A GOVERNANCE file lets people know about how your project is governed. For example, it might discuss project roles and how decisions are made.
This section describes the governance and leadership model of The Project.
The foundations of Project governance are:
- Openness & Transparency
- Active Contribution
- Institutional Neutrality
Traditionally, Project leadership was provided by a BDFL (Wes McKinney) and subset of Contributors, called the Core Team, whose active and consistent contributions have been recognized by their receiving “commit rights” to the Project GitHub repositories. In general all Project decisions are made through consensus among the Core Team with input from the Community. The BDFL can, but rarely chooses to, override the Core Team and make a final decision on a matter.
While this approach has served us well, as the Project grows and faces more legal and financial decisions and interacts with other institutions, we see a need for a more formal governance model. Moving forward The Project leadership will consist of a BDFL and Core Team. We view this governance model as the formalization of what we are already doing, rather than a change in direction.
The Project will have a BDFL (Benevolent Dictator for Life), who is currently Johnny Stevenson. As Dictator, the BDFL has the authority to make all final decisions for The Project. As Benevolent, the BDFL, in practice chooses to defer that authority to the consensus of the community discussion channels and the Core Team. It is expected, and in the past has been the case, that the BDFL will only rarely assert his/her final authority. Because it is rarely used, we refer to BDFL’s final authority as a “special” or “overriding” vote. When it does occur, the BDFL override typically happens in situations where there is a deadlock in the Core Team or if the Core Team ask the BDFL to make a decision on a specific matter. To ensure the benevolence of the BDFL, The Project encourages others to fork the project if they disagree with the overall direction the BDFL is taking. The BDFL is chair of the Core Team (see below) and may delegate his/her authority on a particular decision or set of decisions to any other Core Team Member at his/her discretion.
The BDFL can appoint his/her successor, but it is expected that the Core Team would be consulted on this decision. If the BDFL is unable to appoint a successor (e.g. due to death or illness), the Core Team will choose a successor by voting with at least 2/3 of the Core Team members voting in favor of the chosen successor. At least 80% of the Core Team must participate in the vote. If no BDFL candidate receives 2/3 of the votes of the Core Team, the Core Team members shall propose the BDFL candidates to the Main NumFOCUS board, who will then make the final decision.