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Expectations

With the intent to merge the Node.js Foundation and JS Foundation being announced, those interested in the continued support of Node.js and JS-related projects are working through expectations and structure for what the potential new foundation could look like.

This document is for the initial phase of work for the Bootstrap team to draft requirements that overlap with scope of the Board in order to provide an outline and structure for the foundation attuned to the needs of the projects and ecosystem stakeholders who have participated.

This document is organized by two key areas: concerns that must be included in the foundation bylaws, and those that are communicated expectations that aren't required to be in our legal documents to proceed but are vital to managing expectations of project members and ecosystem stakeholders.

Bylaws requirements

  • Communicated scope for the foundation and board
  • Annual reviews of staff, NPS, board, programs, support services to projects for accountability and incremental improvement
  • The foundation staff, executive director, and board should follow a leadership style that prioritizes and promotes the well-being of the project and those who prioritize and promote a healthy project and ecosystem.
  • Project representation on the Board where the broader and longer-term issues important to the success of the overall JavaScript ecosystem can discussed, championed and supported
    • Community Representation should sit on the Board directly. Projects could share this representation.
    • Community representation on the Board: 3 seats guaranteed for community representation
  • Board must establish Cross Project Council focused on the specific needs of the member projects
    • Allow projects to self-organize amongst themselves. Processes are defined and driven by project e.g. CPC is not structured by the Board
  • Non-corporate member representation in budget/finance subcommittee
  • Creation of the budget and oversight/approval of the spending of that budget against the allocation can be delegated to collaborators in the project.
  • Projects values should drive foundation focus and priority
  • No "pay to play" in technical participation
  • Earmarking allowed with flexibility in budgeting for concerns and needs of individual projects
  • Value satisfaction: regular feedback from projects
  • Explicit acknowledgement and documention for the ability of projects to leave the foundation
  • Foundation should document a clear process for trademark usage to enable community not-for-profit efforts
  • Communicated scope for the foundation and board
    • Annual reviews of staff, NPS, board, programs, support services to projects for accountability and incremental improvement
    • The Foundation staff, executive director, and board should follow a "servant leadership" style.
    • Non-corporate member representation in budget / finance subcommittee
    • Projects values should drive foundation focus and priority
    • Earmarking allowed with flexibility in budgeting for concerns and needs of individual projects
    • Value satisfaction: regular feedback from projects
  • Executive Director required to work directly with projects to gather strategy and budget needs for upcoming roadmaps including but not limited to:
    • Brand management per Project
    • Budget Allocation per Project
    • Resource Allocation per Project

Communicated expectations

Expectations of the Foundation

  • Protect Intellectual Property (IP) including trademarks

    • Enable the project communities to use the trademarks
    • Educate members, new and old, about proper use of the projects' IP
  • Provide Legal Advice and Legal Best Practices

    • Provide legal resources and representation that support the needs of the project
    • Create a well-defined communications path for project legal needs within a 3-6 month timeframe
  • Software / Hardware resource facilitation (for use by the project)

    • Examples:
      • OKTA Identity Service for Individual Membership
      • Headless CMS for website
      • Translation and Internationalization Platform
      • Have asked for approval to buy mac minis….
  • Provide Ongoing Supporting Personnel to help manage community and technical efforts

    • Examples:
      • Community Manager
      • Education Manager
  • Provide a pathway for community personnel requests for resources including but not limited to Employee, Contractor, Committed Volunteer, and Outsourced roles

    • Examples:
      • Designer for a project website
      • Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) to monitor uptime and service quality of Build, Website, and Automation Infrastructure
  • Grow Foundation Membership and Expand the Network of folks engaged with the projects (and facilitate contribution from the Members to the projects)

    • Provide compelling membership value propositions
    • Recruit new members
    • Enable members to meet regularly
  • Foundation representatives should regularly attend top-level meetings

    • When needed, the Executive Director will work with the top-level committees to ensure their role as a liaison is fulfilled.
  • Engage members of the top-level committees inside of Foundation functions, like the Marketing Committee, Legal Committee, and Events meetings.

