Expectations of board members
While the by-laws of MariaDB Foundation stipulate the decision mechanisms for electing and de-electing board members, this page provides guidelines to set the expectations on individual board members, on their merits, and on their work during and between board meetings.
Reasons for board membership
Reasons for board membership in the MariaDB Foundation Board typically include one or more of
- track record as an active community member
- track record as an active board member, during and between board meetings
- track record of active technical work on MariaDB Server, particularly in the areas of code contributions, security, and release management
- nomination by key sponsor and active participation in board work (liaison to a key sponsor, keeping the sponsorship continuous)
Following up expectations over time
- Chairman to talk 1on1 to every member at least once a year, CEO twice a year; voting board members expected to make themselves available for such calls
- Operations Committee to convene based on proposal by Chairman and CEO, making a proposal for a Board decision
- last board meeting of the year to vote on changes based on preparations by Operations Committee
If conditions change significantly during the year, individual board members as well as the Operations Committee may raise proposed changes also at other times.
Board Composition Changes
Each meeting shall have an agenda item “Decision: Board Composition Changes Related To Attendance”.
At this agenda item, the meeting can change members to be observers, and former observers to become full members. These changes are to be made according to the Board’s best judgement on a case by case basis. This is to be done without changes to the By-laws, as to voting members out and electing new board members.
The CEO shall
- alert the Board to the existence of board members which haven’t attended the two past meetings,
- personally approach any repeatedly absent board members in order to try to verify that they can attend the upcoming meeting
Expectations on the Chairman
The Chairman is expected to
- be available to the CEO on an as-needed basis, up to an average of 2 hours per week
- accept the obligation to make time to talk 1on1 to every member at least once a year
Expectations on Operational Committee members
Operational Committee members are expected to
- be available to the CEO on an as-needed basis, up to an average of 4 hours per month
- meet as a committee up to an hour per month
Expectations of Board Observers
Any sponsor at any level is welcome to request an invitation as a board observer, by email to the CEO.
The CEO may recommend a board observer in an email to the board and observers, along with any personal notes. If no concerns are raised within a week, the observer will be invited to join the next Board meeting. Otherwise, the observer position is decided upon, in the candidates absence, during the next board meeting.
Board observers are expected to behave like board members (as documented in this same page).
If a board member and the Chairman together find an observer to be disruptive or not to behave in keeping with the expectations of a Board member, they can uninvite the observer from the next board meeting, during which the observer can be uninvited from further board meetings by majority vote. If any individual board member finds an observer to be disruptive or not to behave in keeping with the expectations of a Board member, they can request the next Board meeting to decide whether to uninvite the observer from further board meetings, by majority vote. However, in that case, the observer can be present until the agenda item about the observer status is decided, and may be reinvited after said agenda item.