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+# CoreDNS Governance
+
+## Principles
+
+The CoreDNS community adheres to the following principles:
+
+- Open: CoreDNS is open source, advertised on [our website](https://coredns.io/community).
+- Welcoming and respectful: See [Code of Conduct](CODE-OF-CONDUCT.md).
+- Transparent and accessible: Work and collaboration are done in public.
+- Merit: Ideas and contributions are accepted according to their technical merit and alignment with
+  project objectives, scope, and design principles.
+
+## Project Lead
+
+The CoreDNS project has a project lead.
+
+A project lead in CoreDNS is
+a single person that has a final say in any decision concerning the CoreDNS project.
+
+The term of the project lead is one year, with no term limit restriction.
+
+The project lead is elected by CoreDNS maintainers
+according to an individual's technical merit to CoreDNS project.
+
+The current project lead is identified in the top level [OWNERS](OWNERS) file with the string
+`project lead` and the term behind the name.
+
+
+## Expectations from Maintainers
+
+Every one carries water...
+
+Making a community work requires input/effort from everyone. Maintainers should actively
+participate in Pull Request reviews. Maintainers are expected to respond to assigned Pull Requests
+in a *reasonable* time frame, either providing insights, or assign the Pull Requests to other
+maintainers.
+
+Every Maintainer is listed in the top-level [OWNERS](https://github.com/coredns/coredns/blob/master/OWNERS)
+file, with their Github handle and a possibly obfuscated email address. Everyone in the
+`approvers` list is a Maintainer.
+
+A Maintainer is also listed in a plugin specific OWNERS file.
+
+A Maintainer should be a member of `maintainers@coredns.io`, although this is not a hard requirement.
+
+## Becoming a Maintainer
+
+On successful merge of a significant pull request any current maintainer can reach
+to the author behind the pull request and ask them if they are willing to become a CoreDNS
+maintainer. The email of the new maintainer invitation should be cc'ed to `maintainers@coredns.io`
+as part of the process.
+
+## Changes in Maintainership
+
+If a Maintainer feels she/he can not fulfill the "Expectations from Maintainers", they are free to
+step down.
+
+The CoreDNS organization will never forcefully remove a current Maintainer, unless a maintainer
+fails to meet the principles of CoreDNS community,
+or adhere to the [Code of Conduct](CODE-OF-CONDUCT.md).
+
+## Changes in Project Lead
+
+Changes in project lead or term is initiated by opening a github PR.
+
+Anyone from CoreDNS community can vote on the PR with either +1 or -1.
+
+Only the following votes are binding:
+1) Any maintainer that has been listed in the top-level [OWNERS](OWNERS) file before the PR is opened.
+2) Any maintainer from an organization may cast the vote for that organization. However, no organization
+should have more binding votes than 1/5 of the total number of maintainers defined in 1).
+
+The PR should only be opened no earlier than 6 weeks before the end of the project lead's term.
+The PR should be kept open for no less than 4 weeks. The PR can only be merged after the end of the
+last project lead's term, with more +1 than -1 in the binding votes.
+
+When there are conflicting PRs about changes in project lead, the PR with the most binding +1 votes is merged.
+
+The project lead can volunteer to step down.
+
+## Changes in Project Governance
+
+Changes in project governance (GOVERNANCE.md) could be initiated by opening a github PR.
+The PR should only be opened no earlier than 6 weeks before the end of the project lead's term.
+The PR should be kept open for no less than 4 weeks. The PR can only be merged follow the same
+voting process as in `Changes in Project Lead`.
+
+## Decision making process
+
+Decisions are build on consensus between maintainers.
+Proposals and ideas can either be submitted for agreement via a github issue or PR,
+or by sending an email to `maintainers@coredns.io`.
+
+In general, we prefer that technical issues and maintainer membership are amicably worked out between the persons involved.
+If a dispute cannot be decided independently, get a third-party maintainer (e.g. a mutual contact with some background
+on the issue, but not involved in the conflict) to intercede.
+If a dispute still cannot be decided, the project lead has the final say to decide an issue.
+
+Decision making process should be transparent to adhere to
+the principles of CoreDNS project.
+
+All proposals, ideas, and decisions by maintainers or the project lead
+should either be part of a github issue or PR, or be sent to `maintainers@coredns.io`.
+
+## Github Project Administration
+
+The __coredns__ GitHub project maintainers team reflects the list of Maintainers.
+
+## Other Projects
+
+The CoreDNS organization is open to receive new sub-projects under its umbrella. To accept a project
+into the __CoreDNS__ organization, it has to meet the following criteria:
+
+- Must be licensed under the terms of the Apache License v2.0
+- Must be related to one or more scopes of the CoreDNS ecosystem:
+  - CoreDNS project artifacts (website, deployments, CI, etc)
+  - External plugins
+  - Other DNS related processing
+- Must be supported by a Maintainer not associated or affiliated with the author(s) of the sub-projects
+
+The submission process starts as a Pull Request or Issue on the
+[coredns/coredns](https://github.com/coredns/coredns) repository with the required information
+mentioned above. Once a project is accepted, it's considered a __CNCF sub-project under the umbrella
+of CoreDNS__.
+
+## New Plugins
+
+The CoreDNS is open to receive new plugins as part of the CoreDNS repo. The submission process
+is the same as a Pull Request submission. Unlike small Pull Requests though, a new plugin submission
+should only be approved by a maintainer not associated or affiliated with the author(s) of the
+plugin.
+
+## CoreDNS and CNCF
+
+CoreDNS is a CNCF project. As such, CoreDNS might be involved in CNCF (or other CNCF projects) related
+marketing, events, or activities. Any maintainer could help driving the CoreDNS involvement, as long as
+she/he sends email to `maintainers@coredns.io` (or create a GitHub Pull Request) to call for participation
+from other maintainers. The `Call for Participation` should be kept open for no less than a week if time
+permits, or a _reasonable_ time frame to allow maintainers to have a chance to volunteer.
+
+## Code of Conduct
+
+The [CoreDNS Code of Conduct](CODE-OF-CONDUCT.md) is aligned with the CNCF Code of Conduct.
+
+## Credits
+
+Sections of this documents have been borrowed from [Fluentd](https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/blob/master/GOVERNANCE.md) and [Envoy](https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/blob/master/GOVERNANCE.md) projects.