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Regulations

by Lucía Sanjaime Calvet — last modified 2010-11-23 18:03

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Note

This is a draft document!!

The regulations include the following sections:

Meetings of the Technical Steering Committee
Changes in the membership of the TSC
Changes in the membership of the Board of Directors

Meetings of the Technical Steering Committee

In general, any meeting must always be reflected in the private area of the Technical Steering Committee (TSC), creating a folder for that purpose. The TSC has two main folders, one for the TSC in full and another for the Board.

Regular meetings

Frequency and schedule: Regular meetings will be held the first and third Monday of each month or the next working day if that day is a public holiday. Meetings will take place from 9.30 to 11.30 am (GTM+1 in winter, GTM+2 in summer).
Preparing the Agenda: The agenda for each meeting will be prepared the previous week and the coordinator will have the responsibility of preparing a document and an initial proposal for the meeting. After creating the document, the coordinator shall notify all Board members that they can propose new issues for discussion at the meeting as well as changes to the order of the issues because all issues probably may not be discussed at one meeting. Those agenda items that may not be discussed at one meeting, won't be removed. They will be proposed for the next meeting.

Structure of a meeting

A regular meeting of the Board will have some fixed issues and there will be time limit to discuss each of those issues to ensure that the meeting is productive and aimed at solving problems.

Review scheduled tasks (10 minutes): Those members who have some scheduled task will report on the state of that task. If they want to present some kind of documentation, it's better they put that documentation on the agenda of the meeting directly or as related content.
Review of the status of the working groups of TSC (2-3 minutes per group): Each leader of a working group will give a brief summary of the tasks that his/her working group is carrying out.
Core of the meeting (1h 30minutes): The issues that have been included in the agenda of the meeting will be discussed one by one with the aim of tackling most of them.
Next meeting (5 minutes): Review items on the agenda for the next meeting.
Pending matters (5 minutes): Allocation of tasks for the next meeting.

Minutes

Each meeting will have a minute which will summarize the issues discussed and the decisions and activities which have been agreed.

Changes in the membership of the TSC

Votes

In general, the changes in the membership of the TSC shall be approved by a qualified majority of 50% of the votes cast and the quorum of that meeting shall be at least two third (2/3) of the voting membership.

Acceptance of new members

Any member of the TSC(including the Board) can propose the incorporation of a new member from the gvSIG community and the TSC in full must vote. It is desirable that the acceptance of a new member is properly justified to provide elements for discussion if necessary. Specifically, the procedure will be:

Any member of the TSC may contact the nominee to confirm that that person wants to belong to the TSC. This is an informal preliminary contact, but it's necessary to avoid making an unnecessary proposal.
Any member of the TSC (or the coordinator on behalf of that candidate) may make a nomination, that basically consists of the following steps:
1. Create a new folder with a descriptive title, for example "Acceptance of (nominee's name) in the TSC”.
2. Create a text document with the same title in that folder.
3. Copy the template “template of acceptance of a new member in the TSC” in that document and complete it.
4. Include the members of the TSC as collaborators of the document.
5. Add a comment to inform the members of the TSC about this nomination for discussion.
The coordinator is responsible for opening and closing the voting period.
If the nominee is accepted:
1. A new ticket will be opened in the Trac of activities to notify there is a new member in the portal group.
2. That person will be included as collaborator in the forum and the other members will welcome him and say to him where the relevant documentation is.
If the nominee is not accepted, the nominee will be also notified.

The Board of the TSC can't accept new members in the TSC unilaterally, the nominations only can be approved by the TSC in full.

Exclusion of members

At any time, a member of TSC may request his voluntary exclusion of the TSC. That person only needs to communicate it formally to the coordinator, who will inform the other members of the TSC through the forum.

On the other hand, the following situations will cause the irrevocable exclusion of a member:

Gross misconduct with other members of the TSC.
Criticize in public gvSIG or the gvSIG Association.
Lack of continued activity in the TSC (participation in voting, in working teams, etc.).
Incompatibility with his duties in the TSC owing to:
- A conflict of interests between the TSC and the entity with which that member has a professional relationship.
- Lack of time to carry out his duties in the TSC.

