TC39 management Back

Although TC39 is a flat, consensus-based group, there are some particular organizational tasks where some committee delegates take a coordinating role.

Chair group

Who is involved

TC39 co-chairs: Aki Braun (@gesa), Brian Terlson (@bterlson), Yulia Startsev (@codehag)

How the chair group is chosen

Each year, the chair group is elected by the committee delegates towards the end of each year. The process is historically by consensus, but there may be a formal vote. If you are interested in being in the chair group, propose yourself for the role by the September meeting.

See the Ecma Rules, section 6.2 for formal rules regarding the chair group.

What the group does

Running meetings

The chair group runs the actual TC39 meetings. This involves

• Finalizing the agenda and arranging items during the meeting to meet committee requirements
• Administering the TCQ queue tool and calling on the next person to speak
• Maintaining committee decorum, including starting meetings on time, administering the timebox, and setting breaks

How to help

• Make your agenda modifications, including slide links, schedule constraints, and priority ordering, ahead of the start of the TC39 meeting.
• Help develop communication tools like TCQ – get in contact with Brian Terlson for next steps
• When contributing to committee discussion, use the queue tool to get in line to speak. Other interruptions should be limited strictly to clarifying questions.
• If you want to get involved in meeting organization further, contact a member of the chair group.

Organizing meeting locations

Every year, the chair group organizes meeting locations for the following year. Meetings are organized within the following guidelines:

• Dates: Meetings are generally held Tuesday-Thursday of the last week of odd-numbered months. On top of that formula, adjustments can be made to avoid holidays and conflicting events which are important to delegates, and to accommodate the requirements of meeting hosts. It is best to publish the meeting dates internally to committee members as soon as possible, to allow delegates to plan around the dates.
• Locations: TC39 traditionally holds some meetings each year in some in the western North America (including in the SF Bay Area and Seattle), eastern North America, and one meeting in Europe. Meeting location preferences of delegates should be reassessed each year to take into account changes in committee composition.
• Hosts: TC39 meetings are often hosted at member organization offices, but there is no restriction for this. The chair group finds meeting hosts by asking around in committee for who wants to host a meeting, within date and location requirements.

How to help

The chair group would like help in all aspects of meeting planning. Contact Daniel Ehrenberg (littledan@igalia.com) if you're interested in getting involved.

Administrating chat channels

The chairs are the administrators of TC39's chat channels. They are responsible for:

• Giving delegates the appropriate permission levels when they are onboarded and offboarded.
• Moderating the channels, for example blocking spammers and trolls when necessary.

The Code of Conduct committee (see below) also has the power to moderate the chat channels as part of its responsibility to respond to conduct reports.

Moderation actions include muting a user, kicking them from a channel, banning them permanently, and removing individual messages.

ECMA-262 editor group

Who is involved

Editor group for ES2019: Brian Terlson (@bterlson), Jordan Harband (@ljharb), Bradley Farias (@bmeck)

Co-editors for ES2020: Jordan Harband (@ljharb), Kevin Smith (@zenparsing)

What the group does

The editor group meets weekly to discuss issues. These meetings are open to any TC39 delegates who wish to participate.

Review and land proposals and PRs

The editor group is responsible for being the final decision-maker on what lands in the specification draft, based on committee consensus and the technical reviews of the editor group. The editor group runs on an internal consensus model, requiring the sign-off of each editor to merge a pull request.

Produce annual specification versions

Each year, a branch of the ECMA-262 specification is made, around late January/February, to be that year's ES20xx specification. The editor group produces this branch. Editorial changes or critical fixes are sometimes backported to this branch. After the IP opt-out period is complete, the specification is finalized and sent to the ECMA GA for ratification.

How to get involved

• Review PRs in the ecma262 repository
• Contact an editor to join in on editor group meetings if you are a TC39 delegate
• Join the editor group, which is selected by TC39 annually.

Code of Conduct Committee

Who is involved

See the list in the Code of Conduct.

What the group does

The Code of Conduct (CoC) Committee is responsible for responding to conduct reports. See the Code of Conduct for more information.

How to get involved

The CoC Committee is elected annually, in the November TC39 meeting. We're always looking for help from inside or outside of the group; please contact one of the members for more information.