OGB Electorate Membership Process/2009

From Genunix

Electorate Membership Process

This is a process and procedures document that is referenced by the OGB_2008/010_OpenSolaris_Constitution_2009 It is maintained by the OGB, and is expected to evolve as needed to meet the needs of the community.

Current 2006 Constitution and associated OGB process

For reference,

4.2. Admission of Members.

The initial set of Members ... Thereafter, persons shall be admitted as Members of the OpenSolaris Community upon accepting the designation of Core Contributor for one or more OpenSolaris Groups and receipt by the Secretary of their willingness to accept the status of Member.

and
7.7. Contributors.

The Contributors of a Community Group shall include every person who has been designated by the Core Contributors of that Group to have contributed substantively to that Group's efforts, including (but not limited to) every person who has contributed intellectual property to the OpenSolaris Community as a result of those efforts.

and
7.8. Core Contributors.

The initial ... thereafter, the Core Contributors shall consist of those Participants that have accepted the Group's designation as a Core Contributor for that Group. Designation as a Core Contributor requires nomination of a Participant by an existing Core Contributor, followed by a Group decision by consensus vote to approve that designation, and finally acceptance of the designation by the Participant.

The process currently in use that implements these constitutional requirements is (to the best of my knowledge):

1) Core Contributors in a Community Group

A new (core) contributor in a collective is identified. The community's voting process starts when an existing core contributor in the community identifies a potential new [C/CC] for that community and suggests a vote be taken. The community votes on the nomination using whatever voting mechanism is appropriate. Assuming that the vote is positive...

2) The facilitator in that collective

Sends email to ogb-discuss to alert the OGB that a successful vote for new C/CCs has occurred.

3) The OGB Secretary

Checks that a valid vote has taken place in the community and makes sure that any new CCs have shown their willingness to accept the status of Member (aka OGB 2009/007). The Secretary puts the new name into poll/Auth.

4) Automatic

The Auth application and the official poll database shows this person as a new C/CC.

Membership process

1. Go to http://membership.opensolaris.org/ (not currently active)
2. Apply for membership with the following information
   1. Full Name
   2. OpenSolaris user id
   3. For each collective to which you substantially contribute:
      1. Identify the collective
      2. Identify which Leader in that collective can validate your claim of substantial contribution
      3. If you cannot identify a Leader, identify the user IDs of at least two existing Members of the Electorate who may vouch for your activity
3. Wait. As and when your application gets processed you will be notified.
   1. The Membership Committee is a Board Committee (chaired by an OGB member but open to any Member of the elctorate) and has been delegated by the OGB to determine who may and may not be granted Member status. They are responsible to the OGB for administering this process.
   2. The Leader(s) you identified above will be asked to verify your claim online. If they do so, your Member status will be granted automatically (or, if a "quiet period" before an election is in place, at the end of that period)
   3. If you did not identify any Leaders, the Members you identified will be asked to vouch for you online. The Membership Committee will then validate your request and in all but exceptional cases grant Member status.
   4. If your referees do not validate your claim within 30 days, your application will be rejected.

Qualification for Membership is for life. However, you need to renew every 2 years. If you don't renew, you are removed from the current list of voters, though a record of your previous membership is kept. You can reactivate your Membership up to 14 days after a community wide election is announced.

Implementation Notes

• Each User Group, Project and Community should have a membership liason to be able to confirm references on membership applications for their collective
• Each applicant must be *visibly* active within their associated collective - either by activity on mailing lists, public events, or putbacks to gates

Open Questions

1. Given our earlier discussions about cultural norms, should there also be a process for nominating a contributor for Electorate Member status?
2. We'll need some sort of statement by the Membership Committee indicating what the benchmark for "substantial contribution that merits Electorate Member status".
   1. [webmink] I'd assert this is a higher benchmark than gaining Contributor status in another collective since we want it to be easy for contributors to gain recognition and "grow".
   2. [webmink] I'd suggest the benchmark be something like "several contributions that clearly bring benefit to the collective"