1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
|
#use wml::debian::template title="Historical Debian Constitution v 1.7" BARETITLE="true"
#use wml::debian::toc
<h1>Historical version of the Constitution for the Debian Project (v1.7)</h1>
<p>Version 1.7 ratified on August 14th, 2016.</p>
<p>Superseded by
<a href="constitution.1.8">Version 1.8</a> ratified on January 28th, 2022,
and the <a href="constitution">current version 1.9</a> ratified on March 26th,
2022.</p>
<p>Supersedes
<a href="constitution.1.6">Version 1.6</a> ratified on December 13th, 2015,
<a href="constitution.1.5">Version 1.5</a> ratified on January 9th, 2015,
<a href="constitution.1.4">Version 1.4</a> ratified on October 7th, 2007,
<a href="constitution.1.3">Version 1.3</a> ratified on September 24th, 2006,
<a href="constitution.1.2">Version 1.2</a> ratified on October 29th, 2003,
<a href="constitution.1.1">Version 1.1</a> ratified on June 21st, 2003,
and <a href="constitution.1.0">Version 1.0</a> ratified on December 2nd,
1998.</p>
<toc-display />
<toc-add-entry name="item-1">1. Introduction</toc-add-entry>
<p><cite>The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have
made common cause to create a free operating system.</cite></p>
<p>This document describes the organisational structure for formal
decision-making in the Project. It does not describe the goals of the
Project or how it achieves them, or contain any policies except those
directly related to the decision-making process.</p>
<toc-add-entry name="item-2">2. Decision-making bodies and individuals</toc-add-entry>
<p>Each decision in the Project is made by one or more of the
following:</p>
<ol>
<li>The Developers, by way of General Resolution or an election;</li>
<li>The Project Leader;</li>
<li>The Technical Committee and/or its Chair;</li>
<li>The individual Developer working on a particular task;</li>
<li>Delegates appointed by the Project Leader for specific
tasks;</li>
<li>The Project Secretary.</li>
</ol>
<p>Most of the remainder of this document will outline the powers of
these bodies, their composition and appointment, and the procedure for
their decision-making. The powers of a person or body may be subject to
review and/or limitation by others; in this case the reviewing body or
person's entry will state this. <cite>In the list above, a person or
body is usually listed before any people or bodies whose decisions they
can overrule or who they (help) appoint - but not everyone listed
earlier can overrule everyone listed later.</cite></p>
<h3>2.1. General rules</h3>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Nothing in this constitution imposes an obligation on anyone to
do work for the Project. A person who does not want to do a task
which has been delegated or assigned to them does not need to do
it. However, they must not actively work against these rules and
decisions properly made under them.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A person may hold several posts, except that the Project Leader,
Project Secretary and the Chair of the Technical Committee must
be distinct, and that the Leader cannot appoint themselves as their
own Delegate.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A person may leave the Project or resign from a particular post
they hold, at any time, by stating so publicly.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<toc-add-entry name="item-3">3. Individual Developers</toc-add-entry>
<h3>3.1. Powers</h3>
<p>An individual Developer may</p>
<ol>
<li>make any technical or nontechnical decision with regard to their
own work;</li>
<li>propose or sponsor draft General Resolutions;</li>
<li>propose themselves as a Project Leader candidate in
elections;</li>
<li>vote on General Resolutions and in Leadership elections.</li>
</ol>
<h3>3.2. Composition and appointment</h3>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Developers are volunteers who agree to further the aims of the
Project insofar as they participate in it, and who maintain
package(s) for the Project or do other work which the Project
Leader's Delegate(s) consider worthwhile.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The Project Leader's Delegate(s) may choose not to admit new
Developers, or expel existing Developers. <cite>If the Developers
feel that the Delegates are abusing their authority they can of
course override the decision by way of General Resolution - see
