You may not always realise it, but Joomla is a living CMS that is being developed, maintained and marketed by many volunteers worldwide. To make this work, a global project like ours needs structure, coordination, and organisation. How does Joomla do that? And who’s in charge of it all?

With volunteers working all over the world, you need to set up an organisation that can manage all that work effectively. Within Joomla, we have three departments: Production, Operations and Outreach. Each of these departments is divided into teams that work on different parts of the project: from marketing to programming, from putting together the Joomla Community Magazine to organizing events such as Pizza, Bugs & Fun, and from maintaining our own websites to finding funding for the project. A comprehensive overview of all teams and what they do can be found here: https://volunteers.joomla.org/teams  

All volunteers? Surely there must be a company behind this?

Nope. We’re 100% independent and volunteer-powered. No one pays us to do what we do, and no one tells us what to do or how to do it.

We do have an organisation that is the backbone of our existence: Open Source Matters. It’s a non-profit organisation that provides the project with the organisational, legal, and financial basis it needs to exist. 

The Board

Each department has a coordinator. These coordinators, together with the President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer, form the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters. All board members are volunteers.

Every year, two rounds of elections take place. Each board member holds their position for one year. The Board is divided into two groups, each with its own voting round, to ensure continuity: half of the Board is new, while the other half already has experience within the Board. That’s why we have elections twice a year. Every member of an official Joomla team can vote for the general roles on the board and for the coordinator of the department their team is in. 

So who’s the boss then?

Interesting question. You might think that the president decides what happens within Joomla, because that's what presidents do. Well... that's not how it works. The community sets the course. That's also why the coordinators of the various departments are on the Board. All roles within the Board are equal. So there is no boss, or, more precisely: we are all bosses. There is no "they" in Joomla. We may not all be in leadership positions, but we are all equally responsible. 

Who supervises the Board?

An advisory board has been set up for this purpose: a group of three to nine people who advise on important issues. The advisory board does not have voting rights, but it can put items on the Board's agenda. This way, they can ensure that important issues receive sufficient attention. 

Wanna join?

Do you have an idea, a suggestion for improvement, or do you want to get involved in Joomla? Fantastic! Check out the teams, read reports from the various departments and teams so you know what they are working on, and find your match: https://volunteers.joomla.org