Policies

Version 1.0

Article 1. Introduction. Open Source Matters operates several websites and services and has access to third-party software and services. Identities, login details, passwords, server information, software licenses, product keys and other information that are crucial to the operations of the corporation shall be managed centrally, securely and through proper access rights.

Article 2. Purpose of this Policy. This Corporate Policy aims to provide the foundational guidelines and rules on how to manage sensitive corporate data.

Article 3. Scope of the Policy. This policy applies to all the sensitive access data, like website master accounts, FTP credentials, VPN connection information, extension website login details, SSH keys, product keys, software licenses and any other credentials.

Article 4. Credential Vault. The Full Board of Open Source Matters shall identify a software or a service to be used as a central repository for credentials. This centralized repository shall be defined as the Credential Vault and shall satisfy all the requirements in terms of security, uptime, access control and logs.

Article 5. Requirements. Every member of the Corporation who has been authorized to manage sensitive access data shall act according to this Policy.

Article 6. Principles & Responsibilities. 

1. Each Department Coordinator shall be accountable and responsible for the usage of the Credential Vault by all teams and members within their respective Departments.
2. Each Department Coordinator shall lead by example, using the Credential Vault in an appropriate manner and storing all the sensitive information in the system. 
3. Each Department Coordinator shall be responsible for the enforcement of this Corporate Policy within their respective Departments.
4. Each Department Coordinator shall be responsible to periodically review and update the access of the Team Members and Leaders within their respective Departments.
5. Each Team Leader and Assistant Team Leader shall be responsible for their own team specific Credential Vault (if applicable / available), using it in accordance with this Policy and ensuring that only relevant people from their teams have the appropriate access to the Credential Vault.
6. Each Team Leader and Assistant Team Leader shall report any irregularities or confidentiality breaches to their Department Coordinator in a timely manner and copying the Secretary of Open Source Matters.
7. Each Team Member shall use their access to the Credential Vault in accordance with this Policy and in a professional manner. 
8. Each Member of the Corporation shall store organizational reserved data only in the Credential Vault.
9. All the information stored in the Credential Vault shall be under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and shall be considered as confidential property of Open Source Matters, Inc.

Article 7. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between the provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows: (i) Bylaws, including amendments; (ii) and (iii) the Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2020-37 on March 12, 2020  and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on March 12, 2020.

Download the Official Policy regarding Secure Data Management (version 1.0)

Version 1.0

This document sets out the responsibilities of a Department Coordinator and aims to provide a helpful resource to assist them in their role. Department Coordinators are Board Members of Open Source Matters and have a significant responsibility. 

Article 1. General Responsibilities

• Be able to give at least 20 hours per week to the project
• Ability to be available within 24 hours should an urgent matter arise
• Read and answer emails within 24 hours
• Follow all Official OSM Policies
• Follow all approved OSM Motions
• Uphold all of Joomla’s key values
• Be able to commit to the role until the next regular period of election for that role, unless an unexpected change in circumstances prevents this
  • Board members and officers who have not completed their initial term should avoid nominating themselves for an alternate board role, unless the call for nominations is extended due to lack of candidates

Article 2. Meetings & Reporting.

• Attend the bi-weekly Board meetings
  • Populate the appropriate section in the agenda at least 24 hours before the meeting, for all information available at that time
  • Raise any queries, updates or discussion points from the department’s teams
  • For any significant or critical information, do not wait for the meeting and instead notify the Board immediately
  • Nominate a proxy to vote on your behalf for any motions that take place during a meeting that you cannot attend
  • Communicate with the department’s teams any relevant information from the Board meeting after the minutes have been published
• Publish quarterly and year-end reports as required by the defined reporting timelines
• Organise monthly department meetings at a minimum, and bi-weekly meetings where necessary
  • All Team Leaders of the department should attend, Assistant Team Leaders can optionally attend
  • Define a regular schedule for department meetings, taking into account the differing time zones of team leaders 
  • Prepare an agenda at least 7 days in advance of the meeting so that team leaders can populate it in the days preceding the meeting
  • Send out Google Calendar invites for the meeting at least 7 days in advance to the department’s Google Group
  • Hold the meeting using Google Meet for audio/video meetings or Mattermost for text meetings
  • Write up meeting minutes and following the meeting attendee’s approval, post them on the reporting section of the department’s profile on the Volunteer Portal within a few days of the meeting
• Attend team meetings within the department as necessary
• Record the result of any department or team votes in the Official OSM Department Motion Registry

Article 3. Organisational.

• Ensure that the department’s profile on the Volunteer Portal is kept up to date with description, Department Leadership members, and contact information
  • Ensure that all department team and working group profiles are kept up to date with description, current members, available roles and contact information
  • Address information must be recorded for all members (only visible to OSM Secretary)
• Manage the department’s resources and request/arrange access where necessary (including, but not limited to: 1Password, Google Group, Google Drive, Github, social media, Mattermost, email) 
  • All documents, sheets, files, data etc should be kept in the department’s official folder in the Google Drive and never in personal accounts
  • Access to the department’s Google Drive folder should be done via the department Google Group
  • Access to the department’s Google Group must only be provided to CJO email addresses
  • Make sure that the 1Password vaults are up-to-date for the department tools, services and other generic usage, including the details for the functional accounts in the special DC vaults
  • Official policies must always be followed for all resources and tools
  • For each team, ensure that accesses to all resources are kept up to date
• Appoint an Assistant Department Coordinator, preferably from within the department
• Make sure that every Assistant Department Coordinator, Team Leader and Assistant Team Leader have signed the NDA
  • For teams that handle sensitive personal information, ensure that all members have signed the NDA
• Regularly check that all department teams are holding monthly meetings and posting their minutes on the Volunteer Portal 
• Ensure that all Team Leaders are fulfilling their responsibilities as detailed in the Team Leader Responsibilities Policy
• Liaise with other teams and departments as necessary to aid the department’s work and goals 
• Assist the department teams with the Team Leader election processes and any resultant transitions
• Monitor the meeting attendance and team activity participation levels of members and contributors of the department’s teams, and advise the appropriate Team Leader to discuss the issue with any volunteers whose participation levels are low (a member must attend at least 65% of team meetings in a 6 month period as stated in OSM Board Motion 2019/011)

Article 4. Financial.

• In collaboration with the Department Leadership, prepare and submit a yearly budget for the department ahead of the financial year (July - June), listing the known fixed expenditures (e.g. service renewals), projected incomes (e.g. sponsorships) and expenditure requests (e.g. holding a team sprint)
• Process budget expenditure requests
• Assist teams with planning and organising any eventual team sprints or attendance at events where needed

Article 5. Onboarding / Offboarding.

