Group formation and processes

This document outlines the types of groups hosted at the OpenChain Project, along with the general processes for forming new groups, shutting down groups, and general governance practices/policies for groups.

Group Types

The following are the types of groups hosted at the OpenChain Project.

  • Study Group
  • Work Group - this is a group that typically is formed from a study group, with the goal of implementing a new solution
  • Regional User Group

Forming a new Group

Forming a new group is a straightforward process and outlined below.

  • A proposal should be drafted that explains the rationale behind the new group. The proposal should also explain how the activity supports the mission of the OpenChain Project.
  • The proposal must be submitted to the Governing Board for review and approval.
  • The Governing Board will review the proposal via email. There will be a five business day period where the proposal is open for comments/feedback; if no concerns are raised, the proposal will be considered approved by consensus. If concerns are raised, the proposal may be discussed via email or at an upcoming Governing Board meeting and approved/rejected.

Onboarding

OpenChain Staff will inform the Group Chairperson that the group is approved and provision out the following resources.

Shutting down a Group

In principle, all Groups may find a natural conclusion, either when their mission is complete, when it is determined that their work is best carried out elsewhere, or general interest in the group has diminished.

A Group may request that it be shut down by a request to the Governing Board. The Governing Board will review requests via email. There will be a five business day period where the request is open for comments/feedback; if no concerns are raised, the request will be considered approved by consensus. If concerns are raised, the request may be discussed via email or at an upcoming Governing Board meeting and approved/rejected.

In exceptional circumstances if the Governing Board determines that a Group is no longer operating, it may directly shut down the Group by a majority vote.

Offboarding

Once approved to shut down, the OpenChain Staff will…

  • Lock the Mailing List and Slack channel
  • Delete the Committee in LFX
  • Mark any public tools ( GitHub ) to indicate the Group is shutdown

General Group governance processes and policies

Each Group generally operates autonomously and can set many of its own processes and policies for day-to-day operations. OpenChain does have some general governance process and policies which are meant to have some degree of consistency across groups to make it easier for community members to participate. These processes and policies are outlined below.

Guidelines for running Group meetings

Each Group runs and manages its own meetings, but does have the support of the OpenChain Staff for ensuring the meeting is provisioned. All meetings must be scheduled through the LFX PCC Platform, which will ensure the meeting is made available on the OpenChain Community Calendar. Group chairpersons should contact support@openchainproject.org to request a meeting to be set up, or any changes made to a meeting.

Other general guidelines to follow include:

  • Chairpersons should send an email to the Group’s mailing list, letting them know the planned meeting agenda and any slides/pre-reads for the meeting. Meeting attendees can reply to the Chairperson to request additional topics or changes to the agenda.
  • If there are no topics to discuss or the Chairperson has a conflict, the Chairperson should send a cancellation notice no later than 48 hours before the meeting to the Group mailing list.
  • The Chairperson may delegate running the meeting to another person if they are unable to attend. The Chairperson should inform the Group mailing list of this no later than 48 hours before the meeting.

The general template slides are here: https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Reference-Material/tree/master/OpenChain-Templates

Chairperson Elections

Note: This process currently applies to these groups, although it is recommended to be adopted by all groups.

  • OpenChain Specification Work Group
  • OpenChain Education Work Group
  • OpenChain Telco Work Group

The Overall Process:

  • The OpenChain Governing Board formally considers who should be appointed as the chairperson for the relevant OpenChain Study or Work Group, and invites the broader OpenChain community to provide their perspective;
  • In this process, the broader OpenChain community will have nominees proposed and voted on to provide a recommendation;
  • That recommendation will be passed to the OpenChain Governing Board for review, approval and ratification at their next meeting.

Nomination Methods

The community can nominate in the following manner:

  • Members of the relevant@ (example: specification@lists.openchainproject.org) mailing list are entitled to be nominated as chair.
  • Members of main@ are entitled to join relevant@ and take part in the election.
  • You can nominate yourself by sending an email to the relevant@ mailing list.
  • You can nominate someone else by sending an email to the relevant@ mailing list (but please make sure they are ok with it first).

Election Process

  • The specific process on behalf of the community is to undertake a voting process after a period of nomination;
  • The nomination period is one week;
  • The voting period is one week;
  • If a single candidate stands, they automatically win;
  • If two or more candidates: simple majority wins;
  • Simple majority = 50%+1 or more, of the votes cast;
  • Run-off will take place if:
    • If there are more than 2 candidates and no one receives a simple majority, or
    • There a tie between the top 2 candidates.
  • The run-off will be among the 2 candidates who received the most votes;
  • If the run-off results in another tie, then the Governing Board Chair will cast an additional deciding vote:
  • The relevant work group or study group chair to be confirmed at subsequent board meeting;
  • The Governing Board reserves the right to make any determination they regard as appropriate.