Proposed changes to the governance document from the working committee #9

TheAspens · 2017-12-13T17:46:16Z

The following proposed changes were developed by the working committee and each item was approved by the committee as a recommendation to the PMC for consideration. The major changes consist of the following:

Add the supporters role to recognize the special role and responsabilities that non-developers can play in the ongoing support and maintenance of the project
Create the position of PMC Secretary who is responsible for various tasks related to documenting and publish the activities of the PMC
Set the PMC Chair and PMC Secretary to have one year terms
Establish guidelines for conducting elections for PMC Chair and PMC Secretary
Clarify that people thought leaders from other communities can become part of the PMC if they have a interest in supporting the BOINC project and volunteer computing
Establish a process for removing inactive PMC members

vote of the working committee

document

Uplinger

Line 259, we need 75% voter turnout with greater than 50% of the votes in agreement.

Uplinger · 2017-12-15T20:35:18Z

Governance.md

+- Take notes at monthly meetings of the PMC and distribute them to all PMC members within 7 days of the meeting
+  - Must officially record who attends each meeting as part of the minutes
+- Ensure that a public version of the notes is distributed on the public PMC mailing list
+- Determine if PMC members need to be removed due to inactivity


Maybe change this line to "Monitor and identify PMC members who need to be voted on removal due to inactivity"

Uplinger · 2017-12-15T20:37:28Z

Governance.md

- Reading the PMC email lists (see below)
- Participating in votes (see below)
+##### 2.5.1.2 PMC Secretary
+The "PMC Secretary" is a member of the PMC, elected by the PMC to take this role.  The secretary has the following responsibilities:


Change elected to "appointed and ratified by the PMC"

Also, the Secretary is an assistant to the Chair, not a deputy.

Uplinger · 2017-12-15T20:39:37Z

Governance.md


-#### 2.4.1 PMC Chair
-The “PMC Chair” is a member of the PMC, elected by the PMC to take this role. The chair has the following responsibilities:
+The PMC Secretary shall be elected for a term of one year.   They can be re-elected to successive terms. 


I think we should get rid of term limit for secretary, but the new PMC chair gets to appoint his/her secretary.

Uplinger · 2017-12-15T20:46:15Z

Governance.md


-PMC members are expected to actively participate in these processes, by
+The PMC Chair shall be elected for a term of one year.  They can be re-elected to successive terms.


We would like to see a limit on terms to 3 years. Leaving it at that.

Uplinger · 2017-12-15T20:59:18Z

Governance.md

+Various situations can arise during voting.  Some of these are listed below with the actions that should be taken if they occur:
+- If fewer than 75% of the members of the PMC cast a vote during the 7 day voting period, then a new election must be held.
+- In the event that no-one has a majority at the end of the 7 day voting period, then a new election must be held.
+- If after 2 attempts to conduct an election no-one has been elected or nominated, then the previous chair or secretary is automatically re-instated to a new one year term.


We are wanting to remove secretary from the voting space.

mblumberg · 2018-01-09T16:40:37Z

Governance.md

+- Modify the governance policies of the BOINC project as needed
+- And any other such other thing as might be required from time to time     
+
+Individual PMC members are expected to actively participate in these processes by:


Perhaps useful to specify that PMC members are expected to participate in [some percentage of] monthly PMC calls?

I now see in 2.5.3 "Inactive Removal", language saying "any member of the PMC that goes for a year without participating in at least one PMC meeting should be considered for removal from the PMC". So maybe here it's only necessary to say "Regularly participate in in monthly PMC calls" (*this being the goal; 2.5.3 being the condition for automatic termination)

I've added the statement "Regularly participate in monthly PMC calls". Let me know if this resolves this feedback. Thanks!

2.5 and 2.5.3 are now enough out of synch to introduce confusion. I'd suggest you revise 2.5.3 to use the "Regularly participate" expression as well.

Ie "As a result, any member of the PMC that does not regularly participate in PMC meetings should be considered for removal from the PMC"

(*If you want to lay out an explicit baseline, once per year seems a bit too low a bar?)

Btw, I'm not clear if it's preferably for me to comment here in the discussions, or to fork and propose changes in a pull request? -- I've assumed here as the idea is to have a single pull request on which we can vote. But let me know, for future reference.

I've updated the text (see the new section here: https://github.com/BOINC/boinc-policy/blob/knr_supporters/Governance.md#253-inactive-removal).

You can create a pull request against this branch which would be a great way to propose changes. It would probably be easier than commenting inline.

mblumberg · 2018-01-09T16:43:06Z

Governance.md

+    - Who voted
+  - In the event that the PMC determines a vote is sensitive in nature, then they can decide to not announce the vote publicly.  The PMC is encouraged to do this rarely and with clear justification.
+
+The PMC Secretary is appointed by the Chair and ratified by the PMC to serve in this role.  Another person can be appointed to this position as determined by the PMC Chair.