§4.1(3), §4.2.</cite></p>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>3.3. Procedure</h3>
<p>Developers may make these decisions as they see fit.</p>
<toc-add-entry name="item-4">4. The Developers by way of General Resolution or election</toc-add-entry>
<h3>4.1. Powers</h3>
<p>Together, the Developers may:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Appoint or recall the Project Leader.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Amend this constitution, provided they agree with a 3:1
majority.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make or override any decision authorised by the powers of the Project
Leader or a Delegate.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make or override any decision authorised by the powers of the Technical
Committee, provided they agree with a 2:1 majority.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Issue, supersede and withdraw nontechnical policy documents and
statements.</p>
<p>These include documents describing the goals of the project, its
relationship with other free software entities, and nontechnical
policies such as the free software licence terms that Debian
software must meet.</p>
<p>They may also include position statements about issues of the
day.</p>
<ol style="list-style: decimal;">
<li>A Foundation Document is a document or statement regarded as
critical to the Project's mission and purposes.</li>
<li>The Foundation Documents are the works entitled <q>Debian
Social Contract</q> and <q>Debian Free Software Guidelines</q>.</li>
<li>A Foundation Document requires a 3:1 majority for its
supersession. New Foundation Documents are issued and
existing ones withdrawn by amending the list of Foundation
Documents in this constitution.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make decisions about property held in trust for purposes
related to Debian. (See §9.).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>In case of a disagreement between the project leader and
the incumbent secretary, appoint a new secretary.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>4.2. Procedure</h3>
<ol>
<li>
<p>The Developers follow the Standard Resolution Procedure, below.
A resolution or amendment is introduced if proposed by any
Developer and sponsored by at least K other Developers, or if
proposed by the Project Leader or the Technical Committee.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Delaying a decision by the Project Leader or their Delegate:</p>
<ol>
<li>If the Project Leader or their Delegate, or the Technical
Committee, has made a decision, then Developers can override them
by passing a resolution to do so; see §4.1(3).</li>
<li>If such a resolution is sponsored by at least 2K Developers,
or if it is proposed by the Technical Committee, the resolution
puts the decision immediately on hold (provided that resolution
itself says so).</li>
<li>If the original decision was to change a discussion period or
a voting period, or the resolution is to override the Technical
Committee, then only K Developers need to sponsor the resolution
to be able to put the decision immediately on hold.</li>
<li>If the decision is put on hold, an immediate vote is held to
determine whether the decision will stand until the full vote on
the decision is made or whether the implementation of the
original decision will be delayed until then. There is no
quorum for this immediate procedural vote.</li>
<li>If the Project Leader (or the Delegate) withdraws the
original decision, the vote becomes moot, and is no longer
conducted.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Votes are taken by the Project Secretary. Votes, tallies, and
results are not revealed during the voting period; after the
vote the Project Secretary lists all the votes cast. The voting
period is 2 weeks, but may be varied by up to 1 week by the
Project Leader.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The minimum discussion period is 2 weeks, but may be varied by
up to 1 week by the Project Leader. The Project Leader has a
casting vote. There is a quorum of 3Q.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Proposals, sponsors, amendments, calls for votes and other
formal actions are made by announcement on a publicly-readable
electronic mailing list designated by the Project Leader's
Delegate(s); any Developer may post there.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Votes are cast by email in a manner suitable to the Secretary.
