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Add SCS-0005-v2 project governance standard (#1029)
* SCS-0005: copy v1 without any changes to v2 Signed-off-by: Christian Berendt <[email protected]> * Add SCS-0005-v2 project governance standard Add version 2 of the project governance standard. Compared to v1, this version adds the "Conflict of Interest and Organizational Diversity" section which ensures: - No more than one board seat may be held by individuals from the same organization - Rules for handling multiple top-ranked candidates from the same organization in elections - Process for resolving conflicts when board members change their organizational affiliation during their term Co-authored-by: Kurt Garloff <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Christian Berendt <[email protected]> * SCS-0005: add explicit election mechanism with four or fewer nominees Signed-off-by: Jan Klare <[email protected]> * SCS-0005: add version history and extend description for v2 * extend description for v2 * add version history to summarize changes between versions Signed-off-by: Jan Klare <[email protected]> * SCS-0005: improve wording and formatting in v2 governance standard Clarify resignation reasons as non-exhaustive list and improve readability of the announcement section. Co-authored-by: Matthias Büchse <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Christian Berendt <[email protected]> * SCS-0005: improve conflict resolution and vacancy rules in v2 - Use objective criteria (election vote count) instead of board vote for affiliation conflict resolution to avoid trust issues - Replace fixed "second vacancy" rule with minimum quorum of 3 elected members to account for varying board sizes - Minor language improvements (inclusive pronouns, grammar) Signed-off-by: Christian Berendt <[email protected]> --------- Signed-off-by: Christian Berendt <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Jan Klare <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Kurt Garloff <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Jan Klare <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Matthias Büchse <[email protected]>
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‎Standards/scs-0005-v2-project-governance.md‎

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---
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title: Governance of the SCS community
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type: Procedural
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status: Draft
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replaces: scs-0005-v1-project-governance.md
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track: Global
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description: |
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This is version 2 of the SCS-0005 and outlines the structure and governance of
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the SCS community by the SCS Project Board and how this is elected.
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---
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## Introduction
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The [Sovereign Cloud Stack (SCS)](https://scs.community) provides standards
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for a range of cloud infrastructure types as well as a modular open-source
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reference implementation.
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The project is governed by the _SCS Project Board_.
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## Role of the _SCS Project Board_
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The role of the _SCS Project Board_ is the overall governance of the SCS Community and Project.
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This happens together with the _Forum SCS-Standards_ of the Open Source Business Alliance. To further
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underline this alignment, the _Forum SCS-Standards_ is part of the _SCS Project Board_.
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The _SCS Project Board_ itself is elected by the _SCS Community_.
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### Definitions
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#### _SCS Project_
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The _SCS Project_ is the Open-Source project that consists of the software, documentation, documents, blog posts as well as the people ("_SCS Community_") working on this.
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#### _SCS Community_
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The collective of people, companies, and organizations promoting the idea of the _SCS Project_ as well as the people working on the various aspects.
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#### _SCS GitHub Organization_
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The _SCS GitHub Organization_ is this: [https://github.com/sovereigncloudstack](https://github.com/sovereigncloudstack)
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### Roles in the _SCS GitHub Organization_
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#### Members
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Joining the SCS GitHub Organization as a contributor results in being assigned the **member role** in the organization. Members are contributors or collaborators who:
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- Actively contribute to projects within the organization.
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- Have repository-specific access based on their contributions.
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- Are eligible to vote in elections and nominate candidates for the _SCS Project Board_.
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- Must adhere to the [Code of Conduct](https://github.com/SovereignCloudStack/.github/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md).
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#### Owners
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Members of the _SCS Project Board_ are also designated as **owners** of the SCS GitHub organization. Owners have administrative privileges, including:
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- Managing organization-level settings.
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- Onboarding new members.
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- Enforcing compliance with governance and community standards.
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This alignment ensures that governance roles in the SCS Project Board directly translate into operational responsibilities within the GitHub organization.
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## Joining the SCS GitHub Organization
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Since being part of the GitHub organization comes with a set of responsibilities, joining the SCS GitHub Organization can be done by:
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- being invited by the _SCS Project Board_
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- submitting a request to be onboarded as a member to the _SCS Project Board_
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- have existing members of the GitHub organization nominate you
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One of these items is sufficient.
