1. Consider, which changes (aka commits) you want to release into master (This commit comparison view is quite useful)
2. Determine the new version number, following semantic versioning spec.
3. Move the relevant commits into a new branch release/x.x.x [using this git flow technique] (http://mclear.co.uk/2012/10/03/using-git-flow-to-release-new-version/)
4. Ensure, all version numbers are up-to-date
5. Be sure the API version is correct (new endpoints shouldn't be added to already existing API versions)
6. Update the version number in package.json (and elsewhere?)
7. Create a new entry in the changelog, documenting all changes.
8. Push release/x.x.x to github
9. Open a pull request from release/x.x.x to master
10. Once the pull request is merged into master, tag the the merge commit with x.x.x
11. Create a new windows build
12. Run bin/buildForWindows.sh
13. Name the resulting zip file: etherpad-lite-win-x.x.x-<git-sha>.zip
14. Ask John McLear to upload the file to beta.etherpad.org (https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/downloads) *Temporary until we can find a better solution
15. Update the docs
16. Build the docs with make docs
17. Put the contents of out/doc/ into a new directory doc/vX.X.X/ inside ether.github.com
18. Adjust all links on ether.github.com
19. Update the version numbers on all download buttons
20. Update the documentation link (version number in url and text) on the website
21. Push ether.github.com to github
22. Put up some notices on relevant sites, announcing the new release as well as possibly critical changes it introduces.
23. Pull master branch over develop
24. Update the beta.etherpad.org instance using git pull

Note that steps 9.3 and 14 are for Etherpad Site Admins