Merging TC and UC into a single body

Create a single governance body to represent all contributors
to OpenStack (developers, operators and end users of the software).

The User Committee is defined in the OpenStack Foundation
bylaws, and amending those is very costly (in time, money and
effort). Luckily, the bylaws defer most of the UC details to a
User Committee charter, which contents are modifiable by the
User Committee itself.

This change adds a minimal User Committee charter that implements
the User Committee as a subcommittee of the Technical Committee.
This allows to operate as a single group without requiring costly
bylaws changes to be implemented first.

Change-Id: I8614f650bbc4176929caf15304cdefaed070c3f6
This commit is contained in:
Thierry Carrez 2020-06-04 16:30:05 +02:00
parent 62dc1279f0
commit 6a4953f71f
3 changed files with 106 additions and 7 deletions

View File

@ -2,9 +2,10 @@
OpenStack Technical Committee OpenStack Technical Committee
=============================== ===============================
The OpenStack Technical Committee is one of the governing bodies of the The OpenStack Technical Committee is the governing body of the OpenStack
OpenStack project. It is an elected group that represents the contributors open source project. It is an elected group that represents the contributors
to the open source project, and has oversight on all technical matters. to the project, and has oversight on all technical matters. This includes
developers, operators and end users of the software.
The Technical Committee is formally defined in the The Technical Committee is formally defined in the
`OpenStack Foundation bylaws`_ (in particular article 4.1(b), article 4.13 `OpenStack Foundation bylaws`_ (in particular article 4.1(b), article 4.13
@ -12,10 +13,11 @@ and Appendix 4) and further refined in the :doc:`reference/charter`.
Work under the Technical Committee is organized under official Work under the Technical Committee is organized under official
:doc:`reference/projects/index` (responsible for the production of the :doc:`reference/projects/index` (responsible for the production of the
software up to release), :doc:`reference/popup-teams` (formed software up to release), `Special Interest Groups (SIGs)`_ (groups working
around a limited cross-project objective) and :doc:`reference/working-groups` to advance a particular facet of OpenStack), :doc:`reference/popup-teams`
(delegations from the TC to fill specific functions like election (formed around a limited cross-project objective) and
organization). :doc:`reference/working-groups` (delegations from the TC to fill specific
functions like election organization).
These pages contain OpenStack Technical Committee reference documents These pages contain OpenStack Technical Committee reference documents
and track official resolutions voted by the committee. and track official resolutions voted by the committee.
@ -75,6 +77,8 @@ exceptions are listed in the :doc:`reference/house-rules` document.
.. _`OpenStack Foundation bylaws`: http://www.openstack.org/legal/bylaws-of-the-openstack-foundation/ .. _`OpenStack Foundation bylaws`: http://www.openstack.org/legal/bylaws-of-the-openstack-foundation/
.. _`Special Interest Groups (SIGs)`: https://governance.openstack.org/sigs/
.. _`current proposals tracker`: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Technical_Committee_Tracker .. _`current proposals tracker`: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Technical_Committee_Tracker
.. _`Developer's guide section of the Infra manual`: https://docs.openstack.org/infra/manual/developers.html .. _`Developer's guide section of the Infra manual`: https://docs.openstack.org/infra/manual/developers.html

View File

@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ Reference documents which need to be revised over time.
dropping-projects dropping-projects
licensing licensing
base-services base-services
user-committee-charter
working-groups working-groups
service-project-naming service-project-naming
project-testing-interface project-testing-interface

View File

@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
==================================
OpenStack User Committee Charter
==================================
Starting August 1st, 2020, the User Committee will no longer operate as
a separate entity. The entire OpenStack community will be represented by
a single elected body, including developers, operators and end users of
the OpenStack software, and inclusive of all types of contributions to
the project.
To avoid a costly amendment of the Bylaws, that single elected body will
be called "the Technical Committee", but its role will be expanded to
cover duties formerly filled by the User Committee.
Motivation
==========
When the OpenStack project governance was established in 2012, we defined
two separate bodies. The Technical Committee represented developers / code
contributors to the open source project(s), while the User Committee
represented the operators running the resulting software, as well as users
of the APIs.
That setup served us well in those early days. The focus on the upstream
side was strongly around *development* of code, we did not have that many
users, and even less users directly involved in upstream development.
A separate User Committee resulted in the formation of an engaged community
of users, and ensured that our community in general (and our events in
particular) took the needs of operators into account.
We now have a lot of users, and thanks to the efforts of the User Committee
they are increasingly directly involved in the open source project development
and maintenance, with several operators leading upstream project teams
directly.
Keeping two separate bodies maintains the illusion that devs and ops are
different breeds, and that you have to choose a side. Having a unified body
will encourage more operators to contribute directly, to run for election to
the Technical Committee, and to influence the shape of the software.
User Committee
==============
The User Committee is defined in the OpenStack bylaws. To avoid amending the
bylaws, the User Committee will still formally exist, with the following rules.
Membership
----------
The User Committee consists of five members: the Technical Committee chair and
four other members, elected from within the current Technical Committee
membership. Not more than half of the members of the User Committee should be
affiliated with the same organization.
The User Committee will therefore formally be a subcommittee of the Technical
Committee, although the User Committee mission (representing and serving the
user community of OpenStack) will be filled by all the Technical Committee
members.
Chair
-----
The bylaws require a chair of the User Committee to be designated. The chair
of the Technical Committee will fill that role.
The chair of the User Committee is a honorific title, they do not fill any
specific duty.
Active User Contributor
-----------------------
The bylaws define 'Active User Contributors' as being the electorate to elect
the User Committee. Since the Technical Committee members now elect the User
Committee members, starting on August 1st, 2020, Active User Contributors are
the elected Technical Committee members.
The Active User Contibutors electorate (previously used to elect the separate
User Committee body) will be included in the electorate electing the Technical
Committee. To that effect, the Active User Contributor criteria will be used
by the Foundation to propose such contributors as extra Active Technical
Contributors if they are not part of the Technical Committee electorate
already.
Meetings
--------
The User Committee is considered meeting every time the Technical Committee
meets and at least three of the User Committee members are present.
Amendments to this charter
--------------------------
This charter may be amended by a simple vote by the Technical Committee
members.