Council Working Groups

Council working groups (CWGs) are a way to improve focus and effectiveness. Reaching consensus in a group of seven can be difficult, but smaller groups working on specific topics tend to produce stronger proposals that are more likely to pass a council vote.

The purpose of a CWG is to explore a topic and bring a clear recommendation back to the full council. CWGs are not decision-making bodies. Their role is to develop recommendations that reflect the best interests of the project, consider the broader community, and can gain support from fellow council members.

Each CWG begins with a charter. This sets the stage by defining what the group will work on and how. The charter should include enough detail to align expectations, but not so much that it creates unnecessary debate before the work begins.

2025-2026

Active

Council Bylaws Working Group - Conflict of Interest

Timeframe	January 12, 2026–April 01, 2026
Participants	Patrick, Tim Maks
Purpose	Clarify the Council’s bylaws to improve internal and external processes to be more efficient and transparent.
Scope	Add a conflict of interest policy to our bylaws: define what a conflict of interest is for a Council member, how it is reported by individual Council members, and the process by which the conflict is dealt with in the Council. This includes how to transparently report on conflicts of interest to the community.
Goals	One or more motions to update the bylaws.
Risks	The areas of improvement for the bylaws are somewhat unrelated, there’s a risk of being unfocused. This will be mitigated by focusing on a single area of the bylaws at a time and re-approve the scope each time.

Term Sheet Working Group - Proposals/Vetos/Accountability

Timeframe	February 10, 2026–May 31, 2026
Participants	Mic, Philipp
Purpose	The Council Term Sheet outlines the framework for interactions between the Council and MZLA. Given MZLA’s significant growth in recent years, there is a recognised need to update the Term Sheet to more accurately reflect the Council’s evolving role as a strategic steering committee. In this second step for the WG we are going to add more details to the draft, following the direction approved by the Council.
Scope	Communicate current direction and results of prior conversations to the community. Refine the details and processes for the three key milestones: Proposals Vetos Accountability Define a formal process and mechanism by which the Council can request information from MZLA, in an effort to make more informed proposals. Establish the formal mechanism for the Council to exercise its Proposal and Veto rights during the annual Roadmap review cycle. Sharing the new Term Sheet draft details with MZLA and the Board to gather feedback.
Goals	Produce a written draft of the new Term Sheet for review by the Community, Council and MZLA Leadership, and MZLA Board. Stretch Goal: The new Term Sheet to be approved by the Council and the MZLA Board.

Closed / Expired

Roadmaps Working Group

Timeframe	August 04, 2025–December 31, 2025
Participants	Magnus, Teal
Purpose	The Roadmaps CWG exists to provide a clear, transparent conduit between the Thunderbird Council and MZLA Technologies for defining, refining, and monitoring Thunderbird’s desktop, mobile and services roadmaps. Its mandate is to secure strategic alignment, community confidence, and long-term sustainability—while leaving day-to-day engineering decisions with the appropriate product teams.
Scope	Gather roadmap proposals and context from MZLA teams, the full Council, and community channels (e.g. Connect, Bugzilla, GitHub). Facilitate dialogue that surfaces trade-offs, dependencies and risk, and steers the group toward broad consensus. Provide consulting to MZLA in creating the high-level roadmap artifacts for each major product or service, at a level suitable for Council approval and public communication. Recommend mechanisms for tracking progress and for handling mid-cycle adjustments—so the Council can intervene early if necessary. Key Principles: Shared Ownership – Council and MZLA collaborate as equal partners; final approval rests with the Council. Evidence-Driven – Proposals are supported by effort and risk estimates, user feedback, and quality metrics. Community – Community-voiced needs are incorporated transparently and given meaningful weight. Adaptability – Frameworks for change management and quarterly check-ins allow the roadmap to evolve. Focus on Quality – Continuous improvement of stability, security, and user experience are integrated.
Goals	Deliverables: Roadmap Package – A concise, prioritized set of roadmap items for each product area (desktop, Android, iOS, services, etc.) including owners, broad timelines, and headline success criteria Change-Management Guide – A short playbook describing how roadmap updates are proposed, reviewed and—when material—re-approved by the Council. Quarterly Review Outline – Agreed cadence, inputs, and outputs for progress check-ins between MZLA leadership and the Council. Goals: Roadmaps ratified by the Council within the charter period. Clear and accepted process for mid-year adjustments in place before roadmap execution begins. Positive feedback from Council, MZLA leadership and the wider community on transparency and collaboration.
Risks	Misalignment on priorities - Early joint meetings Scope creep into execution detail - Charter explicitly limits WG remit Resource or capacity constraints - Require effort and risk context before items are prioritized Communication delays - Bimonthly synchronous meeting; shared living document for status updates

Council Webpage Working Group

Timeframe	March 15, 2025–July 15, 2025
Participants	Mic, Philipp, Teal
Purpose	There has been a perceived lack of external information about what the council is, what it does, and why one should get involved. We aim to create a page that gives a high level overview: What the Council is and what it does How one can get involved and join the join the election roll How the Council relates to MZLA, the MZLA board, Mozilla, the Mozilla Corporation (MoCo), the Mozilla Foundation (MoFo) and the new nonprofit Mozilla Organization (MoOr?) Link to important documents (bylaws, term sheet, election roll, community updates) Provide contact information for the Council, as well as information about each member
Scope	Devise a single page that provides a high level overview of the council Work out what information needs to go onto the council page Work with MZLA's MarComm Team to ensure the page resonates with our audience Have MZLA's Services Team add the page to thunderbird.net Find a good place for where to share additional information about the council and set up this page.
Goals	Information that MZLA can turn into a council web page Present a prototype for the page with additional information to the council and agree on necessary changes.
Risks	If we pack too much information into the web page, we risk losing focus and not appealing to the community audience

Council New Term Sheet Working Group

Timeframe	June 09, 2025–December 31, 2025
Participants	Mic, Philipp
Purpose	The Council Term Sheet outlines the framework for interactions between the Council and MZLA. Given MZLA’s significant growth in recent years, there is a recognized need to update the Term Sheet to more accurately reflect the Council’s evolving role as a strategic steering committee.
Scope	Clarify the Council’s role as a strategic steering committee for MZLA. Define the channels and frequency of interaction between the Council and MZLA leadership. Establish clear expectations for the Council’s input on key initiatives and decisions. Ensure alignment between the Council’s advisory function and MZLA’s long-term goals.
Goals	Clarify and improve the Council’s strategic role and responsibilities with MZLA’s evolving priorities. Update the Term Sheet to reflect how Thunderbird has grown, clearly outlining roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes. Improve coordination between the Council and MZLA leadership with clearer communication practices.

Council Bylaws Working Group

Timeframe	June 20, 2025–December 31, 2025
Participants	Patrick, Tim Maks
Purpose	Clarify the Council’s bylaws to improve internal and external processes to be more efficient and transparent.
Scope	Clarify how the Council makes decisions. We roughly follows Robert’s Rules, but there are some areas that could use clarification: What happens if a Council member abstains? How does voting asynchronously work? How do we know when we’re ready to vote? Clarify the voting period. General clarifications of how the process works. (Write the process down.)
Goals	One or more motions to update the bylaws.
Risks	The areas of improvement for the bylaws are somewhat unrelated, there’s a risk of being unfocused. This will be mitigated by focusing on a single area of the bylaws at a time and re-approve the scope each time.