Fedora-Council/tickets ticket #442: Code of Conduct Committee Structure Proposal

[t2dbot (Tickets to Discussion Bridge)]

@riecatnor filed Fedora-Council/tickets ticket #442. Discuss here and record votes and decisions in the ticket.

Ticket text:

@@riecatnor

TLDR;

I am proposing a formalized structure for the Code of Conduct Committee that will require community feedback and a Council vote to be ratified and added to the CoC documentation.

Overview and Context

Hello, Fedora Council! As most of you know, I am continuing work on Fedora’s Code of Conduct documentation and resources as part of my new role focused on Code of Conduct outreach and as a continuation of the work I started while I served as FCAIC. I have put together a proposal for a formalized Code of Conduct Committee Structure.

This should be a new page under the Code of Conduct drop down in the Project documentation [0] (like the Clarifying Notes and Statements page). I am developing additional CoC Committee documentation to go with the structure piece(to come in a different ticket later on).

I think it’s valuable to get this part out there to start as we need to formalize and socialize bringing new folks onto the Committee and what the work entails. It’s also important to bring transparency and formalize my participation, which has been on a transitional basis for the time being.

Note: The structure and commitments have been reviewed and approved by our Legal support as a preliminary step before community feedback and Council vote to make sure we are on the right track and working within our scope. If any major changes are made, it will need to go through that Legal review and approval process again. (happy to walk it through that process, if needed!)

Proposal

Fedora Code of Conduct Committee

Who is the Fedora Code of Conduct Committee?

The Code of Conduct Committee consists of the Fedora Project Leader, the Fedora Community Architect, and Fedora community members. Members of the Code of Conduct Committee will be provided with incident response training and guidelines around Fedora’s Code of Conduct.

Responsibilities of the Fedora Code of Conduct Committee

The Fedora Code of Conduct Committee will:

• Accept, acknowledge, and investigate reports of possible violations of the Code of Conduct from community members and/or moderators. This will include communications with people who submit reports, reported persons, witnesses, and Red Hat Legal, as appropriate. This will also involve communications with other members of the Committee by text or video call to deliberate and resolve reports. Additional details about the reporting and response processes are documented on the Reporting Process Information page.
• In cases where a Code of Conduct violation has occurred, determine what action should be taken by the Fedora Project. These will typically take the form of remedial guidance, a set of consequences for the reported person, and/or possible recommendations for new policies or rules for the Fedora Project.
• Accept and acknowledge requests for clarifications about the Code of Conduct, and provide a response once any necessary communications and deliberations are complete.
• Make reporting as appropriate about incidents, including an annual report summarizing incidents over the last year. This report will be statistical in nature to illustrate the process is functioning.
• Past reports can be found under the Code of Conduct tag on the CommBlog

The current Code of Conduct Committee is comprised of:

• Matthew Miller (Fedora Project Leader)
• Justin W. Flory (Fedora Community Architect)
• Marie Nordin (Community Member and Code of Conduct Specialist at Red Hat’s OSPO)

Adding or Removing Members to the Code of Conduct Committee

The Fedora Project Leader and Fedora Community Architect are members of the Code of Conduct Committee, regardless of who holds these roles. Ideally the Committee should have at least three members at all times, and no more than seven. The Fedora Council will be notified of all changes in membership to the Fedora Conduct Committee. Adding and removing members to the Committee will happen from time to time for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to:

• Particular Community members’ interest in maintenance of Fedora community health
• A Committee member no longer has the time or desire to maintain Committee responsibilities
• A Committee member fails to uphold the Code of Conduct Committee Commitments
• Disengagement or absence in Committee activities lasting beyond one Fedora release cycle (i.e. ≥4 months)

Adding a Member to the Code of Conduct Committee

To add a member to the Fedora Code of Conduct Committee:

