Any member of the GNOME Foundation can suggest a referendum. To be accepted, a request for a referendum must be endorsed by 10% of the Membership. The overall referendum process is overseen by the Membership and Elections Committee, which can be reached at elections@gnome.org.
In September 2005, some Foundation members discussed a possible reduction of size of the GNOME Foundation board of directors. The discussion took place on foundation-list@gnome.org. After much discussion, a petition was made to request a referendum. More than 10% of the Membership signed the petition.