Re: [Debconf-team] DebConf governance & 'Debian Deutschland' name and TO status
Hi Lucas,
As you don't seem to willing to change the current frustrating setup,
please consider the following 2 changes to it:
* Delegation of chairs per DebConf period:
Currently DC15 is in the hot phase of setting up and signing contracts
and other important issues from Debian's PoV.
At the same time, DC14 has opened registration and some real world
problem will need to be solved and it will become worse as we're
approaching the conference.
If we had DebConf15 chairs, they could be involved from the beginning
without having to bother about DC14 at the same time
* Add at least one member of the local organizing team to the chairs
This helps to prevent a split in the organisation, will help to keep
the chairs informed about current problems and the organizing team
about the chairs concerns. This would also help to have shorter
feedback loops, when time is critical.
Philipp
On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 11:37 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <leader@debian.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> There has been various questions raised about several topics related to
> DebConf15 organization. I'm trying to wrap-up a single answer covering all
> questions.
>
> Sorry for not replying earlier. I was travelling during the past week, and
> ended up having much less free time than I expected. I should probably have
> posted a VAC message.
>
>
>
> 1) Respective governance & decision making of DebConf, DC15 and the DC15
> legal entity
>
> As you know, there is an ongoing (slow) discussion about DebConf
> governance. I believe that my position is best summarized by the excerpt
> from the draft delegation below (for DebConf chairs):
>
> ---------------------------------------->8
> DebConf is organized by the DebConf team (aka DebConf organization team),
> that gathers many Debian contributors, both from the general Debian
> community and from a local team.
>
> The DebConf chairs are Debian Project delegates who act as a liaison
> between the Debian Project and the DebConf team to ensure the success of
> DebConf.
>
> Specifically:
>
> * The DebConf chairs are ultimately responsible for the organization of
> DebConf and for the use of Debian resources (e.g.; money, Debian
> trademarks) to that end;
>
> * The DebConf chairs advise the DebConf team and share their experience
> of DebConf organization;
>
> * The DebConf chairs help the DebConf team define a structure (esp. in
> terms of sub-teams and roles definition) and decision-making processes
> that suits the requirements of DebConf generally, and of a specific
> edition of DebConf;
>
> * The DebConf chairs monitor the progress of DebConf organization and
> ensure that the defined team structure and decision-making processes
> remain functional and sufficiently efficient to ensure a successful
> DebConf;
>
> * When necessary, e.g.; when the DebConf team's inability to make a
> decision has an important impact on DebConf organization, or when a
> decision taken by the DebConf team is perceived by the DebConf chairs
> as creating serious risks for the organization of DebConf, the DebConf
> chairs can override the DebConf team for a specific decision.
> ---------------------------------------->8
>
> To put it differently: DebConf chairs have the power to veto any decision
> made by the DebConf team. However, ideally, they should never have to use
> that veto power, because the DebConf team should have listened to their
> opinions and advices beforehand. On the other hand, the DebConf team must
> have some freedom to make implementation choices that empowers them to make
> their own, very special, DebConf: the chairs are here to make sure that
> those implementation choices are not threatening the success of DebConf.
>
> (Note that this is already the case in the current delegation. The draft
> above just makes it a bit more explicit.)
>
> Reflecting this repartition of powers in the bylaws of a local entity is
> quite challenging (similar to when a TO needs to codify that decisions about
> Debian funds held by a TO are ultimately made by the DPL). I don't think
> that this strictly needs to be written in stone in the bylaws, but rather
> that the people involved are in agreement with it. (also, I cannot comment
> on the proposed bylaws for the DC15 legal entity -- my mastering of German
> is nowadays mostly limited to knowing what my name means, and answering
> 'I kann nicht Deutsch sprechen' to the occasional emails in German ;) )
>
> There's further work to do DebConf governance. But I'd rather see
> incremental suggestions based on the above proposal, rather than
> completely independent proposals.
>
>
> 2) Should the DC15 local legal entity be a TO?
>
> Past DebConf history shows that local entities created for the purpose of
> organizing a DebConf edition tends to linger around for some time after
> DebConf. So I don't think that the creation of this legal entity should be
> taken lightly.
>
> As Martin wrote in <[🔎] 20140417201402.GA7341@fishbowl.rw.madduck.net>, the TO
> guidelines are just guidelines, and a temporary legal entity created for a
> specific edition of DebConf might not have to follow all of them. However, for
> transparency, I think that the TO guidelines are a good basis, and that the
> DC15 legal entity should describe how they meet those guidelines, including
> mentioning which ones they feel are irrelevant for their particular case.
>
> So, I think that the simplest solution is to make the DC15 local legal
> entity a TO, while keeping in mind that this is at this point a temporary
> TO for the purpose of organizing DC15, and that some criteria can thus
> easily be waived. If the TO would like to continue to act as a
> general-purpose TO after DC15, we would then have to revisit the
> guidelines that were waived at this point.
>
> I'll reply to Richard's email about TO status separately -- I have a few
> further comments.
>
>
> 3) Naming of the legal entity / use of 'Debian'
>
> This would have to be further discussed inside the trademark team, but I
> don't think that using 'Debian Deutschland' for the (temporary) TO should be
> a problem.
>
> Lucas
>
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