• Current members of the Code of Conduct Committee or the Fedora Council identifies a prospective member and obtains interest in and commitment to participation, then files an issue proposing the member’s nomination
• The Code of Conduct Committee reviews the nomination to determine eligibility. Suitability will be determined by evaluation of the nominee’s behavior and track record of interactions in the Fedora community.
• If the nomination is accepted, the Committee invites the nominee to join the Code of Conduct Committee in a formal communication. This invitation must include the Code of Conduct Committee Commitments that members must agree to follow to ensure Fedora’s Code of Conduct is managed fairly and in a confidential manner.
• If the nomination is rejected, the Committee sends a notification of the rejection. A rejected nominee will be eligible for renomination after two release cycles.
• Upon acceptance of the invitation and acknowledgement and agreement to the Code of Conduct Committee Commitments, Fedora will provide the new member with Code of Conduct incident management training.
• Addition of the new member to Code of Conduct incident tracker and documentation

Removing a Member from the Code of Conduct Committee

The process to remove a member of the Fedora Code of Conduct Committee is:
Notice from

• The member to the Committee that they intend to step down, or
• The Committee to the member that they have been removed, and why they have been removed.
• Removal of the individual from the CoC incident tracker and documentation.

Fedora Code of Conduct Committee Commitments

Members of the Fedora Code of Conduct Committee involved in investigating reports and making recommendations for resolution of Code of Conduct violations are required to uphold the following principles, ensuring that bias, lack of confidentiality and conflicts of interest do not impact the outcome of a Code of Conduct determination.

I agree to adhere to the Fedora Code of Conduct, in both letter and spirit, and acknowledge that violating the Code could result in removal from the Committee.

I agree to keep the process, any facts I learn, and any evidence I review confidential, and agree to discuss them only with individuals who are part of the process. (e.g. Fedora Code of Conduct Committee members, Red Hat Legal, or other designated individuals.)

I will recuse myself if I cannot be fair and impartial in an individual case, due to my personal involvement with the parties involved. (If I have questions about recusal, I will consult the Fedora Community Architect and/or the Fedora Project Leader.)

I agree that I will review Code of Conduct reports, conduct investigations, and make recommendations fairly and impartially.

I will review the reports and deliberate only in confidential sessions, with the outcome to be shared only with the parties and others as determined on a need-to-know basis. (e.g. system administrators, moderators, or project leads.)

I will respect the process and outcome, recognizing that the Committee decision is the product of the Code of Conduct Committee, even if I do not personally agree, my recommendations are rejected, or I am part of the minority.

Please respond with acknowledgement that you have reviewed these commitments and agree to follow them in your role as a member of the Fedora Code of Conduct Committee.

Links

[0] Code of Conduct :: Fedora Docs

[bcotton (Ben Cotton)]

My only substantive comment is that I don’t see a mechanism for involuntary removal. (e.g. does the Committee need to be unanimous (except the person being removed) in order to remove a person, or does a simple majority suffice?) Most of how the Committee operates has been left to the Committee’s discretion, which is good, but this may be fundamental enough to require enshrinement in policy.

My less substantive comments:

• We should say “Fedora Linux release cycle” instead of “Fedora release cycle” to be consistent with our own wishes.
• We should change “CommBlog” to “Community Blog” in the interests of being slightly less jargony.
• There’s no need to apply bold formatting to headlines (although we can just magically fix that when it’s put into the docs)
• Stylistically, I don’t particularly like the combination of bold and italics. On the other hand, I know lawyers are really keen on their formatting (which is why many open source licenses have a SECTION THAT YELLS AT YOU), so this isn’t something I’ll pursue now that I’ve said my position.

Procedurally, since we discussed this in Frankfurt, I don’t think there’s a great need to let this sit for too long. I’ll wait until Monday for anyone to raise serious issues and then we’ll start running it through the Policy Change Policy, where we can continue to have conversation about minor refinements.

[mattdm (Matthew Miller)]

For the record: I have already looked at this and have no additional comments, except +1 to the stuff Ben says.

Proposal for removing a member: unanimous agreement of all other Committee members, or else by decision of the Council.