Governance template updates: org diversity, lifecycle, and voting module

[angellk]

Summary

Updates to CNCF governance templates based on patterns observed across 71 graduated and incubating project governance reviews. Adds guidance and structural mechanisms to help projects maintain organizational diversity as they grow.

Changes to existing templates

• GOVERNANCE-maintainer.md: Added "When to Evolve This Governance" section with transition signals (decisions stalling, no contributor path, single-org dominance, subproject divergence)
• GOVERNANCE-elections.md: Added term renewal enforcement (30-day deadline), governance/code alignment check, recommended minimum 5 seats
• GOVERNANCE-subprojects.md: Added per-subproject organizational diversity tracking guidance
• MAINTAINERS.md: Added emeritus section with inactivity threshold guidance, affiliation update requirement (30-day currency)

New template

• GOVERNANCE-org-balanced-voting.md: Reusable module any governance model can adopt. Counts votes per organization (not per person) on governance decisions. Includes implementation examples for maintainer council, steering committee, and federated subproject models. Referenced by cncf/toc#2265 as the template for the new graduation org-balance requirement.

Rationale

• Org-balanced voting is the strongest observed predictor of sustained organizational diversity across CNCF projects. No template existed for this until now.
• Projects using the Maintainer Council template often need to evolve but lack guidance on when. Transition signals are documented in every governance review but were not in the template.
• Multiple graduated projects have lapsed governance (expired steering terms, overdue elections). Term renewal enforcement prevents this.
• Many projects list inactive maintainers indefinitely, creating an appearance of diversity that does not reflect actual governance. Emeritus guidance normalizes the practice of moving inactive maintainers.

Companion PR

• cncf/toc#2265 strengthens governance criteria in the incubation and graduation application templates, referencing the new org-balanced voting module.