[macports-mgr] Hey, I would like to propose that we cut the gordian knot.

[Mikel King]

Greetings all,

	I am a relatively silent observer of this list, and well felt it  
worth chiming in. Since I am on the exec board of the BSD Cert Group,  
which has experienced more than their share of staled elections I  
happen to have a little experience with this sort of thing. I would  
like to offer the following suggestions.

	1. for the sake of the project install these members now, with a  
deadline to make an official release and a 1 year term limit.

	2. setup an executive board to deal with the whole mess of by laws  
and elections ( say the 3 grandfathers and perhaps two others).

	3. keep it all simple as everyone is a volunteer and this sort of  
thing can become a bike shed big enough to park an aircraft carrier.

	4. by this time next year the by laws and all that governance mess  
should be completed, thus opening up for the appropriate elections as  
needed.

Cheers,
Mikel King
CEO, Olivent Technologies
Senior Editor, Daemon News
Columnist, BSD Magazine
6 Alpine Court
Medford, NY 11763
http://www.olivent.com
http://www.daemonnews.org
http://www.bsdmag.org
skype: mikel.king
t: 631.627.3055
m: 646.554.3660
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On Oct 8, 2008, at 10:42 AM, James Berry wrote:

> Hi Jordan,
>
> As usual, you work well to cut through the bureaucracy ;) I'm not so  
> opposed to going along with your suggestion to just get this thing  
> done, or that an official "vote" may be superflous. But I also think  
> it's premature to assume that the list of nominees so far, is  
> complete, given that we haven't called for nominees (or "interested  
> parties") yet.
>
> So I'd like to request that anybody interested in PortMgr announce  
> their intent (via nomination, or not) by the close of this Friday.
>
> James
>
> On Oct 8, 2008, at 5:55 AM, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
>
>> (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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