Let’s demystify LFX Committees!
We field a lot of questions regarding the differences between mailing lists and committees. Previously many open source projects have used mailing lists to define their committees.
Keeping it simple, committees are formally elected or sub formally defined groups of people.
Every Project at the Linux Foundation requires 2 committees:
- Governing Board
- Technical Steering Committee
We highly recommend every Linux Foundation project should have the following committees:
- Marketing
- Legal
- Budgeting
In LFX Project Control Center we set up these defined groups as committees to streamline our project operations. These committees can be associated with public and/or private mailing lists and meetings our projects hold.
Understanding LFX Committee Mailing List relationships
One committee can be associated with several mailing lists:
Whereas mailing lists can only be associated with one committee:
What does associating a committee with a mailing list mean?
After associating a committee with a mailing list, if a member is added to the committee they are automatically added to all associated mailing lists. Whereas, if a member is added to a mailing list they are not initially added to the committee.
To add a member to the associated committee that member of the mailing list, must be promoted inside the mailing list dashboard in Project Control Center.
1. Navigate to the list of members:
2. Add the member and then click on manage to promote that member to the associated committee
3. Do not forget to scroll down and click ‘save’
Note: You can not remove people from a committee by deleting a mailing list, or removing members from a mailing lists. Whereas if you a remove a member from a committee they will be removed from all associated private mailing lists.
Can we create a committee from our existing mailing lists?
Yes! Many of us will already have existing mailing lists, and we can create our committees by importing our mailing lists in the ‘Committees’ dashboard.
1. Under the Committees dashboard click +Add Committee
2. Fill out your desired committee information
Once complete hit ‘Import Members’
3. Select your desired mailing list(s) to import and select import
LFX Project Control Center Committee Benefits :
By defining these committees as separate entities, we can better manage and streamline committee management.
- A project administrator removes a member from a project’s Governing Board committee in LFX Project Control Center, rather than project administrators removing them from all board mailing lists and meetings. With LFX they will be automatically removed from all private mailing lists and meetings the committee is associated with.
- Likewise, if you add a member to the Governing Board committee, they will be added to associated mailing lists and meetings.
Configuring your committees
You can find step-by-step instructions on configuring your committees here: Set up project committees to improve coordination, reporting, and meeting management - Content & Articles - LFX Community Forums. 4
Note:
We will be releasing an update where a project administrator can add multiple committee members via a CSV file upload. For now, if you want to upload numerous committee members at once, send a CSV file to our support team with the committee members’ names and email addresses.
As a project administrator, start configuring your Governing Board as acommittee and associate your board with your essential mailing lists and meetings.
- Yes, I have configured my project’s Governing Board as a committee and associated it with important mailing lists and meetings
- Yes, I have configured my project’s Governing Board as a committee but still working on associating it.
- No, I have not configured my project’s Governing Board as a committee
Hit REPLY and let us know if you get stuck. If not, you are good to go to take on the next committee!
Has using LFX Committees helped you with your project’s committee management? HIT REPLY and let us know!
