Open Stack

On 10/16/2017 09:09 AM, Amrith Kumar wrote:
> In a recent conversation on #openstack-tc where we bemoaned the ills
> of Stackalytics and related management-by-objectives to Heisenberg's
> uncertainty principle, the conversation (on 10-03, for example) veered
> towards why people were interested in running for election to the
> Technical Committee.
>
> The observation was made that one motivation may be that an
> individual's employer derives some benefit from having a member on the
> technical committee. That would explain why some people (in the N-M,
> the ones who don't get elected) do not remain actively involved in the
> work of the TC if they are not elected. Some days later, I went and
> eyeballed the people who have run for TC elections over the past four
> cycles and then looked at what many of them did after the election, on
> the mailing list, and on the governance repository, and I think there
> is some truth to the observation.
>
> I've never been elected to the TC, I have run for election several
> times. Not winning the election has not in any way diminished my
> desire or drive to participate in the governance of OpenStack. Not
> winning has merely given me the (little more) luxury of not feeling so
> bad if I don't make it to the TC meeting (RIP), or not making it to as
> many of the office hours as I can. It has meant that I don't feel
> compelled to attend the TC meeting that precedes the Summit, and where
> possible I have made an effort to do so.
>
> In my mind winning or not winning merely changes one thing; do you get
> an actual vote that is counted towards a decision, on something that
> is put before the TC.
>
> Now, the question is this; does the vote really matter? I'm really
> happy with one thing that the TC has done over the years I've known of
> it; few (if any) decisions were actually made on a small margin of
> votes. Whether you have a vote, or not, participation has always been
> welcomed, and you get to say your piece. Never have I felt that not
> having a vote has made my opinion second class in any way.
>
>> If you are one of those (N-M) candidates, what then? What do you
>> believe you can do if you are not elected to the TC, and what will you
>> do? (concrete examples would be good)"
> I will still attend the office hours, I will still give dims grief and
> say that I preferred the regular TC meetings to office hours, I will
> still make time to get involved in more activities like the SWG and in
> the coming year if I have an opportunity to do that, I will. work to
> revive the SWG as a SIG. All of these are things (including giving
> dims a hard time) are things I've been doing already. I will continue
> to live by the decisions of the TC and I will continue to work to make
> OpenStack a better solution for me, a user of OpenStack.
>
>> "If you are one of the M elected candidates, the N-M candidates who
>> were not elected represent a resource?
> One thing that I have suggested in the past was the notion of
> alternates. For good reasons it was decided not to go this route but a
> similar benefit could in fact be achieved if the TC was able to tap
> these candidates to take on special projects, or drive specific
> initiatives. It is here that the issue of time came up; would people
> not elected be able to spare the time to do these kinds of things, and
> would their employers permit them the time to do it. I submit to you
> that while this is a reality, if in fact employers are not able to
> permit people the time to do these kinds of things if not elected, I
> submit to you that the motivations for running for election are flawed
> in the first place.
>
> Today, the responsibility to run too many of our "projects" are
> falling back on members of the TC, I'm thinking of Doug, Sean, Monty,
> ... I would try and leverage the N-M if at all possible to make for a
> stronger bench of leaders in the years to come.

Especially since we're starting to incorporate "champions" for the
community-wide goals we accept. I think championing a goal is a great
way to support the TC while improving one's own understanding of
OpenStack as a platform.

>
>
> -amrith
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 15, 2017 at 2:17 PM, Paul Belanger <pabelanger at redhat.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, Oct 15, 2017 at 08:15:51AM -0400, Amrith Kumar wrote:
>>> Full disclosure, I'm running for election as well. I intend to also
>>> provide an answer to the question I pose here, one that I've posed
>>> before on #openstack-tc in an office hours session.
>>>
>>> Question 1:
>>>
>>> "There are M open slots for the TC and there are N (>>M) candidates
>>> for those open slots. This is a good problem to have, no doubt.
>>> Choice, is a good thing, enthusiasm and participation are good things.
>>>
>>> But clearly, (N-M) candidates will not be elected.
>>>
>>> If you are one of those (N-M) candidates, what then? What do you
>>> believe you can do if you are not elected to the TC, and what will you
>>> do? (concrete examples would be good)"
>>>
>> ++
>>
>> I'd like to see (N-M) candidates continue with TC by helping support M.
>> Personally, I plan on participating more in TC office hours regardless of
>> results. Or even reach out to TC and ask what non-TC members could do to help TC
>> more.
>>
>> Once thing I've noticed in the question period before elections was 'What more
>> could the TC do'. I think it is also valid that we look at it the other way
>> around as 'What more could the non-TC member do' like Amrith asks above.
>>
>>> Question 2:
>>>
>>> "If you are one of the M elected candidates, the N-M candidates who
>>> were not elected represent a resource?
>>>
>>> Would you look to leverage/exploit that resource, and if so, how?
>>> (concrete examples would be good)"
>>>
>> Yah, I'd love to see 'pair programming' style for TC and non-TC memeber. Clearly
>> we have interested parties in becoming TC, and I would think the N-M candidates
>> would also try running again in 6 months.  So why not help those N-M member
>> become M, just like we do for non-core / core members on OpenStack projects.
>>
>>> -amrith
>>>
>>> __________________________________________________________________________
>>> OpenStack Development Mailing List (not for usage questions)
>>> Unsubscribe: OpenStack-dev-request at lists.openstack.org?subject:unsubscribe
>>> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-dev
>> __________________________________________________________________________
>> OpenStack Development Mailing List (not for usage questions)
>> Unsubscribe: OpenStack-dev-request at lists.openstack.org?subject:unsubscribe
>> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-dev
> __________________________________________________________________________
> OpenStack Development Mailing List (not for usage questions)
> Unsubscribe: OpenStack-dev-request at lists.openstack.org?subject:unsubscribe
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-dev


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 833 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-dev/attachments/20171016/466f152b/attachment.sig>