We had a great Thunderbird Summit in Toronto last week. An important
part of that Summit was to try to complete the transition of Thunderbird
from staff-led to volunteer-led. As part of that, we discussed and
organized the future governance of Thunderbird. Here is the current
status of that.
We agreed that Thunderbird will have a group called the "Thunderbird
Council" that will be responsible for leading the Thunderbird project,
and have responsibility and authority over all aspects of Thunderbird,
subject to any limitations that may be specified by Mozilla as owners of
the trademark.
The Thunderbird Council will be elected by a larger group that consists
of significant contributors to Thunderbird. We agreed that this larger
group consists initially of the people who were invited to or attended
the Thunderbird Summit. We would consider votes taken at the Summit
(including from video participants) to be valid. There was considerable
debate over the name of this larger group, and how to choose who belongs
in this group in the future. Although we agreed to the name "Thunderbird
Core Team" in a vote, there was enough controversy that this could
change when we formalize a charter for Thunderbird governance.
The Thunderbird Core Team nominated and elected 7 individuals to the
Thunderbird Council, with an initial term of 1 year. The Thunderbird
Council consists of:
Mike Conley
Joshua Cranmer
Kent James
Philipp Kewisch
Magnus Melin
Wayne Mery
Florian Quèze
The Thunderbird Council got together, and agreed that Kent James would
serve as initial Chair, with an initial term of 3 months. The terms of 1
year for the Council and 3 months for the Chair are not intended to be
permanent, but are temporary as we discuss next steps and formalize a
charter.
Now we need to write a Thunderbird charter that describes this
governance, and specifies more detail. But we have a defined group that
can make decisions, so we should be able to move forward.
Kent James (:rkent)
Chair, Thunderbird Council
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