Skip to content
Search

Mojaloop Community Central

Community Council Charter

Updated 2024

1. Mission and Responsibilities

1.1. The CoCo’s mission is fully aligned to the mission of the Mojaloop Foundation (see here). The council fosters a strong and diverse Mojaloop community, aiming to engage the global payments community and grow participation.

1.2. The council acts as the voice of the community; its responsibilities encompass:the development and implementation of strategic targets for the community, and the resolution of potential conflicts.

2. Leadership and Participation

2.1. Role definitions:

  • Co-chairs (two): Lead the council together and represent it in interactions with stakeholders, either jointly or individually.

  • Voting members (odd number, not more than 10): Act as representatives of the community and shape its strategic direction.

  • Guests (not more than 10): Act as representatives of the community and provide input on relevant topics. Participate in meetings or projects on an ad-hoc basis.

2.2. All CoCo participants abide by the Mojaloop Code of Conduct (see here).

2.3. Election and participation:

  • Co-chairs are elected by the voting members (nomination + simple majority) for a term of one year and can be re-elected once. The co-chairs may not represent the same company/organization and must proactively disclose potential conflicts of interest that could arise as part of their role, including measures for how to manage them, if necessary.
  • Voting members are nominated from and elected by the community at large and should be representative of the overall community and active contributors to the CoCo’s mission. Members of the different workstreams, governance committees (e.g. Design Authority and Change Control Board) and other key initiatives are encouraged to nominate a representative to the CoCo. They can either self-nominate or be nominated by a member of the community. The community votes on admission of new members (nomination + simple majority) and should ensure diversity in CoCo membership as well as adequate representation of the overall community. Voting members may serve two consecutive terms, and may be re-elected after a one-term break.
  • Quorum is achieved when the council has at least half of the electors (voting-members and co-chairs) are present.
  • Any contributing member of the community can request to be a guest in the council. The co-chairs must unanimously decide on the admission of guests to the council, while the number of guests shouldn’t exceed 10.

2.4. Responsibilities of the (co-)chairs:

  • Lead the council, bring up new meeting topics, scope the agenda, and represent the CoCo in interactions with stakeholders. In this context, the co-chairs work closely with the community manager and coordinate relevant topics.
  • Shape the strategic direction of the community, outline related targets, and facilitate their implementation.
  • Ensure strong governance and operating procedures in the council as well as community matters more broadly.
  • Help with the resolution of potential conflicts in the community.
  • Track and communicate community metrics.

2.5. Requirements to serve as a (co-)chair:

  • Commitment and reasonable availability to lead the CoCo.
  • Community and organizational development skills: Ability or experience creating structure and processes around the community, Ability or experience growing and onboarding a broader set of volunteer OSS developers
  • Leadership experience: Ability to lead and act on behalf of the community, Ability to grow and maintain a good community health
  • Community and ecosystem experience: Familiarity with the Mojaloop ecosystem and broader OSS developer community

Scope, Objectives, and Deliverables

3.1. The CoCo acts as the representative voice of all community members and deals with a range of relevant topics that affect the Mojaloop community, including the community strategy, communication processes, and conflict resolution.

3.2. As part of the community strategy, the council is responsible for development and implementation of strategic targets. Examples of this include the following:

  • Outline shared community ideals (e.g. mission, vision, values, guiding principles)
  • Develop a community membership model (e.g. membership profiles, how to acquire membership and terms of engagement)
  • Implement community working structures (e.g. workflows and recommendations to improve effectiveness)
  • Engage with stakeholders (e.g. strategy on how to create awareness and position the Mojaloop community as a thought leader in the ecosystem)

3.3. The communication processes include internal and external channels. Through clear and impactful communication, the council helps to build a strong community and promotes the Mojaloop value proposition.

  • Internal: Facilitate communication within the community and manage relevant channels (e.g. Slack, Discourse). All community members should be empowered to bring relevant topics into discussion, ranging from ad-hoc conversations over exchanges in a group to formal discussions in one of the governance bodies.
  • External: Business outreach initiatives to enter into dialogue with relevant counterparts (e.g. participants, builders, funders, and governance organisations) in order to better understand and address the needs of decision makers in the ecosystem.

3.4. Finally, the council is responsible for the resolution of potential conflicts in the community.

3.5. In its interaction with other committees (e.g. DA and CCB), the CoCo is in close dialogue and focuses on non-technical aspects that matter for the community. As part of the overall governance, operating procedures should be coordinated and clear processes for new ideas should be defined.

3.6. The CoCo contributes to cross-functional projects and initiatives whenever its expertise can add value (e.g. developing community-related parts of the product roadmap, building new partnerships, engaging with the open source developer community).

3.7. The quality of the council’s work should be measured in terms of size,strength and increased contribution and engagement of the community. In this context, the CoCo and its internal stakeholders define relevant and measurable metrics that are tracked on a regular basis (e.g. quarterly). To ensure accountability and transparency, the co-chairs should provide regular updates to the community (e.g. during convenings).

Meetings, Groups, and Documentation

4.1. The council has a regular call, usually every fortnight, to discuss relevant topics; an agenda is distributed beforehand and brief minutes afterwards. Meetings in person are encouraged to be held as part of larger community gatherings (e.g. CoCo round table at convenings). Ad-hoc communication can take place via e-mail or a dedicated slack channel.

The council has a regular call, usually every fortnight, to discuss relevant topics; an agenda is distributed beforehand and brief minutes afterwards. Meetings in person are encouraged to be held as part of larger community gatherings (e.g. CoCo round table at convenings). Ad-hoc communication can take place via e-mail or a dedicated slack channel.

4.2. Members should attend all relevant meetings and communicate potential absences to the co-chairs in advance.

4.3. The co-chairs, either jointly or individually, are the host(s) and prepare the agenda. Any council member can request topics to be added to the agenda (deadline is two days before the meeting).

4.4. To work effectively on specific topics, council members are encouraged to form task forces and report back with results to the CoCo for broader discussion.

4.5. The documentation of the meetings (e.g. agenda, minutes, attendance lists) are distributed appropriately and retained on a suitable platform (e.g. Basecamp) and can be accessed by the CoCo members.

Voting rights and Procedures

5.1. The preferred approach to making decisions is through consensus after open and transparent discussion and debate.

5.2. A vote is only taken if a consensus cannot be reached.

5.3. The council can decide on proposals within its scope of responsibilities.
When the council makes decisions that require a vote, co-chairs and voting members are eligible voters. Any changes to structure of the council (e.g. operating procedures) require a supermajority of 75%. Other decisions can be made with a simple majority.

5.4. In the voting process, the council has a quorum when at least half of the eligible voters are present.

5.5. Generally, the odd number of voting members plus two co-chairs should result in clear voting outcomes. If this is not the case (e.g. council has a quorum but some voters are absent), the co-chairs have tie-breaking votes. In the unlikely case that no decision can be reached, the vote should be repeated or postponed.

5.6. In the case of disputes, the co-chairs are responsible to work on a solution together with the relevant parties.

Reporting

6.1. The Community Council is accountable to Mojaloop Foundation and the community in general. The co-chairs should report on a regular basis (e.g. quarterly) to the foundation’s Executive Director and update the community on relevant topics, including the community strategy and key initiatives.