OK, here is a go at some personal observations:
The main symptom of the TC's brokenness is that it is not making decisions, or not making them fast enough. I haven't heard anyone suggest that the TC is actually making wrong decisions. The causes seem to include: * Some TC members not being very active at all * Some TC members not being interested in particular issues or not available at particular times * A feeling that it is generally more right to defer a decision than to make a wrong one, resulting in many votes of FD * Getting distracted by details of proposed resolution texts * Inability to respond quickly in situations where that is necessary (eg, to preserve the status quo, or to give maintainers a quick answer) because the resolution process is cumbersome * Getting distracted by arguments over procedure and principles - when is it right to overrule - how should the TC enforce its judgements (eg, who if anyone may NMU) - may the TC legitimately set out a process for dealing with consequences of its decisions - for example, if the TC decides that a disputed name belongs to one package or to another or to neither, may or should the TC get involved in how the new name(s) are chosen and/or approved ? - chairmanship rotation thing * Inactive members don't want to retire because they will give up something which they can then not get back without great effort. (This is a problem common to many of Debian's institutions.) And we can't fix any of these easily because: * There is no easy way to change the way the TC makes its decisions I think we could fix these by * Increasing the size of the committee to provide more available energy and effort * Writing some guidelines for the basis of decisions * Making it easier to remove people * Making it easier to change the processes So I would like to suggest something radical. The decisionmaking processes of the TC should be taken out of the Constitution. Instead, the TC and the DPL should decide between them a Charter which says: * How the TC chair is appointed * How big the TC is * What the TC's resolution process is * How TC members get appointed and removed * Guidelines/principles for TC decisions * How the Charter itself is changed The only thing which has to remain in the Constitution is some backstop about the process for overruling a maintainer. And I think reducing the supermajority to 2.5:1 seems fine to me; or some other number. e, the base of natural logarithms, perhaps :-). The quorum should be sqrt(). If we do this then we will be able to experiment with the TC's processes until it is working properly. Ian. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]