Hey, I would like to propose that we cut the gordian knot.

[Jordan K. Hubbard]

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_knot)

Having just read jmpp's request for "a bit more time" to sort out a  
voting process, I must confess to feeling more trepidation than  
assurance.  To be completely fair, he does note several times that he  
and the rest of the moribund portmgr team would like to move quickly,  
but given the degree to which that group has also demonstrated itself  
to be overworked and less than involved in the day to day affairs of  
MacPorts, anything which delays a solution also runs the risk of  
blunting some of the current enthusiasm should said "process" end up  
dragging out longer than anticipated (which, as experience amply  
suggests, it invariably does) and I honestly don't think we can afford  
that at this late stage.

I would therefore like to suggest that we simply ratify the following  
list rather than dragging out a lengthy "voting" process for a set of  
positions which, from a certain angle, might even be viewed as largely  
ceremonial since there is no real "power" afforded by membership in  
the portmgr team.   Volunteers will always choose to follow (or not)  
such a group on the basis of the credibility of its individual members  
rather than any fancy paper hats they may be wearing, and the sooner  
we simply slam those hats on some credible heads and say "Thank you!   
Get started!", the sooner we can all get back to discussing the real  
question of how to get to where we need to go next.

As a courtesy to the outgoing portmgr team, I would also be perfectly  
happy to see them be the official "ratifiers" of this new team,  
assuming it passes their sniff test and they're also willing to do so  
in the next day or two, otherwise I would be just as happy with a  
statement along the lines of "if there are no significant, well-argued  
objections in the next 72 hours, they're it!  Quick, before they  
change their minds!" :-)

Portmgr (subject to individual acceptance, of course - we still  
haven't heard from two of the four):
Ryan Schmidt
Bryan Blackburn
Rainer Mueller
Joshua Root
[Note:  Any subset of the above would also be acceptable - 4 is not  
some magic minimum number, for all the reasons I've already outlined]

Release engineering team:
Ryan Schmidt (interim or longer, if he wants it)
Julio Biason

I'm really not trying to undercut anyone here, least of all jmpp, but  
seriously folks - we've been suffering from a leadership/directional  
vacuum for quite some time now and I don't think we need to bog down  
the only solution to be offered in quite some time by getting all  
constitutional about it or saying "hey, wait, let's all think about  
this for awhile and engage in lengthy discussion!"    That might have  
been a good plan of action about a year ago, and I would be also more  
than happy to see the "new portmgr" establish a framework for  
elections and term limits and all the other checks and balances that  
they might wish to create for future generations, but what we need  
right now is an immediate "interim government" and some long overdue  
action on the release engineering front.

Any objections?

- Jordan

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