'Core' exists to serve Arabeyes and its members.
'Core' takes care of the managerial as well as financial aspects of Arabeyes.
'Core' is in charge of outlining rules/laws with regard to its conduct given its charter is met and is applied.
'Core' is made up of 3 or more individuals. It must maintain an odd number of members at all times. If for whatever reason a member is relieved or is inaccessible, his/her vote needs to be assigned apriori to an active member in writing.
An annual election is conducted at a preordained date to elect all 'core' members.
Open meetings (which are publicized in advance) are to be held on a weekly basis on IRC.
A meeting is initiated given quorum is met which requires at least a rounded-up number of more than 1/2 the 'core' team members to be present (eg. with 5 core members, 3 would constitute quorum).
Only for/yes/yay and against/no/nay votes are accepted in the meetings.
The largest shear raw number of votes (yay/nay) wins.
A 'core' member loses his privileges if,
He/She resigns explicitly (done in writing and confirmed by all other 'core' members)
If all the 'core' members vote a certain individual out at which point either a special election is called for or the teams selects a respected replacement.
The global Arabeyes list of Project TODOs is inspected on a monthly basis by the 'core' team which encompasses Arabeyes' overall goals and most urgent attainables. This list is posted for all to view and inspect and to choose from. This list is what gets advertised to newbies for them to select something to work on.
The 'core' team is ultimately responsible for the new assignment of CVS access to individuals who have demonstrated their ability to contribute effectively (this could be done with assistance from the various project leaders to "approve" individuals).
The 'core' team is ultimately responsible for the proper maintenance and upkeep of Arabeyes' hardware and services (server maintenance, backups, mailing-list and database maintenance, software upgrades, etc). The list of all of these maintenance issues is to be compiled and made publicly available.
Is an avid believer in the Open Source ideals
Believes in the aims and goals of Arabeyes
Wants to see Arabeyes succeed, flourish and grow
Concerned about Arabeyes' future and its roadmap looking always to improve upon them
Is committed to the well being and preservation of Arabeyes, its goals and mandate
Persistent in attaining results and is goal oriented
Willing to sacrifice to attain results and progress
Is responsible for a subset of "managerial" tasks
Willing to spend the required time to complete his/her duties
Enjoys what Arabeyes is all about and really wants to be a part of it
Elections are held every 12 months to determine all the core-team members (ie. Arabeyes' managers).
Elections are to always be held on the last Thursday in October.
Elections are voted on by Arabeyes members that qualify based on the criteria outlined in this document's term definitions (1 person yields one vote per 'core' seat). For instance, if 'core' is constituted by 5 members, each voter is to cast 5 votes (a vote per 'core' seat) to different individuals (or parts there-of).
Each voter is to get an email confirmation noting his selections.
Each voter's vote is held in confidence on Arabeyes' server in case of any voter irregularities and/or recounts (individual users' selections are not to be divulged publicly) for a period of six months (the raw election results sans individual info is to be maintained at all times). It is the current 'core' team's function to ensure proper elections.
Any qualifying nominee (as defined in this document's term definitions) is allowed to nominate him/herself (ie. run for election).
Candidates can run (and rerun) for elections as many times as they like (there are no limits).
Candidates are to announce their candidacy (nominate themselves) via Arabeyes' predefined procedure (via its web interface) starting 2 weeks prior to election date and ending one week before elections. Any and all email correspondence regarding this topic are to only occur on Arabeyes' "forum" mailing-list.
Elections are to be held by Arabeyes' website (unless noted otherwise due to some unforeseen problems).
Elections are to be held for a minimum of 24 hours during the day of the vote.
Elections are considered valid and binding irrespective of total number of people who have voted.
The candidates with the highest raw number of votes that constitute 'core' are elected.
A candidate is elected if and only if he/she has garnered at least 25% of the votes. In other words, 25% of all active voters will have to vote for a candidate for him/her to be elected.
If a subset of 'core' members are elected (due to zero or less than 25% of votes), the newly elected 'core' group recruits its remaining members within 2 weeks of election results.
In case of a tie between candidates, the tied-candidates will be given a one week period in which to discuss their fate in hopes of them agreeing on who is to proceed and who is to step aside. If no results are reached during that one week period, the current 'core' team takes a vote to break the deadlock.
If fraud (multi-voting/counter-error/hacks) is detected, the elections are voided until an expedient solution is found to the problem. 'core' is to remain as it were prior to the elections maintaining its duties until elections are re-held in earnest.
All notices, results, debates (if any) are to take place in an open public setting (preferably the "forum" mailing-list) to give all candidates equal opportunity to reply and/or voice their opinions.
No election mails will be accepted on any of the other lists and a blatant breach will constitute disqualification.
Core-team disqualifications can occur due to,
'core' ceases to have its mandatory weekly meetings or misses a month's worth consecutively.
80% of the CVS holding account members (ie. voters) vote "NO confidence" via emails to an individual who then verifies members' votes (via email again) upon which time that vote is conveyed to the core-team. In short, a vote and a confirmation are needed.
In case of core-team disqualification, "special" elections are called for (any CVS holder is then entitled to make that call) to be held 2 weeks from initiated action. General elections are to maintain their strict timetable.
In case of "special" elections and until new results are announced, the disenfranchised 'core' team will continue to attend to all of 'core's duties until official hand-over.
A maintainer is found/elected anytime the job calls for it (due to vacancy or someone leaving a position). The selection is made by the 'core' members but is not exclusive to them.
Anyone can be a Project Maintainer including 'core' members given they attain and retain an active CVS account.
A project maintainers is to,
Study said project, know enough about the external deadlines and demands to come-up with an internal schedule to present to his team.
Follow his/her outlined schedule making adjustments when needed.
Take full control of the project and is to track results, problems and be the bona-fide leader/champion of the project. The maintainer is to also recruit and incentivise his own group as well as maintain and create the relevant docs/instructions.
Keep his team members and Arabeyes volunteers privy of the status of his/her project by sending a "status" report at least once a month to the appropriate mailing-list.
The 'core' team has the right to relieve a maintainer given he/she are not adhering to the set rules and/or are not proceeding in the best interest of the subproject or Arabeyes at large (slow to no action will not be tolerated).