Re: [gentoo-project] Gentoo Council 2014 / 2015 election

["Anthony G. Basile" <basile@opensource.dyc.edu>]

On 07/02/14 17:14, Andreas K. Huettel wrote:
>
>>  From what I see you are on both council and comrel. I think that is a
>> conflict of interest.
>>
>> Council and ComRel should check on each other. If someone is member of
>> both, then it is likely that he will avoid acting against either party
>> even if it necessary.
>>
>> Some worst case scenarios:
>> * you have a problem with a council member => you go to ComRel in need
>> of help
>> * you have a problem with a ComRel member => you go to council, because
>> going to ComRel isn't necessarily an option (e.g. the person is the
>> ComRel lead or you think that ComRel isn't in a functional state)
>> * If someone is on both parties and you got a problem with him, then the
>> situation is delicate and checks and balances are likely to fail
>
> Hey Julian,
>
> a few points can be made here (and have already been made in this thread).
> Let's first talk about the general situation...
>
> First of all, both comrel decisions and council decisions are always team
> actions. You may have seen the situation of "one comrel guy talks to someone
> and tells him 'please behave'". While this certainly has an effect, and would
> have been communicated within the comrel team, it does not have much formal
> meaning. In the (luckily rather rare) cases where a formal comrel decision
> that has consequences is needed, the steps are documented in detail, including
> who was involved in the decision making.
>
> [If you look at old public bugs tracking such events, you get across texts
> like "This suspension was agreed upon by x, y, z, a, b, and c. d also agreed
> with the decision."]
>
> The council has 7 members, comrel currently 15. So, even if an individual
> developer were in both groups and would really cast votes on both levels, that
> would not give this individual power to "box through" decisions on both
> levels. That said, I see it as good practice not to take part in any decision
> on both levels (and intend to stick to that should the case ever arise).
>
> Now about me personally...
>
> I was invited to join (then) devrel a short time before I was first elected to
> the council. For a large part I'm still trying to learn from the "comrel
> ancients" how things are done there, which is not so easy as long as (luckily)
> not much is happening. I consider the council work more important, and have
> only limited time. For these reasons, I tend to take things slow in comrel so
> far and prefer if other people pick up the phone.
>
> Cheers,
> Andreas
>
>


Hi Andreas,

<devil's advocate>

ComRel has acted in a way that some devs think was "unfair" and they 
have asked the council to censure comrel.  You were one of the people 
who voted for the allegedly unfair action.  In all good conscience, you 
think it was the right thing to do.  How do you vote on the council?  Do 
you criticize comrel or do you uphold their decision?

</devil's advocate>


-- 
Anthony G. Basile, Ph. D.
Chair of Information Technology
D'Youville College
Buffalo, NY 14201
(716) 829-8197