Re: testing committee email (and minor essay)

[Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk>]

Raul Miller writes ("testing committee email (and minor essay)"):
> I'm sending this message as a test message, because my MDA has been
> changed, and I want to make sure I still get committee email.

:-).

> Despite this (or perhaps because of this) there has been a singular lack
> of people saying anything resembling: "I'd like to join the technical
> committee.  Here's why I think I'd do a particularly good job ___...
> Would anyone like to step down and let me take their place, or could
> the active members allow me to replace someone inactive?"

I think part of this is that the committee has been so inactive.  I've
been thinking about our lack of activity recently, and there are a
number of causes.  Partly, we're too bad at answering our mail.  But
also, we have a tendency only to be called in in doomed giant messes
which are intimately entangled with release panics and process issues,
and not for routine disagreements with sensible timescales.

What could we do about this ?

 * We could post an advert asking for issues.
 * We could advertise for a `clerk' or `chaser' or two, who would
   chivvy us to answer our mail and vote, or we could decide that we
   (perhaps me and a deputy chair) ought really to do that more.
 * We could invent a semiautomatic escalation mechanism for certain
   bug reports (eg, `wontfix').

But, basically, I agree with what you're saying.

Ian.