Re: Q: DPL helpers

[Sruthi Chandran]

On 19/03/26 14:50, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:

Hi Sruthi,

>From your platform:

1. Administrative

DPL helpers (DPL committee? DPL administrative assistance team?)

I have heard from the previous DPLs that the workload is too huge to
be completed by a single person. During my last round of contesting,
someone suggested the concept of having helpers for DPL. I agree with
the thought process and I intend to have 1-2 people to do some work
that can be offloaded from the DPL workload. This would help in
reducing revert time and increasing efficiency.

How would this work in practice? Specifically:

In practice, the delegation mechanism makes it hard to delegate DPL
powers without being quite specific about what is being delegated in
terms of areas of responsibility and decision-making. Do you plan to use
delegations for that offloading?

I do not intend to offload decision-making and DPL powers.

I might be wrong, but I think that the only way offloading has worked in
the past is by offloading specific tasks that don't involve the transfer
of DPL powers, such as:
- producing drafts, proof-reading documents

Producing drafts and proofreading is definitely one thing I have in mind.

- summarizing a specific issue and making recommandations to the DPL /
   advising the DPL on a specific area

I am not sure I would be considering this aspect. I might consider this where sharing of confidential information is not required.

Do you plan to go further than that?

A couple of other things I can think of are

- Following up on To Dos with both DPL and other parties involved

- As I mentioned in one of the previous replies on -vote, I intend to revisit all the existing delegated teams. DPL helpers could be help with the initial conversation with the teams

If you plan to go further, don't you think that the needed
coordination/alignment inside the "DPL team" will cost more than the
gains?

We wouldn't know until we try.

Also, if you plan to delegate DPL powers, do you already know who will
be the 1-2 trusted persons that will work with you? (this is a problem
in our election mechanism -- we elect one DPL, and it's a bit strange if
there's a group of people hidden behind the curtains who we only learn
about after the election) If you don't, how do you plan to recruit them?

I do not have anyone in my mind right now. As I do not intend to share any of the DPL powers, I do not think who becomes the DPL helpers team to help DPL with the basic administrative work should be a problem. This is still an idea and I am still not sure I will get anyone to volunteer for this. I just hope that there would be a couple of people to volunteer for this too as we get volunteers for all other teams in Debian.

Lucas

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