docs: decision record about contributor onboarding process (#3197)

docs/developer/decision-records/2023-06-19-onboarding-contributors/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+# Changes to onboarding contributors
+
+## Decision
+
+Becoming a _"contributor"_ in the project will now require a proven track record of continuous contributions. The list
+of _"contributors"_ will be checked regularly for active participation, and inactive members will get removed.
+
+NB: the term _"contributor"_ refers to a specific role in the GitHub org defined by Eclipse, not in the loosely defined
+GitHub sense "person who has contributed once".
+
+## Rationale
+
+Contributors have certain rights, like assigning issue labels, that can have a significant impact on the lifecycle of an
+issue. For example, a contributor could remove the `triage` label (
+see [this decision-record](../2023-06-19-new-issue-triage-process)) and thus schedule an issue for planning. At the very
+least that causes additional work for the technical committee.
+Combined with the fact that up until now there was no real process to become a committer, that could cause confusion and
+additional effort.
+
+So in order to become a committer, there now has to be a sustained stream of valuable contributions in the form of
+pull-requests and beyond that, the contributor-to-be has to show that they'll be a valuable addition to the group, e.g.
+by participating in discussions, answering questions etc. It is generally assumed that the project guidelines
+regarding [pull requests](../../../../pr_etiquette.md), [code style](../../../../styleguide.md), [coding
+principles](../../architecture/coding-principles.md) etc. are adhered to.
+
+The intention behind this is not to make it unduly hard for people to participate in the project ("gate-keeping"), but
+rather to groom an active community, that gains insight and knowledge about EDC, and where members can - and are willing
+to - contribute back into the community.
+
+While pull requests are certainly the most important and impactful way of contributing, there are others, like
+participating in discussions, creating meaningful and well-formulated issues, etc. that will be taken into
+consideration.
+
+If active participation of a contributor stagnates or ceases completely, that contributor may get removed again without
+prior notice. Both adding and removing happens at the discretion of the technical committee of EDC.
+
+> Being a contributor first is a precondition to becoming a committer!
+
+## Approach
+
+- Adding and removing contributors is done by the technical committee in one of its regular meetings
+- There is no hard minimum amount of contributions, approval happens at the discretion of the committee. There also is
+  no guaranteed time frame for a decision.
+- After this decision-record gets accepted, the technical committee will evaluate the current list of contributors, and
+  perform an initial clean-up

docs/developer/decision-records/README.md

@@ -64,3 +64,4 @@
 - [2023-06-02-separating_plugins_and_metamodel](2023-06-02-separating_plugins_and_metamodel)
 - [2023-06-05-validation-engine](2023-06-05-validation-engine)
 - [2023-06-19-change-of-github-labels](2023-06-19-new-issue-triage-process/)
+- [2023-06-19-onboarding-contributors](2023-06-19-onboarding-contributors/)