Re: Alternative proposal: focus on term limits rather than turnover

[josh@joshtriplett.org]

On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 06:20:31PM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Josh Triplett writes ("Re: Alternative proposal: focus on term limits rather than turnover"):
> > As a transitional measure, the terms of any members of the Technical
> > Committee that already exceed the limit shall instead expire every 6
> > months in descending order of seniority, starting one month from now.
> 
> I agree with the point made by several other people, that the current
> situation with the TC should not be seen as a one-off.  Therefore,
> whatever rule we use to deal with the current situation needs to apply
> in the future too.

The current situation with the TC is that nearly the entire TC has
served longer than the proposed term limit.  That can't happen again in
the future, so it makes sense to handle it via a one-off transition.

There's a *different* situation that could potentially occur in the
future, namely that several members could decide to resign at nearly the
same time.  That isn't the same situation, and I don't think it needs to
be addressed in quite the same way, if at all.  We could choose to
address that problem *at that time* by rate-limiting the appointment of
new members, for instance.  Or we could bake that into the Constitution,
if necessary; for instance, "If the Committee currently has at least 4
members, no more than two new members may be appointed per year."

- Josh Triplett