OASIS Committee Operations Process

This version of the OASIS Committee Operations Process was approved by the OASIS Board of Directors on 14 June 2022 and became effective immediately. The change was announced to OASIS members on 01 July 2022 in https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/members/202207/msg00000.html

Table of Contents

1. Committees
1.1 Purpose of Committees
1.2 Committee Formation
1.3 Committee Membership and Participation
1.3.1 Technical Committees
1.3.2 Open Projects and Project Governing Board
1.3.3 Member Sections
1.4 Chairs
1.5 Committee Visibility and Transparency
1.5.1 Mail Lists
1.5.2 Web Pages
1.5.3 Announcements
1.6 Operations and Standing Rules
1.7 Meetings
1.8 Voting
1.9 Closing a Committee

1. Committees

1.1 Purpose of Committees

Work at OASIS is done primarily through its committees. An OASIS committee is a group of Eligible Persons comprised of at least Minimum Membership, formed and conducted according to the provisions of this Committee Process, any other applicable policy document such as the OASIS TC Process for Technical Committees, the OASIS Open Project Rules, the OASIS Member Section Policy, or Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised.

Each current version of the OASIS Committee Process applies to previously established committees upon its adoption.

Participation in the work of committees is open to any interested person subject to any specific requirements for the type of committee.

Defined terms in this document have the meaning provided in OASIS Defined Terms. Other OASIS policies may also apply depending on the type of committee. The complete set of OASIS policy documents can be found at https://www.oasis-open.org/policies-guidelines.

1.2 Committee Formation

The detailed requirements for starting a committee vary depending on the type of committee. In general, however, beginning a committee requires:

1.2.1 At least Minimum Membership of Eligible Persons committed to participating in the work,

1.2.2 A charter or equivalent founding document submitted to OASIS describing what the committee intends to do and other conditions pertinent to its operation, and

1.2.3 A sequence of steps followed by OASIS staff to publicize the committee, encourage others to join and participate, and set up its required infrastructure support.

For the specific requirements to start an OASIS Technical Committee, see the OASIS TC Process Section 1.2 TC Formation. For the specific requirements to start an OASIS Open Project, see the OASIS Open Project Rules. For the specific requirements to start an OASIS Member Section, see section 4 Creating a Member Section in the Member Section Policy.

1.3 Committee Membership and Participation

The work of a committee is conducted by Members who voluntarily contribute in one or more defined roles. The rules for joining the committee, the specific activities members can perform, the commitments they make, and requirements they must fulfill in order to participate vary depending on the type of committee. The roles for each type of committee are summarized in this section.

A committee Member is considered to have resigned from a committee upon sending notice of their resignation to the committees general email list. For some committees, formal resignation may have bearing upon ongoing commitments the member may have made upon joining the committee.

Persons who lose Eligible Person status shall have their committee membership terminated. Persons who lose Eligible Person status for reasons including, but not limited to, change of employment shall have up to 14 days of membership as an OASIS Individual Member in which to re-establish eligibility and continue participating in the committee. A Member shall lose membership on the 15th day after losing Eligible Person status if it is not re-established.

Termination of membership in an OASIS committee shall automatically end all rights and privileges of participation including any voting rights in that committee.

1.3.1 Technical Committees

Membership, participation requirements, voting rights and other aspects of participating in an OASIS Technical Committee (TC) are explained in the OASIS TC Process beginning at section Section 1.4 TC Membership and Participation.

TCs operate with four types of role: Observer, Member, Voting Member, or Persistent Non-Voting Members. The following table summarizes these roles.

	Observer	Member	Persistent Non-Voting Member	Voting Member
Can attend meetings	YES	YES	YES	YES
Can participate in meetings	NO	YES	YES	YES
Receives email from TC list	YES	YES	YES	YES
Can send email to TC list	NO	YES	YES	YES
Can contribute documents, etc.	NO	YES	YES	YES
Can use JIRA, Wiki, etc.	NO	YES	YES	YES
Can gain voting rights	NO	YES	NO (must first become a Member)	N/A
Can lose voting rights	NO	NO	NO	YES
Has voting rights	NO	NO	NO	YES
Counts towards quorum	NO	NO	NO	YES
Can make & second motions	NO	NO	NO	YES
Is publicly listed on TC roster, minutes, etc	NO	YES	YES	YES
Is obligated by TC IPR Mode	NO	YES	YES	YES

1.3.2 Open Projects and Project Governing Board

Membership, participation requirements, voting rights and other aspects of participating in an OASIS Open Project and its Project Governing Board (PGB) are explained in the OASIS Open Project Rules beginning at Section 4 Participants and Contributors.

Open Projects operate with five types of role: Participant, Contributor, Maintainer, PGB Member, and Chair. The following table summarizes these roles (scroll inside table to see all columns).

