Delegation

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The CommunityCouncil decided to set up individual Team Councils for teams that have proven to be well organised and need their own governance body. Also the CommunityCouncil has decided to delegate tasks like Ubuntu membership approval to some of them.

 * [[Edubuntu/Community|Edubuntu Council]]
 * [[ForumCouncil|Forums Council]]
 * [[IrcTeam/IrcCouncil|IRC Council]]
 * [[Kubuntu/Meetings|Kubuntu Council]]
 * [[LoCoCouncil|LoCo Council]]

When setting up new governance bodies, please make sure you set ''Subscription Period'' in Launchpad to the agreed term length.


= Team Council member election =

Once a Team Council is set up, the following process is proposed to determine replacements in the Team Council.

 * We call for nominations, to be made to the team council or the community council in confidence. People can nominate themselves, or others, and the councils will contact the nominees to ensure they are willing to be considered.
 * it is recommended to ask the nominees to add relevant information for the election to their personal wiki pages (eg: activities in the relevant team and specific interests today, thoughts about the most important challenges of the team in the next year, what you'd like to see change in the team, work to focus on as a member of the Team Council)
 * the Team Council sends the full list of nominees with comments and annotations to the CommunityCouncil (in the case of the [[DeveloperMembershipBoard|Developer Membership Board]] also to the [[TechnicalBoard|TB]])
 * The [[CommunityCouncil|CC]] (and [[TechnicalBoard|TB]]) will determine a shortlist of candidates and set up polls accordingly so team members can vote. (currently Launchpad polls or CIVS polls are used).
 * The polls might take the form of confirmation votes or of a race between more candidates than the available seats on the Team Council.

= Expectations: Team Councils and Membership Board =

Since the start of the Ubuntu community, the project has grown a lot. We
have millions of users, take on responsibilities in various sub-projects
and grow more complex every day.

To ensure further seamless scaling of our community, the two highest
governance bodies, the Community Council and Technical Board, regularly
delegate some of their responsibilities to Team Councils and Membership
Boards. In each case, the Board or Council to which these
responsibilities are delegated is acting on behalf of the Community
Council or technical Board, and is accountable to them.

== Governance Structure ==

There are several elements to the governance of parts of the Ubuntu
community, and the structure for a particular area may vary slightly to
suit the medium of discussion or the discipline involved. The structures
for Translation are slightly different for Forums and IRC, but the
principles and responsibilities are ultimately the same.

In general, the structure needs to handle:

 * '''Representation to the broader community''' - what's happening,
 why, and when. In many cases, representatives from these
 sub-communities will attend Ubuntu events to represent those groups.
 A good guideline exists in
 https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BuildingCommunity/TeamReporting

 * '''Recognition of competence and contribution''' - who's doing great
 work, who's contributing a lot to the project in this area, who's in a
 good position to be a leader or help teams get their work done through
 coordination or goal-setting.

 * '''Dispute resolution''' - ensuring that we adhere to the Code of
 Conduct across the project, ensuring that differences of opinion or
 personality don't become destructive to the work of the team. We have
 https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BuildingCommunity/DealingWithConflict as a
 guideline.

The general pattern of delegation looks as follows:

 * '''Team Council''': In larger sub-communities or projects we would
 establish a dedicated governance council for that group. This group is
 less concerned with operational matters and more focused on the health
 of the community, dispute resolution, policy setting, selecting leaders
 and motivation for their team.

 * '''Operations Teams''': In larger groups, there are often specific
 teams setup with authority or permissions beyond those of the normal
 user. The Councils carefully select such folks for their skill in the
 area and their interpersonal skills in handling fast-paced and
 opinionated work. For example, we have teams of moderators in the
 Forums, and operators in IRC, and the Developer Membership Board in the
 developer community.

