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14 <H1>Debian Constitution</H1>
15 <h1>Constitution for the Debian Project (v1.0)</h1>
16 <h2>1. Introduction</h2>
17 <cite>The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have
18 made common cause to create a free operating system.</cite>
20 This document describes the organisational structure for formal
21 decisionmaking in the Project. It does not describe the goals of
22 the Project or how it achieves them, or contain any policies
23 except those directly related to the decisionmaking process.
24 <h2>2. Decisionmaking bodies and individuals</h2>
25 Each decision in the Project is made by one or more of the following:
27 <li>The Developers, by way of General Resolution or an election;
28 <li>The Project Leader;
29 <li>The Technical Committee and/or its Chairman;
30 <li>The individual Developer working on a particular task;
31 <li>Delegates appointed by the Project Leader for specific
33 <li>The Project Secretary;
35 Most of the remainder of this document will outline the powers of
36 these bodies, their composition and appointment, and the procedure
37 for their decisionmaking. The powers of a person or body may be
38 subject to review and/or limitation by others; in this case the
39 reviewing body or person's entry will state this. <cite>In the
40 list above, a person or body is usually listed before any people
41 or bodies whose decisions they can overrule or who they
42 (help) appoint - but not everyone listed earlier can overrule
43 everyone listed later.</cite>
44 <h3>2.1. General rules</h3>
47 Nothing in this constitution imposes an obligation on anyone
48 to do work for the Project. A person who does not want to do
49 a task which has been delegated or assigned to them does not
50 need to do it. However, they must not actively work against
51 these rules and decisions properly made under them.
53 A person may hold several posts, except that the Project Leader,
54 Project Secretary and the Chairman of the Technical Committee must
55 be distinct, and that the Leader cannot appoint themselves as
58 A person may leave the Project or resign from a particular
59 post they hold, at any time, by stating so publicly.
61 <h2>3. Individual Developers</h2>
63 An individual Developer may
65 <li>make any technical or nontechnical decision with regard to
67 <li>propose or sponsor draft General Resolutions;
68 <li>propose themselves as a Project Leader candidate in elections;
69 <li>vote on General Resolutions and in Leadership elections.
71 <h3>3.2. Composition and appointment</h3>
73 Developers are volunteers who agree to further the aims of the
74 Project insofar as they participate in it, and who maintain
75 package(s) for the Project or do other work which the Project
76 Leader's Delegate(s) consider worthwhile.
78 The Project Leader's Delegate(s) may choose not to admit new
79 Developers, or expel existing Developers. <cite> If the Developers
80 feel that the Delegates are abusing their authority they can of
81 course override the decision by way of General Resolution - see
82 s.4.1(3), s.4.2.</cite>
84 <h3>3.3. Procedure</h3>
85 Developers may make these decisions as they see fit.
86 <h2>4. The Developers by way of General Resolution or election</h2>
88 Together, the Developers may:
90 <li><p>Appoint or recall the Project Leader.
92 <li><p>Amend this constitution, provided they agree with a 3:1 majority.
94 <li><p>Override any decision by the Project Leader or a Delegate.
96 <li><p>Override any decision by the Technical Committee,
97 provided they agree with a 2:1 majority.
99 <li><p>Issue nontechnical policy documents and statements.
101 These include documents describing the goals of the project, its
102 relationship with other free software entities, and nontechnical
103 policies such as the free software licence terms that Debian
106 They may also include position statements about issues of the day.
108 <li><p>Together with the Project Leader and SPI, make decisions
109 about property held in trust for purposes related to Debian.
112 <h3>4.2. Procedure</h3>
114 The Developers follow the Standard Resolution Procedure, below. A
115 resolution or amendment is introduced if proposed by any Developer
116 and sponsored by at least K other Developers, or if proposed by the
117 Project Leader or the Technical Committee.
118 </p><li><p>Delaying a decision by the Project Leader or their Delegate:
120 If the Project Leader or their Delegate, or the Technical
121 Committee, has made a decision, then Developers can override
122 them by passing a resolution to do so; see s4.1(3).
