Re: Draft of Proposal for the GNOME Foundation.

[Rusty Conover <rconover zootweb com>]

On Fri, 14 Jul 2000 11:06:27 Joe Shaw wrote:
> > I don't think "any contribution" is the right place to set the
> > threshold. When I get a 5-line patch I don't want to have to worry
> > about whether I'm giving that person full GNOME voting priveleges
> > automatically if I check it in.
> 
> Why not? They're a contributor, they should have a vote.

I agree whole heartly.

> 
> > I don't think we should allow any referendums other than recall of the
> > board.
> 
> Hmm. If we have a sufficiently large enough requirement for a referendum
> (5%, 10%?), I see no reason to prevent the general membership from
> overriding what a majority thinks is a bad idea.

Meanwhile, what are the actual stipulations for recalling the board?  I hope
every week there is not yet another "no-confidence" vote being held.  Maybe the
board cannot be recalled except during specified time frames.  What would be the
main purpose of referendums, implementing a new splash screen?  I don't think
they would be all that useful.

> 
> > The board becomes completely non-useful past a certain size. Better to
> > declare a particular size range and let the membership decide if a
> > particular slate is the right size in that range.
> 
> I agree. I think 9 is good, 11 at most at least initially.

I think 11 would be on the low end with 15 being a better number to get an
accurate representation of the GNOME population.  With small board membership it
turns into more of a popularity contest rather then a functional organization with
people motivated to be on the board rather then just winning elections.


> Huh? Most of the decisions that are made by a small group of people and
> the Steering Committee will be made by the board like it is now. The
> people who do releases (module maintainers and documentation and
> translation coordinators) will still do the releases. The only real
> changes are that now there is a defined body who makes these decisions and
> that the people who are most involved in the project can have more of a
> say in the specific decisions we make.

And the other benefit is that hopefully the board will be balanced to ensure
the highest possible quality of GNOME is developed and delivered to the users.  

Rusty
-- 
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Rusty Conover        | rusty@zootweb.com 
Systems Programmer   | 406-586-5050 x226
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