Zeek Project Leadership Team Process and Description
The Zeek Leadership Team (LT) is our top-level community leadership and governance body. The LT is ultimately accountable for the Zeek Project as a whole, and is responsible for providing advice to and oversight of other Zeek governance bodies and teams as needed. The LT is also responsible for ensuring that the administration, programs, and strategic plan of the project as well as funding, marketing, and community outreach are being conducted. The LT will often execute through delegation but will maintain oversight responsibilities. Currently, the Zeek LT operates as an organizational board, technical governance committee, and community council, all in one. In the future, the LT may break out those functions into sub-committees, yet it will remain responsible for stewardship of the Zeek Project as a whole.
- Fiduciary responsibility
- Oversight and approval of any one-time or recurring expenses paid by Zeek funds.
- Technical governance oversight
- Approval of addition/removal of merge masters.
- Outreach/Events
- Coordination of outreach activities and regular events, such as conferences or workshops, whether they are virtual, in-person, or a hybrid.
- Communications
- Provide strategic direction for communicating with the public, such as through social media or a website, as well as between members of the community, such as Slack or email lists.
- Dispute resolution
- Play a key role in resolving disputes within the community, when all other avenues have been exhausted. Examples include proposals which get declined by the technical leadership for which the proposal submitter believes it failed for non-technical reasons, or addressing community members who violate our code of conduct.
The LT is composed of a mix of representatives from different areas of the project and the broader Zeek community. Historically, the LT had 9 seats, created by invitation either due to an individual’s extensive engagement with the project, or their association with an organization which contributes significantly to the project. Going forward, all seats on the LT will be role-based or individual and the number of seats may change as the project evolves. Individual members represent themselves, sometimes along with specific functions they have for the Zeek project. Role-based seats open up when the serving member leaves their respective role.
We aim to have 3 role-based seats and 6 individual seats. As we are transitioning from a historically more informal LT structure, we are associating some current individual members with the role they currently represent.
The Founder’s seat is held by Vern Paxson and is exempted from the voting process.
Role-based seats
- Vern Paxson (Founder’s seat)
- Christian Kreibich (Technical Lead seat)
Individual seats
- Aashish Sharma
- Fatema Bannat Wala
- Johanna Amann (Chair)
- Keith Lehigh
- Robin Sommer
We recognize that although seats on the LT are role- or individual-based, the people filling them are associated with nonprofit or commercial organizations. We wish to avoid overrepresenation by any single organization, however, we may find that we have exceptionally qualified candidates from a single organization. In the interest of avoiding dominance by a single organization, the LT may fill a seat as non-voting to balance the need to attract specific skills or roles while avoiding overrepresentation.
Historically, members were added by invitation as the project grew and organizations became involved. Going forward, there will be an election process. We will hold an open community nomination process, and the current LT will vote on the nominees. Role-based seats will require candidates to demonstrate, as gauged by the current LT, corresponding qualifications for filling that seat.
In order to maintain continuity we will fill half the seats annually, except during the first term under the new governance structure. For this first term, the LT Chair will solicit volunteers or randomly select half the members to serve a 3-year term with the other half serving a two-year term. Delaying the annual replacement process for a full two-year term allows the new LT to focus on implementing community voting and accomplishing other significant goals.
Once seated, members of the LT will select the Chair with a simple majority. The LT may not conduct business until they are able to select a Chair.
Through the following consensus method. In order for any motion to be carried or a decision to be made a 2⁄3 quorum must be in attendance and a 2⁄3 or more majority vote must be carried. Votes will be open within the LT, but LT members are obligated to not divulge how other LT members voted, although they may disclose their own vote.
Anyone who is an active community member with sustained engagement with the project is eligible to run for a seat on the Zeek LT.