  • Increase the adoption of projects across individuals and companies by

    • Promoting initiatives by the top-level committees
    • Financing initiatives (as per some agreed level of priority) that have this objective. This is related to community personnel requests outlined earlier

Expectations of the Board

  • Maintain a transparent process in financial management of the foundation
  • Responsible execution of fiscal duties to maintain and grow the foundation
  • Hire an Executive Director who can execute on the expectations of the projects
  • Regularly review the performance of the Executive Director
  • Review foundation performance with top-level project leadership quarterly
  • Collaborate with representatives of the foundation on a yearly basis for accountability, multi-year strategy planning, and reviewing goal achievement
  • Annual board meetup with members from top-level committee membership

Expectations of the Executive Director

  • Be an engaged participant of a/the projects' ecosystems while having guidelines around what activity is appropriate while wearing the hat of ED vs. contributor.
  • Represent the projects through active participation with project members
  • Fundraising to ensure solvency and sufficient budget to accommodate the growing needs of the projects
  • Manage diplomacy between member companies and the foundation
  • Maintain context of vital work of the project for application in representing the foundation and informed decision-making
  • Employee hiring and management of functional roles contributing to the foundation administrative work. Examples:
    • Community needs
    • Certification
    • Project community representation at events
  • Bring in resources to contribute to the working groups and initiatives.
  • Timely communication of Board activity and decisions to appropriate scope (public, top-level committees, and so on)
  • A public face of Node.js Foundation. Activities might include, but would not be limited to, some or all of:
    • representing the voice of foundation at conferences through keynotes, panels, and talks
    • writing blog posts
    • providing regular updates to the project and the community
    • Regular communication/interlocks with the project committees.
    • regulard Q&A with ecosystem

Mission Statement Drafts

Projects joining the foundation should collectively agree on a single mission statement when joining the new Foundation. Below are a number of rough drafts put forward by attendees of the Governance breakout session(s) at our Node.js Collaborator Summit 2018 in Vancouver.

By providing structure and support to build and sustain community among open-source projects.

Growing and maintaining the global JavaScript system through open, equitable, and inclusive governance.

The Foundation is dedicated to the development and sustainability of the JavaScript ecosystem, through fostering the environment for growth of JavaScript related projects.

The Foundation envisions a future where JavaScript is a sustainable platform for implementing best in class experiences in production across all types of workloads. The $FOUNDATION is committed to being a catalyst across the industry making our technological communities productive, sustainable, equitable, diverse and inclusive.

Vision Statement Drafts

Projects joining the foundation should collectively agree on a single vision statement when joining the new Foundation. Below are a number of recommendations put forward by attendees of the Governance breakout sessions at our Node.js Collaborator Summit 2018 in Vancouver.

Vision: To enable widespread adoption and help accelerate development of JavaScript and key ecosystem projects across connected devices, servers and networks, user agents and runtimes. The Foundation supports its hosted projects through open governance models and social structures that encourage community, skills growth, technical contribution, standards engagement, and inclusive participation.

Identified Values

The following values were identified in the governance brainstorming exercises during the October 2018 Collaborators Summit in Vancouver. We believe they can operate as guiding principles for Foundation efforts.

Community Focus

  • Promote Diversity, Inclusivity and Representation with a global perspective.
  • Bring members together on a regular basis with equal accessibility
  • Global Leadership
  • Be less US / North American centric – engage worldwide
  • Value moral values

Project Driven

  • Projects make all technical decisions
  • Make projects the priority
  • Value project input for all decisions
  • Ensure health of highly used / critical libraries
  • Help champion new efforts
  • Provide Recognition
  • Ensure ability to leave

Transparent Operation

  • Open Governance
  • Radical Collaboration
  • Value data over opinions
  • Guarantee the right to disagree
  • Consensus seeking as a model for decision making

Simple Structure

  • By-laws general enough not to require evolution
  • Simple, project-driven governance evolution
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