See below. This is not yet ready for promulgation by Sam but I think it more or less reflects what was discussed in Edinburgh. Sadly it has come out _far too long_. If anyone can produce a much shorter way of saying these same things I'll be very pleased. Failing that I might have a go with a scythe myself.
Ian. SUGGESTED NOTICE BY THE PROJECT LEADER ESTABLISHING A SOCIAL COMMITTEE RUBRIC A. I consider it necessary that it would be beneficial to formally establish a Social Committee for resolving nontechnical disputes. B. I give notice that I intend to establish such a Social Committee as Delegates of the Project Leader, using the Leader's powers in Constitution 5.1(1). C. Please volunteer to work on this new committee - see sections 15-17 below. Send your application to [EMAIL PROTECTED]; you have two weeks to make up your mind and apply, and a simple message saying that you're volunteering will do. CHARTER OF THE SOCIAL COMMITTEE 1. The Social Committee's purpose is to promote constructive and agreeable relations between Debian Developers and others involved with Debian. 2. To this end the Social Committee may: (1) Make a decision when asked to do so. Any person or body may delegate a decision of their own, or a class of decisions, to the Social Committee, or seek advice from it. (2) Offer advice. The Social Committee may make formal announcements about its views on any matter. This includes but is not limited to both statements about particular cases and documents giving general guidance. (Individual members may of course make informal statements about their views and about the likely views of the committee.) (3) Request Cease and Desist Where the SC thinks it necessary to avoid serious hindrance to constructive and agreeable relations, the SC may request that a person to refrain from certain acts and communications. The nature of the acts to be avoided should be clearly stated in the SC's request. For example, the SC might ask a Developer not to NMU a particular package, not to contact a particular other Developer, or not to post to a particular mailing list or not to post discussing particular topics. Note that this power extends to any context where a person is using facilities intended primarily for Debian, and also to any context where a person would generally be taken by outsiders as representing Debian. (4) Make Access Control Decisions Provided at least two thirds of the SC positively agree, instruct Debian's mailing list administrators, IRC operators, and other persons in similar positions to make or remove access control arrangements which allow or prevent a person or persons from sending messages via communications facilities. For example, the committee may ban (temporarily or permanently) a person or people from posting to certain mailing lists or in certain threads. Where the access-controlled resource is not one maintained for and by the project as a whole, but is instead a private resource (including private resources hosted on project systems), the Social Committee may only make requests rather than giving instructions. For the avoidance of doubt no-one (the Social Committee not excepted) is permitted to prevent a Developer from posting to the formal decisionmaking mailing list mentioned in Constitution 4.2(5). (5) Recommend suspension or expulsion from the Project Provided at least two thirds of the SC positively agree, the SC may make recommendations to the relevant Project Leader's Delegates that they exercise their powers to expel a Developer either temporarily or permanently. 3. To the same ends, the individual members of the Social Committee should when they consider it appropriate: (1) Send informal comments about behaviour An SC member may send a private message to a person or group, pursuant to the SC's goals, giving that SC member's opinion about anyone's behaviour, and giving such informal advice as the member sees fit. Any private communication by a Social Committee member, on a matter which a recipient reasonably believes is made in the member's SC capacity (whether that capacity is explicitly stated or not) may be published by that recipient, without asking permission from SC member who sent it. (2) Send formal warnings A Committee member may send a formal warning to a person or group, giving that member's opinion, and such advice as the member sees fit. Such a formal warning from an individual SC member may be sent privately or publicly, but should be copied to the SC private mailing list. COMPOSITION 4. The DPL will aim for the SC to consist of 5 Developers. The SC may not use its powers according to s2 above unless it has at least 3 members. 5. Each year, the SC membership will be reconfirmed as follows: (1) The Project Secretary will conduct a series of separate but concurrent votes, one for each member of the SC. In each ballot, the options will be `Keep' and `Dismiss'. (2) SC members for whom the majority of voting Developers choose `Keep' will remain on the Social Committee. (3) SC members for whom the majority vote `Dismiss' will be immediately removed from the committee. (4) If there are then any vacancies the DPL will invite volunteers to apply, and then make appointments to fill those vacancies. The new appointments will not be voted on until the next approval round; however, the DPL will not normally appoint someone who was previously dismissed by the Developers. PROCEDURE 6. The Social Committee will have a private mailing list for its use; this will be used for all formal business. Messages sent to this list will be available to the SC (including to future committees) but will not be published. 7. When the SC takes a formal action according to s2 above, the notice it gives of this action will include: (1) a statement of the decision; (2) the reasons for that decision; (3) which SC members concurred with the decision; and (4) which (if any SC) members disagreed with the decision or the reasons, and those dissenting members views and reasons. This notice shall be sent at least to all of the parties to a dispute and to anyone expected to implement it. Anyone who receives it may make it public. 8. SC members will be given at least 1 week to state any disagreement and write a dissenting statement as discussed in s7(4) above. 9. A decision of the SC is made by simple majority unless stated otherwise. 10. Appeal of any decision made by the SC is via General Resolution, only. Decisions JURISDICTION 11. When there is doubt or dispute as to whether a decision should be made by the Technical Committee or the Social Committee, the Project Leader will decide. 12. If a jurisdictional dispute seems possible, agreement should be sought from the relevant parties as to which committee should deal with the matter. If such agreement is not reached, or disagreement is evident, the Project Leader should be consulted. 13. Someone who engages in a substantive discussion with one of the committees, without disputing that committee's jurisdiction regarding the matter at hand, shall be taken to have agreed to abide by the committee's ruling and should not later appeal to the DPL to shift the controversy to a different forum. 14. For avoidance of doubt, this section is without prejudice to the Technical Committee's constitutionally mandated ability to request a ruling on constitutional interpretation, if the TC feels that a matter on which it is competent has been improperly assigned to the SC by the DPL. INITIAL SETUP 15. The DPL invites volunteers to come forward for consideration as potential members of the Social Committee. The nomination period will be 2 weeks. 16. If sufficient suitable candidates come forward, the DPL will then publish a proposed list of 5 members for the committee. Any volunteer not put forward by the DPL but who achieves K sponsors within the next 2 weeks, will also be added to the list of candidates. 17. Simultaneous but separate ballots will be held by the Project Secretary, as follows: * Yes/No/FD on this Social Committee proposal * Appoint/Reject for each candidate If No or FD wins the first ballot, the other votes are void. If Yes wins the first ballot the Appointed candidates become the Social Committee. If the resulting Committee has less than three people the DPL will consider what options are suitable to proceed. CHANGES 18. The DPL intends to keep the operation of the Social Committee under review and invites comment. 19. The DPL retains the power to: (1) Abolish the Social Committee; (2) Change the size of the SC; (3) Interpret or clarify this charter; (4) Completely change this charter; and/or (5) Remove and appoint members regardless of elections but not to overrule any decision of the SC once made. 20. However the DPL intends to exercise these powers only after due consultation according to the constitution and so as to give effect to the consensus of the Developers. 21. The DPL encourages the Social Committee itself, and its individual members, to suggest improvements; the DPL will look very favourably on such suggestions. -- Ian Jackson, at home. Local/personal: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ijackson/ Problems mailing me ? Send [EMAIL PROTECTED] the bounce (bypasses the blocks). -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]