Release procedure

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -55,9 +55,16 @@ A maintainer (who might be the moderator!) merges the issue at earliest on the a
 
 When an issue and accompanying pull request concludes with an agreed change to the conventions, the pull request is merged into the master branch according to the [Rules for CF Convention Changes](http://cfconventions.org/rules.html).
 
-The pull request is merged by a member of the Governance Panel or the CF Conventions and Standard Names Committee.
-The person who merges the pull request also closes the issue.
+The pull request is merged by a member of the Governance Panel or the CF Conventions and Standard Names Committee. That person carries out these tasks:
+
+* Set a milestone of the next release on the pull request.
+* Merge the pull request.
+* Label the issue with `change agreed`.
+* Close the issue.
 
 If subsequent discussion is required after the pull request has been merged then a new issue should be raised, rather than reopening the closed issue.
 An issue may be closed without the merging of a pull request if the change was not accepted by the community.
 In this case the issue may be reopened for further discussion at a later date.
+
+Whether or not a discussion concludes with a change of the Conventions, when closing an issue, the moderator should note in the final comment any users who have contributed significantly enough to warrant addition to the [CF Conventions Contributors List](https://cfconventions.org/conventions_contributors.html).
+

RELEASE.md

@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+# Release process for a new version of the CF conventions
+Complete the following steps in the order presented.
+
+## Documents
+
+* Set the release date in `cf-conventions.adoc` by editing the line containing the text `Version {current-version}`
+
+* Check that all merged Pull Requests that contributed to the new
+  version have the correct GitHub Milestone
+  (https://github.com/cf-convention/cf-conventions/milestones)
+  attached to them - the milestone has the same name as the new
+  version (e.g. `1.10`).
+
+* Check that the history in `history.adoc` is up to date. Every Pull
+  Request merged to the convention document should be referenced.
+
+### Repository
+
+* "Draft a new release" at https://github.com/cf-convention/cf-conventions/releases
+
+  * "Choose a tag" for the new version on the  `main` branch (e.g. `v1.10.0`)
+
+  * In the release description, create a link called "List of pull requests that contributed to CF-\<version\>" that points to the the list of contributing the Pull Requests that are labelled with the new version's GitHub milestone.
+  This link is found via https://github.com/cf-convention/cf-conventions/milestones, from where you select the version, and then view the "Closed" items.
+
+  * "Publish" the release, which will trigger the GitHub Actions that generate the documents to be copied over to the website repository (https://github.com/cf-convention/cf-convention.github.io)
+
+* Get the new documents from the "Artifacts" section of the latest GitHub Actions run (https://github.com/cf-convention/cf-conventions/actions), saving them locally:
+
+  * `cf-conventions.html`
+  * `cf-conventions.pdf`
+  * `images/*`
+  * `conformance.html`
+  * `conformance.pdf`
+
+## Move to the https://github.com/cf-convention/cf-convention.github.io repository
+
+### Add the release documents
+
+* Commit the new release documents into the `Data` folder as follows:
+
+  * `Data/cf-conventions/cf-conventions-<vn>/cf-conventions.html`
+  * `Data/cf-conventions/cf-conventions-<vn>/cf-conventions.pdf`
+  * `Data/cf-conventions/cf-conventions-<vn>/images/*`
+  * `Data/cf-documents/requirements-recommendations/conformance-<vn>.html`
+
+* Ensure that the PDF file is not stored with LFS. Note the these documents are found from the "Artifacts" seciotn of the latest GitHub Actions run in the cf-conventions repository.
+
+### Update website links and headings for the new version
+
+* The following files need updating (although be aware that changes to the web site may introduce new links in other files, in which case this list should be updated as part of the release):
+   * `documents.md`
+   * `faq.md`
+   * `latest.md`
+   * `requirements-and-recommendations.md`
+   * `software.md`
+
+## Update Conventions Contributors list
+Check the issues that have been closed since the last release.
+When closing an issue, the moderator will have mentioned any users whose contributions have been substantial enough to warrant addition to the [list of contributors](https://cfconventions.org/conventions_contributors.html).
+Add new users who need to be mentioned to `conventions_contributors.md`.
+
+## Announce the release
+
+* Wait until all changes are visible via the web site, and then announce the release on the `discuss` repo issue tracker: https://github.com/cf-convention/discuss/issues.
+  (Note: There may already be a open issue in which to do this.)