[gentoo-council] Jun 11th, 2009 Council Meeting Format

[Doug Goldstein]

All,

The current council meetings have gotten completely out of hand for
weeks meetings have become nothing more then a continuation of the
senseless bicker-fest that have become the e-mail threads on GLEP54,
GLEP55, and EAPI-3 without any real progress or sense coming of them.
It's taken me a little bit to step up and put a stop to it but I fully
intend on putting a stop to it. The point of the council meetings is
to bring up a topic and decide on its merits whether it should be
brought into the Gentoo Project or not. I quote from the first line of
the Gentoo Council website:

"The elected Gentoo Council decides on global issues and policies that
affect multiple projects in Gentoo."

We have all collectively failed the Gentoo Project since we have not
been doing this for the past several weeks. I propose the following
changes be instituted before the meeting and happen through the
meeting:

1) Agenda Topics are posted to the appropriate mailing lists at a
MINIMUM 7 days prior to the meeting. (That means the agenda must be
formed by this Thursday).
1a) Any changes to the agenda should be ACK'd by the council members
(off list via the council alias). Changes can not occur less than 48
hours from the meeting.
2) The #gentoo-council channel become moderated as we had discussed
several times in the past.
2a) Topics will be brought up and people wishing to address the
council and the developer body at large should speak to the day's
appointed moderator. We can take turns or I can do it (maybe it'll
keep my head from banging against the keyboard as it has in the past
watching the various non-council members argue completely non-agenda
items back and forth).
2b) Requests are made in tells and honored in turn. The moderator will
announce to the channel who wishes to speak and the order they are in
and will efficiently work through the list. If you can not remain on
topic, you will lose your voice.
3) Once discussion on the topic has concluded, the council members
will vote on the actions requested by the developer body. That does
not mean it is time for council members to concoct an entirely new
plan by the seat of their pants... which leads me to the next topic.
4) Council members will now be expected to ACK the agenda on the
appropriate mailing lists at least 48 hours prior to the meeting. If
you can't, let the council know. You should be able to do this without
relying on your proxy, but your proxy may do this for you as well if
you have an extended away.
4a) Failure to ACK the agenda will be noted on the meeting minutes.
4b) Council members will be expected to formulate their thoughts in
reply to the agenda items and to research the discussion they wish to
have on the mailing list PRIOR to the meeting and not fly by the seat
of their pants.
4c) "The first I heard of this and I need 4 weeks to research this."
or any variation of the quoted statement is no longer a valid
statement. The point of the meeting is to weigh and debate the items
before us now. Do your research PRIOR to the meeting, not during.

I know this is a sharp pill to swallow and a firm deviation from the
past 2 or 3 months of council meetings but this is something the
council toyed with before and it was successful until we started to
let it slip to the situation we have today.

I look forward to the current council members ack'ing this e-mail
(whether it be in parts or in whole) and I look forward to our Gentoo
developer body ack'ing this e-mail to show support that they want a
"goal oriented action taking" council and not a "delay and talk"
council. This council has only a few short weeks remaining and now is
the time to start reviewing candidates and seeing if they will do for
you in the coming year what you expect a council to do.

If people like this, great. If people don't, then I can feel comforted
that I spoke my piece about what I want to see the council become and
people don't share the same vision as me.

-- 
Doug Goldstein
Gentoo Council Member