• Hand over the role and responsibilities to the newly elected Department Coordinator during the transition phase of the election cycle as detailed in the Handover Policy
• Provide access to the new Department Coordinator for any necessary resources, e.g. OSM email account, Mattermost, Google Drive folders, documents etc
  • For any documents and folders not owned by the OSM email account, transfer ownership to the new Department Coordinator
  • 1Password access is granted via personal accounts so that current and incoming Department Coordinator will both have access the resources during the transition period 
• Once the transition period is complete, ask the new Department Coordinator to revoke any permissions to the outgoing Department Coordinator and to cycle the passwords on any role-based accounts

Article 6. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows: (i) Bylaws, including amendments; (ii) and (iii) the Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2020-119  on September 10, 2020 and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on September 10, 2020.

Download the Official Policy regarding Department Coordinator Responsibilities (version 1.0)

Version 1.0

Article 1. Introduction. As a non profit organization that operates for the public good, Open Source Matters, Inc. (OSM) has a special concern with preventing any actual or perceived self-dealing or other conflict of interest on the part of those associated with the organization.
Therefore, OSM must ensure that no Board Member takes any action, accepts any consideration, or permits any behavior through which they would benefit personally, and/or financially from their relationship with OSM, or which might be professionally beneficial to the member but not to OSM.
In addition, Board Members are expected to fully disclose potential or perceived conflict of interest, to ensure that the reputation of the organization is not harmed by such situations.

Article 2. Scope of the Policy. This policy applies to Class 1 organization members pursuant Section 4.01(A)(1) of the Bylaws.

Article 3. Rules. 

1. Every Board Member shall actively avoid situations in which the member - or a spouse, committed partner, sibling, parent, child, or business partner/associate - benefits financially or materially from their relationship with the organization or is perceived to gain such benefits.
2. No Board Member may accept - from any current or potential vendor, contractor, or other entity with a potential or current business relationship with the organization - any cash, gift, benefit, payment, or other consideration for personal use or gain, or any in-kind benefit that would not be considered by OSM to be an allowable business expense; i.e. which has a value greater than 250 USD.
3. No Board Member may attempt to influence the organization’s policy positions based on any criteria other than the best interests of the organization’s constituency and beneficiaries and of the organization as a whole.
4. Every Board Member is responsible for disclosing affiliations and situations that might constitute or lead to a conflict of interest or might be perceived by a reasonable person in the Community or by a donor as constituting a conflict of interest. The organization will provide a disclosure form, to be completed by each Board Member annually. It is the affirmative responsibility of the Board Member to proactively disclose any situations that may present a real or perceived conflict of interest.

Article 4. Implementation and Enforcement. To avoid either real or perceived conflict of interest:

1. No Board Member may receive any compensation from OSM other than for reimbursement of expenses incurred as a result of participation in Board business.
2. Board Members are prohibited from urging the organization to hire as consultants, contractors, agents, or staff any family member or close friend or anyone with whom they have a business partnership.
3. No individual may serve as a Board Member of OSM at the same time that a member of their immediate family (spouse, partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, son or daughter in-law, mother or father in-law) is employed by the organization as consultant, or contractor. The same prohibition shall apply to any other family member with whom the Board Member has a close relationship that either would make it difficult for the Board Member to avoid inappropriate information-sharing or behavior, or might be widely perceived as causing that effect.
4. If the Board is discussing any matter - financial or programmatic - about which a member may have a conflict of interest, it is the responsibility of the Board Member to disclose the potential conflict and to be absent from all discussions and voting on such matters. Nor may the member attempt to influence the position of other Board members or staff on such matters. This shall include any consideration related to purchases, collaboration, or other financial transactions; the setting of policy or advocacy positions or of issue priorities; and other programmatic decisions. It shall also include provisions of services or benefits that OSM may be considering offering to a non-profit organization with which the Board Member is associated as a Board or staff member.
5. If there is any question regarding what constitutes a conflict of interest or improper behavior, a Board member is expected to contact the President or Secretary for clarification. If they are uncertain of how to address the issue, it shall be brought to the attention of the Full Board for discussion and resolution.

Article 5. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows: (i) Bylaws, including amendments; (ii) and (iii) the Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2020-089  on June 18, 2020 and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on June 18, 2020

Download the Official Conflict of Interest Disclosure Policy (version 1.0)

Version 1.0

Team Leader Responsibilities Policy

Article 1. Introduction. This document sets out the responsibilities of a Team Leader of a Team or Working Group of Joomla! and aims to provide a helpful resource to assist them in their role. For clarity we have chosen for a bulleted format rather than a verbose description.

Article 2. Responsibilities. 

Organisational

• Read all board reports and motions to keep informed about changes that may affect the team, any queries to be discussed with the Department Coordinator
• Organise monthly meetings at a minimum, and bi-weekly meetings where necessary, unless agreed otherwise with the Department Coordinator
  • Define a regular schedule for team meetings, taking into account the differing time zones of team members
  • Prepare an agenda at least 7 days in advance of the meeting so that team members can populate it in the days preceding the meeting
  • Send out Google Calendar invites for the meeting at least 7 days in advance to the team’s Google Group
  • Hold the meeting using Google Meet for audio/video meetings or Mattermost for text meetings
  • Write up meeting minutes and following the team’s approval, post them on the reporting section of the team’s profile on the Volunteer Portal within a few days of the meeting
• Attend the department meetings
  • Populate the appropriate section in the agenda at least 24 hours before the meeting, for all information available at that time
  • Raise any queries or discussion points from the team
  • For any significant or critical information, do not wait for the meeting and instead notify the Department Coordinator immediately
  • If the Team Leader cannot attend the meeting, the Assistant Team Leader should attend instead
• Prepare and submit a yearly budget for the team to Department Coordinator ahead of the financial year (July - June), listing the known fixed expenditures (e.g. service renewals), projected incomes (e.g. sponsorships) and expenditure requests (e.g. holding a team sprint)
• Organise budgetary spending; must be approved in advance by Department Coordinator
• Plan and organise any eventual team sprints or attendance at events
• If any motions are to take place:
  • The motion must be seconded by a team member before voting can commence
  • All motions to have three options for voters: For, Against, Abstain
  • Once seconded, voting can take place in one of the following ways:
    • During a team meeting, if the motion is present on the agenda at least 24 hours before and a majority quorum (greater than 50%) of team members with the right to vote is present or via proxies
    • Outside of a team meeting to be conducted over email with a maximum one-week timeframe for response, team members who don’t respond will be recorded as having abstained from the vote
  • Voting can be anonymous if necessary
  • A motion is passed if the majority of the votes (greater than 50%) are in favour
  • The Department Coordinator may choose to increase the majority quorum requirement to a 2/3 majority as deemed necessary, to also/better factor in the minimum number of voters and abstainers - such changes will be documented and reported to the board
  • Inform the Department Coordinator of the motion and its results so that it can be added to the official motion registry on behalf of the team
• Liaise with other teams and departments as necessary to aid the team’s work and goals 
• Handle the handover to the next Team Leader in case of succession, as detailed further below
• Manage team’s resources and request/arrange access where necessary (including, but not limited to: Google Group, Google Drive, Github, social media, Mattermost, email) 
  • All documents, sheets, files, data etc should be kept in the team’s official folder in the Department’s Google Drive and never in personal accounts
  • Access to the team’s Google Drive folder should be done via the team’s Google Group
  • Official policies must always be followed for all resources and tools

Team Members and Contributors

• Appoint an Assistant Team Leader from within the team
  • If the Team Leader is not able to attend a meeting, they should ensure that the Assistant Team Leader is able to represent the team and has the necessary resources to do so
• If the team has an official website, appoint a member of the team to join the Webmasters Team and ensure that this member is following all defined changes, rules and policies from the Webmasters Team
• Ensure that the team’s profile on the Volunteer Portal is kept up to date with team description, current members, available roles and contact information
• Ensure that at least two members of the team are able to complete any critical tasks or operations so that a fallback is in place
• Provide support to all team members and contributors and thank them for their work and feedback
• If it would help the team achieve its work, request that a member of another team to join this team as a liason
• Delegate work within the team as appropriate
• Ensure that all team members:
  • Are attending the team meetings every month, unless excused or agreed otherwise and are populating the meeting agendas
  • Are actively participating in the team’s work and helping it achieve its goals
  • Have the necessary tools and resource access to participate in the team’s work
  • Inform the team leadership of any periods of unavailability or additional availability
• Ensure that all team contributors are participating in the team’s work
• If a member or contributor isn’t participating in the team’s work at the required levels, arrange a chat with them to find out the reason and see if it can be resolved and explain that their membership could be downgraded / revoked if participation levels don’t improve
• Depending on the composition and the work of a team, a team can decide to have subteams to work on a specified task to support the work of the parent team

Onboarding / Offboarding

• Team member / contributor onboarding
  • Exchange communications or arrange an informal chat to see if the potential volunteer is a good fit for the team and has the required time, skills and knowledge
  • If the volunteer is to join the team
    • Decide if the role is that of a contributor or member
    • Inform the Department Coordinator
    • Request official email account creation via OSM Secretary (members only, not contributors)
    • Arrange for any necessary accesses (including, but not limited to: Google Group, Google Drive, Github, Mattermost, email) 
    • Provide training for the role
    • Provide support to the new member / contributor
    • Update the Volunteer Portal and ensure that the member has populated their address details as required by the bylaws
  • If the volunteer will not be joining the team
    • Inform the Volunteer Engagement Team of the discussion and invite them to contact the volunteer to see if they would be a good fit with an alternate team
• Team member / contributor offboarding
  • Enquire as to why the volunteer has chosen to leave the team
  • Thank them for their time as part of the team
  • Update the Volunteer Portal
  • Inform the Department Coordinator
  • Inform the Volunteer Engagement Team
  • Remove their access to all team resources and accounts, including the team’s Google Group membership
  • If they are not a member of any other teams, arrange for the removal of their official email account

Communications

• Liaise with other teams and/or departments as necessary (e.g. if graphics for marketing are needed the team should contact the Marketing Team)
• Monitor the team’s official accounts regularly and aim to respond within 48 hours to anything requiring a reply, delegating within the team as appropriate (e.g. social media, email, Mattermost chats, etc)
• If a public Mattermost chat for the team exists, actively monitor what is happening there and participate in conversations

Election Cycles

• Team leaders’ terms last for one year
• Elections should be held in advance of the term expiring, it is suggested to use the following month long schedule:
  • Announce election and invite people to submit nominations (time limit 1 week)
  • After one week, publish anonymous ballot and send to active team members (time limit 1 week)
  • After one week, voting results are announced, and handover period begins (time limit 2 weeks)
  • After two weeks, new team leader is officially in place
• Onboarding / Offboarding transition
  • Hand over the role and responsibilities to the newly elected team leader
  • Provide access to the new team leader for any necessary resources, e.g. Mattermost, documents, email addresses, social media accounts etc
  • Ask the new team leader to revoke any permissions to the outgoing team leader that are not granted to team members / contributors

Article 3. Supporting bodies. 

• Assistant Team Leader
• Department Coordinator
  • Assistant Department Coordinator
• Volunteer Engagement Team
• OSM Board of Directors

Article 4. Resources.

• OSM - Teams & Membership 
• Board of Directors Meeting Reports  
• Joomla! Volunteers Portal - Home of the Joomlers! 
• Joomla! Volunteer Engagement Team (VET) Official

Article 5. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between the provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows: 

1. Bylaws, including 
2. amendments; and 
3. the Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2020-072 on May 21, 2020  and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on May 21, 2020.

Download the Official Team Leader Responsibilities Policy (version 1.0)

Version 1.0

Article 1. Introduction. Open Source Matters, Inc. owns and manages several websites, representing the Joomla! Project web presence with all the connected services.

Article 2. Purpose of this Policy. This Policy aims to regulate the procedures of creation and management of a *.joomla.org property or any other OSM owned domain.

Article 3. Scope of the Policy. This policy applies to all the OSM owned domains. All the Joomla teams or working groups who operate/manage an OSM owned website shall implement and follow the provisions of this Policy.

Article 4. Creation of a new website/subdomain. The creation of an additional joomla.org subdomain and website shall be avoided, in order to contain the effort needed to maintain and manage the infrastructure. The creation of a new subdomain shall be approved by a motion of the Operations Department after the preparation of a specific plan and the formation of a working group / team who is responsible for such property. The creation of a new subdomain by motion shall be done only after a thorough evaluation of the needs/specifications for the new property pursuant to Article 5 of this Policy.

Article 5. Evaluation of Specifications. In the eventual case a new website/property is requested by a team or working group, the Webmasters Team shall evaluate the specifications and the needs according to the following schema:

• Does the new website fit with any of the existing websites?
  • Joomla.org - main site for promotion, marketing, announcements, official/institutional information.
  • community.joomla.org - central place for everything related to the Community, communications, events, user groups, shop, magazine, resources, etc.
  • developer.joomla.org - home for all the development related materials.
  • docs.joomla.org - home for all public documentation.
  • downloads.joomla.org - where all downloads are provided.
  • extensions.joomla.org - home for all the extendable parts within Joomla (components, module, plugins, VEL, templates).
• Is there a public role for the website?
• Are there any special needs, which are not viable within the main sites, like:
  • Legal requirements;
  • Financial requirements
  • Privacy considerations
  • Technical requirements

Article 6. Templates. All OSM owned websites shall use the official Joomla template which is maintained within the official GitHub repository; any other template is not allowed and shall be removed, unless otherwise approved by a motion of the Operations Department. Custom code changes to the template are not permitted, and any additional CSS shall only be implemented via the custom.css file. Any variation, including any custom CSS, shall be properly stored and documented in the website-specific repository on GitHub.

Article 7. Special Accounts. All OSM-owned websites shall include a Super User account assigned to the OSM Secretary and a Super User account assigned to the Department Coordinator, linked to their functional email addresses. The Department is the responsible entity of a specific property. The accounts with the highest level of rights/permissions shall use an additional authentication mechanism, such as multi factor authentication.

Article 8. Identity Access Management. All OSM-owned websites shall adhere to the “Identity Access Management Policy”, which is defined and maintained by the Webmasters Team and can be amended upon team motion.

Article 9. User Configuration. All OSM-owned websites shall adhere to the “Joomla User Configuration Policy”, which is defined and maintained by the Webmasters Team and can be amended upon team motion. Such policy defines standard rules related to password options, allowed email domains and all the other user-related options.

Article 10. Backup Configuration. All OSM-owned websites shall adhere to the “Joomla Backup Configuration Policy”, which is defined and maintained by the Webmasters Team and can be amended upon team motion. The standard backup configuration set shall comply with the Joomla Backup Policy that defines the retention and includes other provisions to comply with the Privacy Regulations.

Article 11. Extensions, Tools and Services. Only approved extensions shall be used on a OSM-owned website. Extensions are provided by OSM for free upon a partnership agreement with the vendor, otherwise can be bought by OSM upon request, after financial approval by the related Department Coordinator. The Webmasters Team shall maintain a list of all the extensions used by the OSM-owned websites. Only approved tools and services paid or provided within a partnership agreement by the organization are allowed to be used on OSM-owned websites. All third-party services or tools shall be assessed by the Webmasters Team for Privacy compliance prior to be deployed and used on OSM-owned websites.

Article 12. Auditing & Monitoring. Pursuant to Board motion #2020/064, the Webmasters Team shall operate regular audits of OSM-owned websites to ensure compliance with this Policy and other operational guidelines defined by the organization. The monitoring and auditing process shall consist of the following checks:

• Uptime monitoring
• Backup configuration
• Update status
• Settings configuration
• File existence
• Security related aspects, as defined by the Joomla Security Strike Team.
• Privacy related aspects, as defined by the Joomla Compliance Team.
• Any other check defined by the Webmasters Team.

Article 13. Versioning. All OSM-owned websites shall use the organization default versioning system, which shall hold all customizations, overrides, specific code or ad-hoc developed extensions. A specific repository is available on GitHub for each website. 

Article 14. Data & Legality. Every change on any OSM-owned website which involves personal data shall be communicated to the Compliance Team, to update the related legal documentation, including Privacy and Cookie Policies. All OSM-owned websites shall follow any other data, privacy and legal policies defined by the relevant Department or by the Board.

Article 15. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows: (i) Bylaws, including amendments; (ii) and (iii) the Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2020-081  on June 04, 2020  and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on June 04, 2020

Download the Official Joomla Property Management Policy (version 1.0)

This document sets out the acceptable use policy for use of an Open Source Matters, Inc. (OSM) payment card.

Version 1.0

Scope

Payment cards may be issued to corporate officers when payments to external organisations are necessary and cannot be transacted through a normal interbank transfer arrangement. This policy document sets out the terms of use under which an officer is able to use such a card and defines the minimum level of reporting required for every transaction using the card.

Policy elements

OSM will take out a payment card in your name. You will be able to use it for business-related expenses and OSM will pay the card bills.

Officer payment card agreement

When OSM gives you a credit card, you will need to sign and abide by a payment card agreement. This is to acknowledge that the payment card belongs to OSM and that the organization can process and investigate charges as the organization sees fit. It will also refer to your responsibilities and the consequences for incorrect use.

Apart from the agreement, you can consult this policy every time you need more information about the use of your company payment card.

Who can hold an OSM credit / charge card?

Generally speaking the number of issued cards will be kept to a minimum and any new card would be authorised by board approval. Generally cards are issued to officers, typically (but not necessarily limited to): President, Treasurer, Secretary.

We have the right to withdraw a company payment card from anyone at any point. Such an action would not need full board approval but would only be done so in order to protect OSM Any such action would then be reported to the next scheduled board meeting.

The Board can deliberate the issuance of cards for special and/or temporary purposes or assignments.

What expenses are allowed on an OSM Inc. credit/charge card?

You can use an OSM company card to pay for work-related expenses only. This includes:

• Expenses which follow the published OSM Expenses policy
• Accommodation during work-related travel
• Legal document expenses (e.g. Visa)
• Air, train, ship or other transportation
• Necessary medical expenses (e.g. vaccinations)
• Local transportation during trips (taxi fares, rental cars etc.)
• [Other minor or per diem expenses that are listed in the OSM Inc expenses reimbursement policy]
• Other expenses pre-approved by the Board.

You must not use the OSM credit / charge card for non-authorised or personal expenses.

Never withdraw cash using the company payment card.

You’re also not allowed to purchase large amounts of alcohol, or any drugs, weapons, pornography or incur charges for other adult entertainment.

Exceptions

You may apply for an exception if absolutely necessary PRIOR to any such use of the card. Exceptions must be approved by the OSM Board.

The limits of the OSM payment card

Limits on monthly expenditure will be set by the OSM board and may change following resolution of the board. As a card holder it is your responsibility to maintain and keep up to date understanding of any limits or restrictions placed on the use of the card by the board, prior to any expense being incurred.

Your responsibilities

If you have an OSM payment card, we expect you to:

• Protect it to the best of your ability. Don’t leave it unattended or give it to unauthorised people (e.g. friends, family, colleagues, other volunteers) even just to hold it.
• Report it stolen or lost as soon as possible. If, for example, there’s a break-in at your home/office/place and your card is taken, you need to file a police report and call our Bank immediately. An urgent notification should be sent also to the Treasurer and a copy to the Secretary.
• Use it only for approved reasons. Follow the instructions in this policy and the card agreement, and don’t use the card for personal or unauthorised expenses, even if you intend to compensate the charges later.
• Document all expenses and send monthly credit card reports. Receipts are required for each and every charge on the card and should be submitted on a monthly basis reconciled with the card statement.

If you’re responsible for authorising and approving credit card invoices, please do so within the time limits to avoid late fees. If you’re consistently responsible for late fees, we may need to remove the card from you or make you responsible for any incurred fees.

Use of company credit card policy

When you’re using the OSM payment card, you should:

• Confirm that the particular expense is allowed under this policy.
• Mind the credit card limit and the transaction limit so you can plan business expenses properly.
• Keep the credit card number and physical card secure.
• Use the card sensibly and avoid unnecessary expenses even if they’re allowed under this policy.

Violating this policy

We expect you to comply with this OSM payment card policy and the associated expenses agreement and we may need to take action if you violate them. For example:

• If you incur personal or unauthorised expenses, you will need to pay them yourself. If you do this consistently, you may face disciplinary action that could include loss of the right to have a company card. As per the OSM By-laws, it is your responsibility to ensure a high level of transparency with any financial transaction.
• If you lose a receipt, you’ll need to inform the Treasurer immediately. We may find a solution if this happens rarely, but if you fail to submit receipts consistently, you may lose the right to hold an OSM card.
• If you fail to submit expenses on time, and incur late fees, you’ll need to pay them yourself. Doing this repeatedly will mean loss of the OSM card privileges.
• Giving an OSM card to unauthorised people or abusing the expense limits may result in suspension or termination of your office with cause.
• Making prohibited purchases as mentioned previously (e.g. weapons, drugs) will result in immediate termination of your OSM office with cause, and possibly legal action.
• OSM has the right to review your credit / charge card use, and withdraw it if there is any inappropriate use.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2020-080 on June 04, 2020  and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Version 1.0

Blog posts

Official blog posts, published on joomla.org, developer.joomla.org and community.joomla.org, can be freely used on external sites/blogs, under the above conditions:

• Mentioning the source is mandatory. It can be placed at the top or bottom, using a font which should be at least of the same size as the rest of the content.
  The mention shall be:
  • Translation
    This article is the free translation by X of the original article: Title of the original article by the Joomla Project - Image © Joomla
    (with a link on the title, nofollow attribute not allowed)
  • English
    Source: Title of the original article by the Joomla Project - Image © Joomla
    (with a link on the title, no follow attribute not allowed)
• If an author is mentioned on the external site, it shall always be The Joomla Project
• When the English version is reproduced on an external site, the content of the article shall never be edited.
• The Joomla Project is not responsible for the quality of the translation.
• Images of blog posts shall never be edited under any circumstance (except the translation of the title) and shall never be used outside the blog post / social media to promote it.

Brochure

The Joomla Official Brochure (PDF Files) can be freely used by the community, on their community sites, blogs, events, etc. to help promoting Joomla.
The InDesign files (English and Translation) are created by and for the exclusive use of the Joomla Marketing Team.
It is not allowed to alter or modify in any way the brochures provided by the Joomla Project.

The brochures can be freely printed.

Slide Template

To help the community while creating presentations and bring some consistency in the global community, the Joomla Marketing Team provides a slide presentation template which can be freely used by anyone.

Stickers

Any JUGs, JoomlaDays, or official Joomla events, are allowed to print the official Joomla Stickers to offer them to their members/attendees.
The file is provided by the Marketing Team upon request.

It is strictly forbidden to alter the artwork in any way, including deleting any or part of the mention ‘joomla.org’ from the stickers, adding or changing the colours, shape or size of the stickers.
It is strictly forbidden to sale the stickers.

Case Studies

The Joomla Case Studies (PDF Files) can be freely used by the community, on their community sites, blogs, events, etc. to help promote Joomla and show the world what can be done with Joomla.

The InDesign files (English and Translation) are created by and for the exclusive use of the Joomla Marketing Team.

All copyright is owned by The Joomla Project. Should the case studies be used or placed on websites for promotional purposes, they must be sourced/credited as part of the Joomla Project and may not be altered in any way

Joomla Logo and Brand

The Joomla name and logos are registered trademarks of Open Source Matters, Inc. in the United States, Europe and many other Countries. You can use the Joomla name and logos only under certain conditions described in the Joomla Brand Manual and the Trademark Policies.

Find out more at tm.joomla.org  

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2019-015 on February 07, 2019 and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on February 07, 2019

Download the Official Marketing Resource Policy (version 1.0)

Version 1.0

Policy regarding Breaches of the Code of Conduct

Article 1. Introduction. Pursuant the Joomla! Code of Conduct (CoC), any individual may submit an incident report to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors shall analyse the incident and propose recommended sanctions.

Article 2. Purpose of this Policy. This Policy aims to define a standard evaluation method for sanctions and lays out the process to be used  by the Board of Directors.

Article 3. Scope of the Policy. This policy applies to every member of the Corporation and every volunteer of the Project, even if not an active member as defined in Section 4.01 of the Bylaws.

Article 4. Report Processing.

1. Incident Report is received by the Secretary and shared with the Board of Directors within 24 hours of receipt.
2. Incident report is shared by the Secretary with reported person and they are given 7 days to submit a response to the Secretary..
3. Incident Report will be reviewed and discussed at the first Board Meeting after the 7 days have elapsed or a response is received, whichever is sooner. Should the Incident be of a serious matter and requires immediate action, the Board may call a  Special Board Meeting to discuss it.
4. The Board shall propose sanctions according to Article 5 and 10 of this Policy.
5. The Board shall notify all involved parties pursuant to Article 11 of this Policy.

Article 5. Proposed sanctions

Article 6. Ombudsman Appeal Process:

1. When sanctions are recommended above a level 1 offence, the reported person will have the opportunity to request an appeal hearing with the Ombudsman.
2. The hearing will be carried out by the Ombudsman pursuant to Section 4.04(B)(1) of the Bylaws.
3. Following the hearing, a report will be created by the Ombudsman pursuant to Section 4.04(B)(2) of the Bylaws.
4. On receipt of the report, the Board will follow the procedure set out in Sections 4.04 (B)(3 to 7) of the Bylaws, and make a full and final decision regarding the report.

Article 7. Terms of a Ban. Pursuant Article 5 of this Policy, the inflicted ban shall be considered as “Full Ban” from the project including, but not limited to, access and privileges to any and all Joomla! Channels, Forums, Websites, Systems, Events, and Activities (including speaking at events, in blog posts and on social media on behalf of Joomla).

Article 8. End of Ban. After the Ban period, the user will be reinstated as a registered user, without any administrative or leadership rights or privileges. The ban will remain on the record of the offender for a period of 18 months from the end of the ban. The ban will then be removed from the offender’s record and levels of recommended sanctions will reset to those of 1st Offence.

Article 9. Removal as Member. In the case of repeated breaches of the Code of Conduct by a member of the Corporation (pursuant Section 4.01 of the Bylaws), the Board of Directors, as a final step, may consider proposing the permanent removal of the member pursuant Section 4.04 of the Bylaws.

Article 10. Other sanctions. The Board of Directors or the Ombudsman might consider other types or duration of sanctions according to the severity of the violation.

Article 11. Communications. The Board of Directors shall notify all the interested parties (offender and offended) upon any action taken in relation to the Code of Conduct Incident reported. When a ban is implemented, the name of the banned person and the effective dates of the ban will be published on the Open Source Matters website for the reference of the community at large to ensure no speaking or other engagements are made with the offender during the period of their ban.

Article 12. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between the provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows:

1. Bylaws, including
2. amendments; and
3. the Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2019-041 on April 05, 2019  and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on April 05, 2019

Download the Official Policy regarding Breaches of the Code of Conduct (version 1.0)

Version 1.0

Article 1. Introduction. Pursuant the Section 4.06(B) of the Bylaws of Open Source Matters, Members of the Corporation might define a proxy to attend Members meetings and cast votes on their behalf.

Article 2. Purpose of this Policy. This Board policy aims to regulate the procedures of the usage of proxies to ensure balanced decisions at Board Meetings.

Article 3. Scope of the Policy. This policy applies only to Class 1 Members pursuant Section 4.01(A)(1) of the Bylaws.

Article 4. Procedure. Pursuant Section 4.06(B) of the Bylaws, Class 1 Members shall only give their proxies to other Class 1 Members. The Member shall inform in writings the Secretary including the name of the member who will act as proxy at the meeting. The Member shall notify also the selected peer. The notification shall include the length of the proxy and shall be sent at least (1) one hour before the planned time for the Meeting.

Article 5. Limitations. At a Full Board Meeting, each present Member shall have no more than (1) one proxy. In the eventual case a Member is chosen as proxy for more than (1) one absent Members, the Member shall notify the interested party who shall then choose another proxy.

Article 6. Notification Failure. If the proxy has not been notified as specified in Article 4 of this Policy, the Member will not have a proxy at the Meeting.

Article 7. Announcement. The Secretary will list proxies in the Meeting Agenda and in the Meeting minutes.

Article 8. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows: (i) Bylaws, including amendments; (ii) and (iii) the Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2018-102 on December 13, 2018 and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on December 13, 2018.

Download the Official Policy regarding Proxies (version 1.0)45.17 KB

Version 1.0

Article 1. Introduction. Pursuant the Section 5.01(B) of the Bylaws of Open Source Matters, the Corporation shall be managed by the Department Coordinators and Officers acting as the Full Board of Directors of the Corporation.

Article 2. Purpose of this Policy. This Board policy aims to ensure a committed and stable governance to the Corporation, providing a reason to support the removal of a Class 1 member (either Director or Officer) from its Office due to repeated and unmotivated absence from Full Board Meetings.

Article 3. Scope of the Policy. This policy applies to Class 1 Members of the Corporation pursuant Section 4.01(A)(1) of the Bylaws.

Article 4. Full Board Meetings. The Full Board of Directors and Officers of the Corporation, pursuant Section 3.01(M) of the Bylaws, meets on a bi-weekly basis or at any other frequency established by the Full Board with a dedicated motion.

Article 5. Absence to Meetings. Board Members who are unable to attend a Meeting shall give notice to the Secretary, naming another Board Member as proxy, pursuant Section 4.06(B) of the Bylaws. When unable to attend in person, the Member shall share updates in the Board Agenda in order to keep the board apprised of progress and issues within their department

Article 6. Recurrent Absence. Should a Board Member be absent for (3) three consecutive meetings of the Full Board without a valid reason, a proxy or notice, the Board shall consider it as willful unmotivated recurrent absence.

Article 7. Formal Notice. The President or the Secretary shall send a formal notice to the absent Member requesting them to provide a reason for the recurring absence. The absent Member shall also be invited to nominate a temporary Proxy or to resign due to their inability to fulfill the duties of the role.

Article 8. Proposal of Removal. Additional absences or failure to provide a proper response to the Board shall result in a valid reason to propose the removal of the Member from office due to proven failed commitment.

Article 9. Removal. Pursuant to Section 5.06 of the Bylaws, the approval of Members (as defined in Section 3.01(R) of the Bylaws) of the Corporation is needed to remove the Director or Officer from its position. A special vote shall be called to remove the Member.

Article 10. Vacancies. Any vacancy resulting from the application of this Policy shall be treated pursuant Section 6.02(D) of the Bylaws. 

Article 11. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows: (i) Bylaws, including amendments; (ii) and (iii) Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2018-101 on December 13, 2018 and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on December 13, 2018.

Download the Official Policy regarding Board Commitment (version 1.0)48.71 KB

Article 1. Introduction. Each volunteer classified as member of the organization pursuant the Section 4.01(C) of the Bylaws of Open Source Matters, Inc. might be granted an access to one or more tools provided and or operated by the organization to fulfill his/her responsibilities as Project member.

Article 2. Purpose of this Policy. This organization policy aims to reduce the security and business risks and to let users know how they are permitted to use organization tools.

Article 3. Scope of the Policy. This policy applies to all organization members pursuant Section 4.01(C) of the Bylaws and contributors. It applies no matter where that email use takes place. It applies to use of organization tools (as defined in the Article 4) on any device.

Article 4. Tools. The organization uses different tools and software, including, but not limited to, desktop software, web-based software, web applications, cloud-based services like mail, storage platform, real time communication services (i.e. Gmail, GSuite, Mattermost, Quickbooks, etc.).

Article 5. General tools guidelines. The organization encourages its members and contributors to use provided tools whenever appropriate. For instance allowed usage includes: communicate with other members/contributors (i.e. through email, instant messaging or videoconferences), work/collaborate with other members and stakeholders on project materials (i.e. team documents, project documents, collaborated folders).

Article 6. Unauthorized use. Any of the project tools (i.e. email account, software license, chat system) shall not be used for personal reasons and for non-project related activities. Any usage of the tools that is not related to the project may affect the services availability for the other project users and activities, so it shall be considered as unallowed and unauthorized.

Article 7. Tools Security. Used inappropriately, tools (especially online) can be source of security problems for the organization. Users shall not:

1. Open email/messaging attachments from unknown sources as they might contain a virus, trojan, spyware or any other kind of malware.
2. Disable eventual security or malware prevention software or feature as they are essential to protect from security issues, threats, frauds.
3. Send and or disclose confidential data of the organization.
4. Access another user’s organization account (i.e. email account, service profile, messaging account, etc.).

Article 8. Inappropriate Contents/Usage. Any of the organization tools, including but not limited to communication systems (i.e. Email, Mattermost, Chat), must not be used to send or store inappropriate content or materials. It is important members and volunteers understand that viewing, storing or distributing inappropriate content via the organization tools is not acceptable under any circumstances. Users shall not:

1. Write or send emails or messages that might be defamatory or incur liability for the organization.
2. Create or distribute any inappropriate content or material through any of the provided tools. Inappropriate content includes: pornography, racial or religious slurs, gender-specific comments, information encouraging criminal skills or terrorism, or materials relating to cults, gambling and illegal drugs. This definition of inappropriate content or material also covers any text, images or other media that could reasonably offend someone on the basis of race, age, sex, religious or political beliefs, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law.
3. Use tools for any illegal or criminal activities.
4. Send offensive or harassing emails, messages or materials to others.
5. Create or distribute messages or materials that could damage the organization’s image or reputation.

Any user who receives or detects messages or materials they consider to be inappropriate should report this to any of the Officers of the organization.

Article 9. Copyright. The organization respects and operates within copyright laws. Users may not use company email to share any copyrighted software, media or materials owned by third parties, unless permitted by that third party.
Members and contributors must not use the organization’s tools to perform any tasks that may involve breach of copyright law. Users should keep in mind that the copyright on letters, files and other documents attached to emails/messages may be owned by the email sender, or by a third party. Forwarding such materials on to other people may breach this copyright.

Article 10. Termination. Any access to organization tools (including email, chat and services accounts) shall be revoked or removed upon the membership termination or if the user is not anymore an active contributor to the project.

Article 11. Policy Enforcement. The company tools are provided for legitimate business use. The organization therefore reserves the right to investigate the usage of provided tools upon violation report or suspicious usage detection. Any such investigation will only be carried out by Department Coordinators or Officers of the organization.
Any breaches of this policy might result in a disciplinary action, up to the termination of membership or the deactivation of the user account in any of the organization tools.

Article 12. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows: (i) Bylaws, including amendments; (ii) and (iii) the Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2018-011  on February 01, 2018  and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on February 01, 2018.

Dowload the Official Policy regarding organization tools as PDF (version 1.0)53.4 KB

Article 1. Introduction. Open Source Matters (OSM) owns and oversees the trademarks for the Joomla name, trademarks, brand and logo.

Article 2. Purpose of this Policy. This policy has the following goals:

1. Make it easy for anyone to understand how and when the use of Joomla name is allowed in domain names for community-oriented efforts that help spread and improve Joomla.
2. Make it clear how Joomla-related businesses and projects can (and cannot) use the Joomla name in their domain names.
3. Make it hard for anyone to use the Joomla name in domain names to unfairly profit from, trick or confuse people who are looking for official Joomla resources.

Article 3. Usage Policy. Permission from Open Source Matters is required to use the Joomla name as part of any domain name. Open Source Matters may, under certain circumstances, grant a license for use of domain names that includes one of it’s owned trademarks.

Article 4. Procedure.

1. An interested party may request a license to use a domain name using one of the Joomla trademarks by submitting a ticket at tm.joomla.org stating their intended usage of the domain and providing the whois records to prove the date of registration.
2. The Joomla! Trademark Team will review the application and the active website (if any) and will propose any corrective action they deem necessary to ensure a proper use of the Joomla trademarks on the proposed domain.
3. When online, the website should publish the proper disclaimer as described at:  https://tm.joomla.org/disclaimers.html

Article 5. New gTLDs. With regards to new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), (e.g. joomla.xyz, joomla.tld, joomla.store, joomla.news, etc.), any newly registered domain shall have Open Source Matters, Inc. as the Registrant.

This allows OSM to recover the domain name in case of violation of the organisation’s Trademark policy and regulations. As Registrant, OSM will receive an EPP Code and/or an Auth Code and will be notified in the case of ownership/contact changes.

The interested party shall be listed as Administrative and Technical Contact (Admin-C and Tech-C) of the requested domain name.

This will allow the interested party to effectively manage the domain name (including paying the registrar, the hosting company, etc.) and use make use of the domain name as agreed by OSM.

Article 6. ccTLDs. With regards to Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs), (e.g. joomla.de, joomla.fr, joomla.es, etc.) usage is allowed to Local Communities, Translation Teams and groups. In any case, the interested party shall request permission pursuant Article 3 of this policy and ensure ongoing compliance with the brand, logo and name trademark policies.

Article 7. JoomlaDays and Events. Community Events organizers such as “JoomlaDays, JoomlaCamps, etc.” could receive a limited license to register and maintain ccTLDs in the form “joomladay.cc” where “cc” is the country code in which they are holding the event (e.g. joomladay.fr, joomladay.de, joomladay.it, etc.) or a custom domain name (e.g. joomladayflorida.com, joomladaychicago.com, etc.) where the region or the city is added to the name of the Community Events. Registration and usage of such domain names shall be done pursuant Article 3 of this Policy and following the trademark policies about the usage of the Joomla name, brand and logo.

Article 8. Joomla Users Groups. Local Joomla User Groups (JUGs) are invited to use an instance of the free Joomla hosted service at launch.joomla.org with a third-level domain name in the form city.joomla.com (or region.joomla.com). In the eventual case a JUG already owns a domain name that includes one of the Open Source Matters trademarks, the JUG organizer shall ensure they hold a license (obtained pursuant Article 3 of this Policy) and that their usage of Joomla name, brand and logo is in compliance with the respective policies published at tm.joomla.org.

Article 9. Transfer of ownership. In the eventual case the approved domain registrant (or assignee) has the intention to cease their usage of a domain name that includes OSM trademarks, they shall transfer the ownership of the domain back to Open Source Matters that will decide whether to renew or not such domain.

Article 10. Registrant information. Domain names registered or transferred pursuant Articles 5 and 9 of this policy shall use the following information as Registrant:

Open Source Matters, Inc.
PO Box 4668 #888354
New York, NY 10163-4668
United States
Email of the Registrant: ​This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Article 11. Applicability. This policy is applicable to all newly requested and registered domain names that include one of the Open Source Matters trademarks. A list of all Open Source Matters trademarks is available at https://docs.joomla.org/Joomla:Trademarks.
All current and old licenses are still valid and don’t need to receive a new approval.

Article 12. Disclaimer and Audit rights. Open Source Matters grants the 'domain user' permission to use a TLD as long as the 'domain user" agrees to abide by all Trademark and other policies as documented on the tm.joomla.org website. Open Source Matters reserves the right to audit the licensed domain names and websites performing regular and random checks.

Article 13. Violations. As result of regular or random audits, Open Source Matters reserves the right to suggest corrective actions to reinstate compliance with trademark policies. In the event that Open Source Matters has not been able to connect with the 'domain user' after trying at least two different means and has waited no less than 30 days, or in the event that the 'domain manager' fails to attain compliance, Open Source Matters may exercise the right to take over the domain and shut down the site.

Article 14. Appeals. If the 'domain user' feels that the site has been taken from them wrongly, a formal letter of protest may be made to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for review and the 'domain user' will have the opportunity to voice their case. Open Source Matters reserves the right to keep the site offline until the dispute is resolved. All decisions by the Trademark Team will be final.

Article 15. Replacement of old policy. This policy replaces the previous “Trademark Policy for new Top Level Domains (TLD)” version 1.0 adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2017-069 on September 28, 2017.

Article 16. Examples.

Article 17. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows: (i) Bylaws, including amendments; (ii) and (iii) Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2019-024 on March 07, 2019 and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website and on the Joomla Trademark website tm.joomla.org.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on September 28, 2017. (obsolete)

Download the Official Trademark Process for Top Level Domains as PDF (version 1.0)68.17 KB

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on March 07, 2019. (current)

Download the Official Trademark Policy for Domain Names as PDF (Version 2.0)69.19 KB

Article 1. An Officer or a Director of the Corporation (hereafter a Board Member) who is temporarily unable to continue her or his board of directors and is in good standing based on board service criteria, may request a leave of absence pursuant to Article 5 of this Policy document.

Article 2. Reasons. Typical reasons for needing to take a period of leave from service to the board of directors include personal health or family health or other family commitments, or transitions in professional status (e.g. relocation), or in case of force majeure.

Article 3. Duration. The Leave of Absence duration is 1 month. A formal note requesting an extension can be submitted for review by the Board. Maximum leave of absence duration is 3 months. After 3 months from the leave effective start date, the board will consider the role vacant. At which time, the board will seek to recruit a replacement to meet the governance needs of the organization pursuant to Section 6.02 of the Bylaws of the Organization.

Article 4. Voting Rights. During a leave of absence, a Board Member may not vote on organizational business for the Corporation nor attend Board meetings. The member is listed in the “Apologies” section of the official Meeting minutes.

Article 5. Procedure. A Board Member shall request a leave of absence sending an official email to the President copied to the Secretary of the Corporation, including in the text the effective start date of the absence period and the reason. The Board Member shall report to the Board (eventually in a separate email to the Secretary or the Full Board) any eventual ongoing and unfinished work/tasks allowing the Board to avoid missing important pending actions.

Article 6. Request acceptance. The Leave of absence request shall be considered as a notification to the Corporation and automatically accepted without any other action required by the Board Member or the Board of Directors.

Article 7. Replacements. The Full Board of Directors and Officers of the Corporation might consider the opportunity to appoint an Interim Department Coordinator, selected between the other members of the Board to temporary fill the vacancy. During the interim mandate the member does not have any additional voting rights and counts as present only for his/her primary role.

Article 8. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows: (i) Bylaws, including amendments; (ii) and (iii) the Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2017-103 on December 21, 2017 and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on December 21, 2017.

Download the Official Leave of Absence Policy as PDF (version 1.0)46.56 KB

Version 1.0

Article 1. Introduction. Pursuant the Section 5.03 of the Bylaws of Open Source Matters, half of the Class 1 members of the organization (i.e. Department Coordinators and Officers) are elected at Each Semi-Annual Meeting. The Election Groups (i.e. Group 1 and Group 2) have been defined by the Full Board with the motion #2017/041 and is published on the organization’s website /about/board-of-directors/election-cycle. Pursuant the above premise, during one year there are at least two “Transition Periods” one after each of the Semi-Annual Meetings in which an election is conducted.

Article 2. Purpose of this Policy. This Board policy aims to regulate the procedures of a Transition Period, defining the actions to be done to ensure a proper transition between outgoing and newly elected Board Members.

Article 3. Scope of the Policy. This policy applies to Class 1 organization members pursuant Section 4.01(A)(1) of the Bylaws.

Article 4. Transition Period. After each election (i.e. Group 1, Group 2, Special Election for Replacements) of a Class 1 member, a Transition Period shall be arranged for no fewer than thirty (30) days before the Election result comes into effect.

Article 5. Election Results. The Secretary shall inform the Full Board and the interested parties (i.e. the nominees) about the Election Result as soon as the result is known and as defined by Election Cycle document published on the organization’s website.

Article 6. Commencement of the Transition Period. The outgoing Class 1 member shall promptly contact the newly elected Class 1 member in the days immediately after the Election Results notification and draft a personal handover plan to be executed in the Transition Period. The Secretary shall send an introductory note to the newly elected Class 1 members including the link to sign the Non-Disclosure Agreement.

Article 7. Handover Plan. The personal handover plan shall include the transfer of all the knowledge, accesses, documents, permissions and tools to allow the newly elected Class 1 members to properly exercise their incoming responsibilities and functions. The handover plan, including milestones and key items transfer, shall be disclosed with the Full Board of Directors and Officers upon request.

Article 8. Meetings. The newly elected Class 1 members are entitled to attend Full Board Meetings during the Transition Period as attendees without right to vote. Their presence shall be recorded in the Meeting Minutes as “Elected Director” or “Elected Officer”. The newly elected Department Coordinators are expected to attend all Departmental Coordination Team Meetings during the Transition Period.

Article 9. Voting Rights. Newly elected Class 1 members shall not have the right to vote at Board meetings nor at motions actioned via email by the Board during the Transition Period.

Article 10. Communication & Tools. The Secretary shall add the newly elected Class 1 members to the Communication channels and tools used by the Full Board (i.e. Mattermost, Board Mailing List) and to the Board shared folders (i.e. Google Drive).

Article 11. Termination of the Transition Period. The Transition Period shall end at the date stated in the Election Announcement published by the Secretary when any election is called. The Handover Plan shall be completed before the end of the Transition Period.

Article 12. Order of Precedence. In case of conflict between provisions of this Policy, the order of precedence for conflict resolution in descending order shall be as follows: (i) Bylaws, including amendments; (ii) and (iii) the Policies.

This policy has been adopted by the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. with the motion #2018-024 on March 01, 2018 and is published under the Policies section of the organization’s website.

Official Policy version

The official version of the policy adopted by the Board of Directors on March 01, 2018.

Download the Official Policy regarding handover as PDF (version 1.0)51.22 KB