Need to specify a voting procedure? (Consensus, Special, etc?)

I've added specification that consensus voting is used. Let me know if you have further feedback here. Thanks.

mblumberg · 2018-01-09T16:52:25Z

Governance.md

+
+Elections shall use the election decision process outlined in [section 5.3.2 Election decisions](#532-election-decisions) below.
+
+#### 2.5.3 Inactive Removal


For "Inactive Removal" , perhaps note "via Special Voting Procedure outlined in 5.3.1

Updated to point to the voting process. Let me know if you have further feedback here. Thanks.

looks good; thx.

mblumberg · 2018-01-09T16:53:45Z

Governance.md

+
+The PMC Secretary is appointed by the Chair and ratified by the PMC to serve in this role.  Another person can be appointed to this position as determined by the PMC Chair.
+
+#### 2.5.2 PMC Elections


Headline here should read "PMC Chair Elections"?

Fixed. Let me know if you have further feedback here. Thanks.

mblumberg · 2018-01-09T17:32:41Z

Governance.md


 ## 5. Decision processes
 ### 5.1 Voting Processes
 Because one of the fundamental aspects of accomplishing things within the BOINC framework is doing so by consensus, it is necessary to determine whether consensus has been reached. This is done by voting.

 There are a few types of items that require a vote:
-
 - Whether or not to fix a bug or implement a feature request (documented and voted on as an issue on github)
 - The design of a proposed feature or bug fix (documented and voted on within the relevant issue on github)
 - A change in code or configuration to the system (documented and voted on as a pull request on github)
 - General availability of stable releases (documented and voted on in the boinc_alpha mailing list)
 - Procedural and other issues


I find this "procedural and other issues" list quite confusing:

"Other committer votes not otherwise identified above"

I guess this maybe means "Other committer votes (as outlined in 5.2 below) not otherwise identified above"?

But [a] there don't really seem to be any such topics? And [b] it's awkward to have two kind-of-sort-of-the-same lists of the domain of committer decisions: here and 5.2. (*three lists, if you also include section 6.2)

"Other PMC votes not otherwise identified above"

There are no PMC votes in the list above?

-- So end result is that I find this really unclear.

Related:

What is meant by "procedural", and in the last line of section 5.1 ("Procedural and other issues shall always follow the majority voting process.")

I assume all topics not specifically delegated to Committers should be retained by the PMC

Related:

In the last sentence of section 5.2 it says "Since most decisions that committers are involved in will use consensus voting, it is important for them to try to remain aware of proposed items." -- is the idea that there exists a category of decision for Committers, "Procedural", which use majority votes? If this is the intent, it's unclear (to me) what sorts of decisions are in that category -- in particular, as distinct from issues of Governance (which is the domain of the PMC).

Should this be cross-referenced with Section 6.2?

I've significantly modified section 5 to try to clarify things - please review and provide additional feedback.

In 5.2 there is a list of bullets; the last few are confusing; i'm not clear what the intension is here:

....

All other committer decisions should be discussed and voted on in the boinc_dev mailing list.

Procedural and other issues

Other committer votes not otherwise identified will be voted on in the boinc_dev mailing list

Other PMC votes not otherwise identified will be voted on in the boinc_adm or private boinc_pmc mailing lists as deemed appropriate by the PMC.

Seems here we specify three different rules to handle "votes not otherwise identified"? I'm not clear what differences are? (*Maybe one of these bullets, e.g. the one that says "other PMC votes", was meant to be somewhere else?)

I'm not sure, but I think the idea of the "procedural and other issues" sub-bullets is to establish that in the event it's unclear whether an issue is a committer decision, or if it's unclear where the committer decision should be discussed, then the PMC would determine this (in bonc_adm or boinc_pmc as deemed appropriate by the PMC)?

Any thoughts on this? (*Bullet-list in 5.2)

-- Don't see any changes, nor comments to suggest you disagree with my confusion? But seems somewhat important?

(*All other changes in this PR9 look ok to me)

Matt - can you look at the text itself again? https://github.com/BOINC/boinc-policy/blob/knr_supporters/Governance.md#52-committer-decisions I revised it so that the bullet points specify where discussions occur and the second set of points specifies the rules that apply.

mblumberg · 2018-01-09T18:00:58Z

Governance.md

@@ -190,20 +249,30 @@ Certain specific types of decisions by the PMC must be made by a special voting

 #### 5.3.1 Decisions where special voting procedures are mandatory


Two questions:

Should there be a defined comment/discussion period?

Should there be a voting window, ie 7 days or 14 days? (ie so it's clear when an item hasn't passed?)