124 If such a resolution is sponsored by at least 2K Developers, or
125 if it is proposed by the Technical Committee, the resolution
126 puts the decision immediately on hold (provided that resolution
129 If the original decision was to change a discussion period or a
130 voting period, or the resolution is to override the Technical
131 Committee, then only K Developers need to sponsor the resolution
132 to be able to put the decision immediately on hold.
134 If the decision is put on hold, an immediate vote is held to
135 determine whether the decision will stand until the full vote on
136 the decision is made or whether the implementation of the
137 original decision will be be delayed until then. There is no
138 quorum for this immediate procedural vote.
140 If the Project Leader (or the Delegate) withdraws the original
141 decision, the vote becomes moot, and is no longer conducted.
144 Votes are taken by the Project Secretary. Votes and tallies
145 results are not be revealed during the voting period; after the
146 vote the Project Secretary lists all the votes cast. The voting
147 period is 2 weeks, but may be varied by up to 1 week by the
148 Project Leader, and may be ended by the Project Secretary when
149 the outcome of a vote is no longer in doubt.
151 The minimum discussion period is 2 weeks, but may be varied by up to 1
152 week by the Project Leader. The Project Leader has a casting
153 vote. There is a quorum of 3Q.
155 Proposals, sponsors, amendments, calls for votes and other formal
156 actions are made by announcement on a publicly-readable electronic
157 mailing list designated by the Project Leader's Delegate(s); any
158 Developer may post there.
160 Votes are cast by email in a manner suitable to the Secretary.
161 The Secretary determines for each poll whether voters can change
164 Q is half of the square root of the number of current
165 Developers. K is Q or 5, whichever is the smaller. Q and K
166 need not be integers and are not rounded.
168 <h2>5. Project Leader</h2>
170 The Project Leader may:
172 <li>Appoint Delegates or delegate decisions to the Technical
175 The Leader may define an area of ongoing responsibility or a
176 specific decision and hand it over to another Developer or
177 to the Technical Committee.
179 Once a particular decision has been delegated and made the
180 Project Leader may not withdraw that delegation; however,
181 they may withdraw an ongoing delegation of particular area
184 <li><p>Lend authority to other Developers.
186 The Project Leader may make statements of support for points of view
187 or for other members of the project, when asked or otherwise; these
188 statements have force if and only if the Leader would be empowered to
189 make the decision in question.
191 <li><p>Make any decision which requires urgent action.
193 This does not apply to decisions which have only become
194 gradually urgent through lack of relevant action, unless
195 there is a fixed deadline.
197 <li><p>Make any decision for whom noone else has responsibility.
199 <li><p>Propose draft General Resolutions and amendments.
201 <li><p>Together with the Technical Committee, appoint new members
202 to the Committee. (See s.6.2.)
204 <li>Use a casting vote when Developers vote.
206 The Project Leader also has a normal vote in such ballots.
208 <li><p>Vary the discussion period for Developers' votes (as above).
210 <li><p>Lead discussions amongst Developers.
212 The Project Leader should attempt to participate in discussions
213 amongst the Developers in a helpful way which seeks to bring the
214 discussion to bear on the key issues at hand. The Project Leader
215 should not use the Leadership position to promote their own personal
218 <li><p>Together with SPI, make decisions affecting property
219 held in trust for purposes related to Debian. (See s.9.1.)
221 <h3>5.2. Appointment</h3>
224 The Project Leader is elected by the Developers.
226 The election begins nine weeks before the leadership post becomes
227 vacant, or (if it is too late already) immediately.
229 For the following three weeks any Developer may nominate themselves as
230 a candidate Project Leader.
232 For three weeks after that no more candidates may be nominated;
233 candidates should use this time for campaigning (to make their
234 identities and positions known). If there are no candidates
235 at the end of the nomination period then the nomination period
236 is extended for three further weeks, repeatedly if necessary.
238 The next three weeks are the polling period during which
239 Developers may cast their votes. Votes in leadership
240 elections are kept secret, even after the election is
243 The options on the ballot will be those candidates who have
244 nominated themselves and have not yet withdrawn, plus None Of
245 The Above. If None Of The Above wins the election then the
246 election procedure is repeated, many times if necessary.
