[gentoo-project] Re: [gentoo-dev] Nominations open for the Gentoo Council 2008/2009

[Ferris McCormick]

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On Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:33:34 +0100

Roy Bamford <neddyseagoon@g.o> wrote:



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> On 2008.06.05 01:00, Łukasz Damentko wrote:
> > Hi guys,
> >
> > Nominations for the Gentoo Council 2008/2009 are open now and will be
> > open for the next two weeks (until 23:59 UTC, 18/06/2008).
>
> Team,
>
> I don't want to nominate anyone who hasn't been nominated already.
> I would like to address all the candidates who have or will accept
> council nominations.
>
> 1. Please tell us how/if you plan to fix GLEP 39. (You may not consider
> it broken)
>
Mostly it's not broken.  However, I think the intent of the rule

"If any meeting has less than 50% attendance by council members,..."

is to prevent the council from meeting without a quorum.  If at a

meeting they don't have a quorum and thus don't meet, I'd consider that

to be a non-meeting and treat those who did not make it just as "absent"

under normal meeting rules.



> 2. As one of the first priorities will be setting policy for pending
> appeals what policy do you propose ?
>
Any developer making an appeal would explain why the appeal should be

successful using any information he chooses, then Council would decide

(deny, grant on the merits, grant on procedural grounds, whatever).

I'd also add two new requirements:

1.  Any appeal must be heard and decided within xxx days;

2.  Any Council member who is on record as to the merits of the action

being appealed could not take part in the appeal process unless the

developer making the appeal allows it.  Probably  this would mean a

discussion between that developer and the Council.

Of course Council members have opinions of devrel actions, but I think

it creates a potential conflict of interest if they broadcast them.

> 3. If you are not on the council already, how will you make time for
> the extra work?


I already have the time, really.  Although I am a member of several

projects in Gentoo, right now only Trustees require much time.



> 4. How do you think the council and trustees can work together to make
> Gentoo better?
> Not just the code base but the cooperative environment we all work
> together in too.
> Disclosure - I have a personal interest in responses as a trustee.
>


I'm already a trustee, so having a council member who is a trustee is

a start.

Trustees and Council together are responsible for the smooth working

of Gentoo, but with largely complementary areas of authority.  So I

think the two groups should begin by looking for places they both can

usefully contribute and work to put cooperation there in place (Code

of Conduct comes to mind because it applies to the entire community

but Council is pretty much limited to developers).  Then set out to

put such cooperation in place.

There's a lot of hand-waving in that statement because I don't have

any specific mechanism for carrying it out in mind.

Another idea is to sit down and look at just what Gentoo's business

model is.  We know there is one because the Foundation owns things

like trademarks or funds (as it must because you have to have some

sort of legal entity in place to do that).  But the Foundation is not

much involved directly in performing technical guidance, say (although

I can think of cases where it might be). I personally think it makes

sense to look at bringing the two closer together to look more like a

traditional business (although this is perhaps a minority view).  For

our continued health I think we have to work toward this goal.

> 5. Tell us a little about yourself - the skills and experience you can
> bring to the council?
>
I've been around for a long time in the business world as a developer,

manager, and lawyer. (I might actually be Gentoo's oldest

developer.)

I've been a Gentoo developer for a bit more than 4 years. In

Gentoo I'm sparc (architecture) lead, a trustee, and a member of devrel

and userrel.  I am no longer all that strong technically, but

I think I have a pretty good feel for how the software development

process works.  And both within Gentoo and in the real world I have

spent a lot of time working with people in areas like mediation or

management.  So I guess I'd say I'm a "people oriented" person with a

reasonable understanding of the development process, but certainly not

Gentoo's strongest technical person. 

> 6. Tell us one outstanding (in your own mind) contribution you made to
> Gentoo in the last year.
>
I am happiest with my part in making the Foundation legal

again.  I was elected sparc lead and elected to the trustees, but I

hardly view those as contributions.

> Any candidate who does not have time/interest to prepare a manifesto
> addressing the above and anything else they want to say to the
> electorate will have a hard time convincing me that they have the time/
> interest to undertake the duties of a council member.
>
> I look forward to seeing links to your manifestos on
> http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/council/voting-logs/council-2008-
> nominees.xml
>
>
I'll provide a link in the next week or so.  Most likely to a link to a

text file in d.g.o/~fmccor/

> - --
> Regards,
>
> Roy Bamford
> (NeddySeagoon) a member of
> gentoo-ops
> forum-mods
> treecleaners
> trustees
>
> For the avoidance of doubt, I write as an individual developer and not
> on behalf of any project I may be a member of.
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> --
> gentoo-dev@l.g.o mailing list
>
Hope this helps,

Regards,

Ferris



- --

Ferris McCormick (P44646, MI) <fmccor@g.o>

Developer, Gentoo Linux (Sparc, Devrel, Userrel, Trustees)

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