Note
There is a Frequently Asked Questions document that provides further details about the model, progress, and scope of the Developer Relations Foundation's formation. To learn more, please visit our FAQ section here.
Developer Relations Foundation is a community-driven project, with no funding involved. This README documents the official DRF Playbook to understand how the Developer Relations Foundation operates and is structured. While the general Charter provides a general overview of the project’s structure and governance, this document covers specific operational details that ensure smooth participation and collaboration. It includes documentation on the DRF community structure, roles, and responsibilities, communication channels, regular meetings, and processes to submit new proposals and start or continue discussions.
This Developer Relations Foundation Glossary establishes a common understanding of terms and roles used within the Developer Relations Foundation
DRF follows an iterable approach to organizing and managing the many community-driven initiatives important to the DevRel Profession. This process is designed to ensure that the DevRel Foundation isn’t led by the assumptions of the steering committee as to what the important topics to tackle are but instead charged with the stewardship of collecting input, creating processes to organize that data, and shepherding solutions to real problems. Phased Plan Documentation can be found here
Milestones achieved to date and text steps can be found in the Working Group Cohort Project Board
The work within the DRF Community happens across a variety of different groups with a Steering Committee to oversee DRF operations, but day-to-day work happens in our Working Groups
🧭 Steering Committee Elections
Steering Committee Elections is an ongoing discussion looking for community input and is available in our [DRF forum](#93). As the Developer Relations Foundation community progresses in defining a Steering Committee Election Process and preparing for future elections, the current Steering Committee, composed of five members, is looking to fill two vacant seats required to meet the necessary number of representatives to meet Linux Foundation Project standards and move the foundation to fully form.
The current Steering Committee will serve until new elections are held, expected by November 2025.
🧭 Steering Committee Representatives
As the Developer Relations Foundation community moves forward in defining a Steering Committee Election Process and preparing for future elections, the current Steering Committee, composed of five members, and looking to fill the two vacant seats. The current Steering Committee will serve until new elections are held, expected by November 2025.
| Name | Affiliation | DRF Server Discord Handle |
|---|---|---|
| Phil Leggetter | Hookdeck | @leggetter |
| Katie Miller | Independent | @katiemillersheher_91737 |
| Stacey Kruczek | Aerospike | @ssk_14 |
| Jonathan LeBlanc | TraceLink | Discord Handle |
| Wesley Faulkner | Independent | @wesleyf83 |
| Person 6 | Affiliation | |
| Person 7 | Affiliation |
People can reach our Steering Committe anytime by using @steering-committee tag in Discord or sending an email to steering-committee (at) dev-rel.org
🧭 Steering Committee Responsibilities
The Steering Committee is comprised of the initial group of individuals, all tenured Developer Relations and Developer Marketing leaders, who connected over the shared vision of creating a foundation.
To date, their primary Developer Relations Foundation (DRF) Steering Committee (SC) responsibilities include:
- Collecting input on priorities and encouraging community involvement to advance processes and frameworks. This includes forming and overseeing working groups to address specific areas of interest
- Leading and facilitating community calls across various time zones (AMER, EMEA, and APAC) to foster open discussions, share updates, and gather feedback from community and working group participants
- Overseeing project management and operational tasks such as public relations, website development, repo documentation and communications
The Developer Relations Foundation (DRF) Steering Committee achieved milestones are:
- Established the initial charter and governance model that contributed to the LF's "intent to form" commitment
- Collect input on priorities and interest in getting involved to move forward on processes, policies, and frameworks that will be driven by working groups, as well as forming the initial working groups
- Initiated internal project management and operations, including PR, community, website development, and communications
Out of the working groups, we anticipate recommendations on governance that will include how to elect Foundation leadership moving forward. At that time, any leadership roles we play (if at all) will be determined through the established election processes.
Working groups were created to address the different challenges that this community put together and discussed during the 2024 community calls and open survey. Each WG operates independently and is bound by its own charter, which specifies the role election process, communication channels, rotations, and more. However, all WGs should have at least these two following roles: Managers (Project and Community management roles) and Participants.
General milestones achieved to date and text steps for working groups become fully operational can be found in the Working Group Cohort Project Board
📊 Metrics and Reporting Working Group
Get Involved: https://github.com/DevRel-Foundation/wg-metrics-reporting/
🧠 Innovation and Emerging Trends Working Group
Get Involved: https://github.com/DevRel-Foundation/wg-innovation-emerging-trends/
🏛️ Structure and Organization Working Group
Get Involved: https://github.com/DevRel-Foundation/wg-structure-organization/
📚 Resource Aggregation Working Group
Get Involved: https://github.com/DevRel-Foundation/wg-resource-aggregation/
🙋 Community Engagement Support Working Group
Get Involved: https://github.com/DevRel-Foundation/wg-community-engagement-support/
Please explore our glossary to learn all our official communication channels
If Time zones permit, people engaging in DRF community are expected to participate in the DRF Community Calls and any other meetings relevant to their working group. This group hosts community calls every other week. People can check the times and upcoming calls in the Groups.io calendar: https://lists.dev-rel.org/g/community/calendar
📚 About Community Calls
This group hosts community calls every other week. People can check the times and upcoming calls in the Groups.io calendar: https://lists.dev-rel.org/g/community/calendar
- AMER & EMEA DevRel Found Community Call
- APAC & EMEA DevRel Found Community Call
These calls serve two main purposes:
- A neutral and safe space to discuss topics important to the community, share ideas, and ask questions aligned with the mission of the DevRel Foundation. If you have a story to share, the recommended process is to open a new issue via GitHub Discussions (more info below) with the topic in mind. This allows the call moderators to bring these topics into sessions, initiate community discussions, and reach a consensus, potentially leading to a concrete action item (e.g., should this become a working group or be included in the foundation, etc.).
- Open Office Hours to reach community consensus on the foundation's next phases and to address questions and blockers on DevRel Challenges and Frequently Asked Questions.
📚 Roles in the DRF Community Calls
Roles include facilitator, moderator, scribe, and crier.
Anyone can volunteer to take on any of these roles for upcoming community calls. People can volunteer to lead in one of these roles during the next call by contacting steering-committee@dev-rel.org
| Role | Responsibilities | Notes | Recommended Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moderator | (1) Leads the discussion by going through agenda items, ensuring each topic receives the time it needs, and keeping conversations focused AND (2) Opens the call by inviting participants to add their names to the agenda, make group introductions and introduce the concept of Chatham House Rules, LF Antitrust Policies and the DRF Code of Conduct | Volunteering as a Moderator is a great way to develop facilitation skills and play an essential role in shaping community discussions. The Moderator must be on the call while the Crier can skip the call | This person attended some previous community calls and is familiarized with the format |
| Scribe | (1) Captures and summarizes key points during the call AND (2) share these notes with the community in the dedicated GitHub Discussion afterward | Serving as a Scribe builds attention to detail and provides a vital resource for transparent communication within the community | This person can be new to the community but should have some experience of taking notes in meetings |
| Crier | (1) Keeps the community informed by announcing the agenda one week in advance in the DRF community mailing list and Discord channel | As the Crier, you enhance community engagement and ensure members are aware of discussion topics and opportunities to participate. The Moderator must be on the call, while the Crier can skip the call | This person can have no experience and be a newcomer |
📚 DRF Community Calls Checklists
All participants, including the moderator, crier, and scribe, must be familiar with and agree to follow the code of conduct and antitrust policies when engaging in DRF activities
When running a community call, please ensure you go through the following checklist:
Pre-Call (5-4 days in advance)
- Please wait for the Crier to share the agenda. If the agenda hasn’t been announced and only 5 days remain before the call, kindly reach out to the Crier
- Review new community proposals or announcements shared on GH Discussions and include in the agenda
During the Call
- Welcome Atendees and invite them to write their names in the Google Doc
- Go through Agenda Topics
- Assign the roles for the next call
- Keep teh conversation on track
- Close the call on time
Pre-Call (8-6 days in advance)
- Go to https://github.com/DevRel-Foundation/governance/discussions
- Open a new entry
- Copy Agenda template #114
- Edit brackets' info [ ]
- Go to google doc
- Copy content within
TEMPLATE - YYYY-MM-DD - Paste bellow
Next Meetingsection - Edit brackets' info [ ]
- Announce the GH discussion via Discord #📆weekly-calls channel using @everyone tag
- Announce via community Mailing List (community@lists.dev-rel.org) https://lists.dev-rel.org/g/community
- Ping the Moderator when work is finished
During the Call
- Take notes in google docs below the agenda items. Avoid using affiliations, just use initials of participants
- If there's someone on the call who did not added their name, add it yourself in the Google doc
After the Call
- Syntetize notes and mirror these notes in the GH discussions dedicated entry as a new comment for those who can't access google
If it's your first time taking on one of these roles in an open source project, don’t worry—we’re all learning together! This free course on Leading High-Performance Working Group Meetings can help beginners navigate through these roles.
Operational guidelines on how community participants can submit new proposals, where and how these proposals are discussed via community calls, and the community calls roles and responsibilities.
📚 How to File Proposals and Discussion Topics
The community can file proposals via the DRF Governance repo by opening a new entry in the GitHub Discussions Forum.
Also, whether you are new to the DRF community calls or a regular participant, you can add your discussion topics as a comment in one of the meeting note discussions or bring them up during the call.
People can also share DevRel use cases, best practices, frameworks, and more by opening a new Idea in GitHub Discussions, which serves as the Foundation’s public forum.
We are always looking for 5-10 minute presentations in future community calls to spark discussion with attendees and asynchronously.
📚 How to volunteer to be a moderator, scribe, or crier for a Community Call?
- Go to Discussions: https://github.com/DevRel-Foundation/governance/discussions
- Leave a comment in the first meeting note issue you see, expressing your interest in volunteering for any of these roles for an upcoming meeting
- The project manager will reach out to confirm your availability and assign you for the next call
📚 How to reach Steering Committee Representatives?
People can reach our Steering Committe anytime by using @steering-committee tag in Discord or sending an email to steering-committee (at) dev-rel.org
📚 How to reach Linux Foundation Staff?
Since DRF is hosted under the Linux Foundation, the project has some services and staff available for the community:
- Project Management Support: Please reach out to our Project Manager, Ana Jiménez Santamaría -- asantamaria (at) linuxfoundation (dot) org -- @anajimenezsant in Discord
- Legal Support: Please notify our DRF Project Manager to open a ticket on LF Staff Legal Support
- LFX Project Control Center Support: Please open a ticket in the LFX Services Requests - LFX PCC Project Support