.. _governance:

Governance
==========

The purpose of this document is to formalize the governance process used by the
Feature-engine project and clarify how decisions are made and how the community works
together. This is the first version of our governance policy and will be updated as our
community grows and more of us take on different roles.

Roles and Responsibilities
--------------------------

Contributors
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Contributors are community members who contribute in various ways to the project.
Anyone can become a contributor, and contributions can be of various forms, not just
code. To see how you can help check the :ref:`**Contribute page** <contribute>`.


Core Contributors
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Core Contributors are community members who are dedicated to the continued development
of the project through ongoing engagement with the community. Core Contributors are
expected to review code contributions, can approve and merge pull requests, can decide
on the fate of pull requests, and can be involved in deciding major changes to the
Feature-engine API. Core Contributors determine who can join as a Core Contributor.


Founder and Leadership
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Feature-engine was founded by `Soledad Galli <https://www.linkedin.com/in/soledad-galli/>`_
who at the time was solely responsible for the initial prototypes, documentation, and
dissemination of the project. In the tradition of Python, Sole is referred to as the
“benevolent dictator for life” (BDFL) of the project, or simply, “the founder”. From a
governance perspective, the BDFL has a special role in that they provide vision,
thought leadership, and high-level direction for the project’s members and contributors.
The BDFL has the authority to make all final decisions for the Feature-engine Project.
However, in practice, the BDFL, chooses to defer that authority to the consensus of the
community discussion channels and the Core Contributors. The BDFL can also propose and
vote for new Core Contributors.


Join the community
------------------

Feature-engine is currently looking to expand the team of Core Contributors, if you are
interested, please get in touch.

If you want to Contribute to the project in any other way, get in touch using our Github
issues page or through Gitter:

1. `Github issues <https://github.com/feature-engine/feature_engine/issues/>`_.
2. `Gitter community <https://gitter.im/feature_engine/community>`_.