	Participant	Contributor	Maintainer	Technical Steering Committee (TSC)	Project Governing Board (PGB)	PGB Chair
Functions
May provide comments and bug reports	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
May submit pull requests	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Act on / authorize pull requests	NO	NO	YES	May direct Maintainer to do so for TSC repos	May direct Maintainer to do so	NO
Appoint and supervise Maintainer(s)	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	N/A
Authorize creation of repositories	NO	NO	NO	YES (if authorized by Standing Rule per OP Rules Sec 8.1.)	YES (if authorized by Standing Rule per OP Rules Sec 8.1.)	N/A
Directly create additional repositories	NO	NO	YES (if authorized by Standing Rule per OP Rules Sec 8.1)	YES (if authorized by Standing Rule per OP Rules Sec 8.1)	YES	N/A
Select applicable licenses for repositories	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	N/A
Approve releases	NO	NO	NO	NO (but recommends approval to PGB)	YES	N/A
Approve submissions of qualifying releases for Project Specification approvals	NO	NO	NO		YES	N/A
Approve external submissions of its OASIS Standards (if any) to de jure standards bodies	NO	NO	NO	NO (but recommends approval to PGB)	YES	N/A
Elect PGB Chair	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	N/A
Elect TSC Chair	NO	NO	NO	YES (if allowed by Standing Rule)	YES if not delegated to TSC by Standing Rule	N/A
Call and preside over any meetings	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES
Requirements
Must be Project Sponsor	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES (rep or employee of Sponsor)
Must sign Contributor License Agreement (CLA)	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES

1.3.3 Member Sections

An OASIS Member Section is a group within the consortium that advances the interests of a specific community or technology. The rules governing the formation, structure, and activities of a Member Section are explained in the Member Section Policy.

1.4 Chairs

Each committee must have a Chair or two co-Chairs. Only members of the committee are eligible to be Chair or co-Chair. A Chair is initially elected at the first meeting of a committee. The Chair is elected by Full Majority Vote of the committee. If a committee does not have a Chair then all activities, with the exception of the selection of a new Chair, are suspended. If a committee does not have a Chair for 120 days, the OASIS TC Administrator may close the committee.

The responsibilities of a Chair are as generally described in Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised; however, any specific responsibilities or procedures that are detailed in OASIS policy and rules documents override the application of Roberts Rules.

The responsibilities of the Chair of a committee may be discharged by no more than two co-Chairs. The committee may vote at any time to elect a co-Chair, if only one Chair is seated, or to leave a second seat vacant. In the event that the Chair position is so shared each co-Chair is equally responsible for the Chair duties and responsibilities. Throughout this Committee Process, whenever a notification to the Chair is required, it must be made to both co-Chairs.

A committee Chair may be removed by action of the OASIS Board of Directors. A TC Chair may be removed at any time by a Special Majority Vote of the TC. A PGB Chair may be removed at any time by a Full Majority Vote of the PGB. In the event that a committee has co-Chairs, each may be removed individually or both may be removed by a single action.

A vacancy in chairing a committee shall be deemed to exist when (i) the Chair or one or both co-Chairs has been removed, (ii) the Chair or one or both co-Chairs has resigned the position, or (iii) the Chair or one or both co-Chairs ceases to be a member of the committee. Vacancies in chairing a committee shall be filled by election from the committee Members.

Every two years a Committee must re-appoint its chair(s). A call for candidates must be requested through the committee’s general email list inviting candidacy to be posted to that list. Committee members have 7 days after being notified to propose themselves as a candidate. All Committee members are eligible to apply including current and past chairs; no term limits apply. After the 7 Days candidacy period, if seats are contested, a ballot must be run to select the chair(s).

If no candidates come forward the work of the Committee must stop until a chair can be found.

For TCs, the timing of the process to re-appoint chairs should coincide with the TC Vitality check (TP Process Section 1.10) such that every four years the TC Charter and its chairs are reviewed.

Any provisions in the rules and policies applicable to a specific type of committee (such as Leaves of Absence for TCs) shall apply to the Chair or co-Chair of the committee in the same manner as they do to other committee members.

1.5 Committee Visibility and Transparency

The official copies of all resources of a committee and any associated subcommittees, including web pages, documents, email lists and any other records of discussions, must be located only on facilities designated by OASIS. Committees may not conduct official business or technical discussions, store documents, or host web pages on servers or systems not designated by OASIS. All web pages, documents, ballot results and email archives of all committees and subcommittees shall be publicly visible.

1.5.1 Mail Lists

Each committee shall be provided upon formation with a general discussion email list and a means to collect public comments.

All committee email lists shall be archived for the duration of the corporation, and all committee email archives shall be publicly visible.

For committees that hold meetings, the minutes of each meeting including a record of all decisions made shall be posted to that committee’s general email list.

