Statutes of ArabWIC

Title
Statutes of ArabWIC
DRACC
0026
Aliases
AWIC-0000
Category
Regulatory
Scope
Programme
Authors
Leenaars, M.A.G.J.; Meijer, J.; Aben, G.; Šuklje, M.
Date
February 2019
Copyright
The Commons Conservancy and ArabWIC
License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Mission Statement

The Arab Women In Computing (ArabWIC) mission is to support, inspire, retain, encourage collaboration among, increase visibility of and help elevate the status of Arab women in computing/Technology from the various computing/technology sectors (academia, industry and entrepreneurship), and allow them to achieve their goals.

Purpose

The ArabWIC Programme (in short: ArabWIC) has been established to facilitate an open, transparent and efficient collaborative governance process for intangible assets developed, held and maintained within the global ArabWIC community.

ArabWIC seeks to provide guidance, oversight and coordination of activities as well as a long-term, multi-stakeholder perspective. In addition it aims to liaise with international women-in-CS organizations to collaborate, share and learn.

ArabWIC is the name of a not-for-profit technical and creative community effort serving the public benefit. ArabWIC is established as a Programme within The Commons Conservancy. The Commons Conservancy is a not-for-profit foundation (‘Stichting’) established under The Netherlands law.

Terms contained in this document refer to the respective definitions of these terms within the regulations of The Commons Conservancy, unless explicitly noted otherwise. The Programme is subject to the conditions set forth in the Statutes and Regulations of The Commons Conservancy, more in particular to the conditions stipulated in The Commons Conservancy DRACC 0002. References to the Statutes or Regulations of ArabWIC therefore automatically mean the combination of the Statutes and Regulations of the Programme and those of The Commons Conservancy.

Any decisions made or approved by the ArabWIC Board of Directors within the scope of its mandate will be handled according to the procedure set out in DRACC “Decision Handling Procedure”. New (versions of) ArabWIC Statutes and Regulations enter into effect when they are published as part of the DRACC series of The Commons Conservancy.

Financial considerations

ArabWIC operates on a nil budget, which means there are no direct financial considerations.

ArabWIC Board of Directors determines the desired direction of the development of technology and auxiliary materials. At the request of grantmaking organisations, donors and partners, ArabWIC MAY provide guidance to others on and inspiration with regards to the establishment and evaluation of activities. ArabWIC itself will have no direct financial involvement in such activities under any circumstances.

Governance

The central decision making body within ArabWIC is the ArabWIC Board of Directors (in short: ArabWIC Board). The ArabWIC Board is a meritocratic committee responsible for making and coordinating decisions on behalf of the user and developer community around ArabWIC, according to the conditions set forth in these Statutes as well as any Regulations established by prior decisions of the ArabWIC Board.

The ArabWIC Board has a minimum of three, and a maximum of seven natural persons. The founding ArabWIC Board has appointed a number of its constituting Directors to serve a half (12 month) term, and the remainder to serve a regular (24 month) term. Subsequent Directors are elected by the ArabWIC Board to regular 24 month terms according to the procedure set out in these Statutes. Directors are permitted to seek office for multiple terms, however, when running against other candidates the amount of terms they have consecutively served is deducted from the votes cast in their favour. This provides a balance between continuity, equal opportunities and renewal of qualities and competences.

The ArabWIC Board determines the Programme’s structure and processes, and is responsible for maintaining its Statutes and Regulations. The ArabWIC Board is free to make or revise any decision, taking into consideration applicable law as well as any immutable conditions previously established within the Statutes or Regulations.

In order to efficiently fulfill its tasks, the Board may establish specialized committees and taskforces, as well as assign named roles to qualified individuals to provide advice and assistance on specific issues. The associated qualifications, tasks and responsibilities SHALL be formalised by publication as part of the Regulations of ArabWIC.

The ArabWIC Board (and any person, group or organisation mandated by the ArabWIC Board on its behalf) must act in good faith and in the common interest of the developer community and the wider user community of ArabWIC. If significant harm to the organization has been committed by any Director, he or she MAY be removed from the Board by a simple majority vote of the rest of the Board.

The ArabWIC Board SHALL convene offline or online at least every twelve (12) months.

Voting procedure

Any two ArabWIC Directors MAY jointly organise a vote of the ArabWIC Board on any subject, after which a notification SHALL be sent out by email to each Director detailing the proposed action and the deadline.

Each Director is entitled to one (1) vote on each matter submitted to a vote. Voting happens through an electronic voting system, by email vote or by a quorate (online) meeting. A quorum is reached when all Directors are either (tele)present, have appointed a proxy or have indicated they will abstain from voting.

It is the responsibility of each Director to maintain valid contact details for communication within the Board. When a Director does not respond to multiple communication requests or invitations to vote for a period of one month across at least two different channels, he or she is removed from the quorum count until contact is restored.

Regular decisions of the ArabWIC Board are taken by a simple majority. Any amendment to these Statutes requires a consensus of the entire ArabWIC Board minus one Director. In all cases, the Chair of the ArabWIC board casts the deciding vote in case of a tie.

Each Director agrees to use her or his best efforts to resolve disputes in an informal manner.

Integrity

All ArabWIC Directors (as well as any persons the ArabWIC Board have delegated tasks and/or responsibilities to) are understood to act as fiduciaries with regard to the ArabWIC Programme, and their duties include, but are not limited to, the fiduciary duty of care and the fiduciary duty of loyalty.

Directors SHOULD NOT receive any personal benefit as a result of a pending decision – he or she is required to explain the circumstances and avoid taking any part in the decision.

Any conflict of interest or apparent conflict of interest between ArabWIC and individual Directors MUST be avoided. Directors undertake to declare any interest in any item under discussion and MAY be invited by the ArabWIC Chair to withdraw from discussions when business concerning their personal interests or the interests of natural or legal persons close to them is being dealt with. Directors MUST heed such an invitation and at the very least abstain from voting.

Decisions involving activities under which one or more Directors would have conflicts of interest that are of material significance to the Programme and/or to the relevant Director(s) require the approval of the entire ArabWIC Board minus the Director(s) with a conflict of interest.

Licensing policy

All software and content created or maintained within ArabWIC is to be made publically available perpetually at no cost under one or more of the licenses on the Free Software Foundation’s list of “recommended copyleft licenses” or any license approved by the Open Source Initiative on or after the submission date.

When additional licensing needs (which would make the identical software or assets available also through licenses not on those lists) arise, the ArabWIC Board is responsible for deciding on a case by case basis how this shall be best dealt with. In such matters the Board SHALL act in the common interest of the user and developer community, respectful of the spirit and intents of the original creators of and contributors to ArabWIC.

Any financial benefits resulting from licensing agreements with third parties shall exclusively be directed towards a not-for-profit organisation aligned with the goals of ArabWIC as contribution to the future development and maintenance of ArabWIC. These contributions shall be spent under the responsibility of the ArabWIC Board, on behalf of the ArabWIC user and developer community and in the general public interest.

Transition into these Statutes

The following decisions are ratified by the signatories when these Statutes take effect:

  • The founding ArabWIC Board shall be comprised of the individuals acting as signatories of the initial version of these Statutes, the act of which also has established all signees as Directors.
  • Susan MALAIKA is appointed as the ArabWIC Chair for a period of 12 months.
  • Kaoutar EL MAGHRAOUI and Sana ODEH are appointed as Directors of the ArabWIC Board for a period of 24 months.
  • The ArabWIC Board commits to identify and approach all rights holders, and ask them to transfer the moral stewardship of the intangible assets involved to the ArabWIC Programme.

Agreed on (date), (location) by:

Susan MALAIKA (chair) Kaoutar EL MAGHRAOUI Sana ODEH