Hello Apache Geode Dev Community, First, thank you. Because of the time and care so many of you have given over the past year, Apache Geode now ships on an established quarterly release cadence. That is a real achievement, and it belongs to all of us.
I'd like to propose that we commit to this cadence as a project. Regular, predictable releases help keep Geode relevant, safe, and secure: they deliver security fixes to our users on schedule and show that Apache Geode is an active, dependable platform to build on. Holding that cadence can't depend on one or two people. So I'm proposing nine essential project roles, each with a named owner and a backup, and asking for volunteers to commit to them. These are Apache Geode community roles, not ASF positions, but each one is essential: if a role sits empty, a release or a security fix slips. OPEN TO EVERYONE (contributors, committers, PMC) 1. CI & Build Infrastructure Lead (3-5 h/week) Keeps builds green and release pipelines working, fixes flaky tests. 2. Documentation & Website Lead (1-2 h/week, more around releases) Keeps docs, the website, and the downloads page current for each release. 3. Pull Request Triage Lead (2-3 h/week) Watches incoming pull requests, assigns reviewers, and makes sure every PR, especially from first-time contributors, gets a timely review. Also maintains good-first-issues. 4. Outreach & Communications Lead (1-2 h/week, more around releases) Release announcements, blog posts, talks, social media. Niall has been our de facto Outreach Lead, and I propose we formalize that with him as owner. A backup is still needed. 5. User Community Lead (1-2 h/week) Answers user@ questions and gathers user stories and upgrade feedback. COMMITTERS OR PMC MEMBERS 6. Release Manager, 2.0.x line (about 4+ h/week) 7. Release Manager, 1.15.x line (about 4+ h/week) The second most demanding role, with more time in the weeks before a release. Owns each release for their line: backport essential fixes, verify them, run regression testing, then build, sign, run the vote, publish, announce, on our quarterly release cadence. Both lines take the same amount of work. Per our release guide, a committer can serve as Release Manager but needs a PMC member for the svn checkout in prepare_rc and for publishing to dist/release/geode in promote_rc. Votes need three binding +1s from PMC members. https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/spaces/GEODE/pages/95650143/Releasing+Apache+Geode PMC MEMBERS ONLY 8. Security Lead (about 8+ h/week, more during active CVE periods) This is the most time-intensive role, so a strong backup who can share weekly triage is especially important. Triages private vulnerability reports and dependency CVEs, and makes sure fixes are ready for each quarterly release. 9. Board Report Coordinator (about 3 h per quarter) Drafts the quarterly Board report with input from the other role owners, and prepares it for the PMC Chair to review and submit. Can rotate. WHAT I'M ASKING Please reply by October 28th with: 1. The role(s) you'll own or back up 2. Confirmation that you can commit to the role. Release Managers and the Security Lead also commit to our quarterly release cadence. 3. Your expected time: steady (1-2 h/week), active (3-5 h/week), or core (8+ h/week) If you can't take a role, voting on release candidates within the 72-hour window is also essential, and that commitment is very welcome too. I'll post the full roster of owners and backups here once replies are in. Best regards, Jinwoo Hwang (he/him/his) Apache Geode / SAS® Research and Development http://JinwooHwang.com<http://jinwoohwang.com/>
