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# System prepended metadata

title: Paketo Governance RFC

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# Paketo Governance RFC

This RFC outlines the governance structure for the Paketo project.

## Organizations:

Paketo consists of two github organizations:

- `paketo-buildpacks`
- `paketo-community`

The `paketo-buildpacks` github organization consists of actively supported buildpacks, libraries etc.

The `paketo-community` github organization is designed as a staging ground for acceptance into the officially supported `paketo-buildpacks` org. Promotion from `paketo-community` into `paketo-buildpacks` requires an official [`rfc`](github.com/paketo-buildpacks/rfcs).

## Contribution Model:

The paketo contribution model is divided into the following, Subteams & Roles.

- A subteam is a group responsible for some set of repositories in the `paketo-buildpacks` org. This limits the repositories any individual is allowed to take action in.

- Roles are Contributor, Maintainer, And Steering Committee member. This limits what kinds of actions an individual may be allowed to take on a repository. The Contributor and Maintainer roles are scoped to a subteam, while a Steering Committee member is an organization wide role.
 

### Subteams
Subteams are responsible for maintaining some set of repositories under the `paketo-buildpacks` org. A natural split is into "Language Teams" responsible for maintaining all buildpack & specification changes that pertain to a particular language ecosystem.

Subteams have ownership & voting power over relevant `rfcs`.

Both maintainers, contributors & steering committee members can be members on any number of subteams.

##### Additional Responsibilities:
Each team is additionally responsible for maintaining  relevant documentation at paketo.io.

### Roles

#### Contributor:
Contributors are those who make regular contributions to the project (documentation, code reviews, responding to issues, participation in proposal discussions, contributing code, etc.). 

New contributors may be self-nominated or nominated by existing contributors, and must be elected by a supermajority of that project’s maintainers. Contributors may merge approved PRs, and create branches.


#### Maintainers
Maintainers are in charge of the day to day maintenance of the team's projects. 

They review, approve, and merge PRs and may vote on RFCS that affect their subteams, ensuring contributions align with project goals and meet the project's quality standards.

New maintainers must already be contributors, must be nominated by an existing maintainer, and must be elected by a supermajority of the steering committee. Likewise, maintainers can be removed by a supermajority of the steering committee or can resign by notifying one of the maintainers.


#### Steering Committee
The Steering Committee Members are responsible for the direction of the project (roadmap), subteam leadership, the spec, and cross-cutting concerns such as:
- Voting on repo's being added to this org along with affected Maintainers
- Voting on role changes (eg adding new Steering Committee member) 
- Voting on updating this document
- Voting on RFCs that impact any of the above responsibilities.


#### Definitions:

**Supermajority**: Greater than or equal to 66%.


