On September 15th I sent out the call for nominations to the Community Council. Since then I’ve received questions from several folks in the community about the requirements, duties, responsibilities and time commitment of members of the Community Council. I figured it would be worthwhile to share some of these questions.
What is the Community Council anyway?
Taken from the ubuntu.com governance page: The social structures and community processes of Ubuntu are supervised by the Ubuntu Community Council.
The Community Council and the Technical Board are the two major governing bodies of the Ubuntu project.
What are the responsibilities of the Community Council?
The Community Council is responsible for any changes to documents like the Code of Conduct, are the highest level of arbitration for community disputes, making sure the other boards within the project are properly staffed and running and doing what it can to make sure the Ubuntu community in general is healthy.
What are the requirements to be on the Community Council?
The announcement outlines:
- has been an Ubuntu member for a while
- is dedicated to the project
- is well-respected and known for balanced views and good leadership
- has a good overview over various aspects of the project
- is organised and has some organisation talent
What is the time commitment?
The Community Council has two meetings per month (see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CommunityCouncilAgenda) which members are expected to make as often as they can. We also have 1-2 hour conference calls from time to time. Much of our work is done on the mailing list which may have 5-20 threads per month that require input from council members. Frequently work items come from these threads, whether it be review and improvement of community documents, dispute resolution or review and restaffing of the other boards within the project. It’s hard to put a number on time, it really depends on the threads (some require more discussion and input than others, some months are busier) and your own workflow.
Nominations close on Thursday, September 29th[0] and people are welcome to email myself (lyz@ubuntu.com) or the Community Council directly (community-council@lists.ubuntu.com) if they have any questions.
[0] Which also happens to be my 30th birthday, woohoo!
Monday, Sep 26th, 2011 at 9:41
In the statement, “has been an Ubuntu member for a while”, can you quantify what is meant by “for a while”? Greater than 5 years?
Monday, Sep 26th, 2011 at 10:15
It’s difficult to put a number on it since people have varying levels of involvement and exposure to the greater community throughout their Membership.
In my case, I was elected to the Community Council in October 2009 and had been:
I was on the junior side of Membership length as far as Council members go, even though the project was still young when I got involved, but I was pretty heavily involved in a number of places so was familiar and had worked with a lot of people throughout the project.