# Emeritus Status for OVS Committers

OVS committers are nominated and elected based on their impact on the Open vSwitch project. Over time, as committers’ responsibilities change, some may become unable or uninterested in actively participating in project governance. Committer “emeritus” status provides a way for committers to take a leave of absence from OVS governance responsibilities. The following guidelines clarify the process around the emeritus status for committers:

- A committer may choose to transition from active to emeritus, or from emeritus to active, by sending an email to the committers mailing list.

- If a committer hasn’t been heard from in 6 months, and does not respond to reasonable attempts to contact him or her, the other committers can vote as a majority to transition the committer from active to emeritus. (If the committer resurfaces, he or she can transition back to active by sending an email to the committers mailing list.)

- Emeritus committers may stay on the committers mailing list to continue to follow any discussions there.

- Emeritus committers do not nominate or vote in committer elections. From a governance perspective, they are equivalent to a non-committer.

- Emeritus committers cannot merge patches to the OVS repository.

- Emeritus committers will be listed in a separate section in the MAINTAINERS.rst file to continue to recognize their contributions to the project.

Emeritus status does not replace the procedures for forcibly removing a committer.

Note that just because a committer is not able to work on the project on a day-to-day basis, we feel they are still capable of providing input on the direction of the project. No committer should feel pressured to move themselves to this status. Again, it’s just an option for those that do not currently have the time or interest.