Thanks for kicking off the discussion. I know we are all quite busy so I wanted to keep this short -- I think Donald brings up some good points about the specific topics we might want to focus on:
I think our first order of business should basically be to figure out some sort of long term decision making process[...]
I agree with this sentiment -- it will be difficult to be productive and to act as a unified organization if we don't have any cohesive mechanism for making decisions. Often I see people looking at similar organizations and evaluating the options when establishing a governance model for a new organization. Are there specific organizations we can look at to draw inspiration from?
Recurring (weekly, monthly, or quarterly) synchronous meeting of the
PyPA via a communications channel TBD. This channel should allow for a log of discussions and some moderation.
Two things -- I think some kind of synchronous communication is incredibly helpful, especially for those of us who don't really know each other yet. The formality of email sometimes makes it difficult to develop a rapport, so I am a little worried that without any agreed-upon synchronous communication we will make it hard for people (like myself, as a newcomer to the PyPA) to collaborate and to feel empowered to assert a contrary position. Most of you probably have spoken to me at least once by now and know that I'm not exactly shy, but the rest of you, I'm not sure how I can get to know you personally without the aid of synchronous communication.
On the other hand, formal meetings are somewhat problematic themselves because they tend to favor the most dominant voices and I would hate to silence a good idea by never giving it the space to be articulated. And like Paul, I spend most of my day in meetings, so I'm not eager to put more of those on my calendar. If there were some way to have a communication platform that supported both synchronous and asynchronous communication, that would be ideal... I know slack and others like it claim to do this, but slack is really built for synchronous communication. I'm not sure if there is a good option in this space
Roughly speaking I don't think decisions should be made synchronously without allowing asynchronous input somewhere in the process.
-Dan
Dan Ryan gh: @techalchemy // e: dan@danryan.co
On Jun 4, 2018, at 9:33 PM, Ernest W. Durbin III ewdurbin@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello PyPA Committers!
I'd like to start discussion on a possible governance model for the PyPA.
## Summary
The model described here is what I consider a minimum viable governance
for the Python Packaging Authority that would open realtime and asynchronous channels of communication for two purposes:
- Keeping PyPA projects up to date on what one another are up to, and
where they are headed.
- Allowing the PSF Packaging Working Group insight into the PyPA's
activities.
This model is intended for coordination and communication among Python
Packaging Authority projects and does not have bearing on the existing project structure or governance of individual projects beyond the existing requirement of adhering to the PyPA Code of Conduct.
## Model
Recurring (weekly, monthly, or quarterly) synchronous meeting of the
PyPA via a communications channel TBD. This channel should allow for a log of discussions and some moderation.
Structure of meeting TBD, but a something along the lines of:
Announcements, Old Business, New Business.
A moderator and minute-taker would be responsible for summarizing the
meeting, collecting project updates, and publishing minutes and updates for archival purposes and public review. Meeting note publication method TBD.
Adherence to the PyPA Code of Conduct would be required for all
attendees.
This sounds reasonably OK to me as long as we tune the recurrence correctly. My primary concern is that the PyPA is getting larger (and is likely to continue to do so), and we have members from all across the globe, so scheduling a single time when everyone who wants to participate is able to could prove difficult. To my knowledge we basically have people on complete opposite ends of the world, and everywhere in between now.
We likely also want to add in some mechanism to prevent these from becoming very long or trying to boil the ocean (particularly the first couple are likely to be more prone to this). _______________________________________________ PyPA-Committers mailing list -- pypa-committers@python.org To unsubscribe send an email to pypa-committers-leave@python.org https://mail.python.org/mm3/mailman3/lists/pypa-committers.python.org/