Merge pull request #1131 from eholk/project-director-elections

Add a blog post launching project director elections

Author: eholk

posts/2023-08-30-electing-new-project-directors.md

@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Electing New Project Directors"
+author: Leadership Council
+team: Leadership Council <https://www.rust-lang.org/governance/teams/leadership-council>
+---
+
+Today we are launching the process to elect new Project Directors to the Rust Foundation Board of Directors.
+As we begin the process, we wanted to spend some time explaining the goals and procedures we will follow.
+We will summarize everything here, but if you would like to you can read the [official process documentation][pde-process].
+
+We ask all project members to begin working with their Leadership Council representative to nominate potential Project Directors. See the [Candidate Gathering](#candidate-gathering) section for more details. Nominations are due by September 15, 2023.
+
+[pde-process]: https://github.com/rust-lang/leadership-council/blob/main/policies/project-director-election-process.md
+
+## What are Project Directors?
+
+The Rust Foundation Board of Directors has five seats reserved for Project Directors.
+These Project Directors serve as representatives of the Rust project itself on the Board.
+Like all Directors, the Project Directors are elected by the entity they represent, which in the case of the Rust Project means they are elected by the Rust Leadership Council.
+Project Directors serve for a term of two years and will have staggered terms.
+This year we will appoint two new directors and next year we will appoint three new directors.
+
+The current project directors are Jane Losare-Lusby, Josh Stone, Mark Rousskov, Ryan Levick and Tyler Mandry.
+This year, Jane Losare-Lusby and Josh Stone will be rotating out of their roles as Project Directors, so the current elections are to fill their seats.
+We are grateful for the work the Jane and Josh have put in during their terms as Project Directors!
+
+We want to make sure the Project Directors can effectively represent the project as a whole, so we are soliciting input from the whole project.
+The elections process will go through two phases: Candidate Gathering and Election.
+Read on for more detail about how these work.
+
+## Candidate Gathering
+
+The first phase is beginning right now.
+In this phase, we are inviting the members of all of the top level Rust teams and their subteams to nominate people who will make good project directors.
+The goal is to bubble these up to the Council through each of the top-level teams.
+You should be hearing from your Council Representative soon with more details, but if not, feel free to reach out to them directly.
+
+Each team is encouraged to suggest candidates.
+Since we are electing two new directors, it would be ideal for teams to nominate at least two candidates.
+Nominees can be anyone in the project and do not have to be a member of the team who nominates them.
+
+The candidate gathering process will be open until September 15, at which point each team's Council Representative will share their team's nominations and reasoning with the whole Leadership Council.
+At this point, the Council will confirm with each of the nominees that they are willing to accept the nomination and fill the role of Project Director.
+Then the Council will publish the set of candidates.
+
+This then starts a ten day period where members of the Rust Project are invited to share feedback on the nominees with the Council.
+This feedback can include reasons why a nominee would make a good project director, or concerns the Council should be aware of.
+
+The Council will announce the set of nominees by September 19 and the ten day feedback period will last until September 29.
+Once this time has passed, we will move on to the election phase.
+
+## Election
+
+The Council will meet during the week of October 1 to complete the election process.
+In this meeting we will discuss each candidate and once we have done this the facilitator will propose a set of two of them to be the new Project Directors.
+The facilitator puts this to a vote, and if the Council unanimously agrees with the proposed pair of candidates then the process is completed.
+Otherwise, we will give another opportunity for council members to express their objections and we will continue with another proposal.
+This process repeats until we find two nominees who the Council can unanimously consent to.
+The Council will then confirm these nominees through an official vote.
+
+Once this is done, we will announce the new Project Directors.
+In addition, we will contact each of the nominees, including those who were not elected, to tell them a little bit more about what we saw as their strengths and opportunities for growth to help them serve better in similar roles in the future.
+
+## Timeline
+
+This process will continue through all of September and into October.
+Below are the key dates:
+
+* Candidate nominations due: September 15
+* Candidates published: September 19
+* Feedback period: September 19 - 29
+* Election meeting: Week of October 1
+
+After the election meeting happens, the Rust Leadership Council will announce the results and the new Project Directors will assume their responsibilities.
+
+## Acknowledgements
+
+A number of people have been involved in designing and launching this election process and we wish to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of them!
+We'd especially like to thank the members of the Project Director Election Proposal Committee: Jane Losare-Lusby, Eric Holk, and Ryan Levick.
+Additionally, many members of the Rust Community have provided feedback and thoughtful discussions that led to significant improvements to the process.
+We are grateful for all of your contributions.