Greater Los Angeles Drupal Governance Policy (old draft)

This governance policy went into effect on April 21, 2013, and this wiki page is here for historical purposes. See the meeting minutes from the governance meetup at http://groups.drupal.org/node/289988#comment-912503 for details.

This wiki document is a formal proposal for the governance policy of the Greater Los Angeles Drupal group (formerly Downtown Los Angeles Drupal). It should be considered a draft until further notice and is editable at http://groups.drupal.org/node/230018/edit

So long as this is a wiki document on groups.drupal.org, it is editable by a growing number of members of the larger Drupal community. We ask our neighbors that the following policy be written by its group members and not by the larger community.

Discussion is welcome from all interested parties and that discussion should take place in the comments below rather than inline in the document itself.

Table of Contents

• Shared Goals and Values
• Code of Conduct
• Transparancy
• Accountability
• Conflict Management and Resolution
• Definition of Roles

Shared Goals and Values

The Greater Los Angeles Drupal group is dedicated to fostering the Drupal software and its community. It is our hope that this governance policy helps encourage trust in our group and its leadership by the public and the members of our group.

Our leadership team endeavors to actively empower and support volunteers and attendees in the Greater Los Angeles Area, and to provide resources (venues, guidance, equipment, raffle prizes, etc.) and an open governance model with consistency, transparency and accountability.

We strive to provide consistent guidance and support as well as the consistent recognition of volunteer efforts of group members. If you make a positive investment of yourself in this group as a member, presenter, organizer, volunteer, etc., you have a reasonable expectation of a positive return on that investment and being recognized, in an appropriate manner, for your contribution.

The best and quickest way to invest yourself and improve the group is to volunteer. If you want want more meetups in your area, organize one and post it! If you want more presentations on web accessibility, give it yourself! If you got lost on the way to the meetup and want better directions, write it up and post it!

Having consistency, transparency and accountability are vital for our group's health, but more important and more powerful is volunteering. The Greater Los Angeles Drupal group provides unlimited opportunities and encouragements for its members to volunteer, as well as the tools to help them.

Discuss our shared goals and values HERE

Code of Conduct

At all times, our members are asked and expected to abide by the Drupal Code of Conduct, which outlines our shared values around conduct within our community:

• Be considerate;
• Be respectful;
• Be collaborative;
• When we disagree, we consult others;
• When we are unsure, we ask for help;
• Step down considerately.

We do not tolerate harassment of group members in any form. If you feel threatened or violated as a result of bullying, intimidating, harassing, abusive, discriminatory, derogatory or demeaning conduct, please notify a group organizer immediately. Likewise, please notify a group organizer immediately if you notice that someone else is being subjected to such behavior.

Discuss our code of conduct HERE

Transparency

As a Drupal user group, we will naturally use our group site at http://groups.drupal.org/node/219129 for a large portion of our online infrastructure. Most if not all of our decisions are made online in our group site and in person at our meetups. Whenever possible, our meetups are broadcasted via video conference so that as many people can attend and participate as possible.

For governance meetups (i.e. meetups that involve the group's membership structure, physical and online resources and the sharing of those resources), we will post in our group site at http://groups.drupal.org/node/219129 the date, place, time and agenda of those meetups at least 2 weeks in advance (whenever possible), as well as any subsequent minutes.

Discuss our need for transparency HERE

Accountability

We are here to promote Drupal and foster the Drupal software and community. In other words, we are here for you and depend on your feedback and criticism in order to better provide what our group's members need and want.

There are several mechanisms for our members to share suggestions and complaints. In addition to open governance meetups, we have a discussion forum at http://groups.drupal.org/node/add/story?gids[]=219129 for public discussions and an organizers [at] drupal [dot] la email address if our members wish to contact the group organizers privately.

Discuss our need for accountability HERE

Conflict Management and Resolution

We don't want to focus on negative things, but sometimes negative things happen. One of the responsibilities of our user group's leadership team is to deal with conflict. If we're asked to speak on behalf of a member involved in an incident, we will do that with the best interests of the community at heart. If there is a disciplinary incident, we are prepared to do that as well. We prefer the former.

In the event of a conflict, the parties involved agree to manage and resolve their conflict professionally and privately between themselves as to not impact the larger group. If the parties involved cannot find resolution, we will offer to bring in an outside facilitator that all interested parties can agree upon to help guide the resolution process.

If the parties involved can't agree to a facilitator within a reasonable period of time, or the conflict resolution process fails (as determined by the facilitator), these parties automatically agree to a cooldown period. A reasonable cooldown period may be 1 month, 3 months or 6 months, depending on the severity of the incident and as agreed to by the Greater Los Angeles Drupal group organizers.

During a cooldown period, the parties involved agree to stop volunteering or working together on shared projects or events. The parties involved may also be prevented from attending, speaking, organizing, sponsoring or volunteering at user group events, including meetups, camps and conferences.

Discuss conflict management and resolution HERE

Definition of Roles

Member

When this document refers to the word "member", we mean a person who has attended our events in the Greater Los Angeles Area, has joined this group and is listed in the member list at http://groups.drupal.org/og/users/219129, simply identifies as a member of this group, or any combination of the above.

There are no membership dues and there is no secret handshake.

Volunteer

This is an open-source community that exists based on the actions of its volunteers. Anyone who contributes to this group as a member, presenter, organizer, etc. is by the nature of their actions a volunteer in our community.

We strive to provide consistent guidance and support as well as the consistent recognition of volunteer efforts of group members.

Organizer

When this document refers to the word "organizer", we mean a group administrator who listed in the "Group organizers" list on the right-hand side of this page. In this context, organizers are event organizers as well as moderators of the group's content and membership and are considered the group's "leadership team".

These organizers have access to a set of tools for community building and content curation including OG Vocab, OG Panels and other OG-specific functionality (including content editing and OG broadcast), which enables them to make their volunteer efforts more effective.

If you'd like to join this list of volunteers, talk with any of the organizers listed in the "Group organizers" list, join the discussion in the comments below or at any of our governance meetings or post a request to our group site at http://groups.drupal.org/node/add/story?gids[]=219129 (this process is similar to the maintainer request policy for projects on Drupal.org at https://drupal.org/node/251466).

Again, there are no membership dues and there is no secret handshake. We may ask, however, that you make consistent and positive contributions to this group so that the group organizers can get to know you.

If an organizer is no longer directly involved in the running of the group or has acted in a way that negatively impacts the the larger group, they may be demoted to "member" status by another organizer.

Discuss our definition of roles HERE