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Governance

Structure

The Foundation has several governance layers:

  • Projects

  • Working Groups

  • Oversight Committee

  • Steering Committee

The Green Software Foundation will achieve it's mission through Open Source Projects led by individual GSF members and resourced by the GSF.

If a set of individual members believes in a project and can gather support from others, if the project speaks to the GSF's theory of change, then GSF will work to support that project and the team to deliver it the best they can.

Working Groups (WG) are the main focus of activity in the Foundation. We have 4, Standards, Policy, Open Source and Community. Please visit those pages for details regarding each Working Group. Every Project in the Foundation belongs to one of the Working Groups. Each Working Group is led by 1 or more Chairs with support from GSF Staff.

 

The Oversight Committee (OC) is the body responsible for more technical, tactical, day-to-day aspects of running the Foundation. They review project proposals, make recommendations to the SC for budget changes and changes to our charter. The Oversight Committee is made up of the Working Group chairs and Project Leads for Graduated projects.

 

The Steering Committee (SC) is the body responsible for governing the Foundation. Every Steering Member nominates a Primary and Alternate to represent them in the steering committee calls. The Steering Committee focusses on the long term strategy of the Foundation. They decide the OKRs of the Foundation as a whole. They approve the Foundations Budget. The Steering Committee are the only body that can change the Foundations Charter.

 


Consensus

Working Groups, Steering Committee and some Projects in the Foundation function via Consensus.

Consensus means there needs to be agreement on every decision.

If you do not agree to a decision clearly state this by using the words “I object” either verbally or in writing.

If we don’t have consensus we may proceed to a super majority vote, 66% of members need to agree to the decision.

Individuals might be asked what choice they vote for but votes are per organization and each Steering and General Member organization has one vote each.

More details regarding Decision Making are in our section.