Ubuntu Backporters Team Charter

1. Mission Statement

The mission of the Ubuntu Backporters Team is to maintain the backports pocket of all stable Ubuntu releases.

2. Delegation of Authority

The Ubuntu Backporters Team can accept or reject uploads to any Ubuntu release backport pocket.

3. Governance

The Technical Board (TB) governs the team, and can override any decision or vote and/or revert any action.

4. Executive Summary

1. The primary objective of all team members is to fulfill the Mission Statement. The rest of this charter exists only to provide rules for how the team can continue to make progress in fulfilling its mission.

2. The team will have a chair that acts as team administrator, and has final decision making for any disagreements. The team members may choose to remove/replace the chair at any time.

3. All team members have at least 2 weeks to provide a vote for any vote.

4. A majority vote is a simple majority of members who have provided a vote, with a tie defaulting to a rejection.

5. A supermajority vote is a 2/3 majority of all members of the team.

6. The TB provides authority to, and has complete authority over, the team. Any and all decisions and actions by the team may be overruled and/or reverted by the TB.

5. Communication

1. All public email communication should use the ubuntu-backports mailing list.

2. All public IRC discussion should use #ubuntu-devel on libera.chat.

3. Team meetings will be held on IRC according to the agenda.

4. Public documentation will be located at, or linked from, the team wiki page. Changes to documentation do not require any vote.

5. All official team policies will be located at the team policies wiki page. Any changes to these policies require a majority vote.

6. Membership

1. The team in Launchpad is ubuntu-backporters.

2. Team members may resign at any time.
3. The membership requirements and specific application process shall be included in the official team policies.
4. Application for membership shall be approved or rejected by a majority vote.
5. Any team member may call for a majority vote to remove any other team member.
6. If the team membership falls to a single member, that member must immediately notify the TB. The TB may choose to take whatever action they deem necessary to increase team membership. The remaining team member should also attempt to recruit new members.

7. Voting

1. Any change to any team charter must be made by a supermajority vote.
2. Any change to any team policy must be made by a majority vote.
3. A team member may provide a proxy vote to a team meeting through another team member. The absent team member must email the team mailing list stating that they are sending a proxy vote, and stating what team member they are delegating to. The team member carrying the proxy vote to the meeting must state what team member provided the proxy vote. Alternatively, a team member may simply provide their vote on the mailing list.
4. No votes may be held in private for any reason. All calls for votes must be public and all votes provided by team members must be public.

7.1. Majority Vote Process

1. A vote may be called for by any team member for any reason, or by anyone not a member of the team for specific reasons listed in this charter or allowed by team policies.
2. The call for a vote must occur either on the team mailing list, or at a team meeting.

3. The person requesting the vote must state the specific topic that should be voted on, referred to here as the motion.

4. If the call for the vote occurs on the mailing list, voting may begin immediately.
5. If the call for the vote occurs in a team meeting, the vote may begin immediately at the discretion of the chair (either acting or designated), or the chair may choose to defer the vote. If the chair defers the vote, team members may provide their vote on the mailing list immediately.
6. A vote must remain open for members to provide a vote until:
   1. All team members have provided a vote, or
   2. At least 2 weeks have passed, and
      1. A majority of the non-abstaining members have voted to approve, or
      2. A majority of the non-abstaining members have voted to reject, or
      3. A team meeting has been held, after which any non-voting members are considered to have voted to abstain.
7. Team members may provide one vote of +1, 0, or -1, which indicate approval of, abstention from, or rejection of the vote, respectively.
8. Team members must provide their vote either on the mailing list or in a team meeting.
9. Until the vote has closed, team members may change their vote by providing a new vote. The team member’s latest vote, which was provided before the vote closed, supersedes all their previous votes.
10. Once the vote has closed, if the +1 votes are a majority of the total votes (using floating point division), the motion is accepted; otherwise the motion is rejected.

11. The definition of majority is: greater than 1/2.

7.2. Supermajority Voting Process

1. The process for supermajority voting is the same as majority voting, with the following changes.

2. The word majority in the Majority Voting Process rules should be replaced with supermajority.

3. The definition of supermajority is: greater than 2/3.

8. Chair

1. One team member shall be approved as designated chair by a supermajority vote.

2. The designated chair shall be the team Administrator of the ubuntu-backporters team. All other members of the team shall be normal team members.
3. Any team member may call for a supermajority vote to select a new chair, at any time.
4. The designated chair is responsible for the administrivia of the team.
5. Any disagreement must be resolved by the chair, either designated or acting. A decision of the designated chair is final, while a decision of an acting chair may be overruled only by the designated chair.
6. Any team member may appeal a decision by the chair to the TB. However, the chair’s decision stands and shall be implemented until such time as the TB overrules the chair and/or reverts the implementation.

9. Meetings

1. The team must hold at least one meeting per quarter (3 months).
2. At all team IRC meetings, the designated chair, if present, shall chair the meeting. If the designated chair is not present and has not appointed an acting chair for the meeting, any team member may volunteer as acting chair for the meeting. If no team member volunteers to chair the meeting, the meeting is canceled.
3. The designated chair may appoint another team member as acting chair for any team IRC meeting, either before the meeting start time, or during the meeting.
4. The meeting chair shall use the agenda to run the meeting, and must cover all topics listed in the agenda until meeting time expires. At or after the scheduled end of the meeting, the chair may choose to continue or end the meeting.
5. After the meeting, the chair or acting chair shall update the agenda with the results from the meeting.

10. Approval History

This section only lists current and previous approvals, with a link to the specific version of the approved wiki page, and the mailing list link and/or meeting link to the approval vote(s). This section should only be updated after a completed vote for approval.

• Current Approved Version (TBD, add link once specific version is fully approved)
• Append previous approved version links here as needed