Gentoo Archives: gentoo-council

From: Richard Freeman <rich0@g.o>
To: gentoo-council@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-council] Re: Meeting format
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:47:15
Message-Id: 20090710124654.A1BFC15E4ED2@gw.thefreemanclan.net
In Reply to: [gentoo-council] Meeting format by Denis Dupeyron
1 Denis Dupeyron wrote:
2 > I also propose that we go back to moderating the council channel
3 > during meetings, and that we give +v very carefully.
4
5 I like some of the suggestions to have forum polls in place of scheduled
6 council meetings. If you do want to have a scheduled meeting, why not aim
7 to have 10-15 minute meetings. The channel would be moderated, the
8 moderator would present the next agenda item, and council members would
9 vote. Council members could read items into the minutes if desired.
10
11 When I've read council minutes in the past they seem like they tend to
12 ramble on. Sometimes I see a minute pass between posts. It seems like the
13 fact that the meetings are so long means that people end up having the
14 council on in the background while they do real life in the foreground.
15 Maybe when they pull up to a traffic light they type in another line on
16 their smartphone or something.
17
18 Why not try to have most of the content/discussion happen on mailing lists,
19 or irc as needed. The formal meeting time would be the time to formalize
20 the decisions that effectively have already been made.
21
22 After the conclusion of official business those who are able to could stick
23 around to chat/discuss more items, and moderation could be opened up at
24 some point. However, council members who have pressing matters would be
25 free to leave at the conclusion of official business.
26
27 I do like the idea of having a place where council members can "hang out"
28 and be available to devs for discussion. Certainly this doen't need to be
29 an on-duty assignment - just a place where people can go and be likely to
30 find council members. That could be email/irc/forums or whatever.
31
32 I'm also in favor of getting rid of slacker marks (by all means publish
33 attendence records - but don't take automatic action). The whole re-elect
34 the council after two months because the meeting times weren't clear thing
35 last year was a real waste of time/mandate. By all means have some
36 mechanism for recall if a council member suddenly stops showing up to
37 meetings. Maybe a petition signed by x developers, or a majority vote of
38 the council to start a votify poll for a recall. Any recall decision
39 should be ratified by the developer population of course, and council
40 members remain in office until kicked out.