Re: [all candidates] DPL term duration

[Lucas Nussbaum <lucas@debian.org>]

Hi,

On 12/03/13 at 11:35 -0600, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> I'm writing this prompted by some of the lines written by Gergely and
> Moray in the "about a DPL board" thread.
> 
> One of the difficulties I perceive we have seen over the years is the
> time it takes to transfer the know-how and work rhythm from an
> outgoing DPL to an incoming one. Several of our DPLs have repeated
> their term. In the past, when I was a new DD, there was this strange
> and sad tendency that after finishing their DPL term, DPLs tended to
> leave the project (or strongly reduce their involvement) — I *think*
> there is some correlation with the DPL task pickup burnout time, which
> can be an important portion of the term.
> 
> We have seen some discussions in the past regarding whether the term
> should be lengthened to two years, with a mid-term referendum (or
> chance to politely step down) rather than full election procedure. How
> would you feel about it? Would you prefer the term to be stated as a
> longer "journey", or is one year the right duration? Would you be
> interested in pushing for this change?
> 
> There is, of course, also the personal committment: Of course, if you
> were to push for two years, and we got the change accepted... Would
> you hold your bid committing two years of your life to leading the
> project?

I think that one-year terms are a good compromise, and I don't think
that there's much to gain from doing two years with a referendum.

I really don't see DPL elections as a loss of time. They are a good time
to review the project status, discuss where we are going, exchange
ideas, etc. It's unfortunate that it's mostly limited to a Q&A with
candidates.  Some of the threads could probably degenerate into very
interesting project-wide discussions.

I think that the "DPL helpers" initiative could greatly contribute to:
- ease the start of a DPL term, and transitions between DPLs, due to a
  better understanding of the job
- make the job look less frightening and more doable without committing
  a large amount of your life to this job (I really regret we don't have
  more candidates)

Lucas