Re: [gentoo-dev] Monthly Gentoo Council Reminder for January

[Lares Moreau <lares.moreau@gmail.com>]

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On Mon, 2006-01-02 at 20:03 +0100, Patrick Lauer wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-01-02 at 12:50 -0600, Lance Albertson wrote:
> > A mission statement only goes so far. The underlying leadership has to
> > make sure that statement is upheld and kept alive. Too many folks have a
> > mission statement, but no one ever remembers what it is or abides by it.
> I guess there isn't one driving force behind Gentoo - we have many 
> differing opinions on things like QA, handling of bugs, ...
> 
> It's just that usually Gentoo gets the least in your way when you're
> trying 
> to do something :-)
> 
> > I guess I'm almost hinting at that Gentoo needs a single entity that's
> > sole purpose is to drive/research the direction and goals for Gentoo.
> There was this Robbins guy ... remember him? ;-)
> > It'd be almost ceo-like, but the council is still top dawg. Right now, I
> > view our group as a bunch of chiefs with no real single leader saying
> > "lets strive to do this". The main problem is, too many people fear
> > about such a person could turn into a dictator, so I'm not sure if this
> > could ever happen. 
> I wonder if any single person would be accepted?
> After all there is noone capable of forcing anyone to do anything as far
> as I can tell - worst case you fork Gentoo (again) and don't resolve
> the issues.
> > This person would be in constant contact of all the
> > groups and try to muck together what everyone is doing. They could
> > suggest things to help minimize user impact, maybe try to join two
> > projects if they are both working on a similar goal, thus minimizing the
> > workload. Stuff like that essentially.
> Communication ... should happen anyway, but it seems to get more and
> more 
> difficult. Another layer of bureaucracy won't help that ...
> >  We need a good visionary. If such
> > a position were created, I also think that person's sole focus should be
> > that focus within Gentoo. (i.e. they aren't a major contributor for a
> > subproject in Gentoo). This position would take too much time for them
> > to keep those other duties.
> ... and you'd burn out a capable person within half a year I think
> > Dunno, maybe I'm the loner here thinking this...
> Maybe a bit idealistic, but I mostly agree :-)

Upon doing some reading about what _exactly_ Gentoo council does, it
seems to me that Gentoo Council is an operations board.  I think what
Patrick and Lance are getting at (correct me if I'm wrong) is that we
need to have some form of Governance board. A board that doesn't worry
about implementation details; a board that gives a long term vision to
our project.

I am a big believer is having a common goal to unite all people who work
with an organization.  I'm sorry If I am repeating myself, but I feel
this is an issue that is vital to the continued success of Gentoo.

-Lares
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