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Actively contributing to one or several of the projects under the governance of the SCS project board should typically result in a membership. Please be aware of our [Code of Conduct](https://github.com/SovereignCloudStack/.github/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md).
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## Election of the _SCS Project Board_
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### Term
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The _SCS Project Board_ is elected for the term of one year. Elections are done
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within the last six weeks of the calendar year.
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### Seats on the board
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The _SCS Project Board_ contains five seats. One of these seats is filled by
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the delegate of the _Forum SCS-Standards_. The other four seats are voted upon.
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#### Conflict of Interest and Organizational Diversity
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To ensure balanced representation and avoid conflicts of interest, no more than one seat on the SCS Project
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Board elected by the community may be held by individuals affiliated with the same organization, company,
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or employer at any given time. This limitation applies only to the elected seats, not to the seat filled by
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the delegate of the Forum SCS-Standards.
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If two or more candidates from the same organization are among the top-ranked choices in an election:
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- Only the highest-ranked candidate from that organization will be elected.
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- The remaining seat(s) will be filled by the next highest-ranked candidate(s) from different organizations.
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If an existing board member changes their organizational affiliation during their term, resulting in multiple board
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members from the same organization, one of the affected members must resign their seat. The affected members may mutually
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agree on who will resign. If no agreement can be reached within 30 days of the affiliation change, the member who received
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fewer votes in the most recent election will be required to resign. A replacement will be determined according to the most
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recent election results, selecting the next eligible candidate from a different organization.
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#### Resignation
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Resignation can happen for several reasons, such as:
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- Elected member may sustainably no longer be willing or able to serve on the project board.
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- Elected member needs to resign due to conflict of interest (see above for organizational diversity rules).
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When a board member resigns, the next eligible candidate from the last election will automatically join the board,
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if they accept it and does not conflict with the organizational diversity rules. In case no more candidates exist,
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the board will continue to exist with one fewer member. If the number of elected board members falls below three,
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an extraordinary election will be scheduled for the rest of the term. Resigned members are encouraged to suggest
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new candidates. The search for candidates should at least allow for two weeks and the election announced at least
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three weeks in advance of happening and run for a week.
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### Nominations
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Every person who is part of the Sovereign Cloud Stack GitHub organization can be
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nominated for the board. Likewise, one can nominate oneself.
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The nomination is done by adding the person with the required data to the file corresponding to the term in the "Community-Governance" folder in the [Standards](https://github.com/sovereignCloudStack/standards/) repository. Obviously, the person, that is to be nominated, should be asked before being added to the file.
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### Eligible for voting
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Every person who is a member of the GitHub organization "Sovereign Cloud Stack" is eligible for voting. In order to be able to vote an onboarding onto the Identity Management of the SCS community needs to happen.
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### Electoral management
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The voting process is governed by the _Forum SCS-Standards_.
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Voting is done using the [Condorcet Internet Voting Service](https://civs1.civs.us/). This is the same system as is [being used by the OpenInfra foundation](https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Election_Officiating_Guidelines#Running_the_election_itself).
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### Voting period
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The voting will be open for a week.
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### Announcement
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The voting will be announced on the `scs-members` mailing list as well as on the
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[General & Announcements](https://matrix.to/#/#scs-general:matrix.org) Matrix channel.
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Enlisted voters will receive e-mails to the email address used in the SCS community's
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Identity Management system.
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### Mechanisms
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Each eligible voter is asked to rank the candidates according to their priorities.
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The four favorite choices among all voters will be elected into the _SCS Project Board_.
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In case there are four or fewer nominees for the election, no formal vote will
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be conducted, and all nominees will be elected into the _SCS Project Board_.
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## Roles in the _SCS Project Board_
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Among the elected Project Board a spokesperson is nominated. The spokesperson is
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elected by a simple majority vote among the members of the project board. The
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spokesperson is elected for the whole term.
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## Version history
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- Version 1 existed without major changes since 16.01.2025
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- Version 2 extends the detail of the _SCS Project Board_ election by:
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- adding a section to avoid conflict of interest and ensure organizational
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diversity
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- adding a section to define the election mechanism if members of the board
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resign
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- specifying how to proceed when four or fewer candidates are nominated for
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the elections
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- using objective criteria (election results) for affiliation conflict resolution
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- defining a minimum quorum (3 elected members) for extraordinary elections

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