I'd like to add another dynamic that is quite common on volunteer type
governing boards, which necessarily organizes itself into roles that
repsemble: president/chairman, vice chair, treasurer, secretary, etc -
is that the president will serve for however long they wish; although
officer elections happen once a year as a matte of board business -
after the new batch of members are elected - roles like
chairman/president are commonly approved by acclamation; there is almost
never a challenge to this role until the current chairman retires or
steps down.
There are avenues to campaign against a certain individual from getting
elected as a member when their "slot" is expired; but this is hard to
accomplish. Even harder to accomplish is to get an opposition candidate
elected as a new member, then have them run against the current
chairman. The current board members will still usually vote unanimously
for the current chairman.
For better or for worse, this ensures continuity on several levels.
There is an additional result to this that would also not be surprising.
Chairmen generally groom their replacement and more often than not, they
will only relinquish their control when their heir apparent is ready.
This is almost always implicitly supported by the rest of the board
membership.
It's not good or bad; it can be very good. It can be very bad. But this
is how things usually play out; so don't be surprised. What can you do?
Run for the board, get on the board, work with the board; then maybe
you'll be groomed to take over :). That's not a challenge, just the most
prudent course of action and most beneficial for the "good" of the
organization at large.
Brett
On 4/15/21 1:38 PM, B. Estrade wrote:
>
>
> On 4/15/21 1:21 PM, Philip R Brenan wrote:
>> But no mention of an actual term limit? One could be re-elected to
>> the same position or a similar one indefinitely?
>
> Not having term limits is not unusual. But I see what you're suggesting.
>
> Probably a more representative way of handling this and purging
> ineffective "career bureaucrats" is to provide a means of "general"
> voting or a representative scheme by which "proxy" votes may be cased.
>
> General board elections are typically handled by general "membership".
> Specific office elections are generally handled internally as a matter
> of board business.
>
> If there is no way to purge a board that you're unsatisfied and it seems
> outside voices are not heard, then what you'll get is what we have now.
>
> "Consent of the governed" is a thing, and large amount of the chaos
> we've endured is the result of open rebellion. So I think there is a
> fair amount of pressure on serving board members to keep their
> constituents in mind. In reality, board membership has a natural turn
> over due to the members themselves shifting priorities and time
> available to serve in such roles. I mean, this is not a real government.
>
> That's just my take. This dynamic gives me some solace that the fight
> for actual "term limits" is probably not warranted. But that's just my
> opinion and an attempt to address what I think is your concern.
>
>
> Brett
>
>>
>> *Term*
>> **
>>
>> A new Steering Council will be chosen by a Term Election within two
>> weeks after each stable feature release (that is, change to
>> |PERL_REVISION| or |PERL_VERSION|) or after two years, whichever comes
>> first. The council members will serve until the completion of the next
>> Term Election unless they are removed.
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 4:57 PM Dan Book <grinnz@gmail.com
>> <mailto:grinnz@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> There are now: https://perldoc.perl.org/perlgov#Term1
>>
>> -Dan
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 11:53 AM Philip R Brenan
>> <philiprbrenan@gmail.com <mailto:philiprbrenan@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Perhaps then there ought to be term limits on how long any-one
>> can be in office to prevent this kind of burn out?
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 3:59 PM Karl Williamson
>> <public@khwilliamson.com <mailto:public@khwilliamson.com>> wrote:
>>
>> On 4/14/21 3:54 PM, Christian Walde wrote:
>> > On Wed, 14 Apr 2021 20:18:32 +0200, Christian Walde
>> > <walde.christian@gmail.com
>> <mailto:walde.christian@gmail.com>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> On Wed, 14 Apr 2021 18:14:20 +0200, Karl Williamson
>> >> <public@khwilliamson.com
>> <mailto:public@khwilliamson.com>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> I witnessed on irc, some days before the twitter
>> exchange, what I viewed
>> >>> at the time, as harassment of Sawyer, and it was clear
>> from the
>> >>> discussion that it had been ongoing for some time. I
>> was starting to
>> >>> type in an intervention when Sawyer quit the chat.
>> >>
>> >> Are you referring to the conversation in #p5p on the
>> 22nd of March in
>> >> the wake of the publishing of the "strict-by-default as
>> of v8" plan?
>> >>
>> >>
>>
>> https://gist.github.com/wchristian/c144fef03170a6948d085291f074a9ac
>> >
>> > haarg informed me that public logging on magnet without
>> the channel
>> > opting in is a terms violation, so i'll have to remove
>> the log and will
>> > editorialize instead:
>> >
>> > if that is the conversation referred to, then i reject
>> the notion of
>> > there being harrassment
>> >
>> > a plan was published, much as the previous one without
>> any documentation
>> > of the motivations, leaving those opposed unable to
>> understand why, and
>> > without that knowledge, unable to communicate useful
>> opposition to the
>> > plan. thus there maybe was some desperation in the
>> communication, but
>> > *certainly* no intent to, nor any executed harrassment
>> >
>> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harassment
>> >
>>
>> Christian's post misses my main point, which I'm sorry that
>> I didn't
>> emphasize enough.
>>
>> The bottom line is that it is an accumulation of incidents,
>> and not one
>> or three, that led to this outcome. Examining a few just to
>> say who's
>> to blame in this one or that one is counter to the best
>> interests of the
>> project.
>>
>>
>>
>> -- Thanks,
>>
>> Phil <https://metacpan.org/author/PRBRENAN>
>>
>> Philip R Brenan <https://metacpan.org/author/PRBRENAN>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Phil <https://metacpan.org/author/PRBRENAN>
>>
>> Philip R Brenan <https://metacpan.org/author/PRBRENAN>