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Councils & Governance

Ensuring open collaboration, diversity, inclusion, sustainability, and local decision making where possible are the pillars of the FOLIO governance structure. We rely on three councils to oversee different aspects of the project.

Governance overview – the Councils

FOLIO has divided its leadership into three councils, each responsible for a different aspect of FOLIO. All members of the councils are elected by the community. An individual must be affiliated with a member organization in order to be elected.

  • Community Council – with fifteen members, the community council is responsible for the overall health of the community and sustainability of the project. The CC manages elections, finances and ‘marketing’ for the project.
  • Product Council – this council is responsible for the product feature roadmap for FOLIO, coordinating with the SIGs, Product Owners, and other stakeholders. There are eleven members on the product council.
  • Technical Council – responsible for setting technical standards and facilitating architectural decisions, the eleven member Technical Council coordinates with the Product Council, Tech Leads and other stakeholders.

For a full description of the councils and the overall governance model, visk the FOLIO Wiki.

Elections

FOLIO conducts annual elections for our council’s empty seats. Roughly half of each council’s seats will be up for election each year. The elections coincide with our Fiscal year – new councils begin July 1 every year.

Individuals who are affiliated with Member organizations are eligible for open seats. The general FOLIO community votes in our elections.

SIGs and other groups

There are several additional groups that are key to the operation of FOLIO. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have existed since FOLIO was conceived. The SIG is used to focus discussion and community thinking in a given functional area, as a means of achieving consensus and structuring dialog. A list of the SIGs is available on the wiki.

There are several other groups that are very important – the FOLIO Security group, the FOLIO Implementers group, The Tech Leads group, the Scrum of Scrums, and others. These groups are formed (and may disband) in order to solve specific problems. We are a dynamic community!

FOLIO SMLLC

The Open Library Foundation requires that a legal entity be associated with the FOLIO project, and so there is a “FOLIO SMLLC” that exists. This entity requires three officers:
FOLIO Manager – signatory of any official documents
FOLIO Secretary – official in charge of records
FOLIO Treasurer – official in charge of finances

These positions are placed by the Community Council. Note that neither membership nor having a seat on a council is a requirement for individuals to fill these positions. Aside from the bureaucratic duties implied, these positions hold no official power or influence in FOLIO. They are logistical necessities.