Latest version of Charter

[Mike Prince]

Tunes Charter
=============
This document will outline a set of rules to facilitate the parallel 
development of interrelated projects.

Membership Structure
====================
We shall have two types of people in our organization; Coordinators for 
each project, and the body of members.  Projects are arranged 
hierarchically.  A special General Coordinator acts to oversee all the 
Coordinators of the root projects.  Their responsibilities are;

	General Coordinator
		All projects are subjugated to this Coordinator
		Has same responsibilities as Coordinator, except does not
			have a project of his/her own
		Any other responsibilites defined in the charter
	Coordinator
		Oversees project
		Calls for and administers votes on issues related to
			project, or sub-projects
		Handles requests to create sub-projects
		Posts project updates of general interest to announce
		The Coordinator with the most seniority would take over the
			responsibilities of the General Coordinator in cases
			of absense or removal, until a new one could be
			elected
		Any other responsibilities as defined by the project
	Members
		Request for votes on issues
		Cast votes
		Participate in projects
		Request new projects

Projects
========
The basic organizational unit is the project.
	Projects will be arranged hierarchically.
	Projects are named.
		The root project will be the leftmost in the name.
		Subprojects will be listed from left to right, delimited
		by periods, in order of precedence.
	All messages to tunes are directed to projects by including
		the project name before the message description in the
		subject field.
	Projects are defined by their charter

We will start with the following projects;

	charter:  The organization structure of our group (as
		defined by this document).  This forum will be used to
		discuss changes to our charter and our groups organization.
	vote:  All votes and their results will be announced here, as well
		as in the projects in which they affect.  Only Coordinators
		can post to vote.
	discussion:  This will serve as the forum for debating new project
		proposals and votes of general interest.
	announce:  A forum which can only be posted to by the
		Coordinators.  This is used to announce new projects
		and their status, and for Coordinators to update the group
		about on-going projects.

Creating Projects
=================
To create a project a member would send to the Coordinator to which the 
new project would be subjegated, an ASCII e-mail message with the body 
of the message containing the following:

	REQUEST FOR PROJECT
	Date:  Date of proposal.
	Project:  The complete "path" of the project.
	Description:  A short description of the project.
	Coordinator:  Name and e-mail address of the coordinator.
	Goals:  The goals of the project.
	Agenda:  Very important.  It will motivate the project and
		provide others with expectations so we can plan together.
		This is not a hard deadline that if not met is punishable
		by death.  Instead it helps us work together as a team.
	Reason:  Why do we need a new project/subproject.  This should
		be at most two paragraphs, which may contain references to
		the Comments section.
	Comments(optional): Descriptive text, references, etc.

After receiving the RFP there are four actions the Coordinator could 
take;

	Decide to deny the project and post the RFP along with a statement
		of reasons for denial to "announce:RFP Denial-Description".
	Accept the RFP and immediately create the project.  Post the RFP 
		"announce:RFP Accepted-Description"
	Put to vote the RFP and post the RFP to "announce:RFP for Vote-
		Description".  Voting begins immediately and ends
		on the deadline decided by the Coordinator.
	Request discussion about the RFP by posting it to "announce:RFP 
		Discussion-Description".  All discussion would take place
		in the "organization" topic.  A deadline must be posted by
		the Coordinator stating when he/she will decide how to 
		proceed.

Once the project is approved by vote or a Coordinator, the RFP becomes 
the charter of the new project.

Modification/Removal of Projects
================================
A project is defined by it's charter as set forth by the RFP.  Any 
changes to a project that would not affect its charter can be made by 
the Coordinator.  To make a change to the charter;

	A member would contact the Coordinator for that project with the
		desired changes.
	The Coordinator, if s/he felt the change appropriate, would send
		a Request for Charter Deviation (RCD) to the Coodinator to
		whom this project is subjegated.  The format of the message
		would be the complete text of the current charter, prepended
		with REQUEST FOR CHARTER DEVIATION, and the changes
		indented 5 spaces and marked with a >.
	The Coordinator receiving the RCD would have the same options as
		an RFP.

Project Documents
=================
Each project will have several files to maintain at our central archive.

	Each file name shall be prepended by the project path.
	All files in the archive will be at most one month out of date.

Here are the minimum files that need to be maintained by the 
Coordinator;

	.charter  This is a copy of the most recent incarnation of the
		charter which defines the project.  If the project was
		created through a vote all ballots cast are listed.
	.talk.MonthYear  This is an archive of all that's been posted
		to that project, stored in mailbox format, and broken down
		by month into separate files.  This should be updated
		within 10 days after the end of each month.
	.vote.measurename  This is the text of a measure that has been
		put to vote for that project and a list of those who have
		cast ballots for or against that measure.

The charter project will have several additional files;
	.members  A list of members and their e-mail addresses. This
		will initially be derived from the tunes listserver
	.projects  A list of all projects and their coordinators

Posting Messages
================
Only a Coordinator can post to announce or vote.  Announce will be used 
to update members on the status of projects, proposals for projects, and 
general voting results.  Vote will be used to call for votes and post 
results.  All other projects can be posted to by all members.

Voting
======
Any member has a right to request a vote.
A member would send a Request For Vote (RFV) of the following format to 
any Coordinator, although the Coordinator of the project the vote would 
have precedence over would make the most sense.

	REQUEST FOR VOTE
	Measure:  A short description of the measure.
	Project:  Path of the project being affected by this measure.
	Advocate:  Name and e-mail address of the person posting this
		measure.
	Text:  What the measure advocates.

The Coordinator has the right to deny a RFV.  If the member is unhappy
	about this, the RFV can be sent to another Coordinator, until the
	supply of Coordinators is exhausted.
The Coordinator will post a message including the RFV and a deadline for
	votes to be recieved to the affected project group, and to "vote".
All votes will be mailed to the Coordinator calling the vote.
The Coordinator will tally all the votes and post the results, including
	the names and position taken of all those who voted.
All votes must pass by at least 2/3.

Any changes to the project charter must be voted on.  Everything else is 
up to the Coordinators discretion, if no vote is called for by a member.

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