Add initial membership documentation

PEP 609 has not yet been accepted to
formalize the current process, but
we can document the current processes and
lack of process.

Fixes pypa#28.

Signed-off-by: Sumana Harihareswara <[email protected]>

Author: brainwane

source/index.rst

@@ -52,4 +52,5 @@ For a user introduction to packaging, see the `Python Packaging User Guide
    help
    presentations
    history
+   members
    code-of-conduct

source/members.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+.. _`PyPA Members, and how to join`:
+
+=============================
+PyPA Members, And How To Join
+=============================
+
+:Last Reviewed: 2020-06-08
+
+Historically, the PyPA has been a loose confederation of people
+and projects; the word "authority" in the name was meant to be
+a joke.
+
+.. _`Does not require membership`:
+
+Does not require membership
+---------------------------
+
+Anyone is welcome to (while following licensing terms) use PyPA projects.
+
+Anyone is welcome to (while following the PyPA's :ref:`Code of Conduct`)
+contribute patches, bug reports, feature requests, ideas, questions,
+answers, and similar information in our `GitHub organization`_ and
+`Bitbucket organization`_ repositories, and discuss issues and plans
+with us in `the Packaging category on discuss.python.org`_ and on `the
+distutils-sig mailing list`_.
+
+.. _`Project membership`:
+
+Project membership
+------------------
+
+The PyPA member projects are those listed within our `GitHub organization
+<https://github.com/pypa>`_ and `Bitbucket organization
+<https://bitbucket.org/pypa>`_.
+
+We currently do not have a codified process for inviting or accepting
+projects to be PyPA members. :pep:`609` is currently under discussion
+to formalize the process.
+
+In the interim, to request PyPA project membership, start a thread on
+`the Packaging category on discuss.python.org`_ or on `the
+distutils-sig mailing list`_ requesting PyPA project
+membership. Criteria include the project adopting the PyPA's
+:ref:`Code of Conduct` and the project being relevant to Python
+packaging, as determined by existing members of PyPA. The decision
+will rest with the PyPA organizational administrators on GitHub or
+Bitbucket.
+
+.. _`Individual membership`:
+
+Individual membership
+---------------------
+
+Maintainership of a project that is under the PyPA organization
+automatically transfers individual membership in the PyPA. The PyPA
+individual members are those who have maintainer status (also known as
+committer status or write permissions) on any projects within the PyPA
+`GitHub organization <https://github.com/pypa>`_ or `Bitbucket
+organization <https://bitbucket.org/pypa>`_. Currently there is no
+public list of all PyPA individual members.
+
+The PyPA currently does not have a codified process for inviting or
+accepting individuals to be PyPA members.
+
+To become an individual member of the PyPA, you can do either of the following:
+
+1. attain PyPA project membership for your project (for which you are already a maintainer)
+2. attain maintainership in a project that is already a PyPA member project
+
+PyPA member projects each make their own decisions regarding granting
+maintainer rights.  :pep:`609`, if accepted, would not alter this.
+
+
+.. _GitHub organization: https://github.com/pypa
+.. _Bitbucket organization: https://bitbucket.org/pypa
+.. _the Packaging category on discuss.python.org: https://discuss.python.org/c/packaging
+.. _the distutils-sig mailing list: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig