OGB Electorate Membership Process

From Genunix

See OGB_Electorate_Membership_Process/2009 for the process associated with the 2009 proposal.

Electorate Membership Process

This membership process documents the details and logistics of "choosing to become a member", and is overseen by the Board. You can also browse the current membership list (http://poll.opensolaris.org).

This is a process and procedures document that is referenced by the OGB_2009/009 proposed OpenSolaris_Constitution It is maintained by the OGB, and is expected to evolve as needed to meet the needs of the community.

Overview:

People who have contributed significant things to a group are given a Contributor role by the Leaders of that group. Any Contributor may choose to become a part of the Electorate; if they so choose, they are automatically accepted as members of the Electorate. Membership in the Electorate needs to be renewed every 2 years, and may be lost by not participating in the governance of the OpenSolaris community.

Details:

For reference:

1. Community Structure
The OpenSolaris Community is structured as a set of groups of volunteer participants who govern themselves through a meritocracy based on contributions to the community. An Electorate made up of governance minded contributors deals with community-wide issues and annually elects an OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB)....

1.1.2 Roles Within Groups
Over time and changing with their involvement, the people who associate together in an OpenSolaris Group assume the following roles:

• A Participant: Anyone registered on opensolaris.org who has designated themselves as being a Participant of a Group. ...
  
• A Contributor: Anyone whose acquired merit has been explicitly recognized by the Leaders of a Group as having substantially helped with the goals of that Group. ...
  
• A Leader: Anyone responsible for leading a Group....
  
• A Facilitator: Anyone responsible for ensuring that a group's records are properly maintained, ...

1.2 Electorate Group
The Electorate is responsible for community wide cross-group governance. Anyone who is a Contributor in an OpenSolaris Group is eligible for membership in the Electorate. In order to provide for an Electorate consisting of current active Contributors, Membership needs to be renewed after two (2) years, or if a Member fails to vote in two (2) consecutive elections. Members of the Electorate are expected to be active participants in the governance of the OpenSolaris Community. This participation includes following and contributing to discussions and debates, proposing policies and amendments to policies as needed, nominating candidates for the OGB and its committees, and voting in the Community's Annual and Special Elections.

Membership in the OpenSolaris Electorate

The Membership consists of the OpenSolaris Contributors (which includes Leaders and Facilitators) from any Group who have chosen to become part of the Membership. Members can run for election to the Governing Board (OGB), vote in the elections for the Board, and suggest referenda.

Association with the Electorate is *opt-in*, and successful association is classified as becoming a *Member* of OpenSolaris. Only those who have substantially and verifiably contributed to an existing User Group, Project or Community may apply for OpenSolaris Membership (thus the requirement that they be acknowledged Contributors in a duly chartered OpenSolaris Group). Membership in the Electorate needs to be renewed every two years, and can be lost by not participating in the governance of the community.

Mechanics/Logistics of becoming a Member

In the best of all worlds, the OpenSolaris Website Auth application would use the Roles in section 1.1.2 of the constitution for all of the Groups within the OpenSolaris Community. On their "user profile" page, any OpenSolaris participant who holds a role of Contributor or higher (i.e., Contributor, Leader or Facilitator) in any Group would have the option of joining the Electorate. If they so choose, and they have not been previously removed from Membership for not voting, they are added as a Member of the Electorate. Members of the Electorate could also choose to disassociate themselves from the Electorate by simply reversing their opt-in choice on their profile.

Membership needs to be renewed every two years; approval for members in good standing is automatic. This keeps the voting rolls from being filled with people who no longer wish to be involved, which causes problems with quorum and approval thresholds.

The OGB reserves the right to individually review and approve/deny membership renewal requests from Members whose membership was lost because they didn't participate tangibly in the governance of the community.

Who is eligible for membership in the OpenSolaris Electorate?

Per the OpenSolaris Community Constitution, any Contributor to OpenSolaris is eligible for membership. Although it is difficult to specify a precise definition, a contributor generally must have contributed a significant or non-trivial improvement to some part of the OpenSolaris Community. Contributions may be code, documentation, translations, maintenance of project-wide resources, or other activities which benefit OpenSolaris. While large amounts of advocacy or bug reporting may qualify one as a Contributor to a Group, such contributions must be significantly above the level expected of an ordinary user. Membership eligibility (aka Contributorship) is an individual determination: while contributions made in the course of one's employment will be considered, they will generally be ascribed to the individuals involved, rather than accruing to all employees of a "contributing" corporation. As noted above, these guidelines are not meant to define precise objective criteria: ultimately, an individual's contribution will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the leaders of their Group(s).

It is important to differentiate between participation and contribution, and what it means to make a significant contribution. We expect every participant in a group to be involved at some level with using, discussing, interacting and otherwise evangelizing the things the group is involved with. While these artifacts and behaviors are technically contributions, they are many times trivial. The following tries to articulate the difference:

Projects exist so that people can collaborate together on something. Participants who contribute substantially to that effort should be recognized for their contributions. Examples of substantial contributions might be

• Submitting - and getting accepted - fixes for several non-trivial bugs
• Creating/Writing significant or useful pieces of documentation or code
• Integrating together various things that move the project closer to their goals
• Evaluating and coordinating issues that impact the project

Things that may be valuable but are still deemed insubstantial include the quantity (as opposed to quality) of email/forum posts, involvement with only trivial aspects of the project and the like - the metric is "talk talks, code wins".

Communities exist to expand the visibility and use of an OpenSolaris issue or technology in a virtual organization. Contributions may include

• community organization,
• demonstrated consensus and/or community building skills,
• mentorship and the like.

As with projects, meritocracy differentiates between passively talking and active leadership that advances the community significantly towards its goals.

User Groups pull people together in a physical relationship that may be geographical or cultural. Significant contributions may include

• successfully starting and growing a User Group,
• organizing its physical meetings for a significant period of time,
• initiating and managing OpenSolaris related events (installfests, hackathons, conference presentations...), etc.

Simply passively attending user group meetings or chatting online to other UG participants is not usually a form of significant contribution.