Published
2018-10-04 17:22
Seeking community members to help shape CiviCRM’s future
For the first time in its history, the diverse community of people who use, implement and improve CiviCRM is rallying around a major organized effort to increase the sustainability and transparency of the project. We are pleased to invite members of our community to take part in leading a two-month process that will define a community representation system for the CiviCRM open-source project. See below for information on how to get involved.
The decision to create a representative body to guide CiviCRM comes out of the first annual CiviCRM Governance Summit, held September 25-26 in New Jersey. Twenty-nine people attended in person: the Core Team, active project contributors from end-user organizations, and CiviCRM service providers from North America, Europe and New Zealand, including many Partners. Several summiteers had been involved with CiviCRM for a decade or more. In two long days of lively discussion, participants voiced divergent opinions but were unified in their support for the project’s vision of providing all organizations with access to an amazing CRM.
Why this is important
As CiviCRM has matured, more people have come to depend on the software, more people are contributing to its development, and the software itself has grown in complexity and scope. A more formalized system for coordinating and resourcing the project is essential for the health of the community and the product.
How it will work
The participants in the Governance Summit agreed that an elected body representing CiviCRM contributors and Partners should be formed as early as January, 2019, and that to make this possible, a Establishment Committee should convene to decide these important questions:
- what should the exact structure of the representative body be?
- how will it interact with CiviCRM LLC and the CiviCRM community?
More specifically, the Establishment Committee:
- will be elected by its peers and meet in November and December;
- will be comprised of five active community members and four Partners in good standing;
- will be mandated to develop the outline approved by the Governance Summit into a document clearly laying out the structures and protocols of our new community representation system in enough detail that the system can go into effect and function on its own;
- will publish a draft of this document, incorporate public comments, and approve a final version of the document by majority vote, before January 1, 2019;
- will dissolve when its two-month task is complete.
How to participate
We are seeking nominations for active community members to stand for election to the Establishment Committee.
Nominations will be accepted through the end of day (UTC) October 15, 2018. Please use this form: https://civicrm.org/nomination-form-for-the-establishment-committee-of-the-community-advisory-committee
Who is eligible to run? Anyone with an active account on CiviCRM’s community sites (civicrm.org, civicrm.stackexchange.com, chat.civicrm.org, lab.civicrm.org), or who has registered for and attended a CiviCRM event.
What is the scope of the commitment if you are elected? The Establishment Committee’s activities are limited to two months. See the full description of the Establishment Committee process for more details.
What are the rules of the election? Full rules for election of the Establishment Committee
Who is running this election process
An Election Team took on the role of managing this process. The team comprises Joseph Lacey, Aidan Saunders and Josh Gowans.
Nomination Links
Filed under
