Diversity Initiative Governance

Membership

Membership of Symfony’s Diversity Initiative is open to any member of the Symfony community; to avoid the risk of elitism or meritocracy, no requirement is needed to be involved. All members, at any time, are invited to put forward ideas and suggestions as a proposal for an actionable item.

Guidance

The project leader, Fabien Potencier, is responsible for publicly appointing five (5) members of the initiative to provide guidance and drive it forward, but also retains the right to revoke any of the appointed members at any time. This guidance team should:

Be committed to the initiative’s cause and have joined because they want to help the initiative to deliver its purpose most effectively for the community’s benefit.
Recognize that meeting the initiative’s purpose is an ongoing effort.
Be committed to good governance and want to contribute to the initiative’s continued improvement.

The current guidance team is composed of the following people (in alphabetical order):

Lukas Kahwe Smith (lsmith77);
Michelle Sanver (michellesanver);
Nicolas Grekas (nicolas-grekas);
Timo Bakx (TimoBakx);
Zan Baldwin (zanbaldwin).

Veto

The project leader (Fabien Potencier) will have the right to veto any actionable item, regardless of the vote of the initiative’s guidance team. The project leader may, at their discretion, also appoint other people from among the initiative’s guidance team to also have the right to veto - in such a case these people are expected to use appropriate judgment to know when to use a “no” vote or a veto. Any single veto will reject an actionable item.

The purpose of having members with the right to veto is to prevent a “people’s majority” from overruling the core interests of the Symfony project. This will encourage communication between proposing members, the initiative’s guidance team and the Core Team to create realistic proposals, and in return any veto will come with a full explanation (not just a justification).

Advice Process

When a proposal on an actionable item is ready to be decided on, insight from the community (advice, general consensus, or non-binding poll) should be requested from the wider community - this will aim to include both those who will be meaningfully affected and those with meaningful expertise in the matter at hand. This feedback will enable the guidance team to have the confidence to vote for the best possible decision according to the information they have available, knowing that the responsibility they accept for said vote is justified.

Voting

The guidance team have the right to vote on proposals for actionable items. The quorum of “yes” or “no” votes required for a decision to be considered valid is at least 75% of active, appointed members of the guidance team - to abstain from voting means that vote will not be counted towards the quorum. For an actionable item to pass, approval from greater than 50% of the voting guidance team members is required. Use or management of finances/donations require at least a two-thirds majority to pass.

For transparency and ease-of-understanding, this means only the following combinations of votes will result in an actionable item passing:

For	Against	Abstain
5	0	0
4	1	0
3	2	0
4	0	1
3	1	1

Guidance Principles

Purpose

The initiative should be led by an effective guidance team that provides strategic guidance in line with the initiative’s aims and values, including a shared understanding with fellow initiative members to ensure that these are being delivered effectively and sustainably.

Integrity

The guidance team should act with integrity: adopting values which help achieve the initiative’s purposes, even where difficult or unpopular decisions are required. Guidance team members should undertake their duties, aware of the importance of confidence and trust in the initiative from the wider community, and ultimately acknowledges shared responsibility for the reputation of the Symfony project like the Core Team.

Decision-making Effectiveness

Guidance members should work as an effective team, using the appropriate balance of skills, experience, backgrounds and knowledge to make sure its decision-making processes are informed and equitable. Risk assessment and management systems should be set up and monitored.

Openness and Accountability

The behavior and conduct of the initiative’s guidance team sets the tone for the rest of the community. The guidance team should lead by example to create a culture that enables members to feel it is safe to suggest, question and challenge - rather than avoid - difficult ideas and topics. The team should guide the initiative in being transparent, accountable and open.

Adaptability

The initiative should establish processes that do not require any one person to hold specific positions while being adaptable to accommodate unforeseen needs of the community, especially as membership and involvement grows over time (changes to guidance team member appointment will have to be approved by the current system, which is Fabien Potencier).

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.