 * '''Members Team''': We generally are willing to delegate the
 recognition of the contributors who are making a "sustained and
 substantial" contribution to Ubuntu, to these groups. While we have
 regional membership boards that recognise contribution in any field, it
 is often helpful to allow a group to recognise those within it who are
 making the biggest difference - not least because they have more
 visibility on day-to-day contribution. The group members team is made a
 member of Ubuntu Members, so all group members are automatically
 granted Ubuntu membership. For this reason the criteria for membership
 must be the same in these group members teams as it is globally in the
 project: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership


== Responsibilities and Expectations ==

The most important responsibility is making sure that their team is run
efficiently and has everything they need to do their work. This includes
staffing of sub-teams and facilitating of process decisions. It is not
necessary for the Team Councils and Boards to make the decisions and
implement them for the whole team, but at least keeping the discussion
going and help to come to a conclusion. Make sure the wiki page of the
Council or Board explicitly states the purpose and charter of it and
which topics people might want to raise.

Public Council and Board meetings should be run regularly and
predictably. These should be run in an open way, in real time and offer
the possibility for everybody to add items to an agenda. It's important
to keep the team up and running and be aware of issues that might arise.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BuildingCommunity/TeamIrcSessions can he ha
helpful guide.

The Community Council and Technical Board expect regular reports of the
activities. [[BuildingCommunity/TeamReporting/HowTo|This guide]]
explains the general process Ubuntu teams use for their reports. It is
strongly recommended to make use of it.

Approval of members is expected to be seamless and expected to follow
the same or similar criteria across all boards.

Sharing knowledge across Team Councils and Boards is encouraged.
ubuntu-council-teams@lists.launchpad.net is a good piece of
infrastructure for that. [[BuildingCommunity/KnowledgeBase]] has good
ideas for how to create a strong sense of shared purpose in a group.

Every Council or Board member should have taken in the
[[http://www.ubuntu.com/community/leadership-conduct|Leadership Code of Conduct]]
and are required to meet this standard.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/team-council-members is a
mailing list for all Ubuntu Team Councils and Boards, sharing and
discussing best-practices across sub-community borders can happen
there and help improve governance across Ubuntu.

== Staying on top of things ==

To scale our community it is important that the processes mentioned above
are as lean and clear as possible and that the Team Councils and Boards
are not over-burdened. The members of Councils and Boards are
responsible for the well-being of their sub-communities and need to
always have the "general idea".

If it gets clear that the Council or Board is overworked, action items
are piling up and recent worrying developments in their communities are
not effectively dealt with, the Community Council (and/or Technical
Board as appropriate) should be notified and a solution should be worked
on.

You are strongly encouraged to make use of
[[ReportingCommunityProblems|this process]] for your community to report
community problems and for your to stay on top of things.

== Organisation ==

It is also important that all Team Council and Board information is up
to date and that the Launchpad Team and Wiki pages are clear about
members, processes and general expectations.

Keeping the board or council fully staffed should a high priority and
expiry of its members raised with the CC a few weeks beforehand.


In summary, running Ubuntu is a complex job that requires contributions
from many disciplines and a significant commmitment to good process,
good governance and good organisation. The Community Council and
Technical Board occasionally withdraw delegated responsibilities if the
teams are not living up to this standard, but they also offer help and
support to teams that want to improve their leadership and
organisation. Despite the many challenges, we have a wonderful global
team of leaders, and many more earning their stripes.


== Quorum ==

Traditionally the question of how quorum was defined was rarely an issue, and some boards have formed their own tradition and documented it since.

If [[https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/devel-permissions/2015-May/000774.html|in doubt]], the Community Council gives the following guidance:

{{{
Total the votes (+1, 0, -1) and if the total is positive then the vote
is affirmative. In order for a vote to count there should be a quorum.
}}}

If you have any more specific questions or need decision making help, feel free to reach out to the CC.

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CategoryCommunityCouncil
#REDIRECT https://community.ubuntu.com/t/delegation/711?u=wimpress

CommunityCouncil/Delegation (last edited 2023-11-27 15:23:22 by merlijn-sebrechts)