update governance to introduce a director role (#12262)

* update governance to introduce a director role

As requested by the TOC, this PR updates Linkerd's governance to introduce a
director role, which is initially William Morgan. This is a non-technical
leadership role with voting power for decisions.

It also clarifies the decision-making process for steering committee members:
once nominated, there is also a vote to determine inclusion. (Previously
nominations themselves were technically sufficient until the participation limit
was hit.)

Signed-off-by: William Morgan <william@buoyant.io>

GOVERNANCE.md

@@ -23,13 +23,24 @@ Linkerd GitHub org must follow the guidelines in [CONTRIBUTING.md][contrib].
 Whether these contributions are merged into the project is the prerogative of
 the maintainers.
 
-## Maintainer Expectations
+## Directors
+
+Directors are responsible for non-technical leadership functions within the
+project. This includes representing Linkerd and its maintainers to the
+community, to press, and to the outside world; interfacing with CNCF and other
+governance entities; and participating in project decision-making processes when
+appropriate.
+
+Directors may be elected by a majority vote of the maintainers.
+
+## Maintainers
 
 Maintainers have the ability to merge code into the project. Anyone can
 become a Linkerd maintainer (see "Becoming a maintainer" below.)
 
-As such, there are certain expectations for maintainers. Linkerd maintainers
-are expected to:
+### Expectations
+
+Linkerd maintainers are expected to:
 
 * Review pull requests, triage issues, and fix bugs in their areas of
   expertise, ensuring that all changes go through the project's code review
@@ -43,12 +54,6 @@ If a maintainer is no longer interested in or cannot perform the duties
 listed above, they should move themselves to emeritus status. If necessary,
 this can also occur through the decision-making process outlined below.
 
-### Maintainer decision-making
-
-Ideally, all project decisions are resolved by maintainer consensus. If this
-is not possible, maintainers may call a vote. The voting process is a simple
-majority in which each maintainer receives one vote.
-
 ### Becoming a maintainer
 
 Anyone can become a Linkerd maintainer. Maintainers should be extremely
@@ -62,5 +67,11 @@ above by contributing PRs, doing code reviews, and other such tasks under
 their guidance. After several months of working together, maintainers will
 decide whether to grant maintainer status.
 
+## Project decision-making process
+
+Ideally, all project decisions are resolved by consensus of maintainers and
+directors. If this is not possible, a vote will be called. The voting process is
+a simple majority in which each maintainer and director receives one vote.
+
 [coc]: https://github.com/linkerd/linkerd/wiki/Linkerd-code-of-conduct
 [contrib]: https://github.com/linkerd/linkerd2/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md

MAINTAINERS.md

@@ -8,15 +8,16 @@ The Linkerd maintainers are:
 * Matei David <matei@buoyant.io> @mateiidavid
 * Zahari Dichev <zahari@buoyant.io> @zaharidichev
 
+## Directors
+
+The Linkerd directors are:
+
+* William Morgan <william@buoyant.io> @wmorgan
+
 ## Steering Committee
 
 The Linkerd Steering Committee members are:
 
-* Chris Campbell @campbel (HP)
-* Christian Hüning @christianhuening (finleap connect)
-* Justin Turner @justin-turner-heb (HEB)
-* William King @quentusrex (Subspace)
-
 ## Emeriti
 
 Former maintainers include:

STEERING.md

@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@
 
 The goal of the Linkerd Steering Committee is to ensure that Linkerd meets the
 needs of its current and future users. The Steering Committee represents the
-voice of the user, and works with the Linkerd maintainers to help guide
-development efforts towards solving concrete and immediate problems for Linkerd
-adopters.
+voice of the user, and works with the Linkerd maintainers and directors to help
+guide development efforts towards solving concrete and immediate problems for
+Linkerd adopters.
 
 ## Responsibilities
 
@@ -32,10 +32,9 @@ membership in the Steering Committee, you must:
 3. Abide by Linkerd's Code of Conduct.
 
 Candidates for membership will be nominated by current Steering Committee
-members or by Linkerd maintainers. If there are more nominations than Steering
-Committee seats remaining, the same group shall vote on the candidates, and the
-candidates with the most votes will become Steering Committee members. Any ties
-will be broken by Linkerd maintainers.
+members or by Linkerd maintainers and directors. Once nominated, inclusion in
+the Steering Committee will be determined by the normal project decision-making
+process.
 
 Membership expires if any of the eligibility conditions is unmet, or after one
 year. Members may seek reinstatement immediately in accordance with the rules
@@ -49,4 +48,4 @@ minutes will be posted publicly.
 ## Changes to this charter
 
 Changes to this charter must be approved by a majority of Steering Committee
-members and a majority of Linkerd maintainers.
+members and a majority of Linkerd maintainers and directors.