Related: in 5.3.2 Election decisions, seems to me the 7 nomination and voting windows seem to me too short. Suggest 14 days in each case.

As has come up with discussion of this current pull request, I think it's important that section 5.3 specify a minimum discussion and review period prior to voting.

As drafted, "5.1.1 Consensus Voting" specifies a "7 day review period" prior to voting.

I very much think that "5.1.2 Majority Voting" and 5.1.3. "Super-Majority Voting" should also specify review periods, though in these two cases (presumably more serious issues), I'd suggest 14 days.

Related: "5.3.2 Election decisions" should be revised to specify 14 day nomination and voting periods.

(*We might also want to add a provision to allow a 75% vote of of the PMC to shorten the review and/or voting timeframes in emergency cases)

Related:

Following discussion, re: the actual voting,

5.1.2 and 5.1.3 should also specify a maximum voting period, so it's clear when a vote has failed.

5.1.2 and 5.1.3 might also want a minimum voting period, to avoid a case where a small number of fast voters could effectively pass a motion that the full set of voters would decline (given time to actually vote)

mblumberg · 2018-01-24T18:05:32Z

FWIW, with a PMC of 8 members, the voting conditions for "5.1.2 Majority Voting" and 5.1.3. "Super-Majority Voting" are effectively identical. -- We might want to add a 9th member ;)

removal for non-participation

voting

specific votes as needed

decisions they are responsible for

Changes to clarify text and minor grammar edits

TheAspens · 2018-02-14T14:52:18Z

These changes have been approved by the PMC in this vote: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/boinc_admin/YusqmC8HNcU

Kevin Reed added 5 commits December 13, 2017 10:29

Remove incorrect double spacing in various locations of the document

f6aa280

Update Governance document with proposed changes approved by unanimous

4a125b7

vote of the working committee

Update date of document to reflect date of revisions

1e0a53e

Add internal links between sections referred to in the Governance

0431820

document

Fix language flow after adding internal links and references

4c0bcc1

TheAspens changed the title ~~[WIP] Proposed changes to the governance document from the working committee~~ Proposed changes to the governance document from the working committee Dec 13, 2017

Uplinger requested changes Dec 15, 2017

View reviewed changes

Kevin Reed added 3 commits December 29, 2017 15:56

Revised with changes after review by the PMC

8b4e542

Add instructions on how to resign from the PMC

a647f1a

Add instructions on how to resign for supporters and committers

c64cdd7

mblumberg reviewed Jan 9, 2018

View reviewed changes

Kevin Reed added 3 commits January 10, 2018 13:45

Modifications to reflect feedback from Matt Blumberg

78fed36

Cleanup changes throughout document based on changes in prior commit

0861e12

Update date of changes to document to current date

65b8e4b

Kevin Reed added 10 commits January 29, 2018 08:31

Clarify language around when PMC members should be considered for

2983bc2

removal for non-participation

Fix issues with markdown formatting

bc40364

Add "Optimistic Consensus Voting"

9dc713a

Fix grammer in section Optimistic Consensus Voting

8a1671d

Add discussion and voting time frames for majority and super-majority

8ee10ba

voting

Add clause to allow PMC to reduce discussion and voting periods for

3f71ad1

specific votes as needed

Clean up text around committer voting processes

551f619

Attempt to clarify how committer decisions are made for the different

b98385b

decisions they are responsible for

Clarify default voting rule for committer decisions

155842c

Change date to reflect date of acceptance

aeed6c1

Kevin Reed and others added 4 commits February 7, 2018 08:10

Fix spelling error

66cf335

Changes to clarify text and minor grammar edits

2c6b9c2

Merge branch 'knr_supporters' into master

042799d

Merge pull request #11 from ballen4705/master

f060bb8

Changes to clarify text and minor grammar edits

TheAspens merged commit 8f3af8d into master Feb 14, 2018

TheAspens deleted the knr_supporters branch March 13, 2018 18:18


		PMC members are expected to actively participate in these processes, by
		The PMC Chair shall be elected for a term of one year. They can be re-elected to successive terms.


		Elections shall use the election decision process outlined in [section 5.3.2 Election decisions](#532-election-decisions) below.

		#### 2.5.3 Inactive Removal


		The PMC Secretary is appointed by the Chair and ratified by the PMC to serve in this role. Another person can be appointed to this position as determined by the PMC Chair.

		#### 2.5.2 PMC Elections

		@@ -190,20 +249,30 @@ Certain specific types of decisions by the PMC must be made by a special voting

		#### 5.3.1 Decisions where special voting procedures are mandatory

Proposed changes to the governance document from the working committee #9

Proposed changes to the governance document from the working committee #9

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TheAspens commented Dec 13, 2017

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