add maintainers guide

src/Maintainers_Guide.md

@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+# BIDS Maintainers Group Guide
+
+The BIDS Maintainers are a key group of members that ensure that the BIDS infrastructure is kept up.
+The maintainers have wide-ranging responsibilities that enable BIDS to continue to grow and succeed.
+All maintainers are listed in the [DECISION-MAKING document](DECISION-MAKING.md#definitions),
+hosted at the bids-specification repository.
+As furthermore detailed in the DECISION-MAKING document,
+maintainers have a set of rights that go beyond those of a contributor.
+
+The following guide draws heavily on a related [blog post](https://matthewrocklin.com/blog/2019/05/18/maintainer)
+on “The Role of a Maintainer” by Matthew Rocklin,
+which is a recommended reading in conjunction with this guide.
+
+## Why become a maintainer?
+
+As a BIDS maintainer you may get the chance to:
+
+* Learn to work as a team
+* Bring your expertise to the BIDS maintainers group and cover technical blind spot it may have
+* Improving your technical writing skills (for example documentation)
+* Learn to work with continuous integration and development
+* Advise and participate in the development of BIDS extensions that are most commonly associated with a publication
+
+## Responsibilities
+
+* Maintainers need to be loosely aware of the entire project
+  and use their knowledge to facilitate and initiate interactions
+  between different nodes of the project
+  and determine a reasonable and timely order for features to be added and issues to be resolved.
+* Maintainers direct other BIDS contributors in reviewing PRs,
+  writing clarifications to the specification, or other contributions.
+  Maintainers “dispatch” work teams.
+* Maintainers ensure that all contributions maintain a friendly and welcoming tone
+  to encourage productive conversations.
+* If no work team is suitable or available,
+  the final responsibility of getting the work done lies with the maintainers.
+* The development of each BIDS extension proposal should be “followed”
+  by at least one maintainer who acts as a preferential point of contact
+  between the BIDS maintainers and the BEP leads.
+
+Apart from these abstract and general responsibilities,
+maintainers within the BIDS community also need to ensure that the following tasks get done:
+
+* Keeping the [Contributors wiki](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/wiki/Recent-Contributors) up to date
+  and assisting new contributors with adding their credits
+  and performing community inquiries to ensure contributors are credited in the [Contributors appendix](https://bids-specification.readthedocs.io/en/stable/appendices/contributors.html)
+    * Deciding what constitutes a contribution worth adding to the “Contributors list”
+* Preparing a monthly report to the BIDS Steering Group.
+  The monthly report is in the form of milestones, issues addressed,
+  and open issues raised in the past month and goals/plans for the next month.
+  The BIDS Steering Group may ask for additional information or propose a meeting to further discuss report items.
+  The report format and meetings are at the discretion of the BIDS Steering Group.
+
+Maintainers are not expected to individually be responsible for all the responsibilities listed.
+Rather, the responsibilities are distributed amongst the entire group.
+
+## Organization
+
+* The group of maintainers are a group of people with the above mentioned responsibilities,
+  who commit to convene bi-weekly meetings to discuss the project.
+* One lead maintainer represents the group to other BIDS Groups, mediates disagreement among members,
+  and casts deciding votes when needed (tie break).
+  Note that the maintainers will always strive for consensus decision making, and will try to avoid resorting to voting.
+    * The lead maintainer may delegate any of their duties to another maintainer.
+    * The lead maintainer is appointed collectively by the group of maintainers, preferably through consensus.
+    * If no one else does, the lead maintainer sets the schedule for the maintainers meeting.
+* Additions to and departures from the group are negotiated collectively between the lead maintainer
+  and the new/departing members, as they involve the redistribution of duties.
+    * If a maintainer wishes to serve for a limited term, that can be arranged at the start. Otherwise, due notice is expected.
+    * See also “How to become a maintainer?” below
+
+## How to become a maintainer?
+
+If you are interested in becoming a BIDS maintainer, please get in contact with an active BIDS maintainer (for example via email).
+In that initial email it would be great if you could outline previous experience with BIDS (if any)
+and your motivation to become a maintainer, as well as particular interests for work that you would like to do.
+The BIDS maintainers will then invite you to one of the biweekly maintainers meetings (online)
+to discuss further steps and point you to the Onboarding documentation (things to do).
+
+We would be happy to hear from you!
+
+## Citation
+
+To cite the BIDS maintainers (as a consortium author),
+you can use the following OSF account: [https://osf.io/y48x9/](https://osf.io/y48x9/)
+
+## Notes
+
+As detailed in the [BIDS governance document](https://bids.neuroimaging.io/governance.html),
+this guide is subject to change and to amendment by the BIDS Steering Group.