 - it got rid of a lot of messy OS specific code inside EMC proper.

I did a lot of other work on EMC2, mostly in the motion controller, and other low-level code, with minor visits to task and iocontrol. I tend to be pretty vocal in technical discussions, but I admit I don't know the GUIs or interpreter very well, and have little actual hand-on CNC machining experience.

I am a hobby level machinist. I own a Shoptask 3-in-1 that I've been meaning to retrofit with EMC for about 4 years now, but I keep getting caught up in coding and such and never seem to work on my own machine.

I also handle some EMC administrivia. (I'm one of several mailing list admins, for example, and I set up the bug trackers on Soureforge a while back.)

My day job is an electrical engineer (power electronics) designing large industrial VFDs. Many of the same control, safety, etc. principles apply to EMC, so it is usefull experience.

1.5. Kenneth Lerman

seconded: yes

accepted: yes

I'm a mathematician by training (Cornell, class of 1966), was a programmer for more years than I care to count (including a bunch of years as an independent contractor), and am presently involved in building anesthesia machines for veterinary use.

As a programmer, I programmed in assembly language in the early days, but in recent years programmed mostly in C with some work in Objective-C and a small amount in C++. Some of the products I developed included general purpose controllers (with PID control and discrete control), compilers and interpreters (for Objective-C), a telecommunications products. My major skill areas include C, Linux, and real time control.

My EMC experience started when I needed to make some parts for our anesthesia machines. I bought a used Bridgeport clone (for $250) and added Elrod ballscrews and XYZ axis kits. The drive electronics are based on a Picosystems Univ PWM Controller (thanks Jon Elson). Software is BDI. I still need to hook up my VFD, and I'd like to build a probe for the system. Other machines in my two and a half car garage include a Maxturn lathe, a Rivett turret lathe, a 6x6x6 furnace, and a bunch of other stuff that leaves no room for my wife's car.

Early on, I concluded that I was too lazy to write straight line gcode over and over again, so I implemented a group of changes to the interpreter including subroutines, if then else, and do while. The bulk of the code was written sitting on the deck of my brother in laws house in the US Virgin Islands while I was on vacation. I think it's fair to say that I more or less know my way around the interpreter. If an when I buy or build a probe, I'd like to add a coordinate transform capability to EMC. That would let me clamp some stock in place, probe three points, push a button and run my gcode. I'd also like to see a better gui with some wizards, etc. (I just took a look at the Mach screens on their web site today, and have to say I'm impressed.)

For more information, you can see my (two and a half year old) resume at: http://www.se-ltd.com/~lerman/resume-030228.pdf

1.6. Stephen Wille Padnos

seconded: yes

accepted: yes

I have been programming for the past 15 years or so. Most of the work has been on microcontrollers with no OS (hard realtime, very small number of tasks, unchanging priority), though some has been on PCs controlling external hardware. I am fluent in many assembler dialects (15 or so), and C/C++, with a smattering of experience in other languages.

I have had an interest in machining for years, and have operated two CNC machines over the years - one a Bridgeport, and the other a Shoptask with Ah-Ha controls. Neither of these was a full-time job, just part of the general work you do when you're part of a small company.

My recent interest in machining stemmed from the desire to manufacture a line of cooling devices. I found EMC through web searches around a year ago. Since then, I have done most of a retrofit on a Bridgeport milling machine. In the course of this, I have learned a lot (!) about machine tools and controls.

Regarding EMC, I participated in the Programmers Fest this April, and was quite active in IRC and other discussions about architecture and future directions of EMC. Also helping to answer the odd EMC configuration / Linux support question. I am interested in seeing EMC used in a number of areas, including robots and other non-machining applications (Disclaimer: I may have a commercial interest in EMC within the next year or so). I am currently working on a large project, but should be able to spend some time on (a) helping to define directions for EMC; (b) helping code some changes; (c) figuring out how to get people to understand that EMC is a perfectly good machine controller (so they don't have to buy one of the windows-based programs); and (d) improving documentation for the "average user".

1.7. Chris Radek (cradek)

seconded: yes

accepted: yes

Bacground: I'm a hobby machinist with several miniature and full-size machines. I'm a free software activist. I often prefer fixing bugs to doing new development, and I have done this in EMC. I eliminated several long-standing and serious bugs in EMC1 and have helped on occasion with new development in EMC2, but usually only indirectly by helping another developer. Together with Jeff Epler (jepler) I designed and wrote a new user interface, AXIS [1] and this is now available on BDI. It does not do everything the old interfaces can, but it can do some very important things they can't. I don't call it "finished" but it works superbly for my machine, which was my goal, and this is why I bugged jepler for help with it in the first place.

I am available on the irc channel most days and I spend a lot of time helping new EMC users with not only EMC problems but also general Linux problems. I am a long-time UNIX user and administer a variety of UNIX platforms including Linux, professionaly, for a software company in the CAD field. I have been there over ten years. Before that I did CAD work.

Machine work is strictly a hobby for me [2], and I do not have experience in industry, but I think the hobbyist crowd should have an advocate in the Board. I think we should target them, partly but not only because they are often where you find the best and most motivated contributors.

1.8. Matt Shaver

seconded: yes

accepted: yes

Background goes here

1.9. Steve Stallings

seconded: yes

accepted: yes

Electrical engineer by training. Small business owner engaged embedded controls and data communications design work. Became interested in machining when job shops failed to offer reasonable response times to my electronic packaging needs. Started designing and selling CNC interface products a couple of years ago.

Background player in the EMC world. I attend the various meetings and interact with the folks who are working to improve EMC, but I do not yet have EMC running other than on a test bed that comes and goes as needed.

Have provided shared exhibit space for EMC at Cabin Fever and NAMES hobby shows. Provide the hosting for the LinuxCNC.org web site.

1.10. Jonathan Stark (zwisk)

seconded: yes

accepted: yes

My interest in EMC came from by purchase of a 1980 Bridgeport CNC on eBay a few years back. It was previously retrofitted with a Bandit I, which was in disrepair, so I put together my own driver board and went looking for control software, finding EMC.

I'm a reluctant developer; I *want* to be a user of software, but often find myself writing code to get software to work the way I want it to. My goals with respect to EMC are centered around easy of installation and use.

Packages are a big deal to me; I want to see EMC, EMC2, Axis, and patched RTAI kernel packages for the most common linux distributions, including Redhat/Fedora?, Mandrake, Debian, SuSe?, and others. I think that until EMC is packaged and easy for people to install, try, upgrade, and use, that EMC will never come close to it's full potential. This is not an easy or small goal, however.

In the past, I've worked on RPM's for EMC, and in some refactoring of the HAL subsystem. I'm just getting back into EMC, though, after taking a break (from just about everything) to compete in the DARPA Grand Challenge, so those projects are bit out of date right now.


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