The purpose of the committee’s public comment facility is to receive comments from the public. Comments shall be publicly archived.

1.5.2 Web Pages

OASIS shall provide each committee with a publicly accessible web page. The committee may keep the following information current on its web page: the committee name, charter, any standing rules and other adopted procedures, meeting schedules, anticipated deliverables and delivery dates, lists of members, the name and email address of the Chair or co-Chairs as well as other positions such as secretaries, editors, maintainers, etc., any subcommittees, links to the various works of the committee, and links to any IPR declarations made to the committee.

1.5.3 Announcements

OASIS shall maintain a publicly archived list for announcements from OASIS regarding its committees. Any Eligible Person shall be able to subscribe to this list. Every important change in committee status shall be posted to the announcement list. Such changes shall include but not be limited to: committee or project formation; committee charter revisions; start of public reviews; approval of work products such as Committee Specifications and Project Specifications; submission of specifications as a candidate for OASIS Standard; and approval or rejection of a proposed OASIS Standard.

1.6 Operations and Standing Rules

Except where otherwise indicated by the rules and policies applicable to a specific type of committee, the operation of committees shall be governed by Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised, insofar as such rules are not inconsistent with or in conflict with this Committee Process, the OASIS Bylaws, other Board-approved policies, or with provisions of law. The duration of a committee shall be considered a single session. Formal actions of committees shall be governed by the same rules regardless of the language in which the work is taking place.

Standing rules may be adopted, amended, or rescinded by Full Majority Vote of a committee regarding processes and operations over which it has authority. The committee may not adopt standing rules or other Resolutions related to IPR, quorum requirements, membership, voting, participation, or that otherwise conflict with or supersede any OASIS Board-approved policy. Standing rules, and any amendments to them, must be communicated to the OASIS TC Administrator or Open Project Administrator as applicable, who may rescind them if they are in conflict with OASIS policy, and, in order to be enforceable, must be posted conspicuously on the committee’s web page or official published governance information.

1.7 Meetings

Committee meetings must be properly called and scheduled in advance using the OASIS collaborative tools. Meetings scheduled or conducted in such a manner as to exclude the participation of any Member are subject to appeal. Meetings may be conducted face-to-face or via telephone conference or other electronic media that allow participation of all Members of the committee. In order to enable the openness of committee proceedings, meetings should be scheduled and conducted so as to permit the presence of as many participants as is logistically feasible. Meeting minutes must be recorded and posted to the committee’s general email list; minutes are not required to record discussions in detail, but should at a minimum note attendance and any actions taken.

Individual attendance must be recorded in the meeting minutes. Without a Quorum present discussions may take place at a meeting but no Resolutions may be approved. If the committee operates according to Roberts Rules, then those present ata meeting without quorum may act as a “Committee of the Whole” as defined in Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised, and make a report to the entire committee. However, the foregoing rule does not prohibit the discussion of and initiation of calls for consensus addressed to committee members asynchronously. For committees that maintain voting rights, meetings without Quorum shall still count towards attendance for purposes of Members gaining, maintaining, or losing voting rights.

1.8 Voting

When a committee uses a vote as part of their Resolution or decision making process, all votes require a Simple Majority Vote to pass except as noted elsewhere in this document or in the rules applicable to the type of committee. Any votes requiring a Special Majority Vote for approval must be conducted by the OASIS TC Administrator.

Some types of committees require members to obtain voting rights before being eligible to vote on ballots. The rules governing obtaining and maintaining voting rights are described in the relevant rules document for those types of committees. Committees may not adopt rules governing voting or voting rights or the rights of members that conflict with or supersede any OASIS Board-approved policy.

For committees using voting rights, a Member must have voting rights at the time a ballot is opened in order to vote on that ballot. Proxies shall not be allowed in committee voting.

Committees may conduct electronic ballots. An electronic ballot may be conducted during a meeting using any tool available to the TC including email and the results must be recorded in the minutes. Electronic ballots outside of a meeting shall be made either by using the committee’s general mail list or the publicly archived electronic voting functionality provided by OASIS and must remain open for a minimum of 7 days. Eligible voters must be able to change their vote up until the end of the voting period.

1.9 Closing a Committee

Unless otherwise provided in the rules and policies applicable to a specific type of committee, a committee may be closed by Full Majority Vote of that committee, by Resolution of the OASIS Board of Directors, or by the OASIS TC Administrator, OP Administrator, or Member Section Administrator as applicable.

The relevant Administrator may close a committee that is unable to fill its Chair position for 120 days.

Unless otherwise provided in the rules and policies applicable to a specific type of committee, the relevant Administrator may close a committee whose membership falls below the Minimum Membership necessary or that fails to show activity or progress towards achieving its purpose for an extended period of time.