Project:Council/Metastructure reform 2005/Task-force

From: Daniel Drake <dsd@gentoo.org>
To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo metastructure reform poll is open
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 16:10:00 +0100
Message-ID: <42A70A48.8020104@gentoo.org>
In-Reply-To: <42A70812.4030103@gentoo.org>

Daniel Drake wrote:
> - Form a task force for additional study ("Task-Force")
>   -core mail (7 June 2005) from jstubbs, 42A4D555.7010009@gentoo.org
>   (will be available on gentoo-dev as a response to this message)

Jason Stubbs' proposal:

I'm past this deadline, but I'd like to propose a modified "keeping it the way
it works (fails) now". My motivation is that I don't feel any of these
proposals will solve the issues at hand in the long run. You may call it
`Jstubbs' "Task Force" proposal`.  ;)

At the outset I will explicitly state what seems to be implicit in the other
proposals. If this proposal is allowed to be entered into the ballot and ends
up being ranked highest, a ballot on the positions of top-level managers
would ensue. The number of positions and the projects would remain the same
in the short term.

The "Task Force" part of the proposal is that a new top level project be
created to specifically deal with how the organization functions. Its role
would be to document and improve all structure, policies and procedures.
However, it would have no power to enforce them. All policies and procedures
must be signed off on by the top-level managers for them to become
enforcable. For this reason, the task force would not be represented within
the top-level managers. Think of it as the organizational ombudsman.

In the short term, the goals would be to get policies and procedures
documented and approved that prevent stagnation within the top-level
managers. The main aim here being the ability to transition to one of the
proposals above or to some entirely different structure should documentation
prove it to be appropriate.

Medium term goals would be to step in and help other projects get their
procedures documented where need be. And in the long term, the aim would be
to have policies and procedures documented for everything.

Just to quickly preempt the main negative to this proposal, policies and
procedures don't mean you have to behave like a robot. Policies are only ever
a recommendation that serve to create a common direction. Procedures are only
ever a list of steps that are known to work. They are more of a safety net
than anything else. In either case, if you follow it and stuff up - even
badly - it is a fault of the policy or procedure.

And no, I don't have a name for the project yet although, looking back at the
projects page, I think I've just describe what the existing "metastructure"
project *should* be doing. So... worth putting on the ballot?

Regards,
Jason Stubbs
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