KEEP Shepherds

README.md

@@ -29,6 +29,14 @@ If you only have a vague feature idea, please share it in the [#language-proposa
 
 If a discussion in these media has lead to a detailed proposal, feel free to submit a pull request here. We appreciate your work, but can not guarantee that all proposals will be considered soon after submission.
 
+### KEEP Shepherds
+
+To get under active consideration, a proposal usually need a **Shepherd**. Proposals are assigned to Shepherds (through the GitHub *assignee* field) that must be members of the KEEP project on GitHub. Unfortunately, as our resources are limited, a proposal may remain without a Shepherd for an undetermined amount of time. Some KEEPs get Shepherds proposed by the project lead, some don't. In the latter case project members are free to volunteer for the Shepherd role.  
+
+> Proposal authors may try to convince potential Shepherds to volunteer. It usually helps to get the proposal under active consideration. 
+
+**Shepherd's responsibilities**. The Shepherd is responsible for tracking the feedback and keeping the proposal in check with the discussions. This means that the Shepherd often collaborates with the proposal author on the text of the proposal. The Shepherd also presents the proposal at design meetings and initiates its consideration for a particular language version.   
+
 ## KEEP as a process
 
 We are gradually switching the design of Kotlin to this open process, the details of KEEP will be refined as we go.