247 <li>The decision will be made using Concorde Vote Counting.
248 The quorum is the same as for a General Resolution
249 (s.4.2) and the default option is None Of The Above.
251 The Project Leader serves for one year from their election.
253 <h3>5.3. Procedure</h3>
255 The Project Leader should attempt to make decisions which are
256 consistent with the consensus of the opinions of the Developers.
258 Where practical the Project Leader should informally solicit the views
261 The Project Leader should avoid overemphasizing their own point
262 of view when making decisions in their capacity as Leader.
263 <h2>6. Technical committee</h2>
265 The Technical Committee may:
267 <li>Decide on any matter of technical policy.
269 This includes the contents of the technical policy manuals,
270 developers' reference materials, example packages and the
271 behaviour of non-experimental package building tools. (In
272 each case the usual maintainer of the relevant software or
273 documentation makes decisions initially, however; see
276 <li>Decide any technical matter where Developers' jurisdictions overlap.
278 In cases where Developers need to implement compatible
279 technical policies or stances (for example, if they disagree
280 about the priorities of conflicting packages, or about
281 ownership of a command name, or about which package is
282 responsible for a bug that both maintainers agree is a bug,
283 or about who should be the maintainer for a package) the
284 technical committee may decide the matter.
286 <li><p>Make a decision when asked to do so.
288 Any person or body may delegate a decision of their own to
289 the Technical Committee, or seek advice from it.
291 <li><p>Overrule a Developer (requires a 3:1 majority).
293 The Technical Committee may ask a Developer to take a
294 particular technical course of action even if the Developer
295 does not wish to; this requires a 3:1 majority. For
296 example, the Committee may determine that a complaint made
297 by the submitter of a bug is justified and that the
298 submitter's proposed solution should be implemented.
303 The Technical Committee may make formal announcements about
304 its views on any matter. <cite>Individual members may of
305 course make informal statements about their views and about
306 the likely views of the committee.</cite>
308 <li><p>Together with the Project Leader, appoint new members to
309 itself or remove existing members. (See s.6.2.)
311 <li><p>Appoint the Chairman of the Technical Committee.
313 The Chairman is elected by the Committee from its members.
314 All members of the committee are automatically nominated;
315 the committee vote starting one week before the post will
316 become vacant (or immediately, if it is already too late).
317 The members may vote by public acclamation for any fellow
318 committee member, including themselves; there is no None Of
319 The Above option. The vote finishes when all the members
320 have voted or when the outcome is no longer in doubt. The
321 result is determined according to Concorde Vote Counting.
323 <li>The Chairman can stand in for the Leader, together with the Secretary
325 As detailed in s.7.1(2), the Chairman of the Technical
326 Committee and the Project Secretary may together stand in
327 for the Leader if there is no Leader.
329 <h3>6.2. Composition</h3>
331 The Technical Committee consists of up to 8 Developers, and should
332 usually have at least 4 members.
334 When there are fewer than 8 members the Technical Committee may
335 recommend new member(s) to the Project Leader, who may choose
336 (individually) to appoint them or not.
338 When there are 5 members or fewer the Technical Committee may appoint
339 new member(s) until the number of members reaches 6.
341 When there have been 5 members or fewer for at least one week
342 the Project Leader may appoint new member(s) until the number of
343 members reaches 6, at intervals of at least one week per
346 If the Technical Committee and the Project Leader agree they may
347 remove or replace an existing member of the Technical Committee.
349 <h3>6.3. Procedure</h3>
351 <li>The Technical Committee uses the Standard Resolution Procedure.
353 A draft resolution or amendment may be proposed by any
354 member of the Technical Committee. There is no minimum
355 discussion period; the voting period lasts for up to one
356 week, or until the outcome is no longer in doubt. Members
357 may change their votes. There is a quorum of two.
359 <li>Details regarding voting
361 The Chairman has a casting vote. When the Technical
362 Committee votes whether to override a Developer who also
363 happens to be a member of the Committee, that member may not
364 vote (unless they are the Chairman, in which case they may
365 use only their casting vote).
367 <li>Public discussion and decisionmaking.
