On Fri, Jun 15, 2018 at 06:06:57AM -0400, Stephen Gallagher wrote: > On Thu, Jun 14, 2018, 10:42 PM Josh Boyer <jwbo...@fedoraproject.org> wrote: > > > On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 5:51 PM Till Maas <opensou...@till.name> wrote: > > > > > > On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 03:57:36PM -0400, Josh Boyer wrote: > > > > On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 3:53 PM Randy Barlow > > > > > > > > Downside is that it would be possible (though I'd guess unlikely) for > > > > > all of FESCo to suddenly change to 9 different people and there'd be > > no > > > > > members who know the current state of things. We would also need to > > do > > > > > something a little awkward to get into this state since we currently > > > > > have staggered terms. > > > > > > > > The election structure was setup specifically to avoid this problem. > > > > The alternative solutions were all pretty poor. > > > > > > This seems to be a very theoretical problem because it would mean that > > > we have nine times the number of new candidates that we have now and > > > everyone is so unsatisfied with FESCo that only new candidates will be > > > elected. And if there is so deep dissatisfaction, a fresh start might > > > even be a good idea. Also there would still be other people around to > > > provide guidance or there is another problem. > > > > It was a solution to a practical problem when we came up with it. > > Fedora was young, core and extras had just merged. People were > > excited about guiding Fedora at a technical level. We needed the > > structure to ensure we didn't have massive swings in direction on > > technologies and sufficient transfer of knowledge. The overall number > > of contributors was smaller, but the interest level was greater. > > > > I'm not against reworking the election schedule or terms, but it's > > good to know why something was put in place before you change it. > > Dismissing it as theoretical does nothing but make me feel old, which > > is OK because I am. I'm not convinced a change in the election > > structure or term limits is really going to drum up interest in FESCo > > though. The problems we face there are more fundamental than that. > > > > josh > > > > > Over the past five years or so, the membership in FESCo has rarely changed > except when an existing member voluntarily gives up their seat. The > elections rely heavily on name recognition and so being on FESCo is > self-reinforcing. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, however. Clearly it > has been working for Fedora, since the Project is thriving. > > I'd like to suggest a more radical approach then: what if we only hold > elections under two circumstances? > > 1) An existing member steps down and announces that a seat is opening. > 2) A vote of no-confidence is raised
I'm against such a change. Essentially, it would make the membership calcified. It is good to have the occasional re-assessment that the elections provide. IMHO the two conditions are not enough for some common cases: Re 1. experience shows that when other priorities arise to the point that it is hard to keep participating at an adequate level, people usually scale down their involvement, often to the point of becoming non-responsive, rather then quitting outright. (I do this, and every time I tell myself "it would have been better to just quit one year ago", it's always one year too late. This is not bad intentions, just human psychology). I don't think such "voluntary quitting" works at all. Re 2. a vote of no-confidence is confrontational, a lot of work for the people raising it, so people would avoid it except in a dire situation. It would work if there was just one member who was clearly "bad" (in whatever sense), but for example doesn't work at all for the all-too-common case of "this body is not responsive enough, we need some new blood". Zbyszek _______________________________________________ devel mailing list -- devel@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to devel-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://getfedora.org/code-of-conduct.html List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TRBPNBMBIUWYDJKKKO5VIWMJI2AX5W62/
