We are at an exciting point in our journey with scaling and sustaining the CHT tools and community, and we need YOUR insights, perspectives, and collaborative spirit to help define the way forward. The core questions emerging from our community conversations are fundamental: How do we govern ourselves? What structures will best support the CHT’s mission and growth?
The Big Questions We Are Exploring
In different CHT Community calls, the community members have raised some essential governance considerations:
Technical Stewardship
Who gets to make technical changes prioritisation to the CHT?
How do we determine and expand the CHT group of maintainers?
Will the decision making process be based on contributions or will it be democratic?
Community Dynamics
How do we cultivate a vibrant, inclusive community?
How do we resolve conflicts?
What is the vision of the community?
Structural Considerations
What gap does a formal governance structure fill?
How can we create a framework that empowers rather than constrains?
What decisions truly require community-wide input?
We Want to Hear From YOU
We are not interested in creating bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake. We want a governance model that:
Reflects the CHT community’s collaborative spirit
Ensures transparent decision-making
Provides clear pathways for contribution
Supports innovation and community growth
Your Input Matters!
We invite you to share your thoughts on:
Do we need a formal governance structure?
What gaps would that governance structure fill in?
What should such a structure look like?
Would you be willing to participate in governance activities?
What are your hopes and concerns?
How to Participate
Comment Below: Share your perspectives directly in this thread.
Upcoming Community Meetups: Join one of our next Community Meetups and share your thoughts and ideas.
Important Context: While Medic has been instrumental in the CHT’s development, we envision a truly collaborative governance approach where multiple organizations and individuals can provide thought leadership.
We believe the CHT’s potential is limitless when we work together. This isn’t about creating layers of management, but about creating meaningful mechanisms for collective decision-making and innovation.
With community spirit, The CHT Governance Exploration Team
Thank you, @mrjones and @andra , for your thoughtful insights and for fostering this important discussion on governance. I completely agree that our approach should prioritize transparency, inclusivity, and community-driven decision-making without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
To summarize my earlier thoughts as advised, here are five key governance elements that could support the CHT’s mission and growth:
CHT Community Steering Council (CSC) – A leadership body providing strategic direction, ensuring mission alignment, mediating conflicts, and fostering inclusivity.
Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) – A group of experienced maintainers and experts responsible for prioritizing technical decisions, expanding maintainership, and mentoring contributors.
Special Interest Groups (SIGs) – Community-led groups focused on specific areas like security, UX, interoperability, and localization, ensuring continuous innovation.
Maintainers & Contributors – A clear distinction between maintainers (trusted contributors with commit access and mentorship roles) and contributors (anyone actively engaging in development, documentation, or support).
Inclusive & Transparent Decision-Making – A governance approach that balances contributions with democratic input, ensuring that key decisions reflect community consensus and are made efficiently.
@Najuna_Brian - wow! This is very well thought out post - thanks for taking the time to submit it.
Can you please summarize your two posts into 3-5 key bullet points? Please consider deleting/editing the two posts you made and replacing them with these bullet points.
While your text is incredibly thorough, it represents so many decisions and conclusions that the community has not weighed in on. The effort to work through your text and process each point will take too long. It’s not clear what you feel are the most important ideas. Culling the text down to 3-5 bullet points I suspect will be a challenge! However, if we each pursue this quest toward governance with just what we need, we’ll arrive there sooner and with a more lean and effective group.
The Big Questions We Are Exploring
We Want to Hear From YOU
How to Participate