Draft Description of emeritus-like status

[Mitchell Baker]

We'll need a description of the Emeritus-like status. I've put
"emeritus" in brackets below because we should perhaps find another word

Also, the Module Ownership Module looks to be the right place to manage
this status. That gives us a known set of people to address questions
and issues.

Mitchell

++

When module owners and similar leaders pass on their leadership and
authority to others we refer to them as [Emeritus or similar word]
Module Owners and [Emeritus] leaders. This allows us to continue to
acknowledge their contributions to our (collective) success; mentoring
new leadership and passing on authority to new leaders is an important
part of maintaining a healthy project. [Emeritus] status can apply
to people who move to other roles within Mozilla, and to people who are
no longer active in Mozilla. It is intended to be a factual status,
not a subjective or evaluative one. This status applies to module
owners. It also applies to community leaders. Since we don't have
modules for community leadership (maybe we should), there may be some
discretion in which activities are covered, at least in the beginning.
The Module Ownership Module is responsible for this status.

[Axel Hecht]

Sounds good to me.

As for the naming, Emeritus is used for retired professors, and if
there's any cultural background shared among many mozillians, it's a
science/university background. Thus I think that's a perfectly good term.

Axel

[Eusebio Barrun Jr.]

Thank you Mitchell for sharing this, I personally experienced this during
the transition in our community that somebody
has to leave and should pass the role to other Mozillians.Having a wiki for
the guidelines will be a big help to the next
generation of contributors.