Author: Paris Pittman (Google), Jorge Castro (Heptio), Ihor Dvoretskyi (CNCF)

Having a clear, definable governance model is crucial for the health of open source projects. For one of the highest velocity projects in the open source world, governance is critical especially for one as large and active as Kubernetes, which is one of the most high-velocity projects in the open source world. A clear structure helps users trust that the project will be nurtured and progress forward. Initially, this structure was laid by the former 7 member bootstrap committee composed of founders and senior contributors with a goal to create the foundational governance building blocks.

The initial charter and establishment of an election process to seat a full Steering Committee was a part of those first building blocks. Last year, the bootstrap committee kicked off the first Kubernetes Steering Committee election which brought forth 6 new members from the community as voted on by contributors. These new members plus the bootstrap committee formed the Steering Committee that we know today. This yearly election cycle will continue to ensure that new representatives get cycled through to add different voices and thoughts on the Kubernetes project strategy.

The committee has worked hard on topics that will streamline the project and how we operate. SIG (Special Interest Group) governance was an overarching recurring theme this year: Kubernetes community is not a monolithic organization, but a huge, distributed community, where Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Working Groups (WGs) are the atomic community units, that are making Kubernetes so successful from the ground.

Contributors – this is where you come in.

There are three seats up for election this year. The voters guide will get you up to speed on the specifics of this years election including candidate bios as they are updated in real time. The elections process doc will steer you towards eligibility, operations, and the fine print.

1) Nominate yourself, someone else, and/or put your support to others.

Want to help chart our course? Interested in governance and community topics? Add your name! The nomination process is optional.

2) Vote.

On September 19th, eligible voters will receive an email poll invite conducted by CIVS. The newly elected will be announced at the weekly community meeting on Thursday, October 4th at 5pm UTC.

To those who are running:

Helpful resources

• Steering Committee – who sits on the committee and terms, their projects and meetings info
• Steering Committee Charter – this is a great read if you’re interested in running (or assessing for the best candidates!)
• Election Process
• Voters Guide! – Updated on a rolling basis. This guide will always have the latest information throughout the election cycle. The complete schedule of events and candidate bios will be housed here.