PSF Board Processes

This page describes a few processes we have in place for the working of the board.

Voting Process

Motions can be put to a vote by any board member.

The standard procedure for the last few years has been to:

1. suggest a resolution
2. put it up for discussion (on the board list)
3. sort out any amendments (on the board list)

4. put the final resolution text on the meeting agenda (see BoardAgenda)

5. vote on it either by email or in the next meeting

The voting itself (in step 5) is normally run by our secretary or the chairman.

Voting messages used in the meetings and for email votes:

• agree: aye or yes

• disagree: nay or no

• no comment: abstain

Results are displayed in the format: number-of-aye-votes/number-of-nay-votes/number-of-abstain-votes. Examples:

• 7-3-1 (motion passed)
• 2-8-1 (motion rejected)
• 2-2-7 (tie, no result)

Board Meetings

These are held on every third Monday of a month. See the meeting times table for exact times.

The agenda for the resp. next board meeting is managed on the PSF Board Agenda Page.

Discussions during Board Meetings

Each item on the agenda should be handled as follows:

• The next item to be discussed is pasted into the IRC window so everyone knows the topic of discussion.
• The chairman will initiate discussion with DISCUSS. Each member who wishes to speak to the discussions may at any time say YES. The chairman will call on each member to speak appropriately. When discussions are over they will be ended by the chairman with either END DISCUSS if no vote is required, or VOTE.
• If a vote is called then members have up to one minute to cast their vote. When all votes are cast or the minute has elapsed the chairman or (more usually) the Secretary will end the vote with END VOTE and the result will be announced.

Note: We're usually not strict about the one minute voting period limit.

Voting Procedure during Board Meetings

Motions can be put to a vote by any board member. They are normally taken from the agenda.

• If a board member wants to discuss a motion before the vote, this is signaled with a DISCUSS note to the chat members. We've gotten used to having the chair of the meeting issue the DISCUSS right after the motion is presented.

• After discussion, the chairman or secretary then starts the voting period with a VOTE. During voting periods no discussions should occur, if possible.

• The voting period ends with an END VOTE by the chairman or secretary.

• All votes are counted and the results displayed immediately for verification by the chat members.

Example:

• bm1: RESOLVED, that all board members wear hats, unless it's raining, a Friday, or Easter falls on a Sunday.
  chair: DISCUSS
  bm2: So we never wear hats in a year where Easter falls on a Sunday ?
  bm1: Yes, that's the point.
  chair: Anything else ?
  chair: VOTE
  bm1: Aye
  bm2: Nay
  bm3: Aye
  bm4: Abstain
  chair: Aye
  chair: END VOTE
  secretary: Approved, 3-1-1.

Email Voting

The following expedited email voting procedure was adopted by the Board on April 18, 2011:

RESOLVED: The PSF Board of Directors may adopt binding resolutions between regularly scheduled full-board meetings by email, subject to the following procedures:

1. Any Director may make a motion to the Board, using the published Board mailing list address.
2. For a motion to pass, a "super-quorum" of 3/4 of the Directors MUST participate in the email vote by stating 'Aye', 'Nay' or 'Abstain' to a proposed motion, with the vote appended to a quoted version of the exact motion proposed. In the case of a Board of 13 Directors, this will require 10 directors to vote by email.
3. For a motion to pass, an absolute majority of the whole Board MUST vote 'Aye'. In the case of a Board of 13 Directors, this will require 7 Aye votes.
4. The expiration date/time typically should be at least 72 hours after the motion is proposed and shall not be less than 24 hours after the motion is proposed, and may not extend past the next scheduled Board meeting.
5. The result of any vote conducted by email SHALL be included in the minutes of the next regularly scheduled Board meeting.

Getting a motion on the agenda

This should be posted to the psf-board list and added to the PSF Board Agenda Page.

The format is rather simple:

• RESOLVED, that all apples are green and oranges don't count.

It is usual to put a short explanatory paragraph before the motion so directors understand why they are addressing this business.

Putting draft minutes on the wiki

Process for creating new minute pages:

• go to http://wiki.python.org/psf/Board/minutes

• add a new line for the new minutes by copying an existing one and updating the date
• click on the new link
• click on the create page link
• add these first lines (changing the date):

  #acl BoardGroup:read,write,delete,revert All:
  #format rst
  
  2010-08-16 PSF Board Meeting Minutes (draft)
  --------------------------------------------

• save

Getting new software installed

Contact the Infrastructure Committee with the details about the software and how it should be set up.

Committee/Work Group Reports

The board requires monthly reports from all committees and workgroups in order to better oversee the actions implemented by the committees and their progress on assigned tasks.

Doug Hellmann has put together an email template to use for these reports.

Please use the following template for all reports:

Please send the reports to psf-board@python.org no later than a day before the next board meeting when reports are due. Due dates for reports can be found on thePSF Board Agenda Page