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governance.md: add inactivity policy for any roles #378

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feat(docs): add inactivity policy for any roles
bjohansebas May 15, 2025
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Update docs/GOVERNANCE.md
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Expand Up @@ -155,6 +155,24 @@ The list can be found at [https://github.com/expressjs/discussions/blob/HEAD/doc

The list can be found at [https://github.com/expressjs/discussions/blob/HEAD/docs/contributing/captains_and_committers.md#current-initiative-captains](https://github.com/expressjs/discussions/blob/HEAD/docs/contributing/captains_and_committers.md#current-initiative-captains)

## Inactivity and Emeritus Policy for Any Role

To support the health and continuity of the project, all individuals holding a role within the community (Triager, Committer, Project Captain, or TC member) are expected to maintain active participation.

Inactivity is defined as the absence of meaningful involvement in the project—such as contributions, code reviews, triage, meeting attendance, or discussion participation—for a continuous period of 6 months.
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Did we intentionally shorten this compared to what is in the Contributing guide?

To remain "active" a TC member should have participation within the last 12 months and miss no more than six consecutive TC meetings. Our goal is to increase participation, not punish people for any lack of participation, this guideline should be only be used as such (replace an inactive member with a new active one, for example). Members who do not meet this are expected to step down. If A TC member does not step down, an issue can be opened in the discussions repo to move them to inactive status. TC members who step down or are removed due to inactivity will be moved into inactive status.

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We discussed on the working session today that we are good with this change as long as we also apply it to the TC wording there. We just want to keep it simple and have one policy. The easiest way seems to be to make this also 12 months, but I don't think anyone had a major concern about changing that to 6 months either.

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Discussed on TC call today and we are good to go forward with this. We will update the other contributing guide to align on 6 months going forward.


### Exceptions
Anyone may request a temporary leave from active participation due to personal or professional reasons. In such cases, the individual should inform the relevant team or the Technical Committee (TC). During this time, the inactivity policy is paused, and the individual will not be flagged as inactive.

### Inactivity Process
- If no exception is communicated and inactivity is detected, the individual will be notified and invited to resume participation within a reasonable timeframe.
- If participation is not resumed, the individual may be transitioned to an emeritus role that reflects their past contributions.
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@ctcpip ctcpip Jun 4, 2025 •
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I would much prefer that we just notify them and transition them. Adding an additional waiting period is just another thing to track. It's also ambiguous what a "reasonable timeframe is", and that can get muddy trying to decide what a specific time period would be. And none of that is worth it because in nearly all cases, people who have stopped participating are not suddenly going to spring into action again just because we have notified them they have been inactive.

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I agree, It is really easy to just re-add folks.

- The emeritus status helps preserve a clear record of contributors who have meaningfully shaped the project over time.

### Accountability
- The Technical Committee (TC) is responsible for monitoring activity levels and applying this policy fairly and transparently, in coordination with other relevant teams.
- In case of disagreement, the situation can be discussed and resolved by consensus within the TC or appropriate team.

## Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1

```text
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