Strawman governance

Author: benjeffery

GOVERNANCE.md

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+# Abstract
+
+The purpose of this document is to formalize the governance process used by the
+tskit-dev community for core software projects, to clarify who has what responsibilities,
+and how decisions are made on changes to those responsibilities.
+
+tskit-dev is an open and inclusive community. Anyone with an interest in the
+software and science can contribute discussion, and propose changes to code, documentation
+or website content.
+
+# Scope
+
+The governance model described in this document applies to the core
+repositories of the tskit software ecosystem. These are:
+
+- [tskit - C and Python API](http://github.com/tskit-dev/tskit)
+- [msprime - coalescent simulator](http://github.com/tskit-dev/msprime)
+- [tszip - compression library for tskit](http://github.com/tskit-dev/tszip)
+- [tskit-site - website for the ecosystem](http://github.com/tskit-dev/tskit-site)
+- [kastore - key-value store](http://github.com/tskit-dev/kastore)
+- [administrative](http://github.com/tskit-dev/administrative)
+- [.github - common config](http://github.com/tskit-dev/.github)
+
+
+# Roles
+
+## Contributors
+
+Anyone can become a contributor to the tskit-dev project by, for example,
+
+- proposing, discussing, or reviewing a change to the code, documentation, or specification
+  via a GitHub pull request to the above repositories;
+- reporting a GitHub issue or starting a discussion on the above repositories;
+
+Potential contributors are encouraged to read and abide by the [CODE OF CONDUCT](https://github.com/tskit-dev/.github/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md).
+
+
+## Maintainers
+
+Maintainers are those who have the "Maintain" role on a given repository. They are able
+to merge pull requests, manage issues, and perform other administrative tasks on
+that repository. Maintainers are added and removed by a decision of the tskit
+Steering Council (TSC). This role is defined on a per-repository basis.
+
+
+## tskit Steering Council
+
+The tskit Steering Council (TSC) has the following responsibilities:
+
+- Management of the tskit-dev GitHub organization
+- Administration of the repositories listed above
+- Addition and removal of maintainers to those repositories
+- Addition and removal of members of the tskit-dev Slack
+- Addition and removal of repositories from this governance model
+- Approval of changes to this governance model
+- Resolution of disputes between maintainers and contributors
+- Response to emails on the admin@tskit.dev address
+- Management of release artifacts on package indexes such as PyPI, conda-forge.
+
+The steering council consists of a small number of people. This should always be an odd number to ensure a simple majority vote outcome is always possible. Currently this is:
+
+* [Jerome Kelleher](https://github.com/jeromekelleher)
+
+* [Peter Ralph](https://github.com/petrelharp)
+
+* [Yan Wong](https://github.com/hyanwong)
+
+
+TSC members may be removed by consensus of the remaining TSC members, or may resign voluntarily. New TSC members are added by unanimous consent of existing TSC members.
+
+# Decision Making Process
+
+Decisions about the future of the project are made through discussion with all
+members of the community. All non-sensitive project management discussion takes
+place on the issue trackers of the appropriate repositories.
+Where possible decisions and discussions of the steering council should be documented as issues on the [administrative](https://github.com/tskit-dev/administrative) repository. Sensitive discussion may occur via email to admin@tskit.dev.
+
+tskit uses a "consensus-seeking" process for making decisions. The group tries to
+find a resolution that has no open objections among maintainers and the TSC. All
+are expected to distinguish between fundamental objections to a proposal and minor perceived flaws that they can live with and not hold up the decision-making process for the latter. If no option can be found without objections, the decision is escalated to the TSC, which will use consensus to come to a resolution. In the unlikely event that consensus cannot be reached within the TSC, the proposal will move forward if it has the support of a simple majority of the TSC.
+