(For your information) Fwd: VOTE by 2025-07-22/23: Proposed W3C Process 2025

Dear W3C Process Community Group members,

For your information, the proposed W3C Process 2025 is under review by 
the Advisory Committee until 03:59 UTC on 2025-07-23 (23:59, Boston time 
on 2025-07-22).

Regards,
Xueyuan Jia, W3C Marketing & Communications

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:  VOTE by 2025-07-22/23: Proposed W3C Process 2025
Date:  Tue, 24 Jun 2025 22:35:35 +0800
From:  Xueyuan Jia <xueyuan@w3.org>
To:  w3c-ac-members@w3.org


Dear Advisory Committee Representative,

The Advisory Board (AB) is pleased to propose W3C Process 2025:
https://www.w3.org/policies/process/drafts/snapshots/2025-06

Please indicate whether you endorse it as operative Process Document, or 
object to its advancement, via this form:
https://www.w3.org/wbs/33280/Process-2025/

The deadline for responses is 03:59 UTC on 2025-07-23 (23:59, Boston 
time on 2025-07-22) [0].

Major changes to the Process include:

* Removing the Proposed Recommendation phase of the Recommendation
   track, and applying the AC Review instead directly to the Candidate
   Recommendation. This maintains the qualifications for Recommendation
   while reducing administrative steps.
   See 
https://www.w3.org/policies/process/drafts/snapshots/2025-06#transition-rec

* Introducing a new Charter Refinement phase to formalize the
   issue-tracking and decision-making of our currently informal review
   phase prior to AC Review of a charter. The goals of this new phase
   are to:
      * Reduce the number of Formal Objections raised during AC Review
        that could have been avoided by solving small problems earlier
        and developing consensus on larger ones through dialog.
      * Ensuring that comments get addressed, and not ignored, by those
        developing the charter.
      * Making the chartering process more understandable, and therefore
        easier to participate in.
   You can read the new Charter Refinement section at: 
https://www.w3.org/policies/process/drafts/snapshots/2025-06#group-lifecycle

Other significant changes include:

* Requiring higher vote thresholds for low-participation AC Appeal votes
   by adopting the thresholds from the Bylaws.
   See 
https://www.w3.org/policies/process/drafts/snapshots/2025-06#appeal-vote
* Applying the Bylaws concept of Good Standing to AC votes (AB and TAG
   elections and AC Appeals only; not AC Reviews, which are technically
   not votes).
   See https://www.w3.org/policies/process/drafts/snapshots/2025-06#standing
* Clarifying the differences between major (AC-approved) and minor
   (Team-approved) amendments to a charter, as requested by PSIG.
   See 
https://www.w3.org/policies/process/drafts/snapshots/2025-06#CharterReview
* Fine-tuning various details of the Council process.
   See 
https://www.w3.org/policies/process/drafts/snapshots/2025-06#changes-2025-decisions
* Simplifying the Member Submissions section.
   See 
https://www.w3.org/policies/process/drafts/snapshots/2025-06#Submission

----------------------------------------------
Summary of the proposed Process 2025 materials:
----------------------------------------------
Process draft:
https://www.w3.org/policies/process/drafts/snapshots/2025-06
Changes list:
https://www.w3.org/policies/process/drafts/snapshots/2025-06#changes
Diff (against Process 2023):
https://services.w3.org/htmldiff?doc1=&doc2=https://www.w3.org/policies/process/drafts/snapshots/2025-06
Issues addressed since the last Process:
https://github.com/w3c/process/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aclosed%20milestone%3A%22Process%202024%2F2025%22
Issues addressed during the informal review period:
https://github.com/w3c/process/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20%20created%3A%3E2025-05-19
Issues deferred:
https://github.com/w3c/process/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20milestone%3ADeferred

Thank you,

For the W3C Advisory Board,
Elika Etemad, Editor, W3C Process Document,
Florian Rivoal, Editor, W3C Process Document;
Xueyuan Jia, W3C Marketing & Communications

[0] 
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20250722T2359&p1=43