[python-committers] Transfer of power

[Doug Hellmann]

Excerpts from Yury Selivanov's message of 2018-07-12 13:29:21 -0400:
> On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 12:58 PM Antoine Pitrou <antoine at python.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I'd like to point out that the N-virate idea doesn't handle a key issue:
> > once you have a N-virate, how do you evolve its composition according to
> > the implication and motivation of its members - but also to remarks or
> > frustation by non-virate contributors (especially new contributors who
> > will feel there's a perpetual category they're locked out of)?  Do you
> > just wait for people to gently step down when required?
> 
> One way would be to re-elect them every 5 or so years.  Essentially,
> an N-virate is a dictator-like entity for a few years.
> 
> Yury

We've had good luck in the OpenStack community tying leadership to
release cycles. It causes elections more often (our cycles are 6
months long), but people tend to step up for several cycles in a
row so that hasn't been a cause of excessive turnover. Having
frequent opportunities for folks to step down gracefully when they
need or want to also means no one feels like they are signing up
for an indefinite time commitment.

For a multi-person group, staggered elections where only a portion
of the group is up for election at one time, also provides some
consistency when there is turnover.

Doug