The OpenSolaris Constitution - 2.1 ALPHA
Below is an update to the proposed OpenSolaris Constitution that was unsuccessfully voted on in the March 2009 election. One of those updates is to make it so that NO changes to the Charter will be needed.
Preamble and Introduction
TBD
This document outlines the basic structure and operation of the OpenSolaris community and the OpenSolaris Governing Board ("the Board", "OGB"). Since a Constitution should be a long lived document, it tries to limit itself to documenting intent and structure. The authors of this document intentionally tried to move implementation details to a set of Board-maintained process documents that can evolve as the needs of the community change. The OpenSolaris Constitution and its process/implementation documents must conform to the OpenSolaris Charter.
Previous versions of the Constitution can be found at the OGB's website.
The OpenSolaris community is structured as a distributed organization made up of self-governing groups of participants, as specified below.
The OpenSolaris community is made up of groups of participants, where each group focuses on different aspects of the community as a whole. These groups fall into several broad categories based on their scope and/or behavior patterns:
The number of groups within a given category (other than the Electorate) can vary greatly. From a governance perspective, all of these group types are considered equal in status, that is, there is no implicit hierarchical relationship between them - though individual groups are free to create explicit associations with other groups to facilitate development or community building activities.
The Board will maintain a set of OGB Group Lifecycle Administrative Procedures that describe how participants can create, change, archive, and (if needed) reactivate individual groups
The people who associate together in an OpenSolaris Group assume one of three roles:
In order to encourage consistency across the OpenSolaris community and also for the purpose of mediating disputes, groups are expected and encouraged to document the procedures they use to manage their activities. This includes development methodologies, voting procedures, participation guidelines, record keeping, requirements for becoming contributors and leaders, etc.
The Board will maintain a set of OGB Group Management Guidelines that can be used to meet this requirement.
The Electorate Group is responsible for community wide cross-group governance. All community members who have substantially and verifiability contributed to any OpenSolaris group are eligible for membership in the Electorate. Qualification for membership in the Electorate is for life, but actual membership needs to be renewed every 2 (two) years.
The Board will maintain the OGB Electorate Membership Process document describing the qualification and application processes.
Members of the Electorate are expected to be active participants in the governance of the OpenSolaris Community. This participation includes following and contributing to discussions and debates, proposing policies and amendments to policies as needed, nominating candidates for the OGB and its committees, and voting in the Community's Annual and Special Elections.
The Board is responsible for administering elections using appropriate and inclusive mechanisms.
The Board Secretary shall notify the community of the intent to hold an election not less than thirty days before the election, and provide the necessary logistic details not less than ten days or more than sixty days before the election.
Nominations for Governing Board members shall be open for a minimum of seven days prior to ballot completion. (See s3.3 for candidacy details)
Measures and Constitutional changes may be placed on a ballot by the decision of the Board or by a petition signed by more than 10 percent of the Electorate Group members.
The Board Secretary will publish a complete and final ballot at least seven days prior to the start of voting.
Quorum for an Election shall be met by one-third of the total Electorate Group members participating in the election. For the sake of determining quorum, that total will be the membership in the Electorate as of the date the initial notification of intent was sent, and any Electorate Group member who announces themselves on the IRC channel during the Election, or who casts a vote (including abstention) in the Election will be counted as participating.
Once voting has started, the polls shall remain open for at least seven days, as defined in the public timetable for the election.
Electorate Group members are each entitled to one vote on each matter submitted at an election.
OpenSolaris elections shall use the balloting method known as Single Transferable Vote with the Meek algorithm.
The affirmative vote of a majority of the Electorate Group members participating in a quorate election shall be the act of the OpenSolaris Community with regard to Constitutional changes, Ballot Measures, and the election of OGB Members.
An account of all elections shall be posted in a public forum within thirty days of the close of voting.
An Annual Election must be held no later than 13 months following the previous Annual Election
The business of an Annual Election is to
A Special Election may be called outside the Annual Election by a vote of the Board or by a petition signed by more than 10 percent of the Electorate Group membership. The business of a Special Election is to
The OpenSolaris Governing Board ("the Board") consists of a minimum number of four and a maximum number of seven natural persons who can provide guidance to the OpenSolaris community and mediate disputes (s4) when appropriate. The Board shall operate transparently, prefer delegation and empowerment, and its members shall strive to be enablers, facilitators, and behind-the-scenes troubleshooters.
Board members help with the day to day running of the OpenSolaris community, and are expected to be regular contributors. Additionally the Board is responsible for maintaining the community's Constitution and doing as much possible to encourage the success of the community as a whole.
The term of office for Governing Board members starts the first day of the calendar month following the Annual Election and continues until the first day of the calendar month following the next Annual Election. Each board member shall hold office for the term for which they were elected, or until their resignation, removal, or death. Board members can serve for up to three consecutive terms, and there is no limit to the number of non-consecutive terms.
Candidates for election to the OpenSolaris Governing Board must be nominated by a current member of the Electorate and have Contributor status in at least one OpenSolaris Group. Self-nomination by an existing member of the Electorate is permitted.
Nominees must publicly accept their nomination and pass the qualifications for membership in the Electorate Group to become a candidate; candidates become members of the Electorate Group.
Candidates are expected to provide their corporate affiliation, other related interests and a candidate statement, as outlined by the Board Secretary.
Board members must publicly notify the the Board Secretary should their corporate affiliation or other related interests change.
Board members may be removed by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Electorate membership at a Special Election. A petition for removal (or of no confidence in the Board as a whole) must be signed by more than 10 percent of the Electorate membership before such a measure may be placed on the Ballot.
In the event of the resignation or death of a board member, the Board shall review the ballot results of the previous election and appoint the next available candidate to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term. If there are no further candidates from the prior election, or if the vacancy is due to the removal of a board member, the vacancy shall not be filled until the next Special or Annual Election.
If the Board membership falls below four or if the Electorate passes a motion of no confidence in the Board as a whole, then custody of the OpenSolaris community will temporarily revert to Sun Microsystems with Sun's executive liaison providing resources to bootstrap a new Governing Board through a Special Election to be held within thirty days.
A majority of the Board members in office shall constitute a quorum. The vote of a majority of the Board members present at a meeting of the Board at which a quorum is present shall be the act of the Board.
Board meetings must be held at least once a quarter, but are encouraged to be monthly or bi-weekly. Meetings may be held in person or via teleconference, IRC, or equivalent shared communication medium. Board meetings are open, but occasionally there may be a need to discuss confidential items in a closed session. Any decisions resulting from a closed session must be approved in an open meeting.
The Board will maintain a OGB_2008/007 Policy on private OGB discussions.
The officers of the Board shall consist of a Chair, a Vice-Chair, and a Secretary, each of whom shall be appointed by the Board. The offices of Chair and Vice Chair must be held by a Board member, but the Secretary need not be a Board member. The officers shall have the following duties:
The Board may create subcommittees as desired, each consisting of at least one Board member (who serves as Chair of the committee) and composed of people appointed by the Board.
The interactions between the Community and Sun occur at many levels, with Sun employees acting as Participants, Contributors and Leaders across all the Groups in the community. Sun will appoint an official liaison to the OGB, who will be given "seat and voice" in OGB discussions, and who can serve as an "official voice of Sun" if required.
On the occasions that a collective statement or communication is required by the OpenSolaris community to any individual or organization, the OGB will make such a statement following the passing of a suitable motion by its members containing the text of the statement.
It is expected and encouraged that groups will resolve disputes by themselves according to their documented decision-making procedures. If a dispute can not be resolved within a group or it spreads between groups, then the Governing Board may choose to mediate. The Board will consider disputes on a case-by-case basis and may decline to intervene. If the Board chooses to mediate, it will resolve the issue at its absolute discretion with no possibility of appeal. Its resolution will be binding on all parties.
There may arise situations where the behavior of an individual community member violates the Community's norms.
The Board will maintain an OGB Censure, Suspension and Expulsion Process dealing with the specifics of notification, mediation, fact finding and taking actions, such as censure, suspension of privileges and expulsion.
A community member may only be expelled for behavior that has previously resulted in suspension of privileges for that member. Expulsion of a member is subject to confirmation by a vote of the Electorate Group. The Electorate Group may also revoke the prior expulsion of a member. The threshold for approving or revoking an expulsion is the same as the threshold for approving changes to the Constitution.
This Constitution may be changed by an affirmative vote of a majority of the Electorate Group's membership participating in a quorate election where a properly formed and balloted constitutional amendment is considered, provided that the proposed deletions and additions, when applied to the Constitution, will result in a new Constitution that remains in complete compliance with the OpenSolaris Charter.
The Board will maintain an OGB Constitutional Amendment Process.
This section is not part of the Constitution. It lists pointers to procedures named in the Constitution and maintained by the Board to meet the requirements of the Constitution.
This final version represents the reorganization and simplification of the community that the OGB approved in Aug and Sept 2008. References for this document include the following: