Hi Justin, Thank you for raising the PMC selection questions. We truly appreciate the IPMC's careful review, and we are happy to provide more clarity on the PMC selection process to help with the assessment.
The PPMC has aligned on a clear and consistent set of criteria for selecting new PPMC members, applied without bias to all candidates: - The bar for becoming a committer is intentionally kept fairly low to encourage broad participation and onboarding of new contributors. - The bar for PPMC membership is set fairly high, reflecting the additional responsibility of guiding project direction, mentoring, and stewarding community health, and long-term involvement. This criteria was discussed in the private mailing list [1], and the qualities are outlined in our community guidelines [2]. For example, Mehul became a Fluss committer in July 2025 and was proposed for PPMC membership in February 2026. During those seven months, he was not only highly active in core design and code review, but also contributed significantly to community growth by organizing community calls, presenting talks, and attracting new contributors. These are the qualities we look for in new PPMC members. Regarding Anton: we fully recognize Anton's valuable contributions and agree that he has already demonstrated many of the qualities we seek in a PPMC member. However, Anton was only recently invited to become a committer this month. So we did not rush to include him in this initial PMC list. We maintain a strong pipeline of talented and active committers, several of whom are currently under observation for future PPMC nominations. Notably, most of our new committers come from non-Alibaba companies, which contributes to greater diversity in the future composition of the PMC. I agree that some committers have been more active recently than certain proposed PPMC members. We believe this is a natural dynamic. With the exception of Mehul, who is the only new PPMC member joined during incubation, all other proposed PMC members are initial PPMC members. Their contributions were thoroughly evaluated when Fluss entered the Apache Incubator. While some may be less visible in day-to-day coding or reviewing activities, they remain actively engaged behind the scenes, providing strategic guidance and critical support for the project's growth. Therefore, we have included them in the proposed PMC list based on their sustained commitment and historical impact. I think this also follows the "merit never expires" of The Apache Way[3]. The PPMC does not and will not nominate individuals based on seniority or title within a company. From the committers and PPMC members who joined during the incubation phase, you can see we apply consistent evaluation criteria. Everyone nominated has made solid contributions to the project. Thank you again for your time and for helping ensure a thoughtful graduation process for Fluss. I hope this addresses your concerns regarding the PMC selection. Kind regards, Jark [1] https://lists.apache.org/thread/rn7vkhm3sktg2jgsd8l2j4yn9y9dvbc5 [2] https://fluss.apache.org/community/become-a-committer/ [3] https://www.apache.org/theapacheway/ On Tue, 26 May 2026 at 17:08, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi, > > I want to make a general point about PMC membership criteria that I think is > relevant to this discussion. > > Seniority or title within a company is not a basis for membership in the PMC > at the ASF. PMC membership should reflect sustained community engagement and > a willingness to take on governance responsibilities, not organisational > hierarchy. > > I would ask the PPMC to confirm that all proposed PMC members have been > selected on this basis. > > Kind Regards, > Justin --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
