Core Team

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6. Core Team

Maintained by:

David Planella

@dplanella

On this page

• Becoming a Core Team member
• Monthly Core Team meetings
• Contacting Core Team members
• Offboarding and stepping down gracefully
• Core Team Member Orientation
• Core Team member benefits
  • Slack access
  • Developer permissions for GitLab projects
  • Team page listing
  • GitLab EE license
  • JetBrains license
  • Sponsored access to GitLab events
  • Personalized merchandise

Becoming a Core Team member

A new member can be added to the Core Team at any time through the following steps:

1. Current Core Team members can nominate a new member from the wider community at any time using a confidential issue in the Core Team group.
2. The nominee will be added to the Core Team if they accept the nomination and have received positive votes from two-thirds (2/3) of all current core team members within a two week period.
3. Once a new member has been added, start the onboarding process by following the steps outlined in the Core Team member orientation section below.
   • Core Team members are required to sign an NDA as a part of the onboarding process.
   • For Slack access, file an issue for multi-channel access following this example.

Monthly Core Team meetings

The Core Team meets once a month and anyone is welcome to join the call. Call logistics/agenda/notes for the meeting are available on the Core Team meeting page. All meeting recordings are available at the Core Team meeting Playlist.

Contacting Core Team members

Core Team members can be reached by mentioning @gitlab-core-team in issues or merge requests.

While GitLab is the primary means of contact, the Core Team can also be contacted on the #core Slack channel.

Service Desk will also be used as a communication tool for Core Team members. Anyone can open an issue in the gitlab-core-team project or contact the core team through email by sending an email directly to incoming+gitlab-core-team/general@incoming.gitlab.com. Core Team members who signed NDAs will also have access to GitLab Slack channels.

Offboarding and stepping down gracefully

If you are no longer able to or interested in serving in the Core Team, you should make an announcement on the #core Slack channel. When you step down, you will become a Core Team Alumni. Once a Core Team member steps down, GitLab team member(s) will start the off-boarding activities to:

1. Move the individual from the team.yml file to the alumni.yml file.
2. Create an issue in team-member-epics/employment using the offboarding template and fill out the "Core Team Members" section to remove the individual from GitLab Slack, the Core Team Group, gitlab-org etc.

Core Team Member Orientation

1. Create an issue in the Lifecycle Management Project using the Core Team Member Orientation Issue Template and follow the steps outlined.

Core Team member benefits

As part of the trust, value and recognition that joining the Core Team implies, each member is granted a number of benefits to support them in their contributions.

Slack access

Core Team members are granted access to the GitLab team's Slack instance as part of their Core Team Member Orientation.

The level of access varies from full to limited (as a multi-channel guest), depending on when the Core Team member joined the team. The ultimate goal is to have a consistent access level for all Core Team members, which is part of the discussion at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/infrastructure/-/issues/10371

Developer permissions for GitLab projects

To improve their development experience, Core Team members are granted Developer permissions on the gitlab-org group, where the vast majority of projects for GitLab (the product) reside. For any project under that group, and among other abilities, this enables them to:

• Create branches on the source project instead of forks
• Assign merge requests
• Assign issues
• Manage and assign labels

At this time, Core Team members are not added to the gitlab-com group , which is used for projects and processes associated to the GitLab company.

The Code Contributor Program Manager will generally take the action to grant this permission as part of the new Core Team member's orientation issue.

Team page listing

To emphasize their affiliation and closeness to the GitLab team, and to raise visibility on their profile, Core Team members can add themselves to the GitLab team page via the Code Contributor Program Manager (who will be able to merge the MR).

This will list their profile on the Core Team page as well.

GitLab EE license

To enable contributions and to gain insight on GitLab EE capabilities, Core Team members can request an Ultimate or Gold GitLab license for development purposes via the Code Contributor Program Manager.

GitLab EE licenses for Core Team members are granted for 1 year and can be renewed for another year during the Core Team member term. If a member decides to step down but still wishes to contribute to GitLab EE occasionally, they will still be eligible for a GitLab EE license, but the renewal period will be the standard 3 months.

There is no specific limit on the number of users to request. We trust Core Team members to use their own judgement to estimate the number of users they will need for development purposes, and not to use the license for for-profit purposes.

JetBrains license

To support their code contributions to GitLab, Core Team members can request a JetBrains license for development purposes via the Code Contributor Program Manager.

Sponsored access to GitLab events

To support contribution at in-person or virtual events, Core Team members will be eligible for sponsored access (subscription, accommodation, travel) to GitLab events (e.g. GitLab Contribute, GitLab Commit).

Personalized merchandise

On occasion, the GitLab team might offer personalized merchandise exclusive to Core Team members to contribute in style!