[DO NOT MERGE THIS] DEADLINE IS JULY 23RD 2026! by John15321 · Pull Request #2206 · flatcar/Flatcar

John15321 · 2026-07-16T21:10:36Z

This pull request makes significant updates to the draft.md governance document, providing detailed rules and processes for the founding term of both the Steering Committee and Technical Committee. It clarifies how these committees are bootstrapped, their mandates, and how membership, elections, and company representation are handled during the initial term. It also specifies the process for amending the charter and the expectations for developing future rules.

Key changes include:

Steering Committee Governance and Founding Term Rules

Introduced a "founding mandate" section, requiring the founding Steering Committee to define and publish rules for future terms (e.g., seat count, eligibility, voting method, company limits) before its term ends, with a public draft by month 9 and adoption before term completion.
Defined founding term parameters: 5 seats (no types), 1-year term, broad eligibility for candidates and voters, Condorcet voting, and initial company representation limits (max 2 seats per company in founding term, 1 in future). [1] [2]
Clarified escalation process: any party may escalate to the Steering Committee without needing all parties’ agreement, preventing a blocking party from vetoing escalation.
Detailed voting thresholds for decisions and amendments during the founding term (simple majority for regular, 4 of 5 supermajority for charter changes), and set expectations for meeting frequency and quorum.
Specified the amendment process: after the initial charter, amendments are made by Steering Committee vote, with a clear pull request and public discussion period before changes take effect.

Steering Committee Election and Vacancy Handling

Specified use of Condorcet voting for elections, detailed company representation enforcement (dropping lowest-ranked candidates from over-represented companies), and outlined procedures for nominations, voting, publishing results, and handling vacancies.

Technical Committee Governance and Founding Term Rules

Added a "founding mandate" for the Technical Committee, mirroring the Steering Committee’s responsibilities to define future selection rules (size, eligibility, selection model, company limits, etc.) and publish a draft by month 9.
Defined founding term parameters: 5 seats, 1-year term, broad eligibility, Condorcet voting for selection, and loose company representation limit (max 4 of 5 seats per company in founding term).
Established rules for removal, vacancies, and the process for filling seats if a member leaves or is removed.

These changes collectively provide a comprehensive framework for bootstrapping project governance, ensuring clarity and fairness during the transition to elected committee leadership.

Signed-off-by: Jan Bronicki <janbronicki@gmail.com>

mrbojangles3 · 2026-07-17T13:35:05Z

-The nomination period is X.
+The nomination period is measured in weeks rather than months, to fit Flatcar's
+smaller scale (closer to Istio's timeline than Kubernetes'). The exact number of weeks
+is X.


I would say 3 weeks, hopefully longer than the longest vacation.

@LexiNadolski yes

mrbojangles3 · 2026-07-17T13:37:50Z


-The voting period is X.
+The voting period is likewise measured in weeks rather than months. The exact number
+of weeks is X.


4 weeks after the close of nomination? This should give the nominees time to produce a document with their priorities / goals?

@LexiNadolski

John15321 · 2026-07-17T13:55:28Z

@mrbojangles3 Thank you for looking into this!

LexiNadolski · 2026-07-21T11:53:32Z

-The exact company representation rule is X.
+The exact company representation rule is X *(founding-term seats are not subject to a
+same-company limit; a rule for subsequent terms is part of the founding mandate — see
+"Founding mandate" above)*.


This means the founding 5 seats have no company cap at all and the group elected under no cap is the same group that later decides what the cap should be. This is the exact area CNCF tends to scrutinise during graduation review whether governance is genuinely open and neutral and it lines up directly with our MSFT heavy maintainer mix. Can we lock in a starting percentage now, like we discussed, closer to 38 percent, rather than leaving this fully open until after the committee already exists?

Lets do the cap for steering 38%, and a minimal (aka loose) cap for technical 4/5 can be from the same company

For the first committee (steering) the cap is 2/5 from the same company max - because for the first one we , then during normal operation of the committee it can be max 1/5 from the same company

LexiNadolski · 2026-07-21T11:58:03Z

+  community members/users only, not to Maintainers or Contributors).
+- **Voter eligibility:** all Maintainers and Contributors are eligible to vote.
+  Active, recognized community members/users may also vote if they request voting
+  rights and are approved by the Maintainer Council.


should this go to steering once it exists rather than maintainer council? kubernetes and istio both route exceptions through the elected body itself, keeping it with maintainers might read as old structure holding onto authority

Will be solved in https://github.com/flatcar/Flatcar/pull/2206/changes#r3622019188

LexiNadolski · 2026-07-21T12:05:20Z

+For the founding term, the Steering Committee works by full consensus: with only 5
+seats, all 5 members must agree for a decision or charter change to pass. If a member
+is absent or the seat is vacant, consensus is required among the remaining seated
+members.


