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  • From: Seth Alan Woolley <seth AT positivism.org>
  • To: sm-discuss AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [SM-Discuss] Vote for PR Team Lead (pro-abstention and remember to rank candidates)
  • Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 19:39:07 -0700

Two things here. First is a pro-abstention statement, and second is a point
about the voting process that ranking candidates is crucial to properly
expressing your vote if you want either candidate to get the spot.

First, I've voted, but I'm not allowed to tell you how I voted.

I am however allowed to speak in favor of certain candidates after
consulting with my lawyer. ;)

Vote changing is allowed up until the time the vote is closed or
announced, according to Robert's Rules of Order (in case you've already
voted). Not that we're using 1870's parlaimentary procedure, but as a
guide, that's what it says.

Today, I'd like to speak in favor of a candidate not listed below. Her
name is "None of the Above" (or the alias "abstain" as given in the
Voting Process).

Here's why:

I believe that we don't know enough about the candidates' histories to
elevate either to team lead level. Neither are developers and so don't
have a code-commit history with us. I'd prefer it if people who run for
team leader have a history making code commits, not simply "code" code,
but in this case: PR-related materials, making website updates on the
web team, making additions to PR-materials such as logos, banners,
tri-folds, and things.

Both candidates have given an excellent overview of what they would do
if they were team leader, but I find it difficult to give them the
position of "leader" and create a PR team without so much as regular
team member volunteer work. If they have done work, but I haven't seen
it then they have an opportunity to show it off and make this post
irrelevent. :)

So far no team leader has been elected having not been a regular non-lead
developer, so I would like to see some regular non-lead contributions from
these future developers before voting for them for team leader.

What I would like to say with this support is that both should do work
on a PR Team where sandalle is the current team leader, as his PL job
includes PR work. Since I also approve of sandalle delegating this
work, I think it would be nice of both future developers had commit
access to our repository and/or if they submitted materials to our
website/wiki, but as regular developers.

If, having done actual work (not just design theorizing), they wish to
be a team leader at a later time, then we should hold this vote again.

Nothing against either of them, I just don't think we need to seek team
leaders until after they've done work as a regular developer.

It's kind of a general philosophy of hiring management from within not
from outside. I welcome both of them to become regular developers
though, at least for a few months.

I would also like to suggest some counter-points to my argument above:

1) Team Leadership Status is needed for a PR Team Member to perform
effectively to be able to broker arrangements with other organizations
effectively. Yes, I acknowledge this, but any stuff that needs
negotiating should really be done by PL until a PR team lead is elected.

1a) Rebuttal: But how do we judge a Team Leader without them having Team
Leader status? That's a problem in all elections, but I think there are
ways we can measure somebody's fitness outside of the exact role they'd
be in so long as they are doing work for that specific team for our
project.

2) Hiring Management from outside can be good for growth. I also
acknowledge that this can have a slight benefit here, however, I think
the benefit of regular developers knowing that they'll eventually be
able to be a team lead in the future has more benefit.

2a) Rebuttal: Not all regular developers want to be team leaders. Yes,
this is also true, but I don't think it outweighs the benefits of hiring
from within.

3) You nominated one of them. Yes, I did that because I like
competitive elections in the case that, yes, we do decide to elect a
team leader. So to "hedge my wager", I fell back on supporting extra
candidates.

So that's my statement of support.

* * *

Secondly and lastly, I'd like to mention that if you don't rank the
candidates, that you're essentially saying you're voting for one person
and don't want to support the other candidate, at all, and would prefer
we not elect anybody. An abstention is interpreted as a
none-of-the-above in our Voting Process.

Say Bob gets 34% of the vote and Alice gets 33% of the vote, and 33%
don't vote. If all of Alice's votes don't have a second place
candidate, Bob can't get Alice's expired votes and Bob will not win a
majority required to win the election. Ranking your ballots is thus
very important if you desire to have any other candidate elected as
opposed to your first choice if your first choice doesn't get elected
themselves.

Seth

On Sun, May 08, 2005 at 04:33:19PM -0700, Eric Sandall wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> Now that the week is over for PR Team Lead nominations I'd like to start the
> vote[0].
>
> The candidates are:
> Alex Smith (HauntedUnix or Alex)
> Amel Durakovic (amel or wourgs)
>
> Let the games begin. :)
>
> -sandalle
>
> [0] http://wiki.sourcemage.org/index.php?page=Team+Lead+Voting+Process

--
Seth Alan Woolley [seth at positivism.org], SPAM/UCE is unauthorized
Key id 00BA3AF3 = 8BE0 A72E A47E A92A 0737 F2FF 7A3F 6D3C 00BA 3AF3
Quality Assurance Team Leader; Security Team Member, Leader Emeritus
Linux so advanced, it may as well be magic http://www.sourcemage.org
Elected Coordinating Committee Member, Secretary, and Finances Chair
Pacific Green Party of Oregon - Peace - http://www.pacificgreens.org

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