Archive:Board/Possible Future of Fedora Governance

Champion Needed
A long-term champion is needed to move this forward.

This page is a draft only
It is still under construction and content may change. Do not rely on the information on this page.

What this is

At FUDCon Tempe we (Fedora Board, FESCo, and other interested contributors) took a look at the ways that the Fedora Project is governed and how we could potentially resolve them. One of the things that came out of the meeting was a comparison between the main points in Debian's Charter; what the de facto, unwritten, Fedora Charter is; and what might be some ways to improve on this when creating a written Fedora Charter. These are the notes from that comparison.

Disclaimer!
These are notes from the session, they aren't to the stage of being a draft of a potential charter at this point.

Project Leader

• Appoint delegates with specific responsibilities
• Make decisions that require "urgent action"
• Make decisions for which no one else has responsibility, attempting to stay in line with contributor consensus
• Propose draft General Resolutions, amendments
• Choose lengths of vote discussion periods (within constitutional limits)
• Lead contributor discussions
• Add/remove organizations from the list of those trusted with the project's assets
• Offer formal advice
• Serve as chair of the Board
• Appointed by Red Hat
• Tally votes
• Publish vote totals after voting is complete
• Adjucate constitutional disputes
• Has the power to override any other group

Fedora Legal Committee (FeLCo)

• Legal spots and decides upon legal matters
• Ultimately authoritative in legal matters
• Has the power to override anyone else with respect to legal issues
• Appointed by Red Hat

Board

• Decide matters of policy
• Duties and responsibilites may be delegated from the Board to other groups by mutual agreement
  • Any group may subdelegate responsibility
  • Cannot override decisions made by delegates within their respective jurisdictions
• Decide on matters where contributors' jurisdictions overlap
• Make decisions within the Board's jurisdiction when asked
• Offer formal advice
• Remove members of itself (according to the Board Succession Plan)
• Makes decisions as a last resort
• Amend the Constitution
• The Project Leader's vote breaks ties
• Chooses its own method of adding and removing members

FESCo

• A committee whose power is delegated by the Board
• Decide matters of technical policy
• Decide on technical matters where contributors' jurisdictions overlap
• Make decisions when asked
• Overrule individual contributor decisions
• Offer formal technical advice
• Appoint or remove members of itself
• Appoint a Committee Chair
• Chooses its own method of adding and removing members

FAmSCo

• Mission: Promotes and markets Fedora worldwide
• A committee whose power is delegated by the Board
• Decide matters of community-related policy
• Decide on matters where multiple community groups conflict
• Make decisions when asked
• Overrule individual community groups' decisions
• Offer formal community advice
• Appoint a Committee Chair
• Chooses its own method of adding and removing members

Individual contributors

• Definition of individual contributor: cla_done
• Make autonomous decisions with regards to their own work
• Run for elected office
• Complies with applicable codes of conduct
• Complies with applicable rules and procedures
• Vote in applicable elections