The procedure to handle a non-voluntary exclusion from the TSC is as follows:

Any member of the TSC communicates the coordinator about any of the above situations.
The coordinator includes that issue in the agenda of the next regular meeting of the Board to discuss it.
The Board discusses the issue in a meeting, although it can be discussed on more than one meeting or off-line through the portal. The Board may request additional information from the informant or from the member involved to determine if that member must be excluded from the TSC.
The Board votes and decides if that member is excluded.

When the exclusion of a member from the TSC is approved, the coordinator must:

Request the exclusion of that user from the Plone group of the TSC.
Inform the other members of the TSC about the exclusion of that member through the forum and ask them to remove the member of any document in which he was a collaborator.
Exclude that user from the general forum of the TSC.

Moreover, if that member gives up the project completely, the coordinator will follow the general procedure to request the exclusion of that member from the rest of the services (SVN, trackers, etc.).

Changes in the membership of the Board of Directors

Votes

In general, the changes in the membership of the Board shall be approved by a qualified majority of 50% of the votes cast and the quorum of that meeting shall be at least two third (2/3) of the voting membership.

Acceptance of new members

To become a member of the Board of the TSC, it's necessary to fulfil the following requirements:

Have belonged to the TSC for at least a year.
Have collaborated actively in at least two working groups.

These requirements aim to ensure that nominees already have some experience about how the TSC works internally and knowledge in-depth of the gvSIG project and its technical management institutions.

Both the nominee and any member of the Board can propose the incorporation of a new member in the Board. In any case the nominee (or the person who has nominated him) must submit an application to the Board stating the reasons for wishing to belong to that group. Then, the Board may ask the candidate the questions that the Board deems appropriate.

Specifically, the procedure will be:

Any member of the Board may contact the nominee to confirm that that person wants to belong to the Board. This is an informal preliminary contact, but it's necessary to avoid making an unnecessary proposal.
Any member of the Board (or the coordinator on behalf of that candidate) may make a nomination, that basically consists of the following steps:
1. Create a new folder with a descriptive title, for example "Acceptance of (nominee's name) in the Board” in the private area of the Board.
2. Create a text document with the same title in that folder.
3. Copy the template “template of acceptance of a new member in the TSC” in that document and complete it.
4. Include the members of the Board as collaborators of the document.
5. Add a comment to inform the members of the Board about this nomination so that they can include their comments in that text document.
The coordinator is responsible for opening and closing the voting period.
If the nominee is accepted:
1. A new ticket will be opened in the Trac of activities to notify there is a new member in the portal group.
2. That person will be included as collaborator in the forum.
If the nominee is not accepted, the nominee will be also notified.

Exclusion of members

A member of the Board and any other member of the TSC are excluded by the same reasons and following the same procedure of exclusion. The only difference is the seriousness of the situation, since the Board is the highest technical authority of the project.

At any time, a member of the Board may request his voluntary exclusion of the Board. That person only needs to communicate it formally to the coordinator, who will inform the other members of the Board through the forum.

On the other hand, the following situations will cause the irrevocable exclusion of a member from the Board:

Gross misconduct with other members of the TSC.
Criticize in public gvSIG or the gvSIG Association.
Lack of continued activity in the Board (participation in voting, in working teams, etc.).
Incompatibility with his duties in the Board or in the TSC owing to:
- A conflict of interests between the TSC and the entity with which that member has a professional relationship.
- Lack of time to carry out his duties in the Board.

The procedure to handle a non-voluntary exclusion from the Board is as follows:

Any member of the group communicates the coordinator about any of the above situations.
The coordinator includes that issue in the agenda of the next regular meeting of the Board to discuss it.
The Board discusses the issue in a meeting, although it can be discussed on more than one meeting or off-line through the portal. The Board may request additional information from the informant or from the member involved to determine if that member must be excluded from the Board.
The Board votes and decides if that member is excluded.

When the exclusion of a member from the Board is approved, the coordinator must:

Request the exclusion of that user from the Plone group of the TSC.
Inform the other members of the TSC about the exclusion of that member through the forum and ask them to remove the member of any document in which he was a collaborator.
Exclude that user from the general forum of the TSC.