| [eclipse.org-planning-council] Proposed Change to Eclipse Bylaws |
All, As you may already be aware, the Board of Directors of the Eclipse Foundation is contemplating making updates to the Eclipse Bylaws. The Bylaws are our base governance document, and define the relationship amongst all our members. FYI, they have not been updated at all since 2011, and have never had a major update since they were adopted originally in 2004. The Bylaws were originally drafted with only the original Eclipse IDE and platform in mind. Of course, we have changed dramatically since then, now having more than 350 projects in diverse areas, as well as multiple working groups. As a result, the proposed changes are intended to better reflect our current reality, and to make it easier to welcome new communities, projects, and technologies. One change being considered is to remove the explicit references to the Planning Council from the Bylaws. The idea is that the current role of the Planning Council is largely to drive the IDE-focused simultaneous release, which, while involving a large number of projects, does not serve all members or all projects. As an example, the Bylaws currently stipulate that all Strategic members are expected to participate in the Planning Council, but in reality we have many Strategic members who are not engaged in any way in the simultaneous release and thus don’t participate in the Planning Council. Attempts to expand the remit of the Planning Council beyond the Eclipse IDE and platform have not been successful. To be very clear, there are no changes to the membership in or work being done by Planning Council contemplated by this proposal. Rather, the change under consideration is to simply remove it as an body explicitly defined in the Bylaws. The intent is to keep the body active, and to have the Council continue in its current role. I hope you agree that such changes to the Bylaws will better position Eclipse Foundation to continue to serve its members and projects in the coming years. Your thoughts and feedback would be appreciated. Regards, Mike |