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Alec Warner wrote: |
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> On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 1:24 PM, Chrissy Fullam <musikc@g.o> wrote: |
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>> Refer to bylaws that were approved in today's Trustee meeting: |
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>> |
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>> I cannot understand why a person cannot be on the Council and on the |
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>> Trustees? We had someone do so in the past and no conflicts or issues arose. |
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>> What is the reasoning that a person cannot serve on the technical team and |
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>> the legal team? |
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> |
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> a) Should the member go missing we would be down 1 position in both |
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> bodies, a subcase of Single Point of Failure. |
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|
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I figured I'd raise an issue that is probably worth thinking about 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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That being the case, does it make sense to do anything to limit |
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potential contribution to this team? In theory council members are in |
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the place they are in because for whatever reason they are willing and |
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able to devote a lot of devotion to Gentoo. They should be far more |
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capable of wearing multiple hats than others. I'm fine, of course, with |
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general controls to prevent too much concentration of power - but that |
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would apply to individual non-council trustees as well. |
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|
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Having dual-membership would also help to increase alignment of the two |
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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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|
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In my thinking, if the only thing the trustees did was attend a 5 minute |
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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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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 appear |
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to be dead weight (but dead weight is better than running into a |
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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 been |
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a desire to bite off more than they could chew. Sure, maybe one or two |
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members could have handled it, but if everybody isn't willing to go |
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along then what happens is that nobody voices the problem out of a |
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desire to go along with the team, but nobody contributes either and then |
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1-2 people get burned out carrying the load. The solution isn't to 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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|
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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 community |
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effort works), but it is important that we not assign "jobs" to |
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volunteers that aren't absolutely essential. |
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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). 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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|
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All of this is just my personal opinion and I think the trustees would |
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do well to at least think about some of this. 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 see |
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the trustees die from not having a quorum so I'll run" and getting |
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elected due to a lack of candidates. I'm not actually convinced that |
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this is an entirely bad thing except that it deviates from what would be |
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ideal. |