All members of the LT must commit to:
- Attend at least 90% of LT meetings each year (scheduled every 2 weeks; online)
- Participate in LT discussions and decision-making process
- Review and respond to all polls & votes by stated time
- Be an ambassador of the project and abide by the Community Code of Conduct
- Help plan annual goals for the Zeek Project
- Make at least 4 hrs a week available for LT and project activities
- Take responsibility for at least one specific area of the project
- Attend ZeekWeek (once a year; the Zeek Project does not reimburse travel expenses)
The LT Chair is responsible for the LT fulfilling its role. They must:
- Lead LT meetings, discussions, and decision making
- Ensure meeting notes from each meeting are made available to the community
- Delegate specific responsibilities, and oversee progress & results
- Represent the LT publicly in discussions and at events
The LT can remove members who no longer meet the requirements by 2⁄3 majority vote. The LT will choose a replacement, and seat them until the end of the current LT term of the replaced member. The removal process should be initiated by an email from another LT member to the LT chair. If the chair is to be removed, that should be initiated by an email to the LT email list.
Should non-trivial changes to this document be required, the LT will notify the community and seek input through the mailing list and a public call. The timeline for input from the community will be determined by scope of the changes that are being suggested. Once the community has been given time to provide input, the LT will take the community input into full consideration. The LT will notify the community of the outcome via public postings.
The parts of this document describing the current composition of the LT, as well as the election timelines will be updated before and after each election; the community will be update about the progress of the election progress, the outcome of elections and of any changes to the LT.
Half of the seats were up for re-election in the August 2022 Election. The seats up for re-election were held by Johanna Amann, Seth Hall, and Nick Turley. The remaining seats will be up for re-election in August 2023. These seats are currently held by Aashish Sharma, Fatema Bannat Wala, and Keith Lehigh.
The role-based seats are not part of the election process. These were held by Vern Paxson (Founder's seat) and Robin Sommer (Technical Lead seat). The Community Lead seat (non-voting) is currently vacant.
The following shows the timetable for the August 2022 elections:
- 8 August - Nomination Process begins
- 19 August - Nomination Process ends
- 22 August - Review Process begins
- 2 September - Review Process ends
- 5 September - Testimonial Phase negins
- 16 September - Testimonial Phase ends
- 19 September - Voting Process begins
- 29 September - Voting Process ends
- 3 October - Candidates are notified
- 6 October - Change in Leadership starts and Community notified
- 13 October - New members introduced at Zeek Week
- 20 October - Change in Leadership ends, new members in place
- Nomination Phase During this phase you can nominate yourself or someone you know for a seat on the LT by using a webform. Email submissions are not accepted.
- Review Phase During this Phase the LT will ensure all nominees are eligible to run and they understand the roles and responsibilities and are willing to run.
- Testimonial Phase During this phase the nominees list will be made public and members of the community will be encouraged to add a testimonial. (only positive testimonials will be included)
- Voting Phase During this phase members of the current Zeek LT will vote on the candidates.
- Notification Candidates will be notified via email then the following day the community will be notified.
- Change in Leadership A two week period to allow for transfer of knowledge, go over procedures and more. During the 2-week transition period the new LT members will vote on a Chairperson.
During the August 2022 election, we got less nominations than seats. Thus, a special election for the vacant seat will be held in early 2023. The composition of the leadership team after the August 2022 elections is:
Role-based seats
- Vern Paxson (Founder’s seat)
- Christian Kreibich (Technical Lead seat)
- Kelley Misata (Community Lead seat)
Individual seats
- Aashish Sharma
- Fatema Bannat Wala
- Johanna Amann (Chair)
- Keith Lehigh
- Robin Sommer
- Vacant
The first elections took place in August 2020. The following shows the timeline.
- 12 August 2020 - Nomination Process
- 23 August - Nomination Process Ends
- 24 August - Review Process Begins
- 4 September- Review Process Ends
- 7 September - Testimonial Phase Begins
- 18 September - Testimonial Phase Ends
- 21 September - Voting Process Begins
- 2 October - Voting Process Ends
- 5 October - Candidates are notified
- 6 October - Change in Leadership starts and Community Notified
- 14 October - New members introduced at Zeek Week
- 20 October - Change in Leadership ends - new members in Place
The composition of the leadership team after the August 2020 Elections is:
Role-based seats
- Vern Paxson (Founder’s seat)
- Robin Sommer (Technical Lead seat)
- Amber Graner (Community Lead seat)
Individual seats
- Aashish Sharma
- Fatema Bannat Wala
- Johanna Amann (Chair)
- Keith Lehigh
- Nick Turley
- Seth Hall