Board/Possible Future of Fedora Governance

What this is
At FUDCon Tempe we (Fedora Board, FESCo, and other interested contributors) took a look at the ways that the Fedora Project is governed and how we could potentially resolve them. One of the things that came out of the meeting was a comparison between the main points in Debian's Charter; what the de facto, unwritten, Fedora Charter is; and what might be some ways to improve on this when creating a written Fedora Charter. These are the notes from that comparison.

Project Leader

 * Appoint delegates with specific responsibilities
 * Make decisions that require "urgent action"
 * Make decisions for which no one else has responsibility, attempting to stay in line with contributor consensus
 * Propose draft General Resolutions, amendments
 * Choose lengths of vote discussion periods (within constitutional limits)
 * Lead contributor discussions
 * Add/remove organizations from the list of those trusted with the project's assets
 * Offer formal advice
 * Serve as chair of the Board
 * Appointed by Red Hat
 * Tally votes
 * Publish vote totals after voting is complete
 * Adjucate constitutional disputes
 * Has the power to override any other group

Fedora Legal Committee (FeLCo)

 * Legal spots and decides upon legal matters
 * Ultimately authoritative in legal matters
 * Has the power to override anyone else with respect to legal issues
 * Appointed by Red Hat

Board

 * Decide matters of policy
 * Duties and responsibilites may be delegated from the Board to other groups by mutual agreement
 * Any group may subdelegate responsibility
 * Cannot override decisions made by delegates within their respective jurisdictions
 * Decide on matters where contributors' jurisdictions overlap
 * Make decisions within the Board's jurisdiction when asked
 * Offer formal advice
 * Remove members of itself (according to the Board Succession Plan)
 * Makes decisions as a last resort
 * Amend the Constitution
 * The Project Leader's vote breaks ties
 * Chooses its own method of adding and removing members

FESCo

 * A committee whose power is delegated by the Board
 * Decide matters of technical policy
 * Decide on technical matters where contributors' jurisdictions overlap
 * Make decisions when asked
 * Overrule individual contributor decisions
 * Offer formal technical advice
 * Appoint or remove members of itself
 * Appoint a Committee Chair
 * Chooses its own method of adding and removing members

FAmSCo

 * Mission: Promotes and markets Fedora worldwide
 * A committee whose power is delegated by the Board
 * Decide matters of community-related policy
 * Decide on matters where multiple community groups conflict
 * Make decisions when asked
 * Overrule individual community groups' decisions
 * Offer formal community advice
 * Appoint a Committee Chair
 * Chooses its own method of adding and removing members

Individual contributors

 * Definition of individual contributor: cla_done
 * Make autonomous decisions with regards to their own work
 * Run for elected office
 * Complies with applicable codes of conduct
 * Complies with applicable rules and procedures
 * Vote in applicable elections