Governance Taskforce Recommendation "Establish Processes for Handling Conflict of Interests"

Drupal has grown to balance the needs of diverse stakeholders across the globe. Those in positions of authority may be in a position to offset this balance or make decisions for personal gain.

What we heard:

Community members expressed a desire to ensure community decision making was fair and did not favor specific interests. Many people within the community have interests and responsibilities that could introduce bias or serve specific business needs. For example, while Dries serves as the BDFL of the project, he also serves as an executive at Acquia. In many cases, the potential exists for there to be a conflict of interest. We heard that community members desire clarity on what constitutes a conflict of interest and to have a process to review and resolve issues.

What we recommend:

We recommend the creation of a Conflict of Interest Policy to promote fairness and eliminate potential biases. For the health of our community and the entire Drupal ecosystem, all members would be expected to adhere to this Conflict of Interest Policy.

With such a large and diverse community, it is expected that people have their own interests — and they may be subject to influence (or the appearance of influence) based on how they may personally benefit, or the benefit to their projects, clients, or employers.

The proposed Conflict of Interest Policy would set out guidelines for all community members and establish a review process for handling incidents in a fair and neutral way.

We recommend that responsibility for implementing and overseeing a Conflict of Interest Policy be assigned to a community-led group. A new group could be created, or the charter of an existing group, like the CWG, could be modified to include these additional responsibilities.