369 Discussion, draft resolutions and amendments, and votes by
370 members of the committee, are made public on the Technical
371 Committee public discussion list. There is no separate
372 secretary for the Committee.
375 Confidentiality of appointments.
377 The Technical Committee may hold confidential discussions
378 via private email or a private mailing list or other means
379 to discuss appointments to the Committee. However, votes on
380 appointments must be public.
383 No detailed design work.
385 The Technical Committee does not engage in design of new proposals
386 and policies. Such design work should be carried out by individuals
387 privately or together and discussed in ordinary technical policy and
390 The Technical Committee restricts itself to choosing from
391 or adopting compromises between solutions and decisions which have
392 been proposed and reasonably thoroughly discussed elsewhere.
394 <cite>Individual members of the technical committee may of course
395 participate on their own behalf in any aspect of design and
398 <li>Technical Committee makes decisions only as last resort.
400 The Technical Committee does not make a technical decision
401 until efforts to resolve it via consensus have been tried
402 and failed, unless it has been asked to make a decision by
403 the person or body who would normally be responsible for it.
405 <h2>7. The Project Secretary</h2>
411 Takes votes amongst the Developers, and determines the
412 number and identity of Developers, whenever this is required
417 Can stand in for the Leader, together with the Chairman of
418 the Technical Committee.
420 If there is no Project Leader then the Chairman of the
421 Technical Committee and the Project Secretary may by
422 joint agreement make decisions if they consider it
427 Adjudicates any disputes about interpretation of the
432 May delegate part or all of their authority to someone else,
433 or withdraw such a delegation at any time.
435 <h3>7.2. Appointment</h3>
437 The Project Secretary is appointed by the Project Leader and the
438 current Project Secretary.
440 If the Project Leader and the current Project Secretary cannot
441 agree on a new appointment they must ask the board of SPI to
444 If there is no Project Secretary or the current Secretary is
445 unavailable and has not delegated authority for a decision then
446 the decision may be made or delegated by the Chairman of the
447 Technical Committee, as Acting Secretary.
449 The Project Secretary's term of office is 1 year, at which point
450 they or another Secretary must be (re)appointed.
451 <h3>7.3. Procedure</h3>
452 The Project Secretary should make decisions which are fair and
453 reasonable, and preferably consistent with the consensus of the
456 When acting together to stand in for an absent Project Leader the
457 Chairman of the Technical Committee and the Project Secretary
458 should make decisions only when absolutely necessary and only when
459 consistent with the consensus of the Developers.
460 <h2>8. The Project Leader's Delegates</h2>
462 The Project Leader's Delegates:
464 <li>have powers delegated to them by the Project Leader;
465 <li>may make certain decisions which the Leader may not make
466 directly, including approving or expelling Developers or
467 designating people as Developers who do not maintain packages.
469 This is to avoid concentration of power, particularly over
470 membership as a Developer, in the hands of the Project
474 <h3>8.2. Appointment</h3>
475 The Delegates are appointed by the Project Leader and may be
476 replaced by the Leader at the Leader's discretion. The Project
477 Leader may not make the position as a Delegate conditional on
478 particular decisions by the Delegate, nor may they override a
479 decision made by a Delegate once made.
480 <h3>8.3. Procedure</h3>
481 Delegates may make decisions as they see fit, but should attempt
482 to implement good technical decisions and/or follow consensus
484 <h2>9. Software in the Public Interest</h2>
485 SPI and Debian are separate organisations who share some goals.
486 Debian is grateful for the legal support framework offered by SPI.
488 Debian's Developers are currently members of SPI by virtue
489 of their status as Developers.
491 <h3>9.1. Authority</h3>
494 SPI has no authority regarding Debian's technical or
495 nontechnical decisions, except that no decision by Debian with
496 respect to any property held by SPI shall require SPI to act
497 outside its legal authority, and that Debian's constitution
498 may occasionally use SPI as a decision body of last resort.
500 Debian claims no authority over SPI other than that over the
501 use of certain of SPI's property, as described below, though
502 Debian Developers may be granted authority within SPI by SPI's
505 Debian Developers are not agents or employees of SPI, or of
506 each other or of persons in authority in the Debian Project.
507 A person acting as a Developer does so as an individual, on
510 <h3>9.2. Management of property for purposes related to Debian</h3>
511 Since Debian has no authority to hold money or property, any
512 donations for the Debian Project must made to SPI, which
513 manages such affairs.
515 SPI have made the following undertakings:
518 SPI will hold money, trademarks and other tangible and
519 intangible property and manage other affairs for purposes
522 Such property will be accounted for separately and held in
523 trust for those purposes, decided on by Debian and SPI
524 according to this section.
526 SPI will not dispose of or use property held in trust for
527 Debian without approval from Debian, which may be granted by
528 the Project Leader or by General Resolution of the Developers.
530 SPI will consider using or disposing of property held in trust
531 for Debian when asked to do so by the Project Leader.
533 SPI will use or dispose of property held in trust for Debian
534 when asked to do so by a General Resolution of the Developers,
535 provided that this is compatible with SPI's legal authority.
537 SPI will notify the Developers by electronic mail to a
538 Debian Project mailing list when it uses or disposes of
539 property held in trust for Debian.
541 <h2>A. Standard Resolution Procedure</h2>
542 These rules apply to communal decisionmaking by committees and
543 plebiscites, where stated above.
544 <h3>A.1. Proposal</h3>
545 The formal procedure begins when a draft resolution is proposed and
546 sponsored, as required.
547 <h3>A.1. Discussion and Amendment</h3>
550 Following the proposal, the resolution may be discussed.
551 Amendments may be made formal by being proposed and sponsored
552 according to the requirements for a new resolution, or
553 directly by the proposer of the original resolution.
555 A formal amendment may be accepted by the resolution's
556 proposer, in which case the formal resolution draft is
557 immediately changed to match.
559 If a formal amendment is not accepted, or one of the sponsors
560 of the resolution does not agree with the acceptance by the
561 proposer of a formal amendment, the amendment remains as an
562 amendment and will be voted on.
564 If an amendment accepted by the original proposer is not to
565 the liking of others, they may propose another amendment to
566 reverse the earlier change (again, they must meet the
567 requirements for proposer and sponsor(s).)
569 The proposer or a resolution may suggest changes to the
570 wordings of amendments; these take effect if the proposer of
571 the amendment agrees and none of the sponsors object. In
572 this case the changed amendments will be voted on instead of
575 The proposer of a resolution may make changes to correct minor
576 errors (for example, typographical errors or inconsistencies) or
577 changes which do not alter the meaning, providing noone objects
578 within 24 hours. In this case the mininum discussion period is not
581 <h3>A.2. Calling for a vote</h3>
584 The proposer or a sponsor of a motion or an amendment may call for a vote,
585 providing that the minimum discussion period (if any) has
588 The proposer or a sponsor of a motion may call for a vote on any
589 or all of the amendments individually or together; the
590 proposer or sponsor of an amendment may call for a vote only on that
591 amendment and related amendments.
593 The person who calls for a vote states what they believe the
594 wordings of the resolution and any relevant amendments are,
595 and consequently what form the ballot should take. However,
596 the final decision on the form of ballot(s) is the Secretary's
597 - see 7.1(1), 7.1(3) and A.3(6).
599 The minimum discussion period is counted from the time the
600 last formal amendment was accepted, or the last related formal
601 amendment was accepted if an amendment is being voted on, or
602 since the whole resolution was proposed if no amendments have
603 been proposed and accepted.
605 <h3>A.3. Voting procedure</h3>
608 Each independent set of related amendments is voted on in a
609 separate ballot. Each such ballot has as options all the
610 sensible combinations of amendments and options, and an option
611 Further Discussion. If Further Discussion wins then the
612 entire resolution procedure is set back to the start of the
613 discussion period. No quorum is required for an amendment.
615 When the final form of the resolution has been determined it
616 is voted on in a final ballot, in which the options are Yes,
617 No and Further Discussion. If Further Discussion wins then
618 the entire procedure is set back to the start of the
621 The vote taker (if there is one) or the voters (if voting is
622 done by public pronouncement) may arrange for these ballots to
623 be held simultaneously, even (for example) using a single
624 voting message. If amendment ballot(s) and the final ballot
625 are combined in this way then it must be possible for a voter
626 to vote differently in the final ballot for each of the
627 possible forms of the final draft resolution.
