Arabeyes Charter Proposal

["Chahine M. Hamila" <mch at chaham dot com>]

Hey folks. A proposal for Arabeyes functionning.

Arabeyes Charter
================


Roles and Responsibilities
of the Core Team
--------------------------

  General Coordinator
    - Coordinate with core team
    - Maintain the site, cvs, bug tracker, etc.
    - Resolve conflict, should they arise
    - Maintain meeting minutes and agendas
    - Moderate meetings and schedules

  Localization Coordinator
    - Manage translation teams
    - Set priorities and deadlines
    - Coordinate with related i18n coordinators of other projects

  Public Relations and Recruitment
    - Campaign educational institutions and rally for support
    - Recruit new volunteers into the project
    - Represent Arabeyes in public and to the media
    - Initiate external contacts with companies and other projects
    - Serve as mentor to new members of the project
    - Enhance Arabeyes’ image and prestige
    - Coordinate work with Mirror Administrators

  Research and Development Coordinator
    - Coordinate development projects to ensure harmony and
      staying in focus
    - Set development priorities and deadlines
    - Serve as liaison to technical committees and standardization
      organizations
    - Define the research directions

Are not necessarily part of the Core Team:

Mirror Administrators:
    - Mirror the Arabeyes Website and resources in different
geographical locations
    - At least two are necessary

Core Collective Responsibilities
--------------------------------

  - Approve individual project licenses
  - Coordinate external relations
  - Motivate volunteers
  - Propose and implement policies (technial and otherwise)


Policy Proposal Procedure
-------------------------

  1. Write formal proposal
  2. Add item to meeting agenda
  3. Give one to two weeks for discussion (via core mailing list)
  4. Schedule a voting deadline and render votes


Voting Procedures
----------------

  All votes will be rendered during a the core team meetin. If a member
  is unable to attend, they may email the GC with their vote(s).

A. Basic rules
   1. In the event of a tie, the General Coordinator invokes a parting
vote.
   2. No one can be individually forced to do whatever he doesn’t want
to.
   3. Decisions made by the Core Team are not discussable, even when
they might appear arbitrary or unjustified. People can politely ask for
clarifications or make suggestions, and it will be at the Core Team’s
discretion to answer or not, or even forbid any discussion about it.

B. General decisions:

  1. General decisions are taken by simple majority votes.
  2. All non explicitly written voting exceptions will abide by this
section.

C. Project decisions:

  Project decisions are essentially taken by each Project Coordinator
within a system he manages in the frame of the project he manages.
  Core Votes as in B.1 take precedence over Core Coordinators’s
decisions which in turn take precedence over the project coordinator’s
decisions. An exception is when the project is owned by the coordinator,
i.e. the project coordinator is the main author, in which case rule A.2
applies.

C. Inclusion of a new member in the core team:
  1. Inclusion of a new member in the core team will be proposed to
answer specific needs.
  2. This procedure cannot succeed without the presence AND a favorable
vote by 3/4 of the core team.
  3. If a member of the core team puts his own membership in the balance
against the inclusion, a vote according to rules B will have to take
place. If the vote succeeds, the successful inclusion by a following
vote according to rule C.2 of the new member will automatically exclude
the subject of the first vote. If this first vote fails, the inclusion
procedure aborts.

D. Exclusion of a core member:
  A successful vote undertaken according to rules B is enough for
excluding a member.

E. Core Coordinators elections:
  Elections of Core Coordinators abide by rules B.
  Core Coordinators are tacitly reconducted every two years unless a
core member expresses will for an explicit vote.
   Elections are also triggered by changes in the Core Team.

F. Project Coordinators:
   Are first nominated according to rules B.
   A Project Coordinator can set the rules of functionning of the
project as he sees fit, including nominating another project
coordinator. This last initiative though would have to go through the
approval of the Core Team.

G. Licenses
  License are accepted on a case per case basis according to a vote by
rules B.


Annex:

- Proposed coordinators for the years 2002-2003 and following until next
explicit vote:

Mohamed Elzubeir : General Coordinator
Isam Bayazidi : L10N Coordinator
Nadim Shaikli: Public Relations and Recruitment
Chahine Hamila: RnD Coordinator

- There will most probably be unwritten usage over time. Though it is
important to follow such practices, none of them will be considered
mandatory unless validated, by vote or by plebiscit, as a a written part
of this charter.