Adopted [Month, Day, Year]
This Workgroup Charter (the “Charter”) sets forth the responsibilities and procedures for technical contribution to, and oversight of the [WORKGROUP NAME] Workgroup (the “Workgroup”).
This Workgroup is a part of the CHIPS Alliance Project, a Series of LF Projects, LLC. The CHIPS Alliance Technical Steering Committee (“TSC”) created this Workgroup according to the terms of the CHIPS Alliance Technical Steering Committee. On the date noted at the top of this document, the TSC adopted this Charter for the Workgroup. All CHIPS Alliance governing documents and policies, including the CHIPS Alliance Technical Charter, Intellectual Property Policy, and any relevant Code of Conduct will apply to this Workgroup by default. Any Charters, constitutions, or other policies specifically adopted for other CHIPS Alliance workgroups will not apply to this Workgroup.
- The Mission of the Workgroup is to develop and host open source projects with the goals indicated in the “README” file within the Workgroup’s code repository.
- The scope of the Workgroup includes [add additional details about intended focus of Workgroup, 2-3 sentences.]
The Workgroup technical governance consists of two types of participants: Technical Advisory Committee members and Volunteer Developers (together, the “Participants”).
The role of the Workgroup Technical Advisory Committee (“TAC”) is to represent the interests of the Participants in the Workgroup and provide active technical leadership for the Workgroup.
The responsibilities of these TAC roles within the Workgroup include:
- Merging pull requests and otherwise exercising the role of “Committers” for the Workgroup as defined in the CHIPS Alliance Technical Charter;
- Facilitating communication and collaboration between TAC members;
- Upholding the policies outlined in this document;
- Organizing public meetings and public technical discussions;
- Sharing any necessary meeting minutes in a public GitHub repository, a public Wiki, or on a public website for the Workgroup within a reasonable period of time after the meeting;
- Responding to technical questions on GitHub;
- Setting the technical criteria for use of the Workgroup marks (if applicable);
- Determining strategy and promoting the adoption of the Workgroup technology through documentation, talks, or other marketing;
- Determining whether additional public, open source repositories should be created for the Workgroup; and
- Determining whether any Workgroup open source collaborations should be wound down and archived on GitHub.
[The initial TAC members of the Workgroup will be representatives appointed by [WORKGROUP FOUNDING ORGANIZATIONS], with one representative per organization.]
Organizations who have joined the CHIPS Alliance and signed the CHIPS Alliance Participation Agreement and CHIPS Alliance Contributor License Agreement are eligible to nominate developer representatives to join the Workgroup TAC.
Developer representatives may join the TAC subject to a simple majority approval vote by the existing TAC members in attendance of a TAC meeting, provided quorum is met, or by electronic vote without a meeting, with a majority vote of all voting members of the TAC.
Additionally, Volunteer Developers may join the TAC in their individual capacity based on active contribution to the Workgroup open source repositories, subject to a 2/3 approval vote by the existing TAC members, with all existing TAC members participating in the vote. Such TAC membership decisions will be based only on the technical quality of contributions made to the Workgroup open source project.
All TAC technical discussions will be publicly accessible, either on public Workgroup open source repositories on GitHub, on publicly accessible mailing lists, or on calls that may be joined by any member of the public.
Any member of the Workgroup TAC may resign by submitting a pull request to remove their name from the membership list document; the resignation will be considered effectively immediately upon submitting the pull request. The TAC may vote to remove a TAC member by a 2/3 vote with a majority of TAC members participating. A CHIPS Alliance member may remove its TAC member representative or replace its TAC member representative with an alternative employee representative at any time.
The Workgroup TAC members will be listed by name or pseudonym and GitHub username in a document within the Workgroup open source repository. Membership changes are reflected by pull requests against the Workgroup TAC membership list document.
The TAC may elect a Chair on an annual basis based on a majority vote by the TAC members.
The TAC may determine the date of its annual Chair elections, with additional elections as needed if a Chair resigns or otherwise needs to be replaced. The TAC Chair will:
- Represent the Workgroup in CHIPS Alliance Technical Steering Committee meetings per the CHIPS Alliance Technical Charter;
- Represent the Workgroup in discussions with Linux Foundation legal counsel with respect to trademark prosecution for the Workgroup marks (if applicable), on behalf of all Workgroup Participants; and
- Escalate any Code of Conduct concerns to the CHIPS Alliance TSC.
A TAC Chair may resign at any time. A TAC Chair may be removed from the position of Chair by a 2/3 vote of the TAC members, with a majority of the TAC members participating in the vote.
A former TAC Chair may continue to be a Participant in the Workgroup if there is no other reason against it, e.g., if no adverse Code of Conduct determination has been made.
The Workgroup welcomes contributions from members of the open source community. All open source contributors who have signed the CHIPS Alliance Contributor License Agreement, or who are covered by a CHIPS Alliance Contributor License Agreement signed by their employer, are welcome as Workgroup Volunteer Developers.
Volunteer Developers can contribute to the Workgroup open source project via pull requests on GitHub and participation in Workgroup meetings and technical discussions. Volunteer Developers do not have voting rights. Volunteers are encouraged to review and comment on pending pull requests to the Workgroup open source repositories, but they cannot accept pull requests on behalf of the Workgroup.
Not all suggested contributions will be merged by the Workgroup TAC, and Volunteer Developers will not have commit rights or edit rights for the Workgroup open source project.
The Workgroup will recognize Volunteer Developers if individuals request to be added to a list of Workgroup Volunteer Developers, to be maintained in a document in the Workgroup open source repository alongside, or in the same document as, the list of official TAC members. It is not necessary to be included in the listed individual Volunteer Developers in Workgroup documentation to be considered a Volunteer Developer.
Volunteer Developers are welcome to join all meetings, mailing lists, and discussions on GitHub. Volunteer Developers do not have any required responsibilities to the Workgroup.
Volunteer Developers may become TAC members according to the process outlined regarding the addition of new members to the TAC.
This Charter may be amended by a 2/3 vote of the TAC with a participating majority of listed TAC members. The vote may be conducted (1) in a meeting with meeting minutes noting which TAC members were present and how they voted; (2) over email, or (3) via participation in a pull request discussion on GitHub.
Workgroup TAC votes to amend the Workgroup Charter will be subject to a veto by the CHIPS Alliance Board, to be exercised when a Charter amendment may unacceptably depart from the purpose of the CHIPS Alliance or unreasonably increase risk for CHIPS Alliance participants.