# PMC Email: High bars

One of the keys to long-term sustainability of projects is the continual infusion of new contributors. Projects that do not add new committers and PMC members on a regular basis have higher contributor burnout, and tend to eventually lose steam. New contributors result in new ideas, and drive the project forward.

The Board is therefore concerned when projects appear to have a very high bar to entry of new committers.

While it is reasonable for new contributors to experience a "trial period" during which you evaluate their skills, and their commitment to the project, waiting too long to invite a contributor to the inner circle often results in them moving on to other endeavors, and a missed opportunity to have a long-term participant in your project.

The risk of adding a committer "too soon," on the other hand, is that you'll have to revert a change that they have introduced to your code. Fortunately, that's what Git and SVN are for. Additionally, social controls around committing code (RTC, or Review Then Commit) can further protect your code from even this small risk.

The Board respectfully asks that you take two steps.

First, that you consider the bar that you apply to new committers, and think honestly about whether it is too high.

Second, that you take a careful look at your contributors, and see if there's anyone that you have overlooked who would be a benefit to your project community if you gave them more freedom.

We also want to remind you that any PMC member can, and should, be nominating new committers and PMC members. This is not only the role of the PMC Chair, or senior members of the PMC. All of you should be doing this. Indeed, newer PMC members are uniquely placed to bring new ideas to the project - that's what you elected them to do - so should not be shy to champion new members.

Thank you for carefully, and with an open mind, considering this important aspect of project health.

###### tags: `apache` `governance`