Roles and responsiblities of postmarketOS officials

Title: Roles and responsiblities of postmarketOS officials
DRACC: 0032
    DRACC alias: PMOS-0001
Category: Regulatory
Scope: Programme
Authors: Leenaars, M.A.G.J.; Meijer, J.; Aben, G.; Šuklje, M.
Date: August 2020

This document is copyright: The Commons Conservancy and postmarketOS. It can be used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

The postmarketOS Board MAY assign named roles to qualified individuals associated to the postmarketOS Programme, to provide advice and assistance on specific issues and task to the Board. The associated requirements and responsibilities are formalised in this document, published as a Regulation of postmarketOS.

postmarketOS only has non-remunerate positions, including its Board of Directors. Any volunteer MAY resign at any time from their role within postmarketOS by giving written notice, or notice by email, of his or her resignation to the postmarketOS Chair or through a email channel established by postmarketOS for this purpose, and such resignation shall take effect at the time specified therein, or, if not specified, at the time of its receipt.

Directors

As per its Statutes, postmarketOS is governed by the postmarketOS Board of Directors. Each Directors has the following tasks:

  • to constructively challenge and contribute to the development of strategy within the Programme.

  • to scrutinise the performance of the Programme in meeting agreed goals and objectives

  • where necessary, remove friction and conflicts beween developers

  • to validate that technical and other information relevant to decision within the Programme is accurate and that controls and systems of risk management are robust and defensible.

  • to assess the performance of the Board itself

Directors do not receive any salaries for their services, nor can they claim travel expenses or subsistence costs to attend any in-person meetings. In exceptional circumstances the postmarketOS Board MAY assist in seeking external sponsorship to enable a certain Director to participate in activities within the Programme.

Any vacancy on the postmarketOS Board caused by death, resignation, removal or other cause MAY be filled by a simple majority vote of the remaining Directors (even if less than a quorum). A Director so elected is entitled to hold office until the next postmarketOS Board Elections, at which time a regular successor SHALL be duly elected and qualified.

postmarketOS Chair

The postmarketOS Board elects a Chair from among its members. The duties of the postmarketOS Chair are:

  • Preparing the agenda for postmarketOS Board meetings

  • Ensuring minutes of Board meetings are taken

  • Chairing the postmarketOS Board meetings

  • Reviewing and publishing meeting minutes

  • Signing official Programme documents

  • Delegating signature authority when unavailable to sign official Programme documents

The chair has the casting vote within the postmarketOS Board in case of a tie.

Technical Lead

From among the Core Developers, the postmarketOS Board MAY appoint a Technical Lead by simple majority vote. A Technical Lead serves a term of 24 months, and can stand for re-election. The Technical Lead is an ex officio voting member of the postmarketOS Board.

The duties of the Technical Lead are:

  • Overseeing the code review process

  • Scheduling votes on appointment of new Core Developers;

  • Organising training for new Core Developers

  • Organising succession planning for Core Developers and the Technical Lead

  • Representing the Core Developers in the postmarketOS Board

The Technical Lead has the ability, in exceptional circumstances, to overrule a technical decision by other Core Developers; such a decision MAY in turn be appealed with the postmarketOS Board. During the decision process on such an appeal, the Technical Lead refrains from voting herself or himself.

Core Developers

Core Developers are reliable contributors to postmarketOS that have earned the priviledge and responsibility to review and commit source code contributions from other developers into the software repositories of postmarketOS, after scrutinising if that code adheres to the conditions set by the Programme.

Core developers act as the technical gatekeepers to keep the postmarketOS software safe and maintainable, and provide the sustained effort that keeps the project going over time and do most of the day-to-day work in postmarketOS.

Core Developers MUST strive to keep the interests of the Programme separate of possible organisational affiliations, and SHALL make it clear when a potential conflict of interest threatens to emerge. In case a Core Developer violates this principle, the postmarketOS Board MAY revoke their status as Core Developer or temporarily revoke their commit access.

The Technical Lead is responsible for publishing the list of current Core Developers on the website of postmarketOS. Core Developers MAY be listed pseudonymously.

Other named roles

The postmarketOS Board MAY create and abandon additional permanent and temporary positions, and appoint individuals to such positions through a simple absolute majority vote.

An example would be a Vice Chair, Secretary or liaison to some other organisation. The postmarketOS Board MAY delegate the right to handle certain decisions to an individual officer, committee or taskforce, this does not reduce the responsibility of the postmarketOS Board.

The individuals fulfilling the roles defined in this Regulation act as fiduciaries with regard to the postmarketOS Programme, and their duties include, but are not limited to, the fiduciary duty of care and the fiduciary duty of loyalty.