🌱Steering Council

This page explains the role and constitution of Steering Council, constituted by the Foundation's community members.

The role of the Steering Council is to steer the Open Constitution network's various initiatives.

Steering Council members are usually individuals of industry-wide reputation, having had persistent success in steering and contributing to humankind, with major sustainable impact. They can be successful entrepreneurs, social leaders, industry professionals, senior scientists, writers, filmmakers, musicians and artists.

The members of the Steering Council have chosen to actively contribute to projects maintained by the Foundation. The Steering Council further appoints each project's Core Working Committees.

These members publish opinion articles on the Foundation's open source projects, contribute directly by mentoring Learn fellowship grantees, participate in presenting the Foundation's agenda in their industry network, and build strategic relationships with partners.

The members of the Steering Council stay on the Open Council for an election period.

Steering Council Program Configuration Resolution

The members of the Steering Council work with the following guidelines:

Meetings:

1. The Steering Council members shall meet the Executive Council on an ongoing basis: 1.1 Generally recorded on a monthly basis through an electronic meeting with the Executive Council, either exclusively or

1.2 When recorded through the member’s presence in the Foundation’s monthly Council meetings, or

1.3 When participating through the Independent Board's private mailing list on any Open Council vote, at least once a month.

The Steering Council plays a central role in steering the Foundation's roadmap and advocacy of its guiding principles. Therefore, a vote of confidence may be scheduled to register the attendance of the Steering Council members.

The members of the Steering Council shall also nominate & appoint the Core Working Committee(CWC) of a project.

2. The Steering Council may choose to meet the Executive Council or other members through an electronic meeting, in addition to the monthly Council meetings, to contribute to their roles and responsibilities.

3. The Steering Council can convene an electronic meeting, inviting all the Open Council members or all the Foundation's members, to conduct an independent documented review of the Foundation’s project and initiatives.

The meeting minutes from any convened “Steering Council meeting” shall be released to the Open Convention within 14 days of the meeting.

The Executive Council reserves the right to reject or release the meeting minutes and documented reviews of this Steering Council to the other members of the Foundation.

Open Constitution Governance Framework:

4. The Open Constitution Network runs itself with a decentralised open governance system. Each open governance decision shall be recorded on the Open Constitution ledger.

Steering Council works with all the Open Council members with respect to the Foundation’s open source 'projects'.

The Executive Council ratifies the Steering Council’s Resolutions.

Executive Council shall keep the Independent Board informed, as it is the Independent Boards that legally ratify any Open Governance decisions within the limitations of local statutes, in accordance with the Local law.

An Independent Board ensures the ratification of any amendments to the constitution, governance and administration of the Foundation's project-based decisions.

Consideration & Tenure:

5. Appointment to this Steering Council is pro bono and voluntary in nature.

Appointments are generally made for one election period.

Appointment, Nomination, Removal and Resignation:

Appointment:

6.1 The following members can officially nominate a new or existing member of the Foundation to the Steering Council:

6.1 a. An individual member of the Executive Council or the Steering Council or the Advisory Council.

6.1 b. A non-Council member can also request a nomination and the action of nomination shall be officially filed by the only members mentioned in above 6.1 “a”.

6.2 Self-nomination by an existing member of one of the organs of the Open Council for his/her/their appointment to the Steering Council is not permitted.

Self-nomination by an existing non-Council member of the Foundation, for his/her/their appointment to the Steering Council, is not acceptable. Please read more. 6.3 Once the nomination is accepted by the Nominee, the Nominee or the member nominating the nominee, shall file supporting information such as the nominee's literature, publications, and demonstration of social activities on the Foundation's Membership Registry.

A Council Resolution "Vote IN" is then scheduled on the Open Council's electronic ledger.

For the purposes of record keeping on an electronic ledger - Open Convention & Council's mailing lists are used.

Electoral Process for "Vote IN" is conditional to a quorum.

a. Quorum is achieved when a minimum of half of all the Open Council members, participate in the Council Resolution - "Vote IN". b. A decision is received in favour of the Council Resolution - "Vote IN", when the majority of all the participating members of the Open Council, vote "+1". E.g.: Let's say there are 21 Open Council members.

