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On 2008.09.01 13:55, Richard Freeman wrote: |
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[snip] |
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|
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Richard, |
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|
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Thank you for a well thought out mail. Its worth a point by |
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point response as it collects a number of issues together and I can use |
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my response to air some possibly contraversial solutions to some of the |
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problems you recognise. |
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|
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> I figured I'd raise an issue that is probably worth thinking about |
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> which |
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> doesn't appear to have come up. In the past the largest point of |
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> failure for the trustees has been simply not having enough of them. |
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I would generalise that to be "too few spread too thinly". However, we |
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are where we are, we need to get to where we want to be. |
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|
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> That being the case, does it make sense to do anything to limit |
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> potential contribution to this team? |
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Only as far as to prevent conflicts of interest. e.g. The council has |
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seven members and the foundation has five trustees. Would you permit |
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the corner case of trustees being a subset of council ? |
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|
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There are so few people interested in Trustee roles because Gentoo |
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developers are first and formost interested in software, not business |
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administration. In my view, we will find more trustees by allowing |
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users to become members, so that they may stand for the role. There was |
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a groundswell against this idea but maybe given time, views will |
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change. I don't think we will have a shortage of trustees but read on. |
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|
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> In theory council members are |
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> in the place they are in because for whatever reason they are willing |
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> and able to devote a lot of devotion to Gentoo. They should be far |
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> more capable of wearing multiple hats than others. I'm fine, of |
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> course, with general controls to prevent too much concentration of |
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> power - but that would apply to individual non-council trustees as |
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> well. |
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> |
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> Having dual-membership would also help to increase alignment of the |
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> two bodies. Ideally I'd probably only have one body (like most |
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> corporations), but there are good practical reasons for the current |
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> split (differing expertise/interest required, US residency issues). |
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I would like to work out a single body struture like most corporations |
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too but thats way in the future, after the foundation has shown that |
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its not going to vanish from the public eye. The trust from the gentoo |
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community simply isn't there yet and won't be for a few years. |
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|
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> |
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> In my thinking, if the only thing the trustees did was attend a 5 |
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> minute monthly meeting, cut the odd check to somebody helping out the |
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> organization, and renew the annual paperwork that would be a success. |
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/me smiles. |
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|
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> In order to do that we need a number of bodies for oversight, but not |
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> everybody needs to be willing to spend 10 hours a month on the |
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> foundation. If one or two are willing that is probably plenty - but |
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> they'll need to avoid being frustrated with others who might only |
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> appear to be dead weight (but dead weight is better than running into |
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> a situation where only 1-2 people even bother to run for office). |
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> |
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> I think that some of the problems in the past with the trustees has |
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> been a desire to bite off more than they could chew. Sure, maybe one |
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> or two members could have handled it, but if everybody isn't willing |
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> to go along then what happens is that nobody voices the problem out |
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> of a |
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> desire to go along with the team, but nobody contributes either and |
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> then |
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> 1-2 people get burned out carrying the load. The solution isn't to |
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> yell |
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> at the other non-contributors, but rather to not take on more than |
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> absolutely essential without fully counting the cost. |
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There are two stages to running the Gentoo Foundation. The first is to |
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get it set up the way New Mexico, the IRS and ourselves require, then |
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to manage its day to day business. |
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|
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We are mostly there with the first part - we still need to sort out a |
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bank account. After that we need to sort out the shop. It still doesn't |
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have any Gentoo CD/DVDs for sale. |
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|
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> Gentoo has some serious manpower constraints. That doesn't make us a |
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> "dying distro" or anything - but we do need to be careful about not |
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> focusing too much effort on non-essentials. If somebody wants to |
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> volunteer to do something extra that is great (that is how a |
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> community effort works), but it is important that we not assign |
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> "jobs" to volunteers that aren't absolutely essential. |
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I don't think we are doing that - if you spot something we are wasting |
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resource on, please tell us. |
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|
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> |
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> My personal opinion is that the trustees would do best to focus on |
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> making the foundation minimally functional (ie all essential legal |
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> paperwork in place - drop anything controversial and focus on bylaws |
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> that all can agree to). |
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The bylaws were agreed on Sunday, 31 August. Its the first time in the |
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Gentoo Foundations history that it has had formally adopted bylaws. |
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That means we now have terms of reference to appoint officers. Until |
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now, trustees have doubled as officers but that is set to change. That |
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will allow the trustees to revert to their more normal director roles |
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and try to attract people to the officer roles that are more skilled, |
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have more time etc., for the work. Its officers that do all the real |
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work under the direction of the trustees. That will increase the |
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foundation manpower. I should also make it clear that Foundation |
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offiers need not be Gentoo developers, anyone who is capable of |
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discharging the duties as stated in the bylaws can serve as an officer. |
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|
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<speculation> its likely that any officers who are not already gentoo |
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developers would become gentoo staff members, like myself |
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</speculation> |
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> Then it should really look to try to join an |
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> unbrella organization that will handle the routine issues. That will |
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> actually free up trustees to provide more high-level guidance to the |
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> organization without getting tied up in administration. |
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That is certainly one long term option. |
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|
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> |
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> All of this is just my personal opinion and I think the trustees |
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> would do well to at least think about some of this. |
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I think we have. |
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> I really don't |
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> need/demand any reply - you guys are the ones in the hot seat and you |
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> wouldn't have been elected if the rest of us didn't respect your |
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> judgment. Just be careful about limiting help - at the next trustee |
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> election we might find devs volunteering to run on a platform of "I |
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> don't intend to lift a finger do do much work, but I don't want to |
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> see the trustees die from not having a quorum so I'll run" and |
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> getting |
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> elected due to a lack of candidates. |
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Thats already happened, read some of the trustees election manifestos |
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from Feb 2008. |
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|
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> I'm not actually convinced that |
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> this is an entirely bad thing except that it deviates from what would |
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> be ideal. |
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> |
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|
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I'm surpised that the phrase "No individual shall serve as a Gentoo |
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Foundation Trustee and Gentoo Council Member concurrently" has stirred |
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up so much interest in the Foundation. I thought there were much more |
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contentious bits in the bylaws but I'm not saying which. |
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|
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The views expressed here are my own and do not represent the views of |
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the Gentoo Foundation or other trustees. |
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|
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- -- |
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Regards, |
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|
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Roy Bamford |
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(NeddySeagoon) a member of |
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gentoo-ops |
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forum-mods |
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treecleaners |
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trustees |
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