Emmet Hikory wrote:
[...] As such, I suggest that the Technical Committee be restricted from actually doing anything beyond approval of merges to the governance repository.
If you look at the documented role of the TC[1], you'll see that it is mostly focused on deciding on proposed governance (or governance repository) changes. The only section that does not directly translate into governance change approval is "Ensuring a healthy, open collaboration", which is about tracking that the project still lives by its documented values, principles and rules -- activities that I think should also remain with the TC.
[1] https://governance.openstack.org/tc/reference/role-of-the-tc.html
Beyond that, it is true that some Technical Committee members are involved in driving other initiatives (including *proposing* governance changes), but I'd say that they do it like any other community member could.
While I think we should (continue to) encourage participation in governance from other people, and ensure a healthy turnover level in TC membership, I don't think that we should *restrict* TC members from voluntarily doing things beyond approving changes.