Maximum term for tech ctte members
Hello world,
Would anyone else be supportive of a proposal to set a term for tech ctte
membership?
The current tech ctte members were appointed:
Ian: May/Dec 1998 (15 years, 5 months) [0]
Bdale: Apr 2001 (13 years, 1 month) [1]
Andreas: Jan 2006 (8 years, 4 months) [2]
Steve: Jan 2006 (8 years, 4 months) [2]
Russ: Jan 2009 (5 years, 4 months) [3]
Don: Jan 2009 (5 years, 4 months) [3]
Colin: Aug 2011 (2 years, 9 months) [4]
Keith: Nov 2013 (6 months) [5]
I think set terms, with no term limits would make sense (ie, you're
appointed to the ctte, you stay on it for X years, then you either say
"thanks, but enough's enough" or "that was fun, I'd like to keep doing
it" and the ctte and DPL considers whether to reappoint you in the
usual fashion.
Personally, I think 3 or 4 year terms ought to be long enough, but
that would mean kicking everyone but Colin and Keith off the ctte
immediately. Terms of 6-8 years would leave half the current ctte around
to reconstitute the ctte. With a term of 16 years (which no member has
exceeded yet), a new member would have to be voted on once every two
years on average to maintain a full 8-member ctte.
I think it'd be healthy if there was a rule something like "an ex-member
may not be reappointed to the committee unless someone else has been
appointed to the ctte since s/he was last a member". That would mean
you couldn'y have "Alice, Bob, Carol, Dave" as the tech ctte with an
agreement that they'll just reappoint each other anytime their term
expires; they'd have to appoint someone from outside the group (Emma,
say) first. Call it an anti-Cabal measure. I'm not sure there's a simple
and obvious way to phrase such a measure though, so maybe it's too hard.
At present, the only way for someone to leave the tech ctte is for them to
disappear, resign, or be hounded out by either their fellow ctte members
or a GR. IMO, it would be nice if there was a way out of the ctte that had
more of a feeling of winning / leaving at the top of the game than those.
YMMV. I think I'd rather second a proposal along these lines than actually
propose it...
Cheers,
aj
[0] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/1998/05/msg01546.html
https://lists.debian.org/debian-announce/1998/msg00047.html
[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-ctte/2001/04/msg00025.html
[2] https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2006/01/msg00013.html
[3] https://lists.debian.org/debian-ctte/2009/01/msg00053.html
[4] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/08/msg00004.html
[5] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2013/11/msg00009.html
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