Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:
> Russ Allbery writes ("Re: Maximum term for tech ctte members"):
>> I'm not sure there's any need to say something about this, unless there's
>> a perception that the TC's process for selecting new members is somehow
>> broken.
>
> If we introduce a constitutional term limit, the balance of power
> between the DPL and the TC is radically altered:
>
> At the moment, if the DPL says "I will only approve Alice", the TC can
> simply say "well we won't appoint anyone then".
>
> With term limits, the DPL can say that and eventually get their way.
>
> Perhaps, though, this is an improvement. After all if the DPL has
> such a struggle with the TC and the Developers reelect the DPL, the
> Developers should get their way.
Why does this remind me of USA Presidents, and their attempts to stuff
the supreme court with friendly judges? Which then leads me to expect
people trying to game the system by delaying a referral to the TC to
await the departure of someone thought to be unsympathetic to their
cause -- I hope we never get there ... there's enough inertia in Debian
as it is ;-)
I also wonder what is to be done about someone coming to the end of
their term during the middle of an ongoing discussion. How well do you
(Ian) think you'd have coped if you knew that the recent decisions had
to come to a vote by a particular date, otherwise you'd lose your vote?
I doubt that would have made things better.
Perhaps one could say that anyone on the TC at the start of a discussion
gets to stay for the duration (if they want to, perhaps), but what about
a series of votes as we saw recently?
I suppose what constitutes the same discussion could be a decision for
the committee, or perhaps the chair, but that might well just end up
being another thing to argue about if the issue is already contentious.
Cheers, Phil.
--
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