The SPEC process is managed by the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee represents the interests of the ecosystem and the community. The Steering Committee also represent the interests of the Core Projects and is composed partially of individuals who are active Core Project contributors. In particular, the Steering Committee members
Public communication takes place in the
specs
GitHub repository
and the SPECs discussion forum.
Private communication within the Steering Committee takes place on
Steering Committee private mailing list.
Steering Committee members are expected to be aware of conversations on this list to lend validity
to consensus-seeking and voting.
To accept a SPEC (i.e., assigning it a SPEC number, marking its discussion
Accepted
, and merging the pull request) requires two members of the Steering
Committee to approve and no members objecting.
Since the role of the Steering Committee is mainly to ensure that SPEC proposals are
appropriate,1 objections should be rare.
The Steering Committee makes decisions about changing the SPEC process documents (SPEC Purpose and Process, SPEC Steering Committee, and SPEC Core Projects) through group consensus and, in the very rare instance where no consensus can be reached, by two-thirds majority vote of those available to cast a vote within ten days.
Members of the Steering Committee should be active in the scientific Python ecosystem and should have a demonstrated interest in the Core Projects and the SPEC process. Examples of demonstrated interest include submitting SPECs, engaging in SPEC discussions, reviewing SPEC pull requests, or advocating for wider SPEC participation. Members of the steering committee do not have to belong to a core project.
This is up to the Steering Committee. However, if the Steering Committee is unable to quickly handle new SPEC proposals and new ideas arising in the discussions aren’t addressed in a timely manner, the Steering Committee should try to recruit new members.
If the Steering Committee decides to admit a new member and that person agrees, then they should be added to the (1) the Steering Committee member listing above, (2) the Steering Committee Team, and (3) the Steering Committee Discourse Group.
If a member wishes to resign or if the Steering Committee decides to remove a member, then they should (1) be moved to the list of Emeritus Steering Committee members (below the list of active members), (2) be removed from the Steering Committee Team, and (3) be removed from the Steering Committee Discourse Group.
Proposed SPECs are accepted once (a) the draft is written to clearly explain the area of common concern and a general approach to a shared solution and (b) there are contributors (from at least two Core Projects) interested in working on the new SPEC and in championing it to their projects as well as the larger community. ↩︎