openEquella Open Source Governance Rules

(Adopted June 2017)

Roles and Responsibilities

PMC Chair

The Project Management Committee (PMC) chair is elected by a simple majority vote of the membership. The chair shall hold office for a period of one year or until his or her successor is elected and qualified or until his or her earlier resignation or removal. If the chair resigns or is removed the vice-chair will succeed to the chair and serve out the remainder of the former chair’s term. If an election results in a tie between candidates for the position of chair, successive run-off elections will be held until a candidate is elected by a simple majority vote of the membership.

Eligibility: Active PMC member

Responsibilities:

  1. Propose schedule for upcoming releases, propose vote for acceptance and announcement of new releases, send email announcing new releases.
  2. Organize meetings or online discussions when necessary; responsible for assembling agenda.
  3. Serve as meeting/discussions moderator.
  4. Manage and facilitate process of vetting and voting on proposals. Voting results should be summarized in github.
  5. Ensure that outstanding issues/proposals are not forgotten or ignored.
  6. Serve as the PMC’s initial contact point with the outside world.
    • Provide regular, monthly updates to the list of accomplishments on PMC Home page.
  7. Serve as a the list owner and moderator for Equella Open Source mail lists.
  8. Provide summary reports of PMC proposals and decisions.
  9. Oversee PMC documentation in github.

PMC Vice-chair

Elected by a simple majority vote of the membership. The vice chair shall hold office for a period of one year or until his or her successor is elected and qualified or until his or her earlier resignation or removal. If the vice-chair resigns, is removed or replaces a chair who has resigned or been removed a special election will be held to elect a vice chair to serve out the remainder of the term. If an election results in a tie between candidates for the position of vice chair, successive run-off elections will be held until a candidate is elected by a simple majority vote of the the membership.

Eligibility: Active PMC member

Responsibilities:

  1. Assists the chair in executing above duties, including substituting for chair when the chair is unavailable (i.e., vacations, sickness, etc.)
  2. Serve as a Equella-Community list owner.

PMC Active Member

Nominations (or self-nominations) to become members of the PMC should be made privately and directly to the PMC Chair for off-line discussion. Discussion prior to voting and the voting itself is done off-list, among the PMC membership. New members are elected by super majority (e.g., 2/3 of active PMC membership). Announcement of new members is done on-list.

Getting involved in the openEquella community does not require PMC membership. However, involvement in the openEquella community is required to be considered for PMC membership.

Involvement includes:

  • Participate actively in the openEquella email list discussions and deliberations on public and private PMC lists
  • Participate actively in scheduled calls in areas of release management, maintenance, QA, Accessibility, etc.
  • Contribute actively to openEquella planning, design, development, testing, release, etc.
  • Contribute actively to openEquella software maintenance (contribute patches, QA testing, etc.)
  • Contribute actively to community documentation (https://openequella.github.io/ )

There is no set term (“merit never expires”) for PMC members.

PMC Members possesses a binding vote on PMC decisions.

Responsibilities:

  • Participate actively in PMC discussions and deliberations.
  • Contribute actively to openEquella planning, design, development, testing, release, etc.
  • Help maintain PMC documentation.

PMC Member Emeritus

PMC members who fail to participate actively in the work of the PMC over a 12 month period or who are unable to participate in PMC work due to other responsibilities will be accorded “emeritus” (inactive) status and their binding vote will be suspended.

Changes in status from active to emeritus and from emeritus to active will be determined by a simple majority of active PMC members. Status changes can be initiated by request of the PMC member concerned at any time.

Removal of PMC chair and vice-chair

A PMC member, whether active or emeritus, may resign at any time for any reason.

A PMC chair or vice-chair can be removed at any time, with or without cause, by a vote of no confidence comprising a simple majority of active PMC members.

Voting

In general, voting is by lazy consensus:

Vote: Meaning

+1: Approve

0: Abstain

-1: Disapprove

-1 - Votes must be accompanied by a detailed explanation. A single -1 vote based on a material objection will block action. However, -1 blocking votes can be overridden by a 2/3 majority roll call vote of active PMC members.

Voting will be open for a period of 3 working days (Saturdays and Sundays excluded).

Proposals should contain the following text:

As a reminder, this is a public, on-list vote with a “+1” signifying approval. Per our governance documents, a -1 vote must be accompanied by a detailed explanation. A single -1 vote based on a material objection will block action. However, -1 blocking votes can be overridden by a 2/3 majority roll call vote of active PMC members.

Elections

Nominations for Chair and Vice-Chair should be made publicly and can include self-nominations.

If there is only one candidate, the nominee is usually just declared elected.

If a vote is required, it is usually secret with an unbiased PMC member (e.g. not a candidate, such as current PMC chair) gathering the votes and reporting the results.