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The FreeBSD Handbook said that recruiting committers is one of the functions of core team.

Core team member, Grey Lehey said "We don't recruit committers any more. They have to come to us, with the mediation of a 'mentor', somebody who is prepared to hold their hand until the get up to speed. If they apply directly without a mentor, we'll send them off to look for one (except in a couple of cases where a core team member has offered to be the mentor)."

Lehey said that two possible core team goals may include: ensure a better working environment for the FreeBSD project and develop a better sense of direction.

The new core is working on resolving current problems, said core team member, Jun Kuriyama. "I think there is no consensus about political issues like 'what is important for us.'"

"The project direction is interesting. We need to do something about that if we want to still be around in five years' time," Lehey said. "As the project gets bigger, we're finding that the atmosphere is becoming more and more like that of a commercial software project."

Lehey also said their challenge is to ensure that it's still fun.

In the past, a few core team members had sponsors (or employers) that paid them to do FreeBSD work. At this time, Lehey doesn't believe that any of the core team are paid specifically for core team work. "[B]ut a number of employers consider it an advantage if their employees are core team members," he said.

Past core teams were accused of secrecy, Lehey said, so they promised to give more insight into what they did, primarily by having monthly reports. By the end of core 2's period of office, monthly reports were relatively reliable and timely, he said.

The core team's discussion is primarily done via their normal core mailing list, Kuriyama said.

The newly elected core team is: Warner Losh, Robert Watson, Peter Wemm, Greg Lehey, John Baldwin, Murray Stokely, Mark Murray, Wes Peters, and Jun Kuriyama.

The elected core team two years ago was: Satoshi Asami, David Greenman, Jordan Hubbard, Greg Lehey, Warner Losh, Doug Rabson, Mike Smith, Robert Watson and Peter Wemm.

In a past interview, Jordan Hubbard said that FreeBSD has had a core team since it started. Past core team members can be found on the core Team Alumni page in the FreeBSD Handbook.

Further information about the voting process and the other ballots, have a look at the FreeBSD election website at http://election.uk.freebsd.org/ and this article at Daemon News.

You can also read Lehey's article titled "Are we having fun yet?" about the project management also at Daemon News for more information.

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