The Secretary determines for each poll whether voters can change
their votes.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Q is half of the square root of the number of current
Developers. K is Q or 5, whichever is the smaller. Q and K need not
be integers and are not rounded.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<toc-add-entry name="item-5">5. Project Leader</toc-add-entry>
<h3>5.1. Powers</h3>
<p>The <a href="leader">Project Leader</a> may:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Appoint Delegates or delegate decisions to the Technical
Committee.</p>
<p>The Leader may define an area of ongoing responsibility or a
specific decision and hand it over to another Developer or to the
Technical Committee.</p>
<p>Once a particular decision has been delegated and made the
Project Leader may not withdraw that delegation; however, they may
withdraw an ongoing delegation of particular area of
responsibility.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Lend authority to other Developers.</p>
<p>The Project Leader may make statements of support for points of
view or for other members of the project, when asked or otherwise;
these statements have force if and only if the Leader would be
empowered to make the decision in question.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make any decision which requires urgent action.</p>
<p>This does not apply to decisions which have only become
gradually urgent through lack of relevant action, unless there is a
fixed deadline.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make any decision for whom noone else has responsibility.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Propose draft General Resolutions and amendments.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Together with the Technical Committee, appoint new members to
the Committee. (See §6.2.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Use a casting vote when Developers vote.</p>
<p>The Project Leader also has a normal vote in such ballots.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Vary the discussion period for Developers' votes (as above).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Lead discussions amongst Developers.</p>
<p>The Project Leader should attempt to participate in discussions
amongst the Developers in a helpful way which seeks to bring the
discussion to bear on the key issues at hand. The Project Leader
should not use the Leadership position to promote their own
personal views.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>In consultation with the developers, make decisions affecting
property held in trust for purposes related to Debian. (See
§9.). Such decisions are communicated to the members by the
Project Leader or their Delegate(s). Major expenditures
should be proposed and debated on the mailing list before
funds are disbursed.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Add or remove organizations from the list of trusted
organizations (see §9.3) that are authorized to accept and
hold assets for Debian. The evaluation and discussion leading
up to such a decision occurs on an electronic mailing list
designated by the Project Leader or their Delegate(s), on
which any developer may post. There is a minimum discussion
period of two weeks before an organization may be added to
the list of trusted organizations.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>5.2. Appointment</h3>
<ol>
<li>The Project Leader is elected by the Developers.</li>
<li>The election begins six weeks before the leadership post becomes
vacant, or (if it is too late already) immediately.</li>
<li>For the first week any Developer may nominate
themselves as a candidate Project Leader, and summarize their plans for their term.</li>
<li>For three weeks after that no more candidates may be nominated;
candidates should use this time for campaigning and discussion. If
there are no candidates at the end of the nomination period then the
nomination period is extended for an additional week, repeatedly if
necessary.</li>
<li>The next two weeks are the polling period during which
Developers may cast their votes. Votes in leadership elections are
kept secret, even after the election is finished.</li>
<li>The options on the ballot will be those candidates who have
nominated themselves and have not yet withdrawn, plus None Of The
Above. If None Of The Above wins the election then the election
procedure is repeated, many times if necessary.</li>
<li>
The decision will be made using the method specified in section
§A.6 of the Standard Resolution Procedure. The quorum is the
same as for a General Resolution (§4.2) and the default
option is <q>None Of The Above</q>.
</li>
<li>The Project Leader serves for one year from their election.</li>
</ol>
<h3>5.3. Procedure</h3>
<p>The Project Leader should attempt to make decisions which are
consistent with the consensus of the opinions of the Developers.</p>
<p>Where practical the Project Leader should informally solicit the
views of the Developers.</p>
<p>The Project Leader should avoid overemphasizing their own point of
view when making decisions in their capacity as Leader.</p>
<toc-add-entry name="item-6">6. Technical committee</toc-add-entry>
<h3>6.1. Powers</h3>
<p>The <a href="tech-ctte">Technical Committee</a> may:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Decide on any matter of technical policy.</p>
<p>This includes the contents of the technical policy manuals,
developers' reference materials, example packages and the behaviour
of non-experimental package building tools. (In each case the usual
maintainer of the relevant software or documentation makes
decisions initially, however; see 6.3(5).)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Decide any technical matter where Developers' jurisdictions
overlap.</p>
<p>In cases where Developers need to implement compatible
technical policies or stances (for example, if they disagree about
the priorities of conflicting packages, or about ownership of a
command name, or about which package is responsible for a bug that
both maintainers agree is a bug, or about who should be the
maintainer for a package) the technical committee may decide the
matter.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make a decision when asked to do so.</p>
<p>Any person or body may delegate a decision of their own to the
Technical Committee, or seek advice from it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Overrule a Developer (requires a 3:1 majority).</p>
<p>The Technical Committee may ask a Developer to take a
particular technical course of action even if the Developer does
not wish to; this requires a 3:1 majority. For example, the
Committee may determine that a complaint made by the submitter of a
bug is justified and that the submitter's proposed solution should
be implemented.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Offer advice.</p>
<p>The Technical Committee may make formal announcements about its
views on any matter. <cite>Individual members may of course make
informal statements about their views and about the likely views of
the committee.</cite></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Together with the Project Leader, appoint new members to itself
or remove existing members. (See §6.2.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Appoint the Chair of the Technical Committee.</p>
<p>
The Chair is elected by the Committee from its members. All
members of the committee are automatically nominated; the
committee votes starting one week before the post will become
vacant (or immediately, if it is already too late). The members
may vote by public acclamation for any fellow committee member,
including themselves; there is no default option. The vote
finishes when all the members have voted, or when the voting
period has ended. The result is determined using the method
specified in section A.6 of the Standard Resolution Procedure.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The Chair can stand in for the Leader, together with the
Secretary</p>
<p>As detailed in §7.1(2), the Chair of the Technical
Committee and the Project Secretary may together stand in for the
Leader if there is no Leader.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>6.2. Composition</h3>
<ol>
<li>
<p>The Technical Committee consists of up to 8 Developers, and
should usually have at least 4 members.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>When there are fewer than 8 members the Technical Committee may
recommend new member(s) to the Project Leader, who may choose
(individually) to appoint them or not.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>When there are 5 members or fewer the Technical Committee may
appoint new member(s) until the number of members reaches 6.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>When there have been 5 members or fewer for at least one week
the Project Leader may appoint new member(s) until the number of
members reaches 6, at intervals of at least one week per
appointment.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A Developer is not eligible to be (re)appointed to the Technical
Committee if they have been a member within the previous 12
months.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If the Technical Committee and the Project Leader agree they
may remove or replace an existing member of the Technical
Committee.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Term limit:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>On January 1st of each year the term of any Committee member
who has served more than 42 months (3.5 years) and who is one
of the two most senior members is set to expire on December
31st of that year.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A member of the Technical Committee is said to be more
senior than another if they were appointed earlier, or were
appointed at the same time and have been a member of the
Debian Project longer. In the event that a member has been
appointed more than once, only the most recent appointment is
relevant.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>6.3. Procedure</h3>
<ol>
<li>
<p>The Technical Committee uses the Standard Resolution
Procedure.</p>
<p>A draft resolution or amendment may be proposed by any member
of the Technical Committee. There is no minimum discussion period;
the voting period lasts for up to one week, or until the outcome is
no longer in doubt. Members may change their votes. There is a
quorum of two.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Details regarding voting</p>
<p>The Chair has a casting vote. When the Technical Committee
votes whether to override a Developer who also happens to be a
member of the Committee, that member may not vote (unless they are
the Chair, in which case they may use only their casting
vote).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Public discussion and decision-making.</p>
<p>Discussion, draft resolutions and amendments, and votes by
members of the committee, are made public on the Technical
Committee public discussion list. There is no separate secretary
for the Committee.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Confidentiality of appointments.</p>
<p>The Technical Committee may hold confidential discussions via
private email or a private mailing list or other means to discuss
appointments to the Committee. However, votes on appointments must
be public.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>No detailed design work.</p>
<p>The Technical Committee does not engage in design of new
proposals and policies. Such design work should be carried out by
individuals privately or together and discussed in ordinary
technical policy and design forums.</p>
<p>The Technical Committee restricts itself to choosing from or
adopting compromises between solutions and decisions which have
been proposed and reasonably thoroughly discussed elsewhere.</p>
<p><cite>Individual members of the technical committee may of
course participate on their own behalf in any aspect of design and
policy work.</cite></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Technical Committee makes decisions only as last resort.</p>
<p>The Technical Committee does not make a technical decision
until efforts to resolve it via consensus have been tried and
failed, unless it has been asked to make a decision by the person
or body who would normally be responsible for it.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<toc-add-entry name="item-7">7. The Project Secretary</toc-add-entry>
<h3>7.1. Powers</h3>
<p>The <a href="secretary">Secretary</a>:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Takes votes amongst the Developers, and determines the number
and identity of Developers, whenever this is required by the
constitution.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Can stand in for the Leader, together with the Chair of the
Technical Committee.</p>
<p>If there is no Project Leader then the Chair of the
Technical Committee and the Project Secretary may by joint
agreement make decisions if they consider it imperative to do
so.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Adjudicates any disputes about interpretation of the
constitution.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>May delegate part or all of their authority to someone else, or
withdraw such a delegation at any time.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>7.2. Appointment</h3>
<p>The Project Secretary is appointed by the Project Leader and the
current Project Secretary.</p>
<p>If the Project Leader and the current Project Secretary cannot agree
on a new appointment, they must ask the Developers by way of
General Resolution to appoint a Secretary.</p>
<p>If there is no Project Secretary or the current Secretary is
unavailable and has not delegated authority for a decision then the
decision may be made or delegated by the Chair of the Technical
Committee, as Acting Secretary.</p>
<p>The Project Secretary's term of office is 1 year, at which point
they or another Secretary must be (re)appointed.</p>
<h3>7.3. Procedure</h3>
<p>The Project Secretary should make decisions which are fair and
reasonable, and preferably consistent with the consensus of the
Developers.</p>
<p>When acting together to stand in for an absent Project Leader the
Chair of the Technical Committee and the Project Secretary should
make decisions only when absolutely necessary and only when consistent
with the consensus of the Developers.</p>
<toc-add-entry name="item-8">8. The Project Leader's Delegates</toc-add-entry>
<h3>8.1. Powers</h3>
<p>The Project Leader's Delegates:</p>
<ol>
<li>have powers delegated to them by the Project Leader;</li>
<li>may make certain decisions which the Leader may not make
directly, including approving or expelling Developers or designating
people as Developers who do not maintain packages. <cite>This is to
avoid concentration of power, particularly over membership as a
Developer, in the hands of the Project Leader.</cite></li>
</ol>
<h3>8.2. Appointment</h3>
<p>The Delegates are appointed by the Project Leader and may be
replaced by the Leader at the Leader's discretion. The Project Leader
may not make the position as a Delegate conditional on particular
decisions by the Delegate, nor may they override a decision made by a
Delegate once made.</p>
<h3>8.3. Procedure</h3>
<p>Delegates may make decisions as they see fit, but should attempt to
implement good technical decisions and/or follow consensus opinion.</p>
<toc-add-entry name="item-9">9. Assets held in trust for Debian</toc-add-entry>
<p>In most jurisdictions around the world, the Debian project is not
in a position to directly hold funds or other property. Therefore,
property has to be owned by any of a number of organisations as
detailed in §9.2.</p>
<p>Traditionally, SPI was the sole organisation authorized to hold
property and monies for the Debian Project. SPI was created in
the U.S. to hold money in trust there.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.spi-inc.org/">SPI</a> and Debian are separate
organisations who share some goals.