The full consensus with 5 people means one person can block the founding mandate, including the rules we need finished before graduation. Given the timeline that feels risky to me. I would push for majority or supermajority instead, even just for founding term.

yeah it wasnt supposed to be, please fix it

LexiNadolski · 2026-07-21T12:12:25Z

+candidate(s) from other companies (following Kubernetes' approach).

 If the project adopts separate seat categories, the rules for how same-company limits
 apply across those categories are X.


same open question as the cap above, might be worth resolving these together rather than leaving two open versions of the same gap in different docs

fixed above

LexiNadolski · 2026-07-21T12:17:30Z

+- **Candidate eligibility:** any Maintainer or recognized Contributor is automatically
+  eligible to stand. Known and active community members/users are also eligible, but
+  only after passing a vetting process run by the Maintainers (this vetting applies to
+  community members/users only, not to Maintainers or Contributors).


The vetting process for community members/users isn't defined anywhere, what does it actually check? Right now this reads as maintainers automatically in, everyone else through an unwritten process. Probably want at least a few concrete criteria here before this gets adopted.

The person should have multiple meaningful contributions (both technical and non technical) within the last year

@LexiNadolski will update this

https://github.com/istio/community/blob/master/steering/CHARTER.md#membership-and-voting

https://github.com/istio/community/blob/master/ROLES.md#member

https://istio.io/latest/blog/2026/steering-election/#:~:text=list%20is%20correct.-,Candidates,to%20stand%20for%20election.%20Nominations%20are%20due%20by%20March%206.,-Voters

LexiNadolski · 2026-07-21T12:20:47Z

"all parties must agree a blocking problem exists" means if someone IS the problem they can just not agree, and escalation never triggers. This feels like it shouldn't require full agreement just to acknowledge something's blocked.

LexiNadolski · 2026-07-21T12:22:43Z

+### Founding mandate
+
+In addition to the responsibilities above, the founding-term Steering Committee is
+specifically tasked with defining, before its term ends, the rules that will govern


Mandate just says "before its term ends" with no earlier checkpoint. Given how hard we've had to push for people to actually engage, worried this ends up rushed right at the deadline with no real room for public comment. Maybe a mid term checkpoint, month 9 or 10ish, so there's an actual draft out before the wire?

Agreed @LexiNadolski will update this

LexiNadolski · 2026-07-21T12:24:12Z

This is X for the whole founding term so there's no way to remove someone for a full year if they go inactive or become a real problem. Founding term feels like exactly the phase we'd want this covered not skip.

just copy istio and other preojct

LexiNadolski · 2026-07-21T12:37:09Z

Also @John15321 I didn't see a deadline for review here? Did I miss it?

John15321 · 2026-07-21T12:39:00Z

Also @John15321 I didn't see a deadline for review here? Did I miss it?

My bad, I expressed it verbally and in some other places. The deadline would be this Thu

Clarified escalation process and voting methods for committees. Updated eligibility criteria for candidates and voters, and defined rules for company representation limits. Signed-off-by: Lexi Nadolski <26110375+LexiNadolski@users.noreply.github.com>

John15321 · 2026-08-07T20:26:24Z

@LexiNadolski i looked at it
I think you did a great job, thank you!

Unlike that we are honest in there about the intent

John15321 · 2026-08-16T08:07:22Z

@flatcar/flatcar-maintainers I just submitted this for a vote, please go and see your Flatcar emails! And vote!

John15321 added 2 commits July 16, 2026 17:17

Initial solutions

d7652cd

Signed-off-by: Jan Bronicki <janbronicki@gmail.com>

Part 2

96ceb98

Signed-off-by: Jan Bronicki <janbronicki@gmail.com>

John15321 requested a review from a team as a code owner July 16, 2026 21:10

github-project-automation Bot added this to Flatcar tactical, release planning, and roadmap Jul 16, 2026

mrbojangles3 reviewed Jul 17, 2026

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mrbojangles3 reviewed Jul 17, 2026

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Comment thread draft.md

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LexiNadolski reviewed Jul 21, 2026

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John15321 changed the title ~~[DO NOT MERGE THIS]~~ [DO NOT MERGE THIS] DEADLINE IS JULY 23RD 2026! Jul 21, 2026

github-actions Bot mentioned this pull request Jul 22, 2026

Monthly contributions report 2026-06-22 - 2026-07-21 #2218

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Steering Committee Governance and Founding Term Rules

Steering Committee Election and Vacancy Handling

Technical Committee Governance and Founding Term Rules

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John15321 commented Jul 17, 2026

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LexiNadolski commented Jul 21, 2026

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John15321 commented Jul 21, 2026

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John15321 commented Aug 7, 2026

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John15321 commented Jul 16, 2026 •

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