Community Election Procedure

This version was approved by the TSC on June 18, 2019.

MODIFIED March 19, 2020 - added ViceChair

Community Elections

Scheduled

Ad hoc

OPNFV community election process

OPNFV community elections are executed in a transparent and fair manner in accordance with the OPNFV's Technical Charter.

OPNFV community elections are held annually with elected nominees serve a one year term where possible. Elections are traditionally held during September of each year. The process is defined as follows to ensure community members are aware of an election and have an opportunity to check the eligible voter roster.

Election schedule

The TSC will approve a schedule for elections that includes the following milestones:

Posting of the Active Contributor List
Review period for the Active Contributor List (start/stop)
Nomination period for TSC (start/stop)
Voting period for TSC nominees (start/stop)
Nomination period for TSC Chair (start/stop)
Voting period for TSC Chair nominees (start/stop)
Nomination period for TSC Vice Chair (start/stop)
Voting period for TSC Vice Chair nominees (start/stop)

The election schedule will be posted to the OPNFV wiki, with the link published in the TSC minutes when the schedule is approved. In addition, a link to the schedule will be posted to the tsc and tech-discuss mailing lists.

Once the initial election schedule is approved by the TSC, any changes to the schedule must be approved by the TSC, as well.

Default Schedule

The TSC may default to using the following schedule if TSC members agree:

Date	Event
T0	Active Contributor List posted
T0	Begin PTL review of Active Contributor List
T1 = T0 + 1w	Begin nomination period for TSC
T2 = T1 + 1w	End PTL review of Active Contributor List
T3 = T2 + 1w	End nomination period for TSC
T4 = T3 + 1d	Begin voting period for TSC nominees
T5 = T4 + 2w	End voting period for TSC nominees
T5	Announce TSC election results on OPNFV mailing lists
T5	Begin nomination period for TSC Chair
T6 = T5 + 2w	End nomination period for TSC Chair
T6	Begin voting period for TSC Chair
T7 = T6+ 2w	End voting period for TSC Chair
T7	Announce TSC Chair election results on OPNFV mailing lists Open Nomination for TSC Vice Chair
T8 = T7 + 2w	End nomination period for TSC Vice Chair Open voting for TSC Vice Chair
T7	Begin nomination period for SPC representative.
T8 = T7 + 1w	End nomination period for SPC representative.
T8	Begin voting period for SPC representative.
T9 = T8 + 1w	End voting period for SPC representative. End voting and announce TSC Vice Chair

Election Schedule Approval Deadline

The TSC will approve an election schedule by the end of March of each election year.

TSC members election

Term:
- 1 year term. If someone stands down, the TSC can (but does not have to, TSC decides) backfill for the remainder of the term via an election.
Size:
- 15 members.
Cap per organization:
- Each organization can have a maximum of 2 TSC reps. (If an organization has more than 2 TSC members elected or another TSC member joins the organization when it already had 2 TSC members, the organization will need to decide who "stands down" so that it can meet the cap requirement).
Eligibility (for nomination/voting): All "active contributors" to OPNFV are eligible for running and voting.
- Active contributors are determined based on contributions to Git, Gerrit, Jira, and Confluence
  - Require 20 contributions in total over a 12-month period, counting any of patches merged, reviews made, Wiki page edits, and JIRA activities
- PTLs have an input on the "active contributor list" (with a view that this step primarily targets at making sure qualified people that haven't been identified via the metric get added to the list)
  - PTL Input Request to Active Contributor List
Voting Process:
- Condorcet method (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorcet_method)
Special cases
- Case 1: the number of TSC nominations is equal to the the size of the TSC
  - The nominees become TSC members, no election necessary.
- Case 2: the number of TSC nominations is less than the size of the TSC
  - If the nominee count is less than 2/3 of the TSC seats, then the nomination period will be extended by a period of time determined by the TSC.
  - Otherwise, the available nominees become TSC members
    - Nominations remain open for an abbreviated term (i.e., until the next scheduled TSC election)

TSC Chairperson election

The TSC Chair is elected by the members of the TSC (per section 2(g) of the OPNFV Technical Charter).

In the case where there is only a single nominee for TSC chair, then the election will be conducted with a choice between the single nominee and "No Confidence". If "No Confidence" wins the election, then the TSC chair nomination and election process will be repeated.

TSC Vice-chairperson election

The TSC Vice-chair person is elected from the members of the TSC.

In the case where there is only a single nominee for TSC vice-chair, then the election will be conducted with a choice between the single nominee and "No Confidence". If "No Confidence" wins the election, then the TSC vice-chair nomination and election process will be repeated.

SPC Representative election

After the TSC has been elected, nominations will be accepted for the SPC representative. Nominees must be a current TSC member. If only one nomination is received, then that nominee will become the SPC representative without the need for an election.

Publication of election results

For all OPNFV community elections, if unanimously agreed by all nominees, the anonymized results may be published on the opnfv-tech-discuss mailing list for independent verification of the results and transparency of the process.

Abdication of elected positions

At any time an OPNFV member filling an elected position may determine that they can no longer fill their elected role. It is within that indivuals right to abdicate their position at any time.

The TSC, or Board, may choose at that time to run an ad-hoc election to fill the abdicated position or leave the position vacant until the next election cycle.