At least 11 members shall participate in the Council Resolution for the "Vote IN" to achieve a quorum. This is the qualifying state for the Council Resolution to be logged on the Open Constitution public ledger. For the appointment to be electorally approved, the "Vote IN" should receive at least half of the total votes(required for quorum), in favour of this Council Resolution. So, in this example, six (+1) votes of the participating 11 Council members will do the job.😒

6.4 Appointment to the Steering Council is publicized on the public-facing records of the Foundation.

Removal Proceedings:

7.1 Members of the Executive Council or of the Steering Council can only officially nominate the removal of a member from the Steering Council.

7.2 Open Council Resolution - “Vote OUT" is considered to be active on the Open Constitution system, once it is initiated on the Council’s private mailing list.

Electoral Process for "Vote OUT" is conditional to a quorum. a. Quorum is achieved when a minimum of half of all the Open Council members participate in the Council Resolution "Vote OUT". b. A decision is received in favour of the "Vote OUT", when the majority of all the participating members of the Open Council, vote "+1". E.g.: Let's say there are 21 Open Council members.

At least 11 members shall participate in the Council Resolution for "Vote OUT" to achieve a quorum. This is the qualifying state for the Council Resolution to be locked on the Open Constitution public ledger. For the removal to be electorally approved for the next stage, the "Vote OUT" should receive at least half of the total votes(required for quorum), in favour of this Council Resolution. So, in this example, six (+1) votes of the participating 11 Council members will do the job.😒

A strong reason for violation of the Foundation’s governing policies and directives must be provided by member(s) initiating the resolution, to support the Council resolution “Vote OUT”.

7.3 Community Referendum: The final removal of a member from the Steering Council is subject to a community referendum on the passed Council resolution “Vote OUT”, stated in 7.1 & 7.2 above.

Open Constitution's Community Referendum is generally accessible by all members of the Foundation - both Council and its CWC members as well as non-Council members.

Quorum on the Community Referendum for the Council Resolution - "Vote Out" is achieved when 33% (more than 1/3rd) of all the voluntarily organised subscribed members participate. Of the minimum participating members, the Community Referendum stands as Decided when the majority of the quorum populace votes in favour of the stated Council resolution “Vote OUT”.

E.g.: Let's say there are 1000 Foundation members.

A minimum of 333 members are required to participate in the Community Referendum to achieve a quorum. The decision of the Community Referendum depends on a majority(167/333) in favour of, or against the subject of the Referendum. This is the qualifying state for the Referendum to get locked on the Open Constitution public ledger.

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8. If a member happens to serve on two organs of the Open Council, then this effectively means that two votes are counted for the same member for the Foundation’s Open Council voting decision proceedings, including on these governing protocols for the appointment of members or their removal.

Resignation:

9. A member's self-resignation from the Steering Council is a voluntary action.

A member may resign from the Steering Council by stating the reasons for resignation. The announcement of resignation can be done via electronic means wherever possible.

Miscellaneous:

10. The Independent Board reserves the right to update the terms and conditions, and statutes from time to time, in compliance with the existing rules and regulations of the association, including reserving the right to terminate the appointment to this Steering Council at any time, without notice and without the due electoral process of removal, in the following scenario:

If the member is found convicted of criminal, civil and financial crimes, in any court of competent jurisdiction, across the world, where the Foundation has an active presence, either through a legal body representation or an affiliate network.

Read more on the guiding principles & diversity statement of the Foundation here.

Read more about the Foundation’s Code of Conduct here.

11. The statutes of the Foundation and terms and conditions governing its functioning can be found here. The Election Council reserves the right to dissolve the whole Steering Council and initiate the constitution of a new Steering Council.

Read more on the dissolution of a constitutional body of this Open Constitution.

12. The network members communicate via cryptographic electronic communications systems, and technology tools licensed to them, in connection with the electronic meetings convened by members of this Council, the Foundation’s IT infrastructure shall be used.

If the meeting took place outside the Foundation’s communications infrastructure, then the meeting minutes must be brought back to the notice of the Executive Council.

Upon a successful nomination and having received a passed Council Resolution "Vote IN", a new Open Council member should file their supporting documents to the Open Constitution Membership Registry. A private link is generated by the Open Constitution system.

Custodian: Election Council