🗳️ 2022 ROS 2 TSC Community Representative Election

:ballot_box: 2022 ROS 2 TSC Community Representative Election

Hi Everyone,

As you may recall, in 2020 the ROS 2 Technical Steering Committee (TSC) resolved to add three community representatives to the TSC. The community representative position exists to serve as the voice of the broader ROS 2 community within the TSC. These representatives educate the TSC on issues in the ROS community, make motions to change how the ROS 2 functions, and vote on resolutions that help shape the future of the project. The number of community representatives is based on the number of members in the TSC, and there are presently three community representatives, each serving a two year term. Currently, In odd numbered years, we elect two representatives, and in even years we elect one representative.

Today I am happy to announce that we are now accepting self-nominations for our annual election. Since this is an even year we will elect a single representative for the TSC community representative.

What Does a Community Representative Do?

What does a community representative do exactly? The ROS 2 TSC, including the community representatives, help chart the future of the ROS 2 project. Broadly, The TSC creates a long term strategy for the core ROS 2 project and executes its implementation. The ROS 2 TSC also helps build consensus around issues in the community, like which default RMW we should use for a distro, and which REPs are ready to be approved.

As a community representative you will:

  • Attend the monthly ROS 2 TSC meetings
  • Communicate issues you see in the ROS project and come up with strategies to fix them.
  • Read and evaluate the documents included in the meeting agenda (examples include: draft reps, position papers, and technical reports).
  • Engage in technical discussions related to the ROS 2.
  • Vote on matters related to the TSC (e.g. approval of REPs, the default RMW vendors, and features for upcoming releases.
  • Participate in working groups.
  • Create proposals that shape the future of ROS 2.

The Nomination Process

This year we’re having community members directly nominate themselves to run for community representative, but we HIGHLY ENCOURAGE you to use this thread to beg, cajole, dupe, butter up, influence, memeify, or otherwise entice your favorite ROS developer to run. If you believe a colleague has shown strong leadership maintaining a package, and has good ideas about how the project should function, then they probably would make a good community representative.

The only hard requirement for community representatives is that the candidate DOES NOT currently work for a TSC member organization. Other than that, everyone is free to run. Those seeking to run can use this self nomination form to announce their candidacy. To apply candidates will need to submit a short nomination form that includes:

  • A brief Markdown biography that includes relevant information about the candidate (e.g. education, work experience, ROS experience, social media accounts, etc.)
  • A brief written statement, as a Markdown document, that explains what the candidate hopes to accomplish while serving on the ROS 2 TSC.
  • Some basic contact information (employer, name, home country, etc)
  • A photo or headshot.
  • Optionally, a short video introducing yourself and your platform.

The Election Process

We recently modified the election process such that most of the election takes place on-line; this should make it more accessible to the wider ROS community. Candidates will have until 2022-11-30T07:59:00Z to submit their nomination forms and to prepare for the election. Once nominations are closed the candidate packets will be posted as a new Discourse thread that outlines both the candidates and the voting process. Candidates are encouraged to meet with the broader community and discuss their platforms (feel free to create an open discussion thread on Discourse, use the chat feature, or arrange a virtual meetup). I would be more than happy to help facilitate a candidate discussion event if the community requests one.

In terms of voting, we will use the Condorcet voting method to select this year’s TSC community representative, which is a type of ranked choice voting. This year we will use the Civis website to vote. (If anyone would like to work on a Condorcet voting plugin for Discourse please reach out to me). Voting will conclude on 2022-12-08T07:59:00Z:, and I will post the results the next day. The new TSC member should plan on attending December ROS 2 TSC meeting at 2022-12-15T16:30:00Z

The full timeline for the election is as follows:

  • 2022-11-18T08:00:00Z Nominations Open
  • 2022-11-30T07:59:00Z: Nominations Close
  • 2022-11-30T08:00:00Z: Nominees Posted / Voting Begins
  • 2022-12-08T07:59:00Z: Voting Closes
  • 2022-12-08T08:00:00Z: Winner Announced

If you have any questions about the election process, or what is involved in being a community representative, please feel free to contact me, or post your questions below.

5 Likes

UPDATE: moved my post to another thread to not mix discussions!

P.S. @Katherine_Scott – the first link you have added is not publicly accessible. And the nomination forms are not accessible (at least not for me).

On topic

I would like @olivier-stasse to nominate himself! His contributions in the Control WG are always very insightful, and he and his lab are working with ROS for years already. So they know the product and the research side of it!

@Matosinho you should also nominte yourself! The organization you pulled off in the Maritime WG to reach out many people is just incredible!

2 Likes

@Katherine_Scott this is indeed not accesible, as @destogl hinted before.

1 Like

Uhg, Google Form settings are something else. I think I have the settings updated but it really isn’t transparent. There are some peculiarities related to file upload.

I have updated the post. Here is the link.

If you run into trouble shoot me a DM and I’ll see what I can do.

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Thank you! Although, these past weeks and probably in the next few ones I won’t be able to be very active in the community and I wasn’t able to see this on time :sob:. Maybe in the next one!

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