Debian is grateful for the legal support framework offered by SPI.</p>
<h3>9.1. Relationship with Associated Organizations</h3>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Debian Developers do not become agents or employees of
organisations holding assets in trust for Debian, or of
each other, or of persons in authority in the Debian Project,
solely by the virtue of being Debian Developers. A person
acting as a Developer does so as an individual, on their own
behalf. Such organisations may, of their own accord,
establish relationships with individuals who are also Debian
developers.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>9.2. Authority</h3>
<ol>
<li>
<p>An organisation holding assets for Debian has no authority
regarding Debian's technical or nontechnical decisions, except
that no decision by Debian with respect to any property held
by the organisation shall require it to act outside its legal
authority.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Debian claims no authority over an organisation that holds
assets for Debian other than that over the use of property
held in trust for Debian.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>9.3. Trusted organisations</h3>
<p>Any donations for the Debian Project must be made to any one of a
set of organisations designated by the Project leader (or a
delegate) to be authorized to handle assets to be used for the
Debian Project.</p>
<p>Organisations holding assets in trust for Debian should
undertake reasonable obligations for the handling of such
assets.</p>
<p>Debian maintains a public List of Trusted Organisations that
accept donations and hold assets in trust for Debian
(including both tangible property and intellectual property)
that includes the commitments those organisations have made as
to how those assets will be handled.</p>
<toc-add-entry name="item-A">A. Standard Resolution Procedure</toc-add-entry>
<p>These rules apply to communal decision-making by committees and
plebiscites, where stated above.</p>
<h3>A.0. Proposal</h3>
<p>The formal procedure begins when a draft resolution is proposed and
sponsored, as required.</p>
<h3>A.1. Discussion and Amendment</h3>
<ol>
<li>Following the proposal, the resolution may be discussed.
Amendments may be made formal by being proposed and sponsored
according to the requirements for a new resolution, or directly by
the proposer of the original resolution.</li>
<li>A formal amendment may be accepted by the resolution's proposer,
in which case the formal resolution draft is immediately changed to
match.</li>
<li>If a formal amendment is not accepted, or one of the sponsors of
the resolution does not agree with the acceptance by the proposer of
a formal amendment, the amendment remains as an amendment and will be
voted on.</li>
<li>If an amendment accepted by the original proposer is not to the
liking of others, they may propose another amendment to reverse the
earlier change (again, they must meet the requirements for proposer
and sponsor(s).)</li>
<li>The proposer of a resolution may suggest changes to the wordings
of amendments; these take effect if the proposer of the amendment
agrees and none of the sponsors object. In this case the changed
amendments will be voted on instead of the originals.</li>
<li>The proposer of a resolution may make changes to correct minor
errors (for example, typographical errors or inconsistencies) or
changes which do not alter the meaning, providing noone objects
within 24 hours. In this case the minimum discussion period is not
restarted.</li>
</ol>
<h3>A.2. Calling for a vote</h3>
<ol>
<li>The proposer or a sponsor of a motion or an amendment may call
for a vote, providing that the minimum discussion period (if any) has
elapsed.</li>
<li>
The proposer or any sponsor of a resolution may call for a vote on that
resolution and all related amendments.
</li>
<li>The person who calls for a vote states what they believe the
wordings of the resolution and any relevant amendments are, and
consequently what form the ballot should take. However, the final
decision on the form of ballot(s) is the Secretary's - see 7.1(1),
7.1(3) and A.3(4).</li>
<li>
The minimum discussion period is counted from the time the last
formal amendment was accepted, or since the whole resolution
was proposed if no amendments have been proposed and accepted.
</li>
</ol>
<h3>A.3. Voting procedure</h3>
<ol>
<li>
Each resolution and its related amendments is voted on in a
single ballot that includes an option for the original
resolution, each amendment, and the default option (where
applicable).
</li>
<li>
The default option must not have any supermajority requirements.
Options which do not have an explicit supermajority requirement
have a 1:1 majority requirement.
</li>
<li>
The votes are counted according to the rules in A.6. The
default option is <q>Further Discussion</q>, unless specified
otherwise.
</li>
<li>In cases of doubt the Project Secretary shall decide on matters
of procedure.</li>
</ol>
<h3>A.4. Withdrawing resolutions or unaccepted amendments</h3>
<p>The proposer of a resolution or unaccepted amendment may withdraw
it. In this case new proposers may come forward keep it alive, in which
case the first person to do so becomes the new proposer and any others
become sponsors if they aren't sponsors already.</p>
<p>A sponsor of a resolution or amendment (unless it has been
accepted) may withdraw.</p>
<p>If the withdrawal of the proposer and/or sponsors means that a
resolution has no proposer or not enough sponsors it will not be voted
on unless this is rectified before the resolution expires.</p>
<h3>A.5. Expiry</h3>
<p>
If a proposed resolution has not been discussed, amended, voted on or
otherwise dealt with for 4 weeks the secretary may issue a statement
that the issue is being withdrawn. If none of the sponsors of any
of the proposals object within a week, the issue is withdrawn.
</p>
<p>
The secretary may also include suggestions on how to proceed,
if appropriate.
</p>
<h3>A.6. Vote Counting</h3>
<ol>
<li> Each voter's ballot ranks the options being voted on. Not all
options need be ranked. Ranked options are considered
preferred to all unranked options. Voters may rank options
equally. Unranked options are considered to be ranked equally
with one another. Details of how ballots may be filled out
will be included in the Call For Votes.
</li>
<li> If the ballot has a quorum requirement R any options other
than the default option which do not receive at least R votes
ranking that option above the default option are dropped from
consideration.
</li>
<li> Any (non-default) option which does not defeat the default option
by its required majority ratio is dropped from consideration.
<ol>
<li>
Given two options A and B, V(A,B) is the number of voters
who prefer option A over option B.
</li>
<li>
An option A defeats the default option D by a majority
ratio N, if V(A,D) is greater or equal to N * V(D,A) and V(A,D) is strictly greater than V(D,A).
</li>
<li>
If a supermajority of S:1 is required for A, its majority ratio
is S; otherwise, its majority ratio is 1.
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li> From the list of undropped options, we generate a list of
pairwise defeats.
<ol>
<li>
An option A defeats an option B, if V(A,B) is strictly greater
than V(B,A).
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li> From the list of [undropped] pairwise defeats, we generate a
set of transitive defeats.
<ol>
<li>
An option A transitively defeats an option C if A defeats
C or if there is some other option B where A defeats B AND
B transitively defeats C.
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li> We construct the Schwartz set from the set of transitive defeats.
<ol>
<li>
An option A is in the Schwartz set if for all options B,
either A transitively defeats B, or B does not transitively
defeat A.
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li> If there are defeats between options in the Schwartz set,
we drop the weakest such defeats from the list of pairwise
defeats, and return to step 5.
<ol>
<li>
A defeat (A,X) is weaker than a defeat (B,Y) if V(A,X)
is less than V(B,Y). Also, (A,X) is weaker than (B,Y) if
V(A,X) is equal to V(B,Y) and V(X,A) is greater than V(Y,B).
</li>
<li>
A weakest defeat is a defeat that has no other defeat weaker
than it. There may be more than one such defeat.
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li> If there are no defeats within the Schwartz set, then the winner
is chosen from the options in the Schwartz set. If there is
only one such option, it is the winner. If there are multiple
options, the elector with the casting vote chooses which of those
options wins.
</li>
</ol>
<p>
<strong>Note:</strong> Options which the voters rank above the default option
are options they find acceptable. Options ranked below the default
options are options they find unacceptable.
</p>
<p><cite>When the Standard Resolution Procedure is to be used, the text
which refers to it must specify what is sufficient to have a draft
resolution proposed and/or sponsored, what the minimum discussion
period is, and what the voting period is. It must also specify any
supermajority and/or the quorum (and default option) to be
used.</cite></p>
<toc-add-entry name="item-B">B. Use of language and typography</toc-add-entry>
<p>The present indicative (<q>is</q>, for example) means that the statement
is a rule in this constitution. <q>May</q> or <q>can</q> indicates that the
person or body has discretion. <q>Should</q> means that it would be
considered a good thing if the sentence were obeyed, but it is not
binding. <cite>Text marked as a citation, such as this, is rationale
and does not form part of the constitution. It may be used only to aid
interpretation in cases of doubt.</cite></p>
|