629 Votes may be cast during the voting period, as specified
630 elsewhere. If the voting period can end if the outcome is no
631 longer in doubt, the possibility that voters may change their
632 votes is not considered.
634 The votes are counted according to the Concorde Vote
635 Counting. If a quorum is required then the default option
636 is Further Discussion.
638 In cases of doubt the Project Secretary shall decide on
639 matters of procedure (for example, whether particular
640 amendments should be considered independent or not).
642 <h3>A.4. Withdrawing resolutions or unaccepted amendments</h3>
643 The proposer of a resolution or unaccepted amendment may withdraw
644 it. In this case new proposers may come forward keep it alive, in
645 which case the first person to do so becomes the new proposer and
646 any others become sponsors if they aren't sponsors already.
648 A sponsor of a resolution or amendment (unless it has been
649 accepted) may withdraw.
651 If the withdrawal of the proposer and/or sponsors means that a
652 resolution has no proposer or not enough sponsors it will not be
653 voted on unless this is rectified before the resolution expires.
655 If a proposed resolution has not been discussed, amended, voted on
656 or otherwise dealt with for 4 weeks then it is considered to have
658 <h3>A.6. Concorde Vote Counting</h3>
661 This is used to determine the winner amongst a list of
662 options. Each ballot paper gives a ranking of the voter's
663 preferred options. (The ranking need not be complete.)
665 Option A is said to Dominate option B if strictly more ballots
666 prefer A to B than prefer B to A.
668 All options which are Dominated by at least one other option
669 are discarded, and references to them in ballot papers will be
672 If there is any option which Dominates all others then that is
675 If there is now more than one option remaining Single
676 Transferrable Vote will be applied to choose amongst those
680 The number of first preferences for each option is
681 counted, and if any option has more than half it is the
684 Otherwise the option with the lowest number of first
685 preferences is eliminated and its votes redistributed
686 according to the second preferences.
688 This elimination procedure is repeated, moving down ballot
689 papers to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. preferences as required,
690 until one option gets more than half of the `first'
694 In the case of ties the elector with a casting vote will
695 decide. The casting vote does not count as a normal vote;
696 however that elector will usually also get a normal vote.
698 If a supermajority is required the number of Yes votes in the
699 final ballot is reduced by an appropriate factor. Strictly
700 speaking, for a supermajority of F:A, the number of ballots
701 which prefer Yes to X (when considering whether Yes Dominates
702 X or X Dominates Yes) or the number of ballots whose first
703 (remaining) preference is Yes (when doing STV comparisons for
704 winner and elimination purposes) is multiplied by a factor A/F
705 before the comparison is done.
707 This means that a 2:1 vote, for example, means twice as many
708 people voted for as against; abstentions are not counted.
711 If a quorum is required, there must be at least that many votes
712 which prefer the winning option to the default option. If
713 there are not then the default option wins after all. For
714 votes requiring a supermajority, the actual number of Yes
715 votes is used when checking whether the quorum has been
718 <cite>When the Standard Resolution Procedure is to be used, the text
719 which refers to it must specify what is sufficient to have a draft
720 resolution proposed and/or sponsored, what the minimum discussion
721 period is, and what the voting period is. It must also specify
722 any supermajority and/or the quorum (and default option) to be
724 <h2>B. Use of language and typography</h2>
725 The present indicative (`is', for example) means that the
726 statement is a rule in this constitution. `May' or `can' indicates
727 that the person or body has discretion. `Should' means that it
728 would be considered a good thing if the sentence were obeyed, but
730 <cite> Text marked as a citation, such as this, is rationale and
731 does not form part of the constitution. It may be used only to
732 aid interpretation in cases of doubt. </cite>
734 <SMALL>Copyright © 1997-1999 <a href="http://www.spi-inc.org/">SPI</a>; See <a href="http://www.debian.